The SMBI (Social Media Brand Impact) is a study that measures the impact of social media actions on future brand behaviors. It found that people who engage with brands on social media are twice as likely to visit websites, inquire about products, consider purchases, or buy compared to people who just visit brand pages. Actions involving advocacy like commenting, sharing, following and tweeting have the strongest impact. However, less than a third of people typically take these more engaged actions. The study provides benchmarks to help brands prioritize social media strategies and content.

2. What is
the SMBI?
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3. What is The SMBI looks at the value
the SMBI? of social media actions to a brand
Do these: Social media actions
Games
Competition
Watch video
Comment
Follow on Twitter
Tweet
?
Lead to these: Brand actions
Visit brand website
Enquire
Consider
Prefer
Buy
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4. “like”
In other words
what is the value of a:
“follow” “comment” “tweet”
?
“download” etc.
3

5. The SMBI is a unique piece of research
that looks at the value of engaging
people through social media
Social media action It provides benchmarks
It looks at the propensity It provides data that
of these people to then brands should use for
go on to do brand actions prioritising content
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6. Our research has a huge sample
to provide accuracy and reliability,
and a large brand base
No other media agency 7 categories, 37 brands
is investigating the to date (we continue to
value of social media add brands)
actions to brands to the
degree SMG is
8,000 people to date Representative of
(with new people regular Facebook,
added as we continue YouTube and Twitter
to survey brands) users, across age and
social grades
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7. Sample
7 Categories Representative sample
37 brands of regular Facebook,
YouTube and Twitter
users, across age and
social grades
8000 sample An ongoing survey
since June 2011
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8. 37 Brands
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9. And here’s what
we found out
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10. People who perform a social media action on
Facebook are 2x more likely to do a future
brand action than those who visit only
Likely to: Likely to do a
SMBI across
all brands future brand action
Visit only 34%
Do a social 78%
media action
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11. And that’s true on YouTube too
Likely to: Likely to do a
SMBI across
all brands future brand action
Visit only 31%
Do a social 78%
media action
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12. SMBI Facebook FMCG Lowest SMBIs
Findings Intangiable
Goods
Highest SMBIs
SMBI
78%
Finance 28% 279
74%
Media and Entertainment 31% 239
79%
Technology and Telecoms 34% 232
79%
Food and Drink 35% 226
81%
Health and Beauty 41% 198
82%
Retailers 43% 191
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13. The Brand Action Table
Visit Brand’s Find out more Consider Prefer Buy Average
Website
Game 63% 62% 61% 51% 55% 59%
Likelihood of social media action
Competition 73% 71% 68% 61% 63% 68%
Watch video 86% 86% 78% 68% 70% 80%
Post positive 89% 86% 80% 69% 73% 81%
comment
Share page 91% 90% 83% 73% 75% 83%
with others
Follow the 93% 92% 87% 80% 82% 88%
brand on Twitter
Tweet about 94% 93% 89% 86% 84% 91%
this page
Average 84% 82% 78% 70% 72% 78%
For every 100 visitors who are likely to post a positive
comment, 89 of them are then likely to visit the brand’s website
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14. The more the social media action is centred
on advocacy, the greater the value to a brand
All brands Likelihood of future brand action
Visit Brand’s Find out more Consider Prefer Buy Average
Website
Game 63% 62% 61% 51% 55% 59%
Likelihood of social media action
Competition 73% 71% 68% 61% 63% 68%
Watch video 86% 86% 78% 68% 70% 80%
Post positive 89% 86% 80% 69% 73% 81%
comment
Share page 91% 90% 83% 73% 75% 83%
with others
Follow the 93% 92% 87% 80% 82% 88%
brand on Twitter
Tweet about 94% 93% 89% 86% 84% 91%
this page
Average 84% 82% 78% 70% 72% 78%
These actions have the most value
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15. But less than a third of people are
likely to do an advocacy based
social media action
Likely to:
Play a game 53%
Enter a competition 42% 69% of people who
Watch another competition 39% do an advocacy based
action are existing
Post a positive comment 37% customers
Share page 30%
Follow on Twitter 13%
Post a Tweet 10%
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16. Is your content good enough?
People who are likely to do an advocacy
based social media action agreed that:
“This Facebook page stimulated 81%
my curiosity”
“This Facebook page had a strong 80%
impression on my visual senses”
“This Facebook page made me think” 74%
“I experienced strong positive emotions 70%
whilst viewing this Facebook page”
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17. Top line learnings
and implications
Learnings People who actively engage with a brand
on social media = 2x as likely to do a brand
action than those who just visit
Tweeting and following via Twitter correlate
most strongly with future brand actions
Games and competitions are less successful
The more the social media action is focused at directly driving purchase funnel behaviour.
on advocacy, the greater the likelihood of
moving down the purchase path
Leaving the brand’s page to go to brand
website is the most common brand action
Implications Social media involvement leads to much
more than awareness or interest
Give reasons for people to deeply engage with
the brand in order to:
Drive word of mouth
Prioritise content depending upon Go further down the purchase funnel
strategy i.e. What is the role of social
media for your brand? Games and competitions may be more suitable
for generating loyalty and relationship
Keep social media content up to date
to maintain involvement
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18. About Starcom
MediaVest Group
Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) is one of the largest For more information,
communications groups in the world, specialising in media please contact:
buying and management, response media, internet and
digital communications. It operates two separate agencies Adam Rattner,
under the group banner – MediaVest and Starcom– each Business Development Director,
London and EMEA
built around a distinct focus and expertise set. SMG is part
adam.rattner@smvgroup.co.uk
of Publicis Groupe, the world’s second largest media
+44 20 7190 8071
counsel and buying group, the world’s third largest
communications group and a global leader Steve Smith,
in digital communications. Head of Thought Leadership,
steve.smith@smvgroup.co.uk
We can help you plan, design, activate and measure +44 20 7190 8667
your social media and integrated campaigns.
Get in touch to discover your brand’s SMBI Mairi Clark,
Marketing Manager,
Please visit @SMG_London on Twitter and LinkedIn mairi.clark@smvgroup.co.uk
and explore our work at www.emergingspaces.co.uk +44 20 71908318
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