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AYTM Market Research surveyed 2,000 Internet users, randomly chosen from an online panel about their behaviour towards brands on social networking sites.

Presented in a pleasing infographic, the research reveals some interesting statistics useful to incorporate into brand marketing strategies for social media. However it does over-simplify results, not considering the overall implications that different brands will attract different consumers with varying wants and needs from a platform.

We sum up the findings with some suggestions to develop your social strategy further below the drop:

1) Concentrate on building a Facebook presence if you want to reach the mass market:

Facebook reigns king as the platform of choice for the mass market with 85% of those asked with a profile, compared to 49% on Twitter.

Enagagement levels were far higher on Facebook with 74% using the service daily compared to 35% on Twitter.

Facebook users had more friends, with 57% with 100+ friends, compared to 25% on Twitter, translating into more opportunities to see for the brand if users share content via Facebook.

2) Users are becoming more comfortable interactive with brands online, brands should make this as easy as possible:

The like was the most common interaction with a brand over social networks. 58% of those surveyed had liked a brand on Facebook with 39% tweeting about a brand and 29% retweeting about a brand.

41% have shared a brand video or link to company site, which indicated the importance of shareability of content that is optimised for not only desktop but mobile devices.

3) Brand sentiment is shifting to positive. Harness this and find  opportunities to increase kudos with minority audiences:

The presence of brands on social network sites is encouraging positive sentiments from customers. Where previously CRM was seen as a customer service tool, a brand only  mentioned as a way to voice negative feedback, consumers are now swaying to praising brands online.

50% more people said their brand status updates on Facebook were only positive and nearly twice as many people said their brand tweets were only positive. Harness this power of positivity by asking you community about which products and services they like and which campaigns worked well to discover what you should be repeating for future success.

Females are 2.3x kinder on Twitter. Instead of just targeting the ladies, work on strategies that can improve relationships with men to improve all-round brand kudos.

4&5) Understand the different types of Facebook  users and leverage their behaviour to create better brand communications:

The infographic explains this well, not every Facebook user will react in the same way to your content. Understand your target consumer, what category do they fall into on the chart: Mary, Joe or Fred?

Consider generating content that caters for these different needs so that your core demographic always feels included.

6) Give consumers what they want, predominantly discounts:

Again, understand consumer requirements of a brand social space and provide your faithful with what they want. Whether it is news, product information, questions and feedback, how-tos, interviews or coupons and discounts, be intelligent with what you provide.

Coupons and discounts were by far the favourite type of content with 80% of respondents listing them as their most appreciated.

7) Chose your communication tools wisely, depending on purpose:

32% of users said they preferred short updates from Facebook and Twitter, followed by 27% liking emails and 22% traditional offline ads.

At the bottom of the scale was videoclips and audio/podcasts, highlighting a key area for development for brand social channels. Remember; just because users don’t currently use a certain type of media or platform, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth investing attention. That way brands can become possible pioneers to  set themselves apart in an increasingly growing social media sphere.

Tags  Branding communications Facebook online branding social CRM social crm strategy social media social strategy Twitter