Here’s an interesting look at purveyors of brand loyalty at “4 Ways to Identify and Cultivate Your Brand’s Mass Influencer.” This note caught my eye:
Mass influencers make up just 16% of all online Americans, but are responsible for 80 percent of the brand impressions in online social settings, according to Forrester Research. “Social media has created a new type of influencer – one defined not merely by number of friends or frequency of dialogue, but by both,” said Forrester Research Senior Analyst Augie Ray.
We at COLLOQUY certainly support that definition, which is very much in spirit with what we term “Brand Champions.” Identifying your brand promoters through whatever analytical means you have at your disposal is but one step. The next step is to identify those promoters who have the ability to be heard–they are your Brand Champions. And loyalty marketers are very well equipped to find and those Champions, many of whom already reside in those marketers data files. Our TalkTalk white paper “The New Champion Customers Measuring Word-of-Mouth Activity Among Reward Program Members” notes:
Reward Program members are your best source of Champions. Our research reveals that Reward Program members are significantly more likely to be Champions than consumers in the General Population sample. This difference was statistically significant across all demographic segments and all product categories. If your company currently operates a Reward Program or participates as a coalition sponsor or program partner, then the Reward Program itself may be your most reliable WOM-generating mechanism. Every tool you need to identify, reward and recognize Champions already resides in the loyalty-marketing toolbox. . . . Over two-thirds of WOM Champions in your Reward Program say they are extremely likely to recommend your product or service. Since Champions are actively engaged in WOM activity, these Brand Promoters are without a doubt your most valuable WOM constituency—and they became such because of their affinity for your Reward Program.
I’ll leave you with a couple of interesting stats about the significance of online activity of program-internal Brand Champions versus non-member Champions. The following shows the higher levels of frequency of communications/posts by Champion members versus Champion non-members in various channels:
- Website/blog: 33% higher
- Social network: 17% higher
- Instant messaging: 5% higher
- WOM program: 131% higher
- Online community: 30% higher
