A recent study by A.T. Kearney (a global management consulting firm) examines Facebook pages of the 50 most powerful brands in the world. They do not significantly use the interactive capabilities of Facebook’s Social Network. Their communication and conversation in social networks usually goes in a single (one-way street) direction and not by the sender-responder (two-way) model typical for the social web. Over the period from November till December 2010, 89 percent of all user entries had been left unanswered on the Facebook pages of leading brands. In addition, many companies seem to shy away from the open consumer feedback: all the top brands except one use filter for their whiteboards. A.T. Kearney experts see the major reason for the reluctance of the companies in their fear of possible loss of control. The companies that build emotional connection with a user receive positive response on Facebook. Also, the provision of financial and human resources is important.

„With its 600 million users, Facebook today is the largest social network in the world. In 2010, 30 percent of the world population with Internet access were already in Facebook. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Facebook activities of many top brands are still stuck in infancy“, says Dr. Martin Fabel, Partner at A.T. Kearney, Marketing and Sales Practice

Over the period from November till December 2010, five of the top brands had not been present on Facebook at all. 89 percent of another 45 left all user entries unanswered. Altogether, about 1,000 Facebook entries and nearly 61,000 responses had been analyzed in the scope of the study. Only 11 companies replied to more than one user entry. Only 15 percent of responses encouraged the user to continue dialog, and 17 percent of responses used names.

Wall Posts

Seven of the analyzed top brands have set up their whiteboards in such a way that only the company can post to it, but not the users. The only available option for the users is to reply to messages from the company. A vast majority of the companies have also decided on a filtered view of their bulletin board with the option to hide individual entries. Only one company has disclosed all the entries.

The analysis of wall posts, with 34 percent belonging to the companies and 66 percent to consumers, has shown the following: 27 percent of the entries were spam, 35 percent contained praise, 8 percent were complaints. Another 12 percent contained replies to posts of other consumers and 11 percent contained questions.

25 of the concerned companies listed three times as many entries from consumers as from businesses. Another 20 companies had four times as many entries from businesses as from consumers. This suggests that these companies have not yet been able to exploit the full potential of social media.

Advertising Made Popular

The company entries containing advertisements have proved particularly popular among the consumers, especially those offering coupons, prises or other benefits and additional services. 75 percent of all company entries with advertisements had their “Like” button pushed. The least attention, however, was paid to the purely informational messages. In total, 71 percent of all company entries were advertising posts.

To Do List For the Companies

The major reason for the reluctance of many companies is their fear of possible loss of control.

„Of course, customer comments can spread across the Internet like wildfire, this can be both a curse and a blessing. This way or another. That is why the companies will not be able to escape from facing this challenge,“ explains Mr Fabel.

Companies should be timely and forward-looking, and take initiative in communication and conversation in social web and use the huge market potential:

• Use emotional responses to consumers
• Get involved in social sponsoring, social funding
• Create transparency
• Motivate consumers to join
• Include social gaming
• Offer incentives
• Use Facebook as a sales and service channel
• Implement faster (real time) response options
• Engage more of qualified staff and consultants

Social media with Facebook is no longer an artificial Internet hype. It is a private business in which approximately 50 per cent of active Internet users want to be picked up. Under the threat of their own (commercial) downfall, the new fields of activity in the social web should be professionally operated and developed.