In Brief
The Question
Brands spend billions of dollars each year on lavish social media campaigns. But do those campaigns increase revenue?
The Problem
Marketers often confuse cause and consequence. It’s possible that getting people to follow a brand on social media makes them buy more—but it’s also possible that those who already have positive feelings toward a brand are more likely to follow it in the first place, and that’s why they buy more.
The Opportunity
To get the most out of social media efforts, companies must combine “push” and “pull” marketing, supporting likes with branded content.
Brands spend billions of dollars a year on elaborate efforts to establish and maintain a social media presence. Think of the live-streamed video of a man setting a world record by skydiving from 128,000 feet (Red Bull) and the strange tweets sent from a supposedly hacked Twitter account that in fact originated with the company itself (Chipotle).