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Share of Voice VS Share of Profit


Wheres my social ROI image

There were some interesting findings from the week 6 article relating to Australian breweries on Twitter. Certainly many brands and organisations could use the findings from this article to develop or adjust their own social media communications plans.

The article suggests that for a brand or organisation to be successful on Twitter (in terms of positive audience growth and engagement), they must act in a maven like way. After having researched all Twitter profiles for breweries it was discovered that smaller craft breweries out-performed mass breweries with total followers (143,276 followers for craft breweries compared to 19,344 for mass breweries). Testing of multiple hypotheses to determine how brands successfully use the Twitter platform proved that traditional advertising or “hard sell” approach to Twitter is less likely to prove successful than if the brand actively engages with it’s audience, joins in conversations whilst adding value through unique content.

If a maven-like brand is the more sought-after voice by Twitter users, and traditional advertising or marketing content is less desirable, then I believe it’s easy to see why the craft breweries sport a much larger share of voice out of total brewery followers than the mass breweries. Perhaps there is a perception by the Twitter users (and it may well be accurate) that a craft brewery’s Twitter handle is more likely to be managed by the owner or brewer themselves, as opposed to a marketing or communications person at a larger brand and with a potentially more sales-like agenda. But does this mean the craft breweries are achieving greater marketing results or ROI from their followers?

If Twitter users are, for the most part, less receptive to traditional advertising communications on the platform, then how much value do they really have to the craft brewery? On the other hand, if a user has decided to follow a mass brewery’s Twitter handle with the knowledge that they may be exposed to more strategic marketing communications, could they be more likely to respond positively to the message and spend money with the brand? If the mass brewery’s followers were segmented, could they potentially have a larger number of profitable followers than the craft brewers?

Perhaps the value of a larger and active follower base to a craft brewer is less about the opportunity for sending marketing communications to a captive audience, but more to create a perception of greater popularity which could result in their products being stocked in more outlets, or on tap in more bars and pubs.


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