The nice thing about predictive engagement metrics
is, well, they predict. And to be sure, sometimes it takes time for the real
world to catch up with engagement values, which are emotionally based and often
unarticulated. For instance, while it may seem so intuitively obvious now, a
decade ago one of the trends we advised brands to attend to was one related to
the coming explosion of mobile advertising. It seems to have paid off for
brands that planned for it.
For example, Facebook posted more than $1 billion in quarterly
profits recently with mobile ads accounting for 80% of the social networking
brand’s 4th Quarter ad revenue. To put that into perspective, that’s four times
what it was in 2012, or $1 for each of
the 1.23 billion highly engaged, monthly active users, aka “MAUs”. Think of it
of social networking’s version of retail’s same-store sales – with the same
relationship to profitability – if it’s done well.
Facebook shows up #1 on our Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for
social networking – as well they should. Loyalty and emotional engagement
metrics are leading-indicator predictors of consumer behavior. That means if
consumers are truly emotionally engaged, they’ll act positively toward you. In
this case, Facebook users did. To the tune of increased revenues (+52%) bringing
the grand total to $5.85 billion. All well and good for Facebook, but does the
promise emotional brand engagement makes deliver for other brands?
YouTube, #2 on the list, attracts more than a billion users a month,
almost one third of everyone on the Internet. Twitter tied with YouTube with
310 million MAU. Pinterest, #3, has 100 million users each month, although not
everybody feels the need to pin something. Still they show up! LinkedIn was #4.
They have about 450 million members, but they only average 100 million active
users per month, and when we speak of real ”brand engagement” we’re talking about
a behavioral measure, something that will correlate with consumers acting
positively toward a brand. Reddit, #5, lists 234 million visitors accessed the
site. Seven other brands are included in the Social Networking Sites category.
The CLEI brand lists aren’t pre-determined. Consumers tell Brand
Keys researchers which brands they actually use in a category and the brands
must be mentioned enough times to provide a statistically generalizable sample.
And speaking of “statistically generalizable,” the correlation between our
Customer Loyalty Engagement Index rankings (1 to 10 in these particular categories,
accounting for ties) and monthly active users is 0.85. You can check that on
the statistical app on your own mobile device, but possessing predictive
insights like that emotional engagement can provide can help any brand plan for
profitability.
And today, if your plans don’t include mobile, your plans really aren’t finished.
Find out more about what makes customer loyalty happen and how Brand Keys metrics is able to predict future consumer behavior: brandkeys.com. Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Brand Keys methodology, applications and case studies.