Do I Want to Follow Your Brand? A Survey of Brand Perception on Twitter Recently Peter Sorgenfrei and Warren Sukernek conducted a survey on Twitter regarding users’ perception of brands on Twitter. We surveyed 240 people with 6 questions regarding interacting with brands. The survey and results are below. A couple of key insights: 1) Not surprisingly, most users (89%) agree that brands should engage their
customers on Twitter 2) The majority also have a better impression of brands that use Twitter for
customer service (81%). 3) Proper usage of Twitter however, is paramount as almost 90% of users would
frown upon poor or inappropriate brand use of Twitter 4) The power of a relationship is extremely strong on Twitter. 60% of respondents
would recommend a company based on their presence on Twitter and 80% of Twitter users will reward those brands they have key relationships by being more willing to purchase from them. 5) Influencers: More than 60% of respondents have 100+ followers and almost 50% of respondents have posted more than 1000 Tweets since they signed up for the service Twitter Survey by @warrenss, Twittermaven blog and @researchguy, Sorgenfrei – attribution appreciated
Q1: “I feel brands should engage with their customers on Twitter”
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89% of respondents answered favorably (agree or strongly agree) with just under 50% answering agree. Just over 10% of the audience disagreed with the statement. Thus, the respondents are overwhelmingly in favor of brands joining Twitter and having conversations with customers. This should not be surprising as the majority of the respondents are strong fans of the service. Q2: “I have a much better impression of companies that use Twitter for customer service”
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Eighty-one percent of the respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. Just two percent strongly disagreed. Since several companies such as Comcast, Zappos, Dell, and HR Block have become notable on Twitter in using the service to resolve customer service problems, they have made a favorable impression on their peers.
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Q3: “I am interested in receiving special offers and coupons from companies on Twitter”
40% of respondents agreed with the statement and just 15% strongly agreed. So although the group was in favor of receiving special offers, there was a very strong dissent. Over 15% of respondents strongly disagreed which was the highest percentage in the entire survey.Twitter users are wary of over promotion and being bombarded with offers and coupons. This is in contrast to Q1, where just under 90% of respondents were very favorable towards a company presence on Twitter. One can conclude that the Twitter community wants dialogue and relationships from their favorite brands, not broadcasted impersonal coupons. Q4: “If a company uses Twitter poorly or inappropriately, it would affect my overall perception of their brand”
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88% of the respondents were in agreement (strongly agree or agree) with this statement. This statement really resonated with the audience as it received the highest strongly agree score (50.5%) out of the entire survey. Correspondingly, strongly disagree had the lowest score in the entire survey for this question as well. The Twitter community wants to engage in conversation with their brands, but it will not tolerate poor practices from those companies. Although poor or inappropriate use was not defined in the survey, that is assumed to include broadcasting messages, lack of responses, latency in response, follower spam. Q5: “I would recommend a company’s product or service based on their presence/usage of Twitter”
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60% of respondents were in favor (strongly agree or agree) with this statement. 16.7% strongly agreed. The strength of the Twitter relationship is such that it can positively impact brand perception and recommendations of that brand. Company Twitter usage and relationships has an impactful word of mouth effect. As seen elsewhere, offline word of mouth activities are affected by online recommendations and experiences. Q6: I would be more willing to purchase a product/service from a company that has a relationship with me on Twitter”
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Over 78% of respondents were in favor (strongly agree or agree) with this statement. As described in Q5, the power of the relationship on Twitter is very strong. In Q6, the relationship appears to have an even stronger impact than Q5. The audience is more willing to purchase a product than recommend it. Respondents are willing to reward company’s who engage with them on Twitter by purchasing their product or service.
Demographic Questions Q7: How many followers do you have on Twitter?
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This question was fairly distributed with the largest (100-499) at 42% and the smallest (less than 50) at 12.1% Q8: How many tweets have you posted since signing up for Twitter?
Interestingly, there was a tie for most popular answer between 100-499 and 1000-2999. The fewest respondents had <100. Based on the answers to
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questions 7 and 8, one can infer that most respondents are experienced Twitter users. Q9: What is your age range?
Q10: What is your gender?
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Complete results (240 respondents total): 1. "I feel brands should engage with their customers on Twitter" Strongly Agree 97 Agree 118 Disagree 19 Strongly Disagree 6
40.42% 49.17% 7.92% 2.50%
2. "I have a much better impression of companies that use Twitter for customer service" Strongly Agree 87 36.25% Agree 107 44.58% Disagree 41 17.08% Strongly Disagree 5 2.08% 3. "I am interested in receiving special offers and coupons from companies on Twitter" Strongly Agree 36 15.00% Agree 96 40.00% Disagree 70 29.17% Strongly Disagree 38 15.83% 4. "If a company uses Twitter poorly or inappropriately, it would affect my overall perception of their brand" Strongly Agree 121 50.42% Agree 91 37.92% Disagree 27 11.25% Strongly Disagree 1 0.42% 5. "I would recommend a company's product or service based on their presence/usage of Twitter" Strongly Agree 40 16.67% Agree 104 43.33% Disagree 83 34.58% Strongly Disagree 13 5.42% 6. "I would be more willing to purchase a product/service from a company that has a relationship with me on Twitter" Strongly Agree 54 22.50% Agree 135 56.25% Disagree 45 18.75% Strongly Disagree 6 2.50% 7. How many followers do you have on Twitter? <50 29 50-99 34 100-499 101
12.08% 14.17% 42.08%
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500-999 1000+
46 30
19.17% 12.50%
8. How many tweets have you posted since signing up for Twitter? <100 19 7.92% 100-499 65 27.08% 500-999 43 17.92% 1000-2999 65 27.08% 3000+ 48 20.00% 9. What is your age range? <18 19-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
5 26 61 99 38 9 2
2.08% 10.83% 25.42% 41.25% 15.83% 3.75% 0.83%
10. What is your gender? Female Male
95 145
39.58% 60.42%
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