Live from OMMA Social: Ali Rana, Dynamic Logic

From the program: Millward Brown's Dynamic Logic Unit performs an annual study, AdReaction, each of which focuses on a different subtopic within digital advertising. This year's topic is social media, so Dynamic Logic's Ali Rana will give the audience exclusive data on consumers' reactions to brands becoming part oftheir social media plays in their perception of advertising.
 
With 59% of online users actively participating, social media presents marketers with the opportunity to reach engaged customers. 2,000 respondents from the LightSpeed Research panel who are representative of the Internet population.
 
Audiences of all ages are now involved in social media: 87% of folks 13-17, 94% of 18-34-year-olds, and so on. Facebook is the most frequented, but most users are still members of multiple sites. The majority of users are members of two or more sites. Not surprisingly, MySpace has the most tenured member base, while Twitter's is the newest; 84% have joined in the past year. Facebook and Twitter are experiencing the largest growth in site usage, over 1/2 of folks say they're using Facebook more than they were 6 months ago. 30% of those that considered MySpace their primary site 6 montsh ago have switched to Facebook. People switch because their friends are on a different site, not because there is too much advertising.
 
Opinions of advertising across traditional media have decreased over the past 2 years; however, digital (online and mobile) have stayed the same. Opinions of social media advertising are on par with online ads overall, including online video.
 
No Joke: Funny ads are most remembered but relevance is key -- something social media is good at. Almost 3/4 of social media users would be willing to tolerate more advertising on the sites they visit in exchange for continued free access.
 
Facebook has the highest recall of advertising on its site -- much higher than the 39% typically seen within MarketNorms.
 
Let's look a little deeper: Twitter is considered new, different and growing, while Facebook is cementing its base. Twitter is used as an information digestion platform, while Facebook appears to be more nostalgic in nature.
 
Facebook = in touch with family and friends; Twitter = feel more informed.
 
About these followers: 90% of them follow friends, 78% follow co-workers, but only 13% of users follow brands. The brands they do tend to follow most include retail, cpg, and technology. Their motives for following brands are mostly to get information about new products and sales/discounts. Only around 1/2 follow because they like the brand -- they need something back in return. If you have clients with Facebook pages, it's important to understand the expectations of those clients and how to keep them happy.
 
Segmentation
What kind of social media user are you? Fanatics: 26% of all social media users, very enthusiastic, engaged, involved, young. Virtual Voyeurs: 20%, never written a recomemndation, mostly female. Taking Care of Business: 19%, engaged and active but enthusiasm is slowing, they were the early adopters and are getting bored. Late to the party: 10%, older, less tech sabvvy. Teens: 25%, with 51% of them uploading video. Teens are slightly more on MySpace than Facebook. Taking Care of Business are slightly more on LinkedIn than on Facebook.
 
Fanatics are most likely to be single and 2/3 are under 34. They say social media is filling a need for spotlight; 92% say they are looking for brands to solicit ides and opinions from them.
 
Virtual Voyeurs are being fed more than they are feeding the system and watching more than contributing. They put the 'social' in 'social media' (primary reason for being on sites is to keep up with family and friends). 85% have never written a brand recommendations, and 82% are going to social networks more than once a day (even if they're not contributing).
 
Taking Care of Business are most likely to visit LinkedIn, high income, more middle aged, tend to use social media in a more practical way. These folks tend to be early adopters, FB, Twitter, 4Square, then they wait around to see what the next big thing is.
 
Late to the Party are the oldest group, with about half over the age of 45, been there less than 6 months, don't write recommendations, don't understand how they could do that, have the highest income (41% make $70k or more). This is the group that uses magazines the most, and they don't update their status.
 
Teens find social media extremely entertaining (games, videos, etc), are most likely to be on MySpace.
 
In summary:

• Favorability of advertising within social media is high
• Audience is moving to social media
• Humor and relevance is what makes ads memorable
• Maximize reach by advertising across social networks
• There is a clear distinction between Facebook, MySpace and Twitter
• Not all social media users are alike.

You can follow them on Twitter: @dynamiclogic.