Believe it or not, a recent study revealed that social fans are more likely to purchase and recommend the brands that they become a “fan” of – and even better, their friends pay attention and are likely to make a purchase as well. Over two thirds of US Facebook users surveyed, said that a Facebook friend referral would make them more likely to purchase an item or visit an online store, in a study conducted by Morspace.
41% of Facebook users surveyed stated that they used Fan pages to show their friends what companies and products they support. Coupons or other discounts and freebies given as incentives to join a Fan page were also great ways to increase sales, as 37% of users surveyed stated that they had made a subsequent purchase after receiving a coupon, code or sample from a business on Facebook.
There are even racial and ethnic trends. Hispanic users were more likely to make a purchase after becoming a Fan of a page and White Facebook users were the least likely group to fan a retailer and make a purchase. In fact, over 50% of Hispanic respondents stated that Facebook was a good tool to help them research new products, yet only 46% of Asians, 44% of African-Americans and only 31% of Whites agreed.
AOL Advertising also recently revealed that Hispanics are way ahead of the general online market in using the Internet to research purchases and socially share that information with friends. Unfortunately, many marketers are missing out on this tech-savvy demographic and have admitted that they are not taking any initiative to take advantage of these opportunities to reach the Hispanic market directly…pay attention and learn how to market to individual demographics to maximize site revenue potential…
