A recent study of Facebook users by the Morpace market research group reveals that this successful social networking site could be a powerful tool to promote your brand. The research shows that more than two-thirds of U.S. Facebook users said that a Facebook referral would actually increase their chances of buying a certain brand or using a particular service.
Which, of course, makes total sense. All that social networking amounts to is friendship on steroids. Instead of having the narrow influences of a finite number of friends at work or the guys in your dorm, websites like Facebook give you access to an ever-widening circle of friends. Your old roommate who now lives five states away. Your cousin in Tennessee. The girl who played bass in your 11th grade garage band. All friends. All people whose opinions you trust. Fan pages are one way to supercharge such referrals. These were used by 41% of the study’s respondents. In line with other research, the Morpace study found that coupons and discounts were key reasons to join a fan page. On average, users were fans of nine pages. The racial and ethnic background of users influenced their fan page activity. Caucasian Facebook users were least likely to become a fan of brands and retailers. Hispanics, on the other hand, had the greatest propensity to become fans in all the categories in the study. One-half of Hispanic respondents said Facebook was a good tool for researching new products, compared with 46% of Asians, 44% of African-Americans and only 31% of Caucasians.
