Companies that frequently interact with their consumers are the most influential
Social networks have become an essential tool for companies who have found in them a practical direct communication channel with customers, where they can distribute their branded content (especially important now that content marketing has become a basic requirement for any company) instrument.
However, not all companies make equal use of social media, and while some companies are limited to dump there your messages, others respond to questions from his followers, use this channel as customer service, participate in discussions, and generally try to encourage the roost encouraging users to intervene. In addition, these do well, because encourage participation multiplies the relevance of the brand in the social environment.
This is determined by a new study from Penn State University, where it is revealed that consumers respond better campaigns and social messages of companies that frequently interact with customers, compared with other companies, perceived as trustworthy, but They are having a less interactive attitude.
In the study, participants could see glimpses of fictitious interactions of various companies on Facebook, and used to consider the content of the most active and most informative, which indicated that there was a link between the perception of interactivity and value of information, which it could help boost the influence of the content.
In the words of the researcher: “Greater interactivity is not only advantageous for any company, but also when consumers perceive as more informative material that makes business communications more effective and influential.”
What’s more, the perception of content as more informative had customers get a better overall picture of the company and increased purchase intent for products of this company.
Interactivity can become more important than the reputation
According to the results of this study, the fact that a company is interactive is more important to consumers than consumers, at least in terms of its influence on the social networks, see the reputation of a company or that it as more credible.
To check, in the experiment they manipulated a message to test as influenced authority. Thus, some participants could read a note from the CEO himself, while the others read a fellow of the company. So they wanted to see if a title could change things or credibility exceed the impact it had interactivity.
The conclusion is that no, because although the authority itself played a role in levels of persuasion, the impact was much less than that of interactivity on the perception of the message as more or less informative.
The researchers suggest, therefore, that even those companies that are already considered an authority in their respective markets- not be limited to distribute their messages on social networks, but should try to enhance the engagement of its users the most, themselves active and interactive on these platforms.
