New research from The Nielsen Company reveals some interesting data related to the people who follow brands on Twitter and Facebook. According to Nielsen, “U.S. adult Internet users who follow a celebrity on a social networking site are four times more likely to follow a brand than the average American Internet user.”
To put it another way, 64% of U.S. adult Internet users who follow a celebrity on sites like Twitter and Facebook also follow a brand.
But there’s more!
Check out the following statistics from the Nielsen study:
- Those 64% area also more likely to “offer advice and opinion to fellow online consumers.” As you might expect, much of this advice is related to movies, music, and television programs.
- Those 64% are significantly more likely to use the Internet for financial transactions than the average U.S. adult Internet user.
- 1 out of 4 of those 64% use the Internet for online banking and credit card account management.
- The most popular categories purchased online by those 64% include clothing, shoes and accessories (18.2%), music (13.8%), and books (13.6%).
- Top online activities of those 64% include emailing, paying bills, and social networking.
That 64% of U.S. adult Internet users is also more active than average American adult internet users in other ways:
- 86% more likely to comment or post on social networking sites
- 83% more likely to view consumer generated online video content
- 67% more likely to visit a social networking site
- 45% more likely to play online games.
Celebrities are brands, so it makes sense that brands in other industries can learn something from how celebrities use social networks to build audiences. At the very least, this study demonstrates that people who follow celebrities online are very active in the online conversation and are comfortable making online transactions. In other words, these are the kind of people who will buy your product online and talk about it online if they like it. For some brands, this could be a great audience to tap into in order to jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing and an online brand buzz.
Image: stock.xchng
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
