'Like' Me: The Dynamics of Public vs. Private Social Media
As sampling sites and Facebook Fan Pages continue to attract visitors, marketers are questioning whether they need to turn to other online venues for generating consumer insights. However, several recent studies suggest that large public sites and social networks may not be the best options for obtaining a deep understanding of customers and prospects.
Communispace Corporation runs private online communities for the world’s leading brands and recently conducted a study which explored the behaviors and motivations of members in our communities compared to their experiences on other brand-sponsored websites. We found meaningful differences, both in what motivates participation and in how consumers view their brand experiences in public and private online venues.
Our findings suggest that consumers primarily go to public brand-sponsored sites to hear from brands, and prefer to talk to them in private online environments, free from the eyes of their friends in their social networks. We also found that if marketers simply rely on Facebook Fan Pages, or mining other public forums for insight, they will only hear from a skewed sample of the online population, and will only get a surface-level understanding of consumers.