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Only 10% of European consumers trust posts by brands on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter; in North America this number increases to 15%. This is the finding of new research from Forrester. It shows that consumer trust of brands in social media is still much lower than the trust they have for their friends and the posts they make.

The research, based on a sample of 20,788 (and 63,703 North American) European online consumers, was published by Forrester this week and explores how consumers react to different marketing messages and types of content.

Overall the message is clear – consumers trust content they go out to find (from expert reviews to recommendations from friends and family) than they do content that is pushed at them. Interruptive advertising such as marketing text messages and banner ads perform worst from a trust perspective. Posts by brands on Twitter and Facebook are the fourth least trusted source of information.

There is much brands can learn from this and from how they seek to build relationships online. The nature of social media is that it is about interaction and that it allows consumers to build their own networks or communities of people with whom they share common interests. And it can be difficult for brands to truly engage here.

Many consumers treat what brands say as they treat advertising – it is something that interrupts them when they are doing something else, and they treat it with a healthy level of scepticism. This is reinforced by the way many brands use these channels – promoting offers or discounts or new products to consumers.

For brands that truly engage in social the trust levels will be much higher. These brands are not using it for interruptive messages to to be part of consumers networks and communities, part of their shared interests. This is not easy to achieve and may not even be relevant for all brands, but with such trust can come real benefits.

In a world where we can learn so much from interacting with consumers and from seeing what they say, like and who they interact with, it is important that we earn their trust. Otherwise, there is a real risk that consumers block brands from their social media life; stop them seeing their data and stop them from understanding more about them.

Trust is important in social media and it comes from real engagement, not interruptive messages.

texting (Photo credit: meanmachine_ie)

The ability to interrogate and make decisions based on consumer data from social media is a key 2013 priority for European bankers according to a survey from the European Financial Management Association (Efma) and the Fair Isaac Corporation (Fico). The survey of credit risk professionals from 27 European countries found that analysing these data to better understand consumer needs was a priority for 54% of respondents.

The results show the growing importance of social data sets in the already data-rich world of financial services. The  industry is currently in a very risk-averse period, meaning that companies are looking for credit growth primarily among those people that they have the most data on – their customers. However focusing just on your existing customers will not help you to win in the current market as customers are risk-averse too in the current economic climate – they will look for the best product for them and move banks to get what they see as a better offer.

This is where the respondents see the role of social media. Analysing data from these sources can help them to better:

• understand consumer needs
• predict the products and services that will see most demand
• identify where they might find valuable new customers

In the current market, the financial services brand that most effectively integrates these social data sources alongside their existing rich data sets has the potential for a real competitive advantage. The ability to predict and tailor products and services that will attract profitable consumers.

Of course getting there will involve work, as with any activities looking to interrogate and learn from social data you first need to understand what data you have (from your own proprietary data-sets and from social and public sources) and then to explore what you can learn from these. Only then can you consider how your business might benefit and the kinds of decisions you can inform.

That financial services firms rank understanding data as such a priority for 2013 shows the value that these firms are seeing from social media – not just as a means of communication but also to inform business and marketing strategies.

With the launch of Facebook Deals in the US in November and its imminent launch in the UK, the opportunities for brands to engage in location-based marketing are growing and set to grow more in 2011.

We’ve already looked at the ways in which marketers can use Facebook Places, and the ways in which location-based services can add value to both consumers and to marketers. But with the launch and growth of Facebook Deals, we will see a rapid growth in use of these tools by brands. And, with luck, a growth in marketing innovation – using location to do things and engage with people in ways that have not previously been possible.

But there is a danger that marketers may not move beyond the use of location to target vouchers, discounts and coupons. That would be a real shame.

Facebook Deals and Foursquare lend themselves to easily provide discounts based on a consumer’s location – a voucher for checking in, a discount for checking in a fixed number of times, a group discount if you check in with your friends. All of these are possible and would be of interest to brands. Taking a tactic that is already used offline and both moving it online and bringing in the location element. But this misses out on the real opportunities for brands to experiment with location-based marketing and to engage with consumers in new ways.

Successful brands will be experimenting sensibly with social media in 2011 as part of their social media strategy. And location-based marketing should be one area for innovation. Rather than just discounting or offering vouchers there we will see innovations in how brands are interacting with consumers. They may be allowing consumers to leave a ‘wish list’ in shops for friends – dropping their wedding list in a department store for others to find when they are there, or leaving their virtual birthday gift list in stores around town through location based services. They may allow customers to sort reviews and find services based not just on what is closest, but what others, people like them, or their friends, think of them. Or they may allow consumers to keep a record of when they have visited a location (maybe a gym or swimming pool) and the activities they did when they were there as part of a training diary.

Location-based tools offer a new way to engage with customers. And the successful brands will be innovating with these in 2011. Vouchers, discounts and coupons are just one thing they can be used for. But the best brands will do so much more.

This post is part of an informal series: Social Media in 2011.

Internet users in the UK are more likely to follow brands in social media than they are to follow celebrities. A study of over 1,000 internet users (by the IAB, Opinion Matters and RMM) found that whilst only 13.4% of users follow celebrities, more than one in five (20.3%) follow brands. Brands are, therefore more than 50% more popular than celebrities in social media. This is good news for brands and shows the benefits they can get of using social media and using it well. But it also reinforces the importance for all brands of getting a social media strategy in place.

The research also showed than more than one in eight UK consumers have given feedback to a brand or organisation in social media. That is more than half of those who say they are following a brand in the first place and shows that, when consumers are following brands in social media, they are also likely to interact with it.

Another way to ‘interact’ with a brand in social media is not to follow it or to give it feedback directly, but to complain about it in a public arena. The survey found that 7.7% of UK consumers had done just this and in 40% of cases brands had responded rapidly to these complaints and comments. Getting your social media monitoring in place is important for brands as it helps you to find and, if appropriate, respond to mentions and such complaints. The research also shows the benefit of brands monitoring and responding like this – almost four out of every five (77.8%) people who were contacted by a brand were left with a positive feeling about the brand.

So consumers are more likely to follow a brand than a celebrity. Of those who follow a brand, more than half will interact with it and give it feedback. Consumers are also complaining about brands and organisations through social media, and those who receive a response from the brand through the same medium and highly likely to leave with a positive feeling about that brand.

In an environment where we know that most people will happily consume, and be influenced by, discussions and comments. The number of UK consumers actively discussing and feeding back on brands in social media is relatively high, and underlines how critical it is for all brands and organisations to address how they are using social media and to make sure they are using it in a way that makes sense for them, and adds value to them as well as to their audience.

Research Reinvented have polled the Twitterverse (I hate that word!) to find the most influential people in the market and consumer research areas to follow. Rather ingratiatingly I’m one of them and now get to wait to see if I make the top 10.

At FreshNetworks we make the most of strong research credentials, both in our specific online research communities, but also helping all of our clients make the most of the insight they can get from online communities. You can read more of our recent research posts from making online research better to one on simple, effective market research.

The full list of market researchers to follow on Twitter is below (in alphabetical order) and you can vote for the top ten by commenting on the Research Reinvented blog.

If you fancy voting (and maybe even voting for me) then comment on the Research Reinvented blog here.

Marketing Researchers to follow on Twitter

• @alisonmacleod – UK – Researcher – Following 49 and 36 followers.
• @berniceklaassen – Singapore – Head of TNS Interactive in Singapore – Following 126 and 79 followers.
• @ccsavage – UK – Christopher Savage – Researcher – Following 458 and 381 followers.
• @comerpatrick – USA – Patrick Comer SVP business development at OTX – Following 71 and 106 followers.
• @communispaceceo – USA – CEO of Communispace a Research Community Software Provider – Following 2112 and 2603 followers.
• @cristi_popa – Qualitative Researcher at Yellow Submarine research – Following 535 and 252 Followers.
• @curiouslyp – UK – Simon Kendrick – Researcher at Essential Research and previously worked at ITV and GfK NOP Media - following 234 and 244 followers.
• @duey23 – USA – Brian LoCicero – Director Client Relations – Kantar Operations – Following 63 and 46 followers.
• @emielvanwegen – Netherlands – Researcher at Synovate – most tweets are in English – most tweets are Research 2.0 related – following 395 and 458 followers.
• @ericsalama – Following 33 and 425 followers.
• @insightsgal – USA – Researcher – Works for a tradeshow and publishing company – Following 531 and 468 followers.
• @jennibeattie – Australia – Director Digital Consulting at Digital Edge – Following 378 and 259 followers.
• @jhenning – USA – Jeffrey Henning – Vovici – Geek since before Geeks were Chic – tweets focus on research communities and customer feedback – Following 1132 and 948 Followers.
• @joelrubinson – USA – Chief Research Officer at the ARF – Following 632 and 574 followers.
• @johngriffiths7 – UK – Researcher – Following 60 and 181 Followers.
• @katetribe – Australia – Quantitative Researcher Tribe Researh- Following 869 and 867 Followers.
• @lovestats – USA – Annie Pettit – Statistician and Researcher and active blogger on MR – former VP Online Panel Analytics at Ipsos – Following 1873 and 1151 followers.
• @mattrhodes – UK – Head of Client services at FreshNetworks – specialises in online communities and social media – Following 2155 and 2027 followers.
• @merrilldubrow – USA – CEO of MARC, former SVP at Harris Interactive – Following 62 and 83 followers
• @mikemacleod – USA – Market Researcher at Lightspeed, previously at Harris Interactive – Following 1693 and 1908 followers.
• @montenegror – USA – Multifaceted Market Researcher at Black Mountain – Following 314 and 229 Followers.
• @mrheretic – Market Research Deathwatch – a mostly cynical but interesting pov on the MR industry – Following 31 and 72 followers.
• @ogaudemar – USA – Olivier de Gaudemar – SVP Online Community at OTX – Following 138 and 268 followers.
• @raypoynter – UK – Director at the Future Place – frequent speaker at MR conferences on Market Research 2.0 and winner of ESOMAR best paper award – following 136 and 187 followers.
• @researchrants – another anonymous researcher and partner in crime of @mrheretic – blogs frequently about Greenfield – new twitter user and most tweets are on MR – Following 32 and 146 followers.
• @researchrocks – USA – Kathryn Korostoff – Research Entrepreneur and founder of Research Rockstar, a market research training company- Following 42 and 84 Followers
• @rscionti – USA – Richard Scionti – SVP Solution Services at TNS – Following 82 and 76 followers.
• @tomewing – UK – Social Media Knowledge Leader at Kantar Ops - 297 and 405 Followers.
• @tomhcanderson – USA – Tom Anderson – next generation researcher and former employee of TNS NFO – Following 948 and 672 followers.
• @vincenthofmann – South-Africa – Qualitative Researcher at Submarine former employee at Synovate – Tweets on all different topics, but also on MR – Following 416 and 522 followers.
• @zebrabites – Australia – Qualitative research director at Zebra – Following 372 and 639 Followers.