Blog @ Percolate

I recently got my hands on the Social Engagement Index Benchmark report by Spredfast. Here are my take aways, including how this all relates back (so well) to Percolate and what we’re building.

1. Brands are on multiple channels across multiple platforms.

Looking only across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and brand blogs, Spredfast discovered that companies have, on average, 50 social accounts, with some companies having more than 700 accounts.  This may seem overwhelming, but in reality this is smart.  A big company like PepsiCo has hundreds of brands, 22 of which have $1 billion dollars in annual sales.  These mega-brands (my affectionate term), must be strategic in how they will reach their different customers with different touch points in different places around the world.

2. Social is far beyond a one (wo)man, or multiple (wo)men, task.

At Percolate, two people tweet, update, and tumblr for us.  Our company, while growing fast, employs less than 50 people (for now), is based more or less in the US (for now), and has under $1 billion in revenue (also, for now).  So it really comes at no surprise to discover that, on average, brands have more than 29 individuals who are actively managing their various social channels.  In fact, some brands have as many as 300 users.

3. Brands all need to be posting more content.

For this report, Spredfast divided up companies into three main categories according to similar levels of internal and external engagement: Proliferating, Expanding, and Activating.  In the Spredfast study, Proliferating companies are the ones that were most active in pushing out content on their social channels.  In fact, they were 5x more active than Expanding companies and 19x more active than Activating ones.  And indeed, their activity paid off as their engagement metrics far surpassed that of the other two types of companies.  Proliferating companies stimulated 46x more engagement from their audience than Expanding companies, and an overwhelmingly 1,255x more engagement from their audience than Activating companies.  Bottom line: brands should all be more active on all their social platforms and channels.  The increase in engagement due to increased activity is super linear for Brands.  Engage your audience, and they will respond.

Enter Percolate.

In a world where brands need to create more content on more social channels in real time, it’s clear that what they need most is a tool that can help them systematize this strategy.  This sound like your brand? Get in touch.

(Note: the data for this report was pulled directly from all companies that are actively using the Spredfast platform for management purposes.  These companies are spread over a variety of industries and cities, and (in my mind) would all benefit from using Percolate as a tool to help them source and create content.)