Blog

The nice thing about predictive engagement metrics is, well, they predict. And to be sure, sometimes it takes time for the real world to catch up with engagement values, which are emotionally based and often unarticulated. For instance, while it may seem so intuitively obvious now, a decade ago one of the trends we advised brands to attend to was one related to the coming explosion of mobile advertising. It seems to have paid off for brands that planned for it.

For example, Facebook posted more than $1 billion in quarterly profits recently with mobile ads accounting for 80% of the social networking brand’s 4th Quarter ad revenue. To put that into perspective, that’s four times what it was in 2012, or $1 for each of the 1.23 billion highly engaged, monthly active users, aka “MAUs”. Think of it of social networking’s version of retail’s same-store sales – with the same relationship to profitability – if it’s done well.

Facebook shows up #1 on our 2016 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for social networking – as well they should. Loyalty and emotional engagement metrics are leading-indicator predictors of consumer behavior. That means if consumers are truly emotionally engaged, they’ll act positively toward you. In this case, Facebook users did. To the tune of increased revenues (+52%) bringing the grand total to $5.85 billion. All well and good for Facebook, but does the promise emotional brand engagement makes deliver for other brands?

YouTube, #2 on the list, attracts more than a billion users a month, almost one third of everyone on the Internet. Twitter tied with YouTube with 310 million MAU. Pinterest, #3, has 100 million users each month, although not everybody feels the need to pin something. Still they show up! LinkedIn was #4. They have about 450 million members, but they only average 100 million active users per month, and when we speak of real ”brand engagement” we’re talking about a behavioral measure, something that will correlate with consumers acting positively toward a brand. Reddit, #5, lists 234 million visitors accessed the site. Seven other brands are included in the Social Networking Sites category.

The Customer Loyalty Engagement Index brand lists aren’t pre-determined. Consumers tell Brand Keys researchers which brands they actually use in a category and the brands must be mentioned enough times to provide a statistically generalizable sample. And speaking of “statistically generalizable,” the correlation between our Customer Loyalty Engagement Index rankings (1 to 10 in these particular categories, accounting for ties) and monthly active users is 0.85. You can check that on the statistical app on your own mobile device, but possessing predictive insights like that emotional engagement can provide can help any brand plan for profitability.

And today, if your plans don’t include mobile, your plans really aren’t finished.

Find out more about what makes customer loyalty happen and how Brand Keys metrics is able to predict future consumer behavior: brandkeys.com. Visit our YouTube channel to learn more about Brand Keys methodology, applications and case studies.