Power to the People social media research

The report also sheds new light on consumer motivations for social media behaviour. We now know that the desire to belong to something is as motivating as the desire to communicate and express oneself. UM believes that the engagement opportunities of social media are deeper than those of traditional mass media and that the power of social amplification is much stronger.

"The opportunity for success in the relatively uncluttered social media landscape will never be higher," says Universal McCann's MD Nazeer Suliman. "Every element of digital media is becoming socialised, providing marketers with new ways to engage a target audience.

Ten steps

"At the heart of our thinking is the concept of 'Gravitational Mass Media' where audience engagement provides a dense core that then attracts other consumers, with similar interests, playing in the same space.

Wave 4 lists its Ten Step Programme for Social Media as follows:

• Listen to/observe what the target audience is doing in social media
  
• Create a "social object" that is relevant to the brand and of genuine interest
  
• Segment the target into tribes. Give them something they can join.
  
• Allow them to engage via their preferred platform of choice. Create multiple interfaces to your community
  
• Make the experience better when shared
  
• Optimise your content for sharing, particularly via newsfeeds and Twitter
  
• Use paid-for media to get the ball rolling
  
• Take advantage of extreme targeting offered by social networks
  
• Make sure you have the resources to manage your community management and refresh the content.
  
• Track the results and optimise where necessary

For the full report go to universalmccann.bitecp.com/wave4/.