eMarketer: Social network users keep brand communications positive

Complaints about products and services are the leading reason for negative reviews

Is Twitter the most acclaimed social network in existence? Users around the world would probably tell you yes — at least when it comes to how they interact with brands.

Converseon's Q1 2014 study analyzed direct user interactions for 20 leading global brands and found that 55% of comments on Twitter were positive, with 25% neutral. 49% of feedback on Facebook was positive, with Google+ somewhere in the middle.

On the three social networking sites studied, more reviews were neutral than negative—and the likelihood of not giving a negative review was extremely high. Up to one in five interactions went poorly.

Brands may have figured out that social media tends to be more positive than negative. When Wildfire and Advertising Age asked U.S. marketers in July 2013 about their concerns about social media marketing, “damage to my brand from negative reviews” ranked last—although marketers still rated it 6.4 on a scale of 1 to 10.

Perhaps impressively, this high level of positive reviews comes even though nearly half of U.S. marketing professionals still lack a strategy for handling negative reviews, according to research from Social Media Marketing University (SMMU).

The same SMMU study also looked at the top reasons for negative reviews, which shouldn’t surprise marketers: the vast majority of negative reviews are complaints about products and services. Negative reviews from former employees, direct negative responses to social content, or negative information from competitors are other major sources of trouble for brands on social media.

Via: 199it Translated from eMarketer