Marketers Aren't Paying Enough Attention To The Benefits Of Joining Social Networks Early

There's a lot of talk about what makes for great social marketing. There are gimmicks - contests and polls - and tons of bells and whistles available in the form of platform management tools. Companies spend millions to acquire large fan bases on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

But a new report from BI Intelligence finds that what really determines which brands win and lose is who gets there first and keeps the lights on. Often, brands sit on the sidelines waiting to see if the latest social network craze will really become the next Instagram. Our analysis finds that this is the wrong approach. Brands should jump into emerging social networks early.

The report includes a downloadable Excel file with a list of the top 83 consumer-facing global brands and the size of their follower bases on Facebook and Twitter, along with our extensive data sets analyzing how brands perform comparatively based on when they joined the network.

We also look at who the early-adopter effect matters to the most, and which brands managed to buck the trend and catch up anyway, despite a late start.

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Here's a look at some of the study's key findings:

• There's a positive "early adopter effect" in social media: For most brands, earlier adoption equals more fans and audience success relative to other big brands. Simple scatter charts, statistics, and trend lines show there's a clear relationship between early adoption and audience size on the top social networks.
• Some megabrands buck the trend: Some globally famous brands that are household names virtually everywhere were able to develop a large social media following very quickly, regardless of whether they joined relatively early or late.
• Conversely, the early adopter effect is more important for non-megabrands. The relationship between length of time on a social network, and audience size is strongest for second-tier top brands. Those brands that aren't global household names should think especially hard about joining emerging social media platforms early, ahead of the pack.
• The implication of this study is that global brands shouldn't wait before jumping into emerging social media - Snapchat, Reddit, Google+, LINE, etc. - they should join up, try to learn the ropes, and see what happens. They can always pare down later if the platform fizzles.

• Of course, joining early is no guarantee of success. Many brands who join social media platforms early haven't seen that lead to audience advantages over their competitors. But our analysis does suggest that early adopters have a much better chance of surpassing the number of followers achieved by the typical big brand.

The report is full of charts and data that can be easily downloaded and put to use.

Incidentally, BI Intelligence also recently published an analysis of data showing that college students are receptive to Snapchat-based marketing.

In full, the report:

• Includes full datasets in a downloadable Excel file, with lists of all 83 top global brands with their social network join dates and follower counts used for this analysis.
• Looks at a few specific brands that have been underperforming peers in terms of fan accumulation over time.
• Considers how brands tend to join networks in a kind of stampede, once a critical mass of usage and media attention suggests they can no longer ignore a specific platform.
• Investigates why many mega-brands buck the trend.
• Includes five full-size charts that illustrate the early adopter effect.

For full access to the report on The Early Adopter Effect and all BI Intelligence's social media charts and analysis, sign up for a free trial subscription today.