The Early Adopter Effect: Social Marketing Strategy Isn't As Important As Getting There First

Brands spend a lot of time thinking about their social strategy. But a recent report from BI Intelligence finds that what really differentiates brands' success on the latest social network is how quickly they join up.

We did an in-depth analysis of the follower counts on Facebook and Twitter at the top 83 consumer brands and found that the creativity of a brand's social strategy didn't matter nearly as much as timing.

This has important implications now that new social networks appear seemingly every day. Marketers may be inclined to wait until they have a really good idea of how they're going to use a given social site. But this may put them at a major disadvantage. Our research finds that social success goes to those who come first.

In the report, we 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.

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 each network.

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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.

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.