The study is based on 11 social marketing programs conducted between 2010 and 2012 for a variety of food, beverage and personal care products sold nationally at grocery, drug and mass retailers in the United States. Although results varied by product category, food and beverage products saw an average sales lift at 6.3%, while sales for personal care products jumped an average of 7.2%.

"Consumer advocacy in social media can make a significant business impact for all types of CPG products," said Dave Balter, founder and CEO of BzzAgent. "Now with proven measurement practices like Matched Market Analysis, brand marketers can confidently invest in social marketing."

Unlike most social marketing measurement practices using Facebook "likes" and qualitative "engagement" assessments to determine success, SymphonyIRI's Matched Market Analysis evaluates store-level transactions to determine sales impact. When applied to social media marketing programs like BzzAgent, marketers can see the effect of these programs, which leverage the same proven measurement method(s) used with all other types of media.

"Accurate media measurement data is critical for marketing success," Srishti Gupta, executive vice president, New Media Solutions, SymphonyIRI. "This type of sales analysis in social media isn't possible without the use of proven and trusted measurement practices like Matched Market Analysis as well as extremely robust point-of-sale data."

 From the April 9, 2012, Prepared Foods’ Daily News