Our new Social Media Behaviour Index (SMBI) study into the top 6 Supermarkets shows that Waitrose is winning the social media war this Christmas, converting the most online visitors into paying customers and brand advocates. Waitrose, with its focus on engaging content, is having a far higher impact on consumer behaviour than Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

Our study also reveals that shoppers taking an action on a supermarket Facebook page are twice as likely to shop there this Christmas, with 87% intending purchase compared to 43% of those that just visit the page. On YouTube this is even truer, with 89% of those interacting with the brand planning purchase, versus 36%. The insight also shows Twitter activity is a strong sign of brand commitment, with 92% of followers and 93% of those tweeting about a brand intending purchase this Christmas.

SMBI looks beyond a simple ‘like’, investigating the value of social media actions – for example posting a comment, viewing a video, playing a game, tweeting or entering a competition. It provides brands with a benchmark to help improve content to influence brand advocacy and purchase intent. As SMBI takes account of many differing factors, it is never seen as a positive or negative, rather as a bespoke measure of the strength of relationship between content and its influence on consumer behaviour. So the higher the SMBI score, the more opportunities have been identified to improve influence and the lower the score, the less opportunity because the brand is already doing well here.

Waitrose’s clever mix of cooking videos and recipes from well-known cooks, expert Q&A, and interactive step-by-step roast planner are clearly resonating with site visitors and adding value to their shopping experience.

The SMBI tool measures responses to brand content on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Since June 2011, it has measured the responses of 8,000 consumers to 37 brands in seven categories, including 1,500 people across a mix of age and social grades in the retail sector. Understanding interaction and the influence this has on brand advocacy and purchase intent helps our brands and planners optimise social media content to have the strongest impact on behaviour.