BzzAgent is excited to announce a new joint research project with WOMMA to help marketers understand brand advocates – the people who have tremendous influence over the way brands are perceived and discussed between friends in-person and in social media online.  Each quarter next year, a new “Voice of the Advocate” report will dive into different motivations, behaviors and actions of influential brand advocates.

Advocates are a unique breed of consumer and they think and act very differently from typical consumers. By gaining a better understanding of their opinions, attitudes and activities, marketers can improve their engagement and communications with these valuable people.

The advocates will come from BzzAgent’s network of 850,000 consumers who will be invited to participate in surveys throughout the year. To make sure we nail the topics brands care about most, we’ll take the lead from WOMMA’s Brands Council. Brand Council members represent top marketers from some of the biggest and most forward thinking consumer brands. They’ll shape the topics and issues marketers want to address and they’ll participate in an analysis of the results in the final report.

Some of the topics prioritized by the Brands Council include purchasing habits, generational preferences, multi-cultural analysis, and perceptions about the constantly evolving sites, social network features, and mobile apps that make up the social media landscape.

The key to any social marketing program is listening. These reports will amplify the voices of influential advocates to help brands understand what they can do to make marketing better for both brands and consumers.

Look for the first report from this series in February.