• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, November 21, 2012

Summary execution: that’s basically the punishment meted out by consumers for brands which annoy them on social media, according to a new study performed for Pitney Bowes Software by Vanson Bourne, a U.K.-based marketing and research outfit, titled “Social media: contrasting the marketing and consumer perspectives.”

Vanson Bourne’s survey of consumer attitudes in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France, and Germany found 65% of respondents said they would stop using a brand if it annoyed them on a social media site. Forty percent of consumers said they would be annoyed by receiving messages from a brand they haven’t followed . And, even when they’ve followed the brand, only 48% said they felt positive about receiving marketing messages. This all suggests a fairly significant disconnect between the expectations of consumers and marketers about the meaning of social media fandom.

On the bright side, social media is a popular source of word-of-mouth recommendations, with 68%  of consumers saying they had investigated a product recommended by friend online, and 15% actually making a purchase based on an online recommendation.

Vanson Bourne also surveyed 300 marketing directors and managers around the world, and (unsurprisingly) found greater adoption of social media, with 69% of marketing directors and managers saying they are placing greater emphasis on social media than previously. But measurement remains a major obstacle, with just 33% saying they are confident they can establish a link between social media spending and profitability.

In terms of favorite channels, 84% of marketing directors and managers said they use Facebook, compared with 57% using Twitter and 51% using Google+.

The results revealed another disconnect between consumers and marketers. Consumers placed YouTube second (53%) over Twitter (31%) and Google+ (22%), but the video-sharing platform came fifth in terms of marketer preferences (41%).