Google has shared some results from recent research it conducted on consumers becoming friends/fans of brands on Facebook. According to these findings, close to half of Facebook users actually do "friend" brands, with 55% friending zero brands.

Google says that the biggest reason consumers are friending brands is for the possibility of discounts (25%). Brands might like the second reason even better though - to show others they support the brand (18%).





"So when developing your social media strategy, keep in mind that consumers are looking primarily to receive promotions, with secondary goals of learning new information first and being entertained," says Heidi Spector of the Google Retail Team.

It is worth noting that Google is becoming more and more a competitor to Facebook, and would probably prefer consumers do their brand engagement on its own Place Page, or perhaps Google Buzz/Profiles (or whatever social offering they're currently working on). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Google referred to research like this when planning promotion strategies for its own products for business use.