A recent report from consumer information company, Knowledge Networks, pointed out that 83% of the Internet population (ages 13 – 54) participates in some way with “social media” but less than 5% turn to social sites when it comes to gathering information to make a purchase decision.
I’ve been a little bothered by these numbers since I first saw them mainly because I think, when trying to quantify influence, these numbers are very misleading. I know I wouldn’t necessarily buy something because the person who made it tells me how great it is – I buy something because I have some direct, trusted feedback on how great it is, and here lies the conundrum.
Social media is key to word of mouth marketing, and to creating the buzz, the relationships and ultimately, the trust that drive purchases. Companies like Amazon.com and Zappos rely heavily on recommendations and word of mouth product marketing on their sites – and these come from experts or regular folks like you and I. Many reports have shown the correlation between trusted, independent recommendations and referrals, and increases in product purchases.
A 2007 survey from Bridge Ratings noted that the most trusted source for purchase recommendations was a friend, family member or acquaintance. And this across all media, not just social media.
Another poll by BIGresearch found that word of mouth recommendations heavily influence purchases: more than 50% of consumers said WOM influenced the choice of restaurant they went to, 44% were influenced on electronics purchases, 41% on grocery purchases and more than 33% on home improvement and apparel purchases.
