Without a question, most of us engage in internet research when we’ve got questions about a product or service. The internet is an ubiquitous force in our daily lives now—we use it to learn and to connect. It’s evident that in our technological age, we’re shifting away from traditional means of information to the web. Nielsen has a study examining this shift, with an interesting find on how social media marketing networks play into this.
Search engines like Google still remain a dominant force, followed by online portals like Yahoo, MSN, and AOL—both, when combined, make up 71% of “discovery portals” for users. The remarkable aspect of this study is that 18% of users search on social media networks—like Wikipedia, blogs, and social media marketing sites. All these combined provide a greater percentage than sites that are dedicated to publishing information exclusively in an industry—citing CNET for technology as an example.
The Neilsen study studied three main consumer groups who used search (Searchers), portals (Portalists) or social media (Socializers) as their main source of content discovery. Unsurprisingly, Socializers still trust their personal friends over any other source, analyzing their online conversations, shared links, and experiences on social media marketing sites. This is particularly important when brands come into play. If a friend has an issue with the brand, they have the power to influence all their followers and friends to think the same way.
The study found that 15% of Socializers trusted information they found on blogs when researching purchases online, 20% trusted information from message boards, and 8% trusted social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. As of now, social media marketing sites have huge potential for growth. As our society shifts more towards social media and its culture, that 18% will grow exponentially. This growth will also be fueled by the improved search functionality these sites provide. Moreover, we can expect a push in growth thanks to Bing and Google’s recent partnerships with Twitter. With this growth, there is no doubt social media marketing needs to be incorporated for every business, no matter how small or large.
