Comments on: Social Media Doesn’t Drive Purchases?

By: BuzzLogic’s New Advertising Dashboard Will Help You Find the Honey | rapid-DEV.net

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:34:06 +0000

[...] that you’re probably not going to have the same budget allocation in 2009, then we learn that only 16% of social media users will care about your ads [...]

By: Search Engine Marketing News - June 1, 2009

Search Engine Marketing News - June 1, 2009 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:50:29 +0000

[...] Social Media Doesn’t Drive Purchases? Fewer than 5% of consumers age 18-34 “regularly turn to these sites for guidance on purchase decisions” on various product categories. [...]

By: eCommerce Weekly Roundup Volume 1 Issue 5 | dustinfisher.com

eCommerce Weekly Roundup Volume 1 Issue 5 | dustinfisher.com — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:02:41 +0000

[...] Social media doesn’t drive purchasing decisions: report (via marketingpilgrim.com) – Knowledge Networks did a survey on social media and they found that less than 5% of social media participants turn to social sites for guidance on purchasing decsions. Not sure how much I agree with these results, but an interesting read. [...]

By: Justa Netuser

Justa Netuser — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:48:14 +0000

You know, the wording on these survey questions, as well as the psychological framing of the subject before the question was asked, is hugely influential on the answers people give. I can certainly understand why <5% of those polled would answer "No" to "Do you regularly turn to these sites for guidance on purchase decisions?" What is 'regularly'? Do I consider them 'guidance'?

I'd be quite interested in the percentage of the _same_ people answering yes to the question, "Have you found information or reviews from these sites useful or helpful as part of any of your purchase decisions in the last 12 months?"

I think you'd find that people integrate the comments, feedback, reviews and opinions of their friends on social networks into their purchase choices more than this survey seems to present.

By: Amber Naslund

Amber Naslund — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:19:52 +0000

Hey Jordan.

I think there's something to the idea that people don't always consciously correlate their experiences with online sites with “social media”. *We* define it that way (those of us involved in the space, that is), but your everyday person doesn't.

For example, if my mom searches something online and comes across a review on Yelp or a blog post about it, she's not necessarily realizing that she's being influenced by “social media”. She doesn't label it that way. She's just doing research.

And to your point, the list above is hardly exhaustive of the real breadth of social media, and aren't necessarily the sites where in-depth information might be found to actually drive a purchase decision.

I'm always interested to see how these studies are framed. And I for one am still pretty bullish on the potential of social media to transform businesses. I see it every day.

Cheers,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@ambercadabra

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:34:05 +0000

How do you ask questions about making travel or food decisions but not include social networks that are specific to those areas. Yelp and tripadvisor should be on the list at the least.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:13:58 +0000

Yep and advertising doesn't really work either. The truth is many people, quite often are blissfully unaware of what influences them to purchase. Ask a series of diagnostic questions about behaviour related to gathering information to make decisions about purchases (note the question is about the the user being in control, rather than being influenced) and see what the survey results show!!

By: itmentality

itmentality — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:02:43 +0000

Nice work Jordan. Appreciate the research you've put into it.

By: Aaron Ellsworth

Aaron Ellsworth — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:01:22 +0000

Interesting article on SMM driving sales; great comments!

By: Aaron Ellsworth

Aaron Ellsworth — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:57:13 +0000

Interesting comments, Jordan. I happened to glance at the survey as posted by Knowledge Networks from the link you provided and a lot of the information is questionable. First, the survey covers such a broad demographic 18-54, not just 18-34 upon which much of the stats you provided are based. There could be a huge change in results from that range of a demographic. Also, even if the survey results were accurate for the entire demographic, social media is about communicating “with” an audience, not at an audience. It's not advertising as the survey suggests. Even if a majority are going to say that it doesn't influence their purchasing decisions, how do they validate when something is influencing them or not? Must the marketing piece have a call to action? What if the communication came from a person, not a corporate sponsor? Social media is word of mouth marketing, just via a non-traditional venue – the web. The stats on word of mouth marketing influencing purchasing behavior are astounding. Just because something is “advertised” on a social media site, doesn't make it social media. Social media is about the interaction and influence on those sites. The true measurement of social media driving purchases can be found in the analytics, not simply from surveys that treat social media as advertising via a social network. Radian6, Blog Council, WOMMA, and other organizations have great info on how social media drives sales and these findings are based on analytics, not random surveys. When businesses can see the difference between SMM and advertising, then they can more clearly define what to measure and in turn, drive more sales. Thoughts?

By: steve_dodd

steve_dodd — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:55:06 +0000

Jordan, this was terrific! I'm so sick of “Surveys” developed for self surving purposes. It's obvious based on you analysis (and the sentiment of many) that this survey was somewhat out of touch. As an other example, they discuss the purchase of travel but did not ask about networks like Trip Advisor etc.

It would really be nice to see an in depth report on the purchase impact of social media influence. How much money is being spent based on social media influence?

By: John Bottom

John Bottom — Wed, 27 May 2009 10:03:42 +0000

Good post. I look forward to seeing the research that compares what people think they do with what they actually do. I notice the recent Forrester B2B research showed a similar disparity: two thirds said they used social media, but they said it had very little influence on buying decisions. Would love to see someone measure this gap.

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:52:57 +0000

“16% of the social-media users surveyed said they’re more inclined to buy brands that advertise on social sites” – hence my ad analogy.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:52:43 +0000

Influenced by TV commercials, Andy, or TV networks. I think your analogy would be more solid if the comparison is Twitter and Facebook to NBC and FOX. Social media is the same as media, except one is social. Remove the social and Twitter is no different than NBC.

By: Brennan

Brennan — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:16:27 +0000

I think they are not looking at the big picture to begin with. Social media marketing is a way of branding and giving your brand exposure through networks and not exactly a direct sell type of thing. Like trying to find the ROI on a SMM campaign I think it is also very hard to say if it did influence their purchase or not. I know every time I purchase something I look around the net on consumer review websites, etc to see if the product has any major problems or if there are things I overlooked. I usually base a large portion of my decision on the reviews which is a form of social media or internet interaction. I have ran campaigns for clients where they have seen a huge increase in sales, traffic, and general exposure for about a tenth of the price of traditional advertising.

By: Digital Media Buzz - Social Media Doesn’t Drive Purchases? | Digital Media Buzz

Tue, 26 May 2009 21:50:04 +0000

[...] Or, rather, a new survey from Knowledge Networks shows that very, very few people think that social media influences their purchase decisions. And this is a story we’ve heard before—a year ago, Pew Internet Life conducted a similar survey and concluded the same thing, even though their stats really only indicated that the Internet doesn’t influence people who don’t use it. And once again, at first glance, these numbers aren’t very encouraging:……..[read entire article] [...]

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:33:17 +0000

I think you've nailed it. The respondents simply don't think they're being influenced. Take TV ads, ask 100 people if they feel like their buying decisions are influenced by TV commercials and you'll likely see similar numbers. Now ask them “who can save you 15% or more on your car insurance?” and I bet they remember.

By: Joseph Dowdy

Joseph Dowdy — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:42:41 +0000

I've seen plenty of people on Facebook openly ask about making purchases of computers, wine and a number of other things. This survey must not have been worded right.

By: Dragos ILINCA

Dragos ILINCA — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:02:42 +0000

I don't really think the sites they considered as social media actually drive purchases. I bought a few things influenced by some sort of “social media”, but it was either review sites (yelp, amazon), blogs of people I respect or by way of links shared on Twitter.

If you broaden the definition to encompass these things (media created by people with social actions attached to it) instead of focusing on social NETWORKS, then you might have a very different picture.

By: Social Media’s Real Effect on Sales | Silverback Marketing Blog

Social Media’s Real Effect on Sales | Silverback Marketing Blog — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:32:34 +0000

[...] was an article on Marketing Pilgrim today that discussed the results of a survey conducted to determine the effect of sales on Social [...]