Analyst Speak: Social network contacts take on new role as recommenders

2 July 2009

Initial data from the Global Web Index, a survey examining the role of social media in consumers’ lives, shows how UK users are influenced by opinions from others on their network and how they think brands should interact with them.

The study, produced by Trendstream and Lightspeed Research, reveals how our sources of influence have been transformed by social media and the mass of consumer commentary available online. When users were asked who they trust to provide accurate opinions, family members come first with a score of 4.5 out of 5, closely followed by friends at 4.4, work colleagues at 3.6 and neighbours at 3.3. But next, above any professional source of opinion, is ‘a good contact on a social network’, at 3.2.

You may have contacts such as people you haven’t seen since primary school or even some you don’t know at all. Yet social networks have given these people influence in our lives, from the products we buy to the retailers we choose to buy from, making them almost as important as the people we know and interact with every day.

Next in the trust rating is ‘a consumer review on a retail site’, meaning that a stranger’s opinion is more trusted than all the more traditional voices of authority such as TV newsreaders, presenters, journalists, celebrities, CEOs and politicians (who, at only 1.7, are the least trusted). This is a radical shift in the influencers that form our opinions on brands. If we factor in how important online research is for product purchases, we can see how important the consumer voice is.

Consumers’ opinions of a brand are improved when they’re given the opportunity to ask questions and when brands are seen to listen to their comments and respond. Close to a quarter of those surveyed wanted a brand’s social network profile to let them provide feedback on products and services, and 22% wanted to know their comments were being heard by the brand. Only 6% wanted a brand to ‘be my friend’.

The Global Web Index findings highlight the fundamental way social media are transforming the marketing process, from the traditional model of creating a product and pushing it out to consumers , into a two-way process of co-creating, listening, adapting and communicating through one-to-one conversations and communities.