The opinion that really counts for consumers? Yours!

Nielsen’s new study revealed some very interesting facts about consumer’s level of trust when it comes to Internet advertising.

The latest global consumer survey ran by the company disclosed that many consumers base their buying decisions on the opinions of friends and colleagues. A total of 25,000 Internet users from 50 different countries participated in this survey and from this sum, 90%  declared they trust recommendations and opinions from their personal network of contacts.

Two years ago when the same survey was introduced by Nielsen, only 78% of individuals trusted the opinion of others. Second place for most trusted source is actually split-up between two categories, brand websites and consumer opinions posted online with 70% of trust.

Nielsen comments on this discovery: “Despite the authority of word of mouth when it comes to consumer decision-making, advertisers still have a major say in the process.”

Perhaps this is a sign that marketers should begin shifting their budgets towards the online for this study gives clear evidence that consumers are relying greatly on opinions posted on the Web by people they know directly or friends of friends.

Whichever it is, we can certainly attribute these facts to the exponential growth of social media. It is through platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube that individuals can better appreciate the points of views and opinions of thousands of individuals, that in turn help in their decision-making process.

“The ability to turn this around rests on overhauling the way display advertising is served online so that it becomes a more effective medium for brand advertisers and a more trusted form of advertising in the mind of the consumer.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Media News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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