A survey conducted by BIGresearch for the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association (RAMA) found that in-person communication was social media users’ top impetus to start an online search for a specific item. Social media users were even more influenced by face-to-face word-of-mouth than average adults.
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Online communities such as MySpace and Facebook influenced less than one-quarter of social media users to search for a product or service. Men were marginally more likely than women to report such an influence; age had a larger effect. Among the 18-to-34 group, nearly three in 10 searched because of social networks, compared with less than 20% of 35- to 54-year-olds and 15.3% of those 55 and older.
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RAMA found that, just as when they are getting information, social media users prefer giving information face-to-face. More than 71% communicated about a service, product or brand in person after an online search, compared with only 21.6% who spread the word via sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Not all digital communication was shunned, however; about one-half used e-mail to tell others what they had found.
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