Comments on: Do Social Media Power Users Matter at All?

By: Bill Scully

Bill Scully — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:28:54 +0000

I didn’t need a study to tell me that. But like most studies you need to view it in context. Besides giving away your product to everyone’s friend, what’s the best way to influence a buying decision online? There’s no doubt that it’s online reviews, and brand advocates, assuming your a fan of the advocate. As an example I am very likely to consider a product, even if I’m not in the market for one if it’s mentioned in podcast. As a SEO pro I am very suspect of positive reviews, those tend to be search engine link building a social media optimization efforts. But I do give a lot of weight to negative reviews.

PS: I’m trying to find the original study, it’s not easy, can someone please provide a link?

By: Bill Scully

Bill Scully — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 15:28:54 +0000

I didn’t need a study to tell me that. But like most studies you need to view it in context. Besides giving away your product to everyone’s friend, what’s the best way to influence a buying decision online? There’s no doubt that it’s online reviews, and brand advocates, assuming your a fan of the advocate. As an example I am very likely to consider a product, even if I'm not in the market for one if it's mentioned in podcast. As a SEO pro I am very suspect of positive reviews, those tend to be search engine link building a social media optimization efforts. But I do give a lot of weight to negative reviews.

PS: I'm trying to find the original study, it's not easy, can someone please provide a link?

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:23:36 +0000

Thanks for pointing this out to your readers Nick.

It’s been apparent to us for some time now that the recommendations from even the “elite” reviewers had little influence in a person’s life and what really matters are the opinions of the person’s friends and family. In fact, our company (Helpr Inc.)has built the largest social recommendations application on Facebook (DoYa) around this idea. (http://apps.facebook.com/do-ya-know-a)

Whereas most of our competitors are striving to become a destination which houses vast amounts of reviews/recommendations from strangers, we are striving to be the best way to ask for, and share, recommendations amongst friends. We think that this difference is key and it’s nice to get another point of validation.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:23:36 +0000

Thanks for pointing this out to your readers Nick.

It's been apparent to us for some time now that the recommendations from even the "elite" reviewers had little influence in a person's life and what really matters are the opinions of the person's friends and family. In fact, our company (Helpr Inc.)has built the largest social recommendations application on Facebook (DoYa) around this idea. (http://apps.facebook.com/do-ya-know-a)

Whereas most of our competitors are striving to become a destination which houses vast amounts of reviews/recommendations from strangers, we are striving to be the best way to ask for, and share, recommendations amongst friends. We think that this difference is key and it's nice to get another point of validation.

By: Dan Thornton

Dan Thornton — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:33:10 +0000

I think most of the arguments for and against will be the same as the ones that came up after Duncan Watts work on viral marketing questioned the role of influencers:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/122/is-the-tipping-point-toast.html

Influencers aren’t essential to spreading an idea, but they do spread it somewhat further and faster than if they aren’t included. And even if influencers aren’t instrumental in the final call to action, they have a place in raising awareness, just as traditional media still has.

It’s an ‘and’ approach, of varying increments, to the eventual end of an action…

By: Dan Thornton

Dan Thornton — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 11:33:10 +0000

I think most of the arguments for and against will be the same as the ones that came up after Duncan Watts work on viral marketing questioned the role of influencers:

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/122/is-the-...

Influencers aren't essential to spreading an idea, but they do spread it somewhat further and faster than if they aren't included. And even if influencers aren't instrumental in the final call to action, they have a place in raising awareness, just as traditional media still has.

It's an 'and' approach, of varying increments, to the eventual end of an action…

By: Peter Buick

Peter Buick — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:04:30 +0000

Hi Nick,
I think we’re getting things out of proportion here.

WOM from close people always has and always will sell. Personal Recommendation

A blogger, even a leading one, is not WOM. It is little more than an ad. It brings it to peoples attention and puts it on their shortlist, but then the normal “have you heard about this” WOM and self appraisal does its magic.

What does work, are NEGATIVE reviews and points by bloggers. This raises warning sign posts that may deter people or make them double check. Nobody wants to buy a dud, so negative blogs are way more powerful than bed chum praise.

A well know review blog, like Tom’s hardware. I’ve NEVER bought anything on his recommendation or shortlisting. But I have often double checked that my own shortlist contains no duds or bad points I have missed.

I don’t work on other peoples here say, simply because they are not me. If they’ve detected a flaw form living with it, then that gets my attention.

But come to that, when was the last time you bought something because your mum, girl friend or mate said it was “nice”? They’re the thing s I usually cross off my list immediately LOL. I want my own identity!

I know you love Facebook, and they have a sizeable market share, but I don;t think they will never own the digital footprint or bush drum.

Social bookmarking sites, which become open social savvy, will be the leaders AFAIC. Stumbleupon being a generation 0.5 example.

People would know far more about my digital footprint if they knew all of my social bookmark handles. My Facebook profile means almost nothing, even tome

Peter

By: Peter Buick

Peter Buick — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:04:30 +0000

Hi Nick,
I think we're getting things out of proportion here.

WOM from close people always has and always will sell. Personal Recommendation

A well know review blog, like Tom's hardware. I've NEVER bought anything on his recommendation or shortlisting. But I have often double checked that my own shortlist contains no duds or bad points I have missed.

I don't work on other peoples here say, simply because they are not me. If they've detected a flaw form living with it, then that gets my attention.

But come to that, when was the last time you bought something because your mum, girl friend or mate said it was “nice”? They're the thing s I usually cross off my list immediately LOL. I want my own identity!

I know you love Facebook, and they have a sizeable market share, but I don;t think they will never own the digital footprint or bush drum.

Social bookmarking sites, which become open social savvy, will be the leaders AFAIC. Stumbleupon being a generation 0.5 example.

People would know far more about my digital footprint if they knew all of my social bookmark handles. My Facebook profile means almost nothing, even tome

Peter

By: IdeaTagger

IdeaTagger — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:05:28 +0000

As I posted recently and explained with an example, the key to social recommendations (influencing) may just be difficulty. The easier it is to make recommendations, the less effective they will be. We are more likely to ‘consume’ a recommendation when we know that the person who made it went to some trouble to do so. E.g. sending a link to a music track by email vs. sending a purchased CD by post.

I don’t know about Social Ads but a facebook recommendation facility that factors this difficult factor in could be interesting. It could perhaps use a virtual currency that you use when you make a recommendation and you gain more of when your recommendations get consumed.

By: IdeaTagger

IdeaTagger — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:05:28 +0000

As I posted recently and explained with an example, the key to social recommendations (influencing) may just be difficulty. The easier it is to make recommendations, the less effective they will be. We are more likely to 'consume' a recommendation when we know that the person who made it went to some trouble to do so. E.g. sending a link to a music track by email vs. sending a purchased CD by post.

I don't know about Social Ads but a facebook recommendation facility that factors this difficult factor in could be interesting. It could perhaps use a virtual currency that you use when you make a recommendation and you gain more of when your recommendations get consumed.