I 100% agree with you. I've been a beauty blogger for 3 years and over the last two began seeing more and more women basing their beauty purchases based on what "we" are saying. It also means that brands no longer can just say "Here is our miracle product--it works!" because chances are, several beauty bloggers have tried it out and are writing about it online--good or bad.
Creating a product that delivers on its promises is not just an option anymore, but something consumers are demanding with beauty bloggers (and all other niche bloggers) giving their personal review of it.
suresh
· 1 year ago
I completely agree with you. Even in my case, previously I used to buy on my own, maybe asking a couple of family and friends.
Now, its all the reviews and experiences other people online who share that influence my buying decisions..Web is transforming like never before
Martin Edic
· 1 year ago
We monitor social media and collect the data for use by our analysis tools. We have over 700 million historical results with up to 30 fields of meta data associated with each. We're adding 10 million results daily. This is just in the last ten months- which indicates how fast this conversational layer of the Internet is growing. This ushers in an entirely new market research or competitive intelligence model, observational research on a global level. So I'm not surprised by your results- this is not a novelty or a short term trend, it is an entirely new and permanent addition to our collective lives...
Jules Pieri
· 1 year ago
I do agree that word of mouth has always been the highest, best way for people to make decisions about products or purchases, but the big point really is the trusting of strangers thing. I find this behavior to be at the highest end among women, in particular moms. They really need social media to do their jobs...much like software developers use social media (forums etc.) to crack tough problems, so do Gen X and Gen Y moms. Social media is their go-to place for advice, support, and recommendations. And since moms control 15% of the American economy, social media is the place to be for any product or service looking to be noticed and adopted by that powerful population.
Jules Pieri
· 1 year ago
Good point Richard...good clarification.
New Kids
· 1 year ago
Its a very interesting question, but online you don't have much to lose by trusting strangers (for the most part). There's always the added (or perceived) risk of danger interacting with people in "the real world". But I think people WANT to trust strangers, and the internet makes that possible.
George Eberstadt
· 1 year ago
Nice bit of research, and an important call-to-action for brands. But I hope that in the long run stranger-advice doesn't crowd out friend-advice. Stranger-advice is easy, but there's a relationship element to getting advice from friends that stranger-advice misses. We need systems that make it as easy to find advice on the friend side as it has become stranger on the stranger side. I just put a post about this on my blog. http://blog.turnto.com/?p=11.
Matt Denver | Advertising &
· 1 year ago
The social media phenomenon reminds me of jr. high school. You get what the popular kids get, and then you’re more likely to fit in. Realizing that you and someone else (or hundreds of someone else’s) likes a certain band or a certain book makes you feel like part of the “in†crowd. I think that’s part of the draw of social media. Also, people like to be heard and on social media pages you get to say whatever you want for as long as you want. I agree with New Kids – you don’t have as much to lose of trusting a stranger for an opinion and giving your own – you weren’t friends to begin with so there’s nothing to lose, only to gain.
All Comments
Creating a product that delivers on its promises is not just an option anymore, but something consumers are demanding with beauty bloggers (and all other niche bloggers) giving their personal review of it.
Now, its all the reviews and experiences other people online who share that influence my buying decisions..Web is transforming like never before
This ushers in an entirely new market research or competitive intelligence model, observational research on a global level.
So I'm not surprised by your results- this is not a novelty or a short term trend, it is an entirely new and permanent addition to our collective lives...