"Word of Mouth" still motivates, quite literally, in Social Media Age

Today's eMarketer newsletter article turned me onto a fascinating new study regarding the of proclivities of Adult Social Media Users versus those who aren't (whom I'll dub Non-SMUs). By clicking here, you can access a free downloadable PDF of a special analysis of the BIGresearch® Simultaneous Media Usage® Survey (SIMM® 15) compiled for the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, a division of the National Retail Federation. That sure sounds like a mouthful to me, too, but I always like to give proper attribution.

Although any one study or its interpretation should never be taken as gospel, there were some eye-opening findings. Most notable to me was that among Social Media Users and Non-SMUs, all over age 18, literal "Word of Mouth" (i.e. Face-to-Face) communication reigns supreme in terms of motivating online searches for specific products & services, as well as in how people most commonly communicate with others regarding products, services and brands.

Referencing the top chart below, I'm struck by how prevalent Radio remains in stimulating online searches among both groups, even more so the SMUs. (Even in reading the detailed analysis, it's unspecified if the Radio and Cable TV responses include both Content and Advertising on these media as motivating factors, or simply advertising.) Both charts below certainly lend much credence to the thought that while social media should now be part of almost any organization's marketing mix, it by no means should comprise the entirety or bulk.




For anyone interested in the ever-evolving realm of social media, and how it is impacting the world of business, downloading and reading the report from the NRF website is a must. It gives you much more insight than I capsulized above and even the raw survey data is available.

I'll end by referencing the chart below, which to me validates my very sparse use of Twitter. It has always seemed redundant to how I use Facebook and LinkedIn, and while it's occasionally interesting to see how "the world at large" is responding to a big event or news story (by doing Trend Searches), I'm never really surprised or enlightened by what I read; more often saddened by the rampant crassness and stupidity.

While anecdotally Twitter may still seem to be "all the rage" as I keep hearing about celebrities Tweeting, unlike Facebook, LinkedIn and my own blogging, Twitter hasn't really added anything to my life and I'm not dismayed to see that its hype is seemingly far greater than its general acceptance.