Nielsen recently released its Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of up to 25,000 Internet consumers from 50 countries and it was found that recommendations from personal acquaintances or opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising.
1 up for social marketing/PR.
Image from blog.nielsen.com.
I am not surprised by the findings.
More often, some friends would come to me and ask me to recommend which DSLR they should buy. I would usually tell them how I felt about a Nikon or Canon DSLR and the difference both cameras bring to the photo.
A friend bought a Canon compact digital camera and it broke down a couple of times in less than year. She has been complaining of the brand since to her friends and this has resulted in their distrust for the brand.
Recommendations have been the most trusted since the beginning of mankind. The cave drawings of mammoth was in a way recommendations made by hunter to another.
The medium has, however, changed.
Web2.0 technologies have given consumer to focus more on the content than the media. The Internet has made the world flatter thus information is now moving from point to point instead of having to go around the world.
Image from www.digitaltip.com.au
The same study also show the changes in levels of trust from April 2007 to April 2009.
All saw increases except the newspaper medium.
Could newspaper been focusing on the battle of credibility between itself and bloggers that they might have forgotten to build trust between their readers and the journalists?
There’s something to think about.
Comments