Study: Search and Social Amplify Purchase Decisions

“There are still many brands who haven’t figured out why they’re in social media. We still talk to brands that are trying to determine if they should be in social media. The data suggests the two most important subsets in social are user reviews and category blogs, rather than sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.”

– Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search

A recent study shows how search and social amplfy consumer’s purchasing decisions.

Key findings linking social and search together:
– 86% see search engines important in buying decisions
– 30% use social media to create a shopping short-list
– 28% say social media has a valuable impact in creating awareness for brands and products

Overall, the reports finds the onus of increasing purchasing decision through social and search lies with companies better understanding the role of social media for the cultures they serve and their role with and within it.

Read More:
Study: Search and Social Amplify Purchase Decisions | Social Media Today.

Related Articles

• Consumers Combine Search, Social Media For Purchasing Decisions (informationweek.com)
• GroupM Study: Consumers Start with Search, Consult Social Meida (seomoves.org)
• Shoppers Combine Search, Social Media to Fuel Decisions (inc.com)

Be a Star: One Day Left to Get in Next Ridley Scott Film

Got your Flip, video camera or cell phone at the ready?

Join Youtube and film maker Ridley Scott Saturday, July 24 in filming in what promises to be an historic participatory video project, Life In A Day.

Learn more on the social video conversation here.

Video: How to Foursquare

What is Foursquare?

Still wondering about the online location-based social service? Check out this video.

[howcast url=http://www.howcast.com/videos/386406-How-To-Unlock-Your-World-With-Foursquare]

Social Media Helping in Gulf Coast Oil Crisis

Social media has played a pivotal role in engaging and educating the public as well as monitoring and mobilizing reponse in the wake of the BP oil spill.

Whether or not you believe that social media has become the message, our use of social media has played a crucial and beneficial role in the public response, mobilization, continued education on the Gulf Coast event status and impact, and subsequent advocacy to change or ameliorate to avoid future such incidences.

• Blogging early warnings of tar ball appearance and proliferation
• Personal accounts and sea life impact.
• Twitter communities seeking solutions.
• Promoting the positive.
• Organizing and mobilizing the response.
• Creating a global, community discussion.
• Advisory environmental health impact reporting.
• Corporate responsibility and corporate support.
• Video news and the business market impacts.

• Mass media blogging for solutions.
• Entertainment social media fundraising.

Is the Media the Message?

The message here is that social media is the preferred mode of communication of the day. It is the way we choose to connect one another and relate to our environment, and in this case to save it..

Related articles by Zemanta

• Gulf Coast oil spill spreads, could eclipse Exxon Valdez (bendbulletin.com)

Is the publishing industry dead?

Image via Wikipedia

Garrison Keillor make a plaintive case on self publishing’s disruption to the publishing industry, reminiscing of the days where paper meant something and being “an author” was a rite of passage for a chosen few.

Self publishing is as easy as a text, a tweet, a Blurb, or an eBook on Scribd or Lulu.

…that is the future of publishing: 18 million
authors in America, each with an average
of 14 readers, eight of whom are blood relatives.

So how do writers, journalist, poets publish to survive? Will publishers themselves survive by aggregating and redistributing online content down new channels to expand the individual’s reach?

Keillor’s lament and the continued growth of self publishing underscores the need to continuously build our personal and professional networks as this socially mediated mode of communication, the internet, continues to provide greater and greater access and voice to millions who have something to say.

Read Keillor’s post here.

The Biggest Social Media Mistakes (a Jay Baer Interview) | Social Media Examiner video

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Are you a Change Agent?

It’s not even New Years Day and I’m all about change.

I’m talking about all those tools and occasions we use to remind ourselves that we are human and can always do better in our lives:

• The New Year’s resolutions
• New to-do lists
• New business plan to execute

But What Creates Change?

Personally and professionally, I am collaborating with others to develop and share change strategies that inspire you to pursue a social path to create the desired changes you seek in your work, in your business, in your life.

I find that if we really want to achieve a systemic change in our business, in our lives or in the world, we need to lead as the agents of change.

Here are 8 questions

To help you develop your change strategies consider these:

1. What changes do I desire moving forward?
2. What are the negative patterns and influences I need to change or remove?
3. What motivates me to produce these changes?
4. What changes do I need to make so that I can achieve this?
5. What communities do I need to engage to create these changes?
6. Who have we shared these strategies with for feedback and reflection?
7. How can we creatively share and implement or strategies?
8. Where will we integrate these change strategies in our lives, relationships or business plan?

Are You a Change Agent?

Leadership as an agent of change is the strongest strategy to produce change in and around you. See two inspiring examples below of change agents leading the way.

So what are you doing to create change?
Share your comment here.

See more at Volksvagen’s innovative website. http://thefuntheory.com/

–

Amos White is a Social Media Marketing Evangelist and public speaker.
Follow Amos on Twitter @Mos42

Property Rentals Get Social: LetsTalkPropertyManagement

From RentShout: Property Managers Get Smart and Social

Let’s Talk Property Management website and community for property managers get’s props for its unique offering and use of social media to develop community among the nation’s property managers.

Rentshout cites LetsTalkPropertyManagement “The value of social media for business is undeniable…. For property management professionals, this medium [social media] has the potential to change the way business is done, clients are referred, and a community is built.

Read the full article here:  Rental Advertising Blog.

Amos White is an Internet Marketing Evangelist and public speaker.
Follow Amos on Twitter @Mos42 and on his blog https://amoswhite3.wordpress.com.