Universal McCann has published a study of 17,000 internet users from 29 countries. It’s not about everybody, it’s about people who use the internet every day or every other day. And it’s about how people influence and are influenced by each other. Two key conclusions are that everybody is an influencer and that social influencing has dramatically changed how people make decisions about buying products and services.
People trust each other more than they trust organisations. Company websites score 4.33 (out of 10) for trust, while blogs written by people you know score 4.89 and emails from a friend or colleague come in at 5.77. As the report notes, the top four trusted forms of recommendation are all direct conversation – and two of the four are online.
The full report is available here. eGov AU has a helpful summary of some of the key numbers. The same company produced a similar report a year ago on portable technology and ‘the rise of the connected generation – Anytime, Anyplace.
I think one of the most interesting things about virtual communication is that people seem to be more willing to open the kimono on-line than they may do face to face – for instance the employee who seems bright and cheery in their physical demeanour in the office, but whose external Facebook tag suggests that they are depressed. I believe that people are more willing / likely to express emotional elements in a virtual world where the interaction is with a keyboard and monitor (even though they know there are real people out there).