Online Reviews Second Only to Word of Mouth As Purchase Influencer in US, Survey Finds
Online reviews and comments written by users are second only to word of mouth as a purchase influence for most Americans, according to a survey of web users released today by tech strategy firm Rubicon Consulting.
As part of a broader investigation into how business can exploit online community, the survey underlined the importance of online information in driving purchase decisions, but the most influential information is beyond the direct control of companies selling products and services. Courting the small fraction of Internet users who write online reviews and comments is a very important task for many companies, but one they often neglect.
“Many companies downplay the importance of online communities because only a few percent of all Internet users contribute to them heavily,” said Harry Max, a principal at Rubicon Consulting. “What they don’t understand is that most other Internet users read those reviews and rely on them heavily when making purchase decisions. Taking good care of online communities can be a huge money-saver for companies trying to get more marketing impact from limited budgets.”
The study, developed by Max and Rubicon principal Michael Mace, also confirmed the power of Most Frequent Contributors — the 9% of web users who produce 80% of all user-generated content.
The survey, conducted in September 2008, revealed other important insights about the Internet’s influence:
— The Web is the #2 resource for customer support information, after user manuals. It ranks ahead of calling the manufacturer or asking a dealer.
— Website categories that get the most daily usage are search, social communities like MySpace and Facebook, general news websites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com, and online banking.
— The websites that Americans value most are (in order), Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Facebook. Although Yahoo’s financial challenges have generated a lot of press attention, it continues to have a very large and loyal following.
— Young people (age 22 and under) are much noisier online than their elders. They account for about half of all the content and comments posted online.
— Facebook appears to be ahead of MySpace in terms of number of users in the US, and perceived value of the site.
— Despite extensive publicity, the community sites SecondLife and Twitter reach only a few percent of US Internet users.
— Democrats are more active online than Republicans. Democrats are more likely to participate in online communities, and say they are more heavily influenced in their voting decisions by information they find online.
The survey covered 3,036 active Internet users in the United States, and should be projectable to the US web-using population, about 75% of the US population age 13 and up. The full report on it, “Online Communities and Their Impact on Business: Ignore at Your Peril,” is available at http://tinyurl.com/6lfww3. It is the first in a series of reports and presentations Rubicon is releasing to help companies understand and work with online community.
About Rubicon Consulting
Founded by Nilofer Merchant in 1999, Rubicon has been helping tech companies win markets through outstanding strategy. The firm’s principals are former executives from major Silicon Valley firms, including Apple, Autodesk, Palm, and others. Rubicon Clients include, Adobe, Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard, Logitech, Nokia, Openwave, Symantec, Symbian, VMware, and numerous startups in the web and mobile markets. Visit Rubicon at www.rubiconconsulting.com.