The Skinny on the Trusting of Strangers in Social Media

It seems a little strange. In the physical world we seem increasingly suspicious of strangers. Yet, there is growing evidence that in the online social media world, we are increasingly find strangers trustworthy and are influenced by their opinions.

Here are the highlights from a Universal McCann study of 17,000 Internet Users from 29 countries. To be included in the study one had to be an active internet user—meaning they used the Internet at least every other day. That would include over 90% of my friends.

• There has been a massive increase in the use of social media since 2006. It varies by the vehicle (blogs, social networking etc.) with doubling of participation very common and 4x increases being observed.
• There has been a steady shift from passive participation to active creators of content. Writing blogs has risen from 28% to 44%; creating a social network page has grown from 27% to 57% and uploading a video clip from 10% to 42%. People are not just getting influenced by others, they are becoming influencers.
• Personal experience and the personal experience of someone you trust are the main motivators for sharing opinions about products and brands. In spite of some folk lore, good experiences are more important motivators than bad experiences in getting someone to share opinions online.
• Peer reviews are just as influential as professional content and product comparison sites.
• The top four trusted forms of recommendations are all direct conversations: personal recommendations from friends/family; personal recommendation from a professional; emails from a trusted colleague; instant messenger from a friend or colleague. Not everything online is trusted: emails from companies are only marginally more trusted than celebrity recommendations that ranks at the bottom.
• Age is assumed to be a big factor but this was simply not evident in the results. Trust of online sources did not significantly vary by age or gender. However, the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to trust the opinions of strangers.
• A big surprise was the high levels of social commentary on what one would might have been low interest topics like utilities, financial services and groceries. The implication of this is that all products are now exposed to customer pre-purchase scrutiny.

In sum, this study adds to the growing evidence that companies must be concerned about their social media visibility. Furthermore, they must find open and credible ways to become part of the conversation.