What’s the role of social networks in the consumer’s buying decisions?

In the past few months, much has been written about the role of social networking sites in creating brand awareness. Businesses, all over the world, have been made to believe that social networks may go a long way in creating demand for their products and services.

I believe that too. At least, if businesses have the right strategy and a clear focus on what the role of social media is in their overall brand and marketing strategy.

However, the statistics recently found by a survey conducted by the Opinion Research Corp. for ARAnet have a different story to tell. Disclaimer: I did not find the statistics on the web sites of one of these companies but on this blog

According to the post, of 14 different sources of information a customer may consider while making a purchase decision, social networks ranked much lower than personal networks (60%), TV broadcasts (40%) and search engines (39%).

If you are thinking that social networks may play a pivotal role as a preferred source of recommendation for products and services with young adults aged 25-34, think again. At least, according to these data.

Read more

Joseph Jaffe at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit ’10: happy customers equal new customers

Joseph Jaffe, keynote speaker at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit '10 Today, Joseph Jaffe opened the second day at MarketingSherpa’s Email Summit ’10. It seems that Joseph’s keynote was quite a success, the last few hours the things he said were all over Twitter.

 

Our man in Miami followed Joseph Jaffe’s keynote, below you can read what he mailed me about it. Joseph Jaffe presented his new book and theory, called “Flip the funnel”.

 

Kenny, who runs Emailgarage, feels that the new theory is a bit like Frederick F. Reichheld’s customer loyalty but then with a social media marketing flavor. Since I first interviewed Joseph ages ago on his book “Life after the 30-second spot”, we met several times and besides being a nice bloke, he knows how to passionate an audience. Our man in Miami seemed excited too, but he tried to resume Joseph’s keynote in a few snapshots. Here they are:

 

 

Read more