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.

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What went wrong with Google Buzz and why it’s not over yet for Google

John Lai I am happy to introduce you to a new contributor. His name is John Lai, and you might have never heard about him. However, my gutt feeling says that this will change. John lives and studies in New Zealand (last year and of course in marketing) and launched a group blog and community in NZ about social media marketing. John and his contributors follow what is going on in social media land.

So do I. At least, I try. However, the days that I followed everything are over for me. I have been following John for a while and we called a few times over Skype. What I like about John is that, despite his young age, he has opinions, is a no-nonsense guy and has the guts to launch projects and think for himself (and he knows what blogging is and what guest posts are). So, here is the new generation that is completely into and on social media! Read John’s first post, regarding all that went wrong regarding Google Buzz and what is going wrong right now.

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