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Ben Hollom – Marketing Director, M2 Bespoke
By Ben Hollom
Its no secret that social media plays a significant role in shaping opinions among users but do brands really know how social sites influence their purchasing decisions? A new infographic created by MBA in Marketing and presented on the Marketing Tech Blog, reveals the most powerful influencers online and how they affect users.
The infographic shows that almost one in three consumers cite blogs as an influence for selecting a brand or a product. More than half of consumers said that they trust communities of a smaller size more than they take into consideration the opinions of large communities. Similarly, social influencers also tend to avoid following brands on big social platforms, with just about 47% of them following brands on Facebook or Twitter.
Overall, three quarters of consumers admit that they rely on social media to influence their purchasing decisions and 81% are influenced by their friends´ posts regarding brands and products. This suggests that an effective partnership with social media influencers can turn users onto brands without even having to present them with an offer.
According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, social influencers are people who have an above-average influence and these include bloggers, tweeters and Facebook forces. In order to utilise those social media influencers brands should follow a few simple steps. First, they should search among their followers to identify the most influential of them. This can be done with the help of tools like Sprout Social, Radian6 or Objective Marketer. Once brands identify their most influential followers, they should contact them personally and interact with them to make sure that they continue to influence other users positively.
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