It is no discovery that the opinions of others influence us when making a purchase decision, regardless of whether it is the offline medium or online. Part of the success of ecommerce is due to the degree of trust on the part of its target audience.
The recommendations of our friends play an important role when the customer decides or not to buy the product; For this reason it is increasingly important that companies strengthen their online presence as a means to reach their audience and can win their vote in favor, which in turn will pass on to their peers. This theme was the basis of the IT in Retail 2013 Report, which examines the strategy of more than 150 retailers in the United Kingdom, representing 70% of the market, with a turnover of 203 billion pounds.
How important is social influence really?
- According to HubSpot, 71% of customers are more willing to buy a product that has found good references in Social Media.
- SproutSocial notes that more than half of consumers who use Twitter recommend some product through this social network; In addition, 48% bought the product.
- Nielsen indicates that 70% of social network users over 18 buy online, 12% more than the average Internet users.
How can companies discover these influencers?
Companies have tried to reward their customers based on their influence, but they have not always succeeded. It is difficult to find out who is really an active user in social networks, whose actions can benefit the brand. Indications of social influence, such as Klout, or the number of followers do not have to be useful in knowing the potential that the user can bring to the brand.
It highlights the initiative recently launched by PeerIndex, which aims to offer discounts to its customers based on their social influence. According to the company, they have developed a complex algorithm able to find out the number of interactions by the customers around the brand. This initiative is based on an important premise: it is not so important the number of followers or the activity of customers in social networks, but the ability to generate conversations around the brand.
Another factor that companies must take care of in order to achieve greater relevance in terms of social influence is how they appear in the search results. The search engines offer more and more social results, reflecting comments from other users, as well as friends who have recommended some product, such as Google and its +1. Meanwhile, social search is already under way, so it is necessary to strengthen the spirit of belonging to the brand by customers, as well as to encourage their interactions.
Definitely, social influence is key to the success of ecommerce, those brands that do not take the necessary steps to get revered will be left behind, hidden in the eyes of their target audience.
Shital regularly contributes on health articles magazine and healthy living ideas to health blogs around the web. When she’s not busy working with the jobs, you will find her undertaking many of her own health-related topics and healthy living ideas! She has a lot of dreams. She works hard to fulfill her dreams. She loves to share her ideas, tricks, tips and information by blogging. She also works at Creativejasmin.com, a company that committed to helping businesses with online marketing.