To buy or not to buy? Canadians turn to Facebook, Twitter for answers

In a newly published study by Delvinia, Canadians are heavily influenced by digital “word of mouth” product or service reviews by friends on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Did your friend Kate post a Facebook update praising her new pair of Uggs? Has your buddy Mike tweeted about a miserable experience with his new smartphone?

A new study has found Canadians are influenced by friends’ opinions on the Internet.

With data collected by Delvinia’s proprietary research panel, AskingCanadians, a new survey of 1,000 social networkers, about 56 percent of Canadians read their friends’ status updates or tweets at least once a day and nearly half (49 percent) share specific product or service experiences.

Out of those, 26 percent of Canadians would be “likely” to purchase products or services that receive positive reviews from friends via Twitter or Facebook.

Perhaps these findings aren’t much of a surprise given how powerful word of mouth is when it comes to purchasing decision — whether they’re from friends beside you or ones you can access online from your PC or mobile phone.

“Canadians actively using social networking are influenced by their online communities, and even more so when tweets and status updates are about negative experiences with brands,” says Adam Froman, president and CEO of Delvinia. “The active social networking world listens to their friends, and in fact the majority are listening every day.”

Do you share your product or service experiences with friends online? Or is this info not the kind of thing you publish to your network of friends?

Filed Under: Facebook > Found on the Web > Social Media > Social Networking > Web 2.0 > Web/Tech
Tags: advice, buy, Facebook, friend, influence, Networking, product, r eview, service, social, tweet, twitter, update