Reviews on social media beat newspaper reviews for the under 35s

Jun 5, 2010 by Dirk Singer

A statistic from a Harris Poll in the US (via Marketing Charts) – 50% of the under 35s who use social media say they are influenced ‘a great deal’ or ‘a fair amount’ by reviews on social media.

This compares to 45% of under 35s who are influenced by mainstream newspaper and magazine reviews and only 17% that are influenced by celebrity endorsements (41% are influenced by blogs).   Good news for marketers everywhere – get rid of the expensive celebrity endorsements and focus on social engagement campaigns?

Even among American consumers aged 55+, over a third (37%) pay attention to what people on Facebook or Twitter are saying, a surprisingly high number.

As an aside I took a look at Internet penetration as a whole among older age groups.   Here, in the UK, according to Ofcom, 60% of 55-64 year olds have household Internet access, but only 33% of people aged 65+.

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