18% Go To Social Media First For New Information

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In a recent study conducted by The Nielsen Company, it was found that 18% of users start their search for new information on social media.

Results for search engine came out more than twice of social media at 37%.

While 18% may seem small, it is still considered significant for mediums that weren’t built primarily for search.

Nonetheless, search engines like Google definitely beat the hell out of social sites in terms of search friendliness.

Check out the full chart below.

If search engines are logically better for search, why are so many users starting their search on social sites instead?

Below are 3 reasons:

1. We trust our friends: When our friends say something is good, it must be true.

2. Wikipedia is the new encyclopedia: How many times have we relied on Wikipedia for new/old info? It is easy to read and highly indexed by search engines. (e.g Palm Pre)

3. We spend a lot of time on social sites: Yes. To be exact, twice as much as we do on Google.

Takeaway for Advertisers

We can safely assume that more people will be using social sites as their first hand information destination. If your business doesn’t plan to engage in social media, it would probably lose out in the long run.

For small businesses, you might want to see this as an opportunity to penetrate a bigger market. Others have started, let it be your turn now!