Facebook Is the Most Trusted Network

If your business is still ignoring social media recommendations, treating them like noize, and hoping that they will eventually “go away,” you are wasting valuable marketing and public relations potential.

According to the Social Recommendation Index by Social Media Link, Facebook is the most trusted online platform for product and service recommendations, with 63% of 10,337 consumers surveyed preferring it over networks like Twitter (41%) and Google+ (41%). Interestingly, consumers still trust blogs (63%) and retail websites (63%). Good news for businesses engaging on Pinterest: the network scored with 56% from the consumers surveyed. YouTube is seen as a trustworthy resource too, with 51% votes.

The survey also revealed that 92% of the consumers trust more social media sites than traditional media. TV scored 47%, the same as print publications and outdoor ads. Radio managed to score only 42% of the votes.

When it comes to influencers, people count on recommendations from direct family and friends the most, with a 86% impact on purchase decisions, versus 11% impact from celebrities. Bloggers still manage to influence about 42% of the purchase decisions. More details in the infographic below: