Friends Are Most Trusted Source on Internet

Social networking increases in importance when you consider the TNS report on who people trust on the internet. In a global sense 42% said that they trusted word-of-mouth recommendations which is now similar to the more traditional TV news (41%), online news (40%) and newspapers (39%).

When you look at the split between the US and Western Europe

You can see the overall importance of friends and getting a recommendation from friends rather than through traditional advertising. There is a wide spread in the trust level between newspapers and the TV across the countries. So when I saw this research what did I think

1) Investment in friends has a high return on influence.
2) The limit is now not necessarily financial but time related
3) Any brand strategy needs to think of combining the traditional with the social media tools.

It is strange because the social media tool which has had the greatest impact on my business is podcasting! A tool that receives less press in creating relationships however when you think about it, is a wonderfully intimate tool – after all I get to speak to all those people directly, often straight into their ear buds!