*808 Girl Media*

Social media is not as influential a source of product recommendations as previously thought, according to a survey by online advertising company ARAnet, conducted by Opinion Research Corp. According to the poll, only 18% of respondents indicated that they prefer to receive their recommendations for products and services. In comparison, 60% cited they rely on information gathered from colleagues, 40% rely on TV broadcasts, and 39% find their recommendations through search.

Clearly, the respondents were allowed to choose more than one answer, which leads me to ask a follow-up question. If so many people are part of social networks, wouldn’t gathering information from your Facebook friends count as “information gathered from colleagues?”

Sure, in the case of “professional” social networking, LinkedIn still reigns supreme, but there are many Facebook users who connect with business colleagues as well. In this case, many of them hold recommendations from business and industry contacts in high regard.

Read the entire article on BtoBOnline.com, and let me know what you think. Would you consider product information gathered from social networks to be “information from colleagues”?