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1/6/2010

Want to Target Influential Consumers and Word-of-Mouth Powerhouses? Find Them in Online Forums, New Survey from PostRelease Reveals

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Want to Target Influential Consumers and Word-of-Mouth Powerhouses? Find Them in Online Forums, New Survey from PostRelease Reveals

1/6/2010

Influence Extends Online and Off – Forum Users Are More Likely
to Post Reviews, Share Links, Organize Offline Meetups and Proactively Recommend a Purchase

If the Holy Grail of marketing is a band of self-motivated enthusiasts proactively recommending your product, then the Grail’s secret location could very well be the world of online forums, according to a new survey released today by PostRelease.

People who contribute to online forums are overwhelmingly more engaged in “influential” activities – both online and offline – than people who don’t use forums, the study found.

By far, the biggest disparities involved blogs and meetups: those who contribute to online forums are 10 times more likely than non-contributors to also publish a blog, and are 9 times more likely to take an active role in organizing an offline event or meetup for a group that originally met online.

Forum-users are 3.5 times more likely to proactively recommend a particular purchase to someone else, 3.5 times more likely to share links about new products, 4 times more likely to post online ratings and reviews, and almost twice as likely to share advice – offline and in person – based on information they’ve read online.

Those are the principle findings of a new nationwide survey conducted November 19 - 23 by PostRelease. In conjunction with Chicago market researcher Synovate, PostRelease asked 1,000 Americans to choose from a list of activities that could be considered influential in helping others make a purchase decision, and select those in which they participate. In every case, those who contribute to forums are more likely than others to engage in the activity.

The survey found that one in five Americans contributes to online forums. Forrester Research reports that 28 percent U.S. consumers read online forums – making it the second most popular online activity, second only to watching video. But a forum contributor’s influence is not confined to the world of online forums.

Here’s an overview of the results:

79.2 percent of forum contributors help a friend or family member make a decision about a product purchase – compared with 47.6 percent of non-contributors and 53.8 percent overall

65 percent of forum contributors share advice (offline and in person) based on information that they’ve read online – compared with 35 percent of non-contributors and 40.8 percent overall.

66 percent of forum contributors post online ratings/reviews of products/services, compared with 16.8 percent of non-contributors and 26.4 percent overall.

57.7 percent of forum contributors proactively recommend that someone make a particular purchase – compared with 16.9 percent of non-contributors and 24.9 percent overall.

43.6 percent of forum contributors share links to articles about new products or with reviews of products – compared with 12 percent of non-contributors and 18.2 percent overall.

35.6 percent of forum contributors attend an offline event or meet up where people with similar interests or who share the same hobby connect – compared with 13.8 percent of non-contributors and 18 percent overall.

20.6 percent of forum contributors publish a blog – compared with 2.1 percent of non-contributors and 5.7 percent overall.

18.8 percent of forum contributors take an active role in organizing an offline event or meet up for a group that met originally online – compared with 2.4 percent of non-contributors and 5.6 percent overall.