Consumer influence is on the march across Europe, rewriting the rules of digital marketing in the process: that’s the conclusion of a new study by Jupiter Research, which records how the web has created a new generation of online influencers far more exertive and proactive than their predecessors.
According to Jupiter, Europeans’ use of blogs, message boards and online forums has doubled in the past year alone, with 90 million Europeans predicted to use online community content by 2013, up from 57 million last year. For 63 per cent of European web users, the opinions of other consumers, sought out online, are now more trusted than advertising or product websites.
Whereas ‘classic influentials’ exert a passive influence on others’ opinions by responding to requests for advice, a growing army of ‘new influentials’ now actively post product information and recommendations online. Jupiter classifies 26 per cent of European users as new influentials, with the proportion varying significantly by country. Spain boasts almost twice as many new influentials (36 per cent) as classic influentials (19 per cent). In the UK, the balance between different types of influence is much more even: 27 per cent of the online population are new influentials, while 22 per cent continue to exhibit classic influential behaviour.
A parallel global study, conducted by Synovate in association with Microsoft, provides further evidence of young adults’ role as online influencers. In the Young Adults Revealed study, 76 per cent of 18-24-year-olds worldwide forward product links and information on a regular basis, while 24 per cent upload advertising or marketing clips to their social network sites and the same percentage upload product reviews.
The Jupiter report focuses on identifying the most effective ways for online marketing solutions to target new influentials, and leverage their increasingly powerful opinions.
Email and Instant Messenger services emerge as key channels, with European users twice as likely to use these platforms as they are to use blogs or message boards. Branded IM icons, such as those available through Windows Live Messenger, allow users to show their affinity to a product and initiate conversations about brands. The report predicts that social marketers should make greater use of such opportunities.
Greater context is the key for online retailers and review sites looking to establish themselves as part of the influence landscape. User profiles add greater credibility to reviews, and encouraging contributors to offer richer, deeper advice helps sites to stand out amid the huge amount of information available online.
“Forward to a friend” features offer an excellent opportunity to activate influential behaviour, and identify consumers to target in future viral campaigns, while emails that allow existing customers to pass along special promotions or discounts are also recommended as a means of encouraging influence.
