Digital word of mouth provides the most effective advertising,and businesses with a presence on three or more social networks have 50 per cent better user engagement than others.
Further reading
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These claims were made today at the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.
"When I make purchasing decisions I look at experts'opinions,and those of my friends,"said Matt Trainer,manager Facebook PMD(Preferred Marketing Developer).
He gave the example of upcoming video game XCom,which is due to be released later this year.He first saw an advert for the game in his Facebook news feed,followed by a review from a blogger.
"I went and read the review,was convinced enough to like the page,but then moved on.Then the next day in my feed I saw a YouTube video of game play.It looked nice,but I was not ready to shell out fifty bucks yet.Then the following day my news feed showed me another glowing review,then another.So now I've pre-purchased it.Facebook took me from no knowledge of the game to now a complete advocate."
Continuing the video game theme,Jarek Wiliewicz,developer advocate at YouTube,said that 40 per cent of people who purchased popular game Call of Duty:Black Ops saw it first on YouTube.
"The game integrates directly with YouTube,you can record your game footage and share it directly.As people start playing the game it shows up more on YouTube.Over 40 per cent of people who bought the product saw it on YouTube,"said Wiliewicz.
"Our APIs allow products to integrate directly into YouTube,and also to perform analytics.You get data about your videos,the engagement they generate and the conversion rate.You see how it impacts purchasing decisions of customers."
Reggie Bradford,senior vice-president,product development at Oracle,explained that social works because people are influenced by the experiences and opinions of others.
"Enterprises can develop those relationships and influence those purchases at scale.Companies that have presence on three or more social networks have 50 per cent more engagement,"said Bradford.