Last week eMarketer released a report that shows how consumers are relying on blogs to help make purchase decisions, and that consumer acceptance of online opinions/reviews is expected to grow as bloggers reveal more about who they are and why they write.
A trend to come from this consumer shift is called social
shopping — a blend of e-commerce and traditional shopping in which consumers shop in a social networking environment, utilizing the wisdom of crowds by communicating, reviewing and aggregating information about products, prices, and deals. While there are sites geared toward social shopping (examples below), even sites like Amazon.com have incorporated user reviews and personalized recommendations to increase utility, appeal and – more importantly – sales.
The report finds that consumers are starting to pay more attention to the social media and blog space – particularly as video becomes an increasingly popular method of showing how a product is used or to describe its attributes.
Among the findings:
- Affluent online users (HHI>$150K) are three times more likely to read blogs than non-affluent ones.
- Sites that offer online product reviews are found to be more useful and credible to users.
- Social shopping Web sites like Kaboodle.com, Buzzillions.com, Style Feeder, and ThisNext are starting to take off and raise recognizable revenue through advertising and sales.
The report also includes tips on how to promote products to bloggers that mirror some of the counsel you’ve already been reading in Your New Times, including:
- Most important, there must be a fit between the product and the subject of the blog.
- Avoid shooting e-mails and press releases to bloggers. It is more effective to become familiar with a blog and get to know the writer behind it.
- Give a product to a blogger as an exclusive and allow the blogger time to work with it.
- Provide bloggers with links to more information, such as product images and updated information.
