CorpComms Magazine

Almost 14 per cent of consumers have a disproportionate impact on purchasing decisions by friends and family and each recommendation they make is equivalent to $22.93 in earned media value, a new study has found.

The study by social media analysis platform Syncapse identified a segment of consumers, known as producers, who check Facebook on a regular basis, post updates and comments on the walls of friends and families, maintain active blogs and regularly tweet.

Such is their network that a single recommendation posted by a producer has the ability to generate up to 2,000 impressions.

The analysis found that 42 per cent of producers tweet on a daily basis while 82 per cent blog regularly. This consumer group is also likely to post to brand pages or become fans of brands on Facebook; 94 per cent post at least once a month on brand pages while more than half post several times a week.

Their activities gain importance because 84 per cent of consumers rely on positive recommendations from friends and family members before making purchasing decisions, while 39.3 per cent would rely on a recommendation from a Facebook friend.

The study added: 'Marketers must be cognisant that the same producer influence can be brought to bear for negative recommendations. Producers who become net detractors for brands carry equal weight to those who are net promoters. It becomes acutely important to not only identify producers, but also effectively manage the relationship to mitigate negative impressions.'

But producers are also active consumers. They spend more on brands that they recognise than their peers and the study found that producers spend an average of 40 per cent more per month on beer than their peers.

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