Goldman Sachs says Social Media has little effect on what you buy

Goldman Sachs says Facebook has little effect on what you buy. My question is, do you buy the results?

I’ve looked around online and I’m finding very little info about the report itself. Important info like what demographics did they poll? When and how did they ask them?

Everyday I see the people I’m connected to on Twitter and Facebook asking their fans and friends about high end electronics and gadgets, but I rarely see them asking about clothing or groceries. On the flip side my parents ( who have Facebook accounts) don’t ever ask much of anything online. They pick up a phone and call the family geek, me, instead.

Over the last couple years I’ve read other polls that get different results but the demographics and the items being purchased were clearly outlined in the results.I don’t know why a company who has lead a $1.5 Billion investment would be saying that it’s not effective, but the glaring lack of details and obtuse wording of their question causes me to pause and wonder.

Here’s what I’d like to do. I’d like to give NMM readers the exact same poll and we can compare the results. The poll is embedded below, please rank the four choices (1 being first and 4 being last) and then share this with your friends and family so we can see how this plays out against an entirely different test set.

Josh

http://shuaism.com/2011/04/goldman-sachs-says-social-media-has-little-effect-on-buy/ Goldman Sachs says Social Media has little effect on what you buy | Shuaism

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http://jessicapetersen.com Jessica Petersen

What is the definition of influence?

Do I go to social media venues specifically to shop for an item and look for reviews? No. Do I asked my followers/friends for their opinion and value it more highly than a search engine or recommendation engine? Yes.

My answer to the question depends on the circumstance. So, I think the first question to answer is “When are people most likely to use social media to make purchasing decisions?”
http://www.shuaism.com Josh Peters

That is pretty much the exact same thought process I had when I saw this. The whole thing is so vague that it makes giving an honest answer to it difficult. For a good 60+% of my online shopping I don’t rely on social media to help make a decision. The other 40% I rely on it heavily, BUT that 40% also typically costs more than the other 60%. It’s a tough thing to answer and Goldman Saches didn’t do a very good job in defining any parameters of the survey.
http://www.brandsanatomy.com/ Nick

So many problems with this study, you are absolutely right. I could walk around asking people about social networks, search engines, and traditional media. Depending on my population sample, how I formed the questions, whether I used any leading comments, and other factors, I could make the survey say anything. In fact, when it comes to “influence on purchase” it gets even more complicated since we often don’t even know why we chose to purchase a specific product. How we shop online is different than in-store, as shiny foil on packaging can attract us to a product, without us realizing it.

The truth is, any time we are exposed to a brand or product contributes to our “influence on purchase.” To believe that social networks are not a factor, more importantly, word of mouth from people we trust. That’s just crazy.