93% of marketers use social media for business

The social media revolution has significantly affected consumers’ perception of product purchasing, believes Martin G Molony, a Dublin City University lecturer who spoke on the subject recently at the NOffLA Seminar ‘The 21st Century Consumer’ at the Red Cow Moran Hotel in Dublin.

Social media has moved consumer appreciation (or otherwise) of products and services onto new levels, he stated. Some 90% of consumers trust peer recommendations to the point where 93% of marketers now use social media for business.

But the social media revolution has been consumer-driven. According to an Ipsos MRBI comparison poll taken in November 2013, 57% of Irish people now have a facebook account (up 2% compared to November 2012), 27% have twitter (up 5%), 23% use LinkedIn (up 5%), 20% use Google+, 15% instagram, 6% Pinterest and 1% Foursquare.

Of those using facebook, 66% check it daily, 15% every couple of days, 9% weekly, 3% fortnightly and 6% less often.

facebook remains the most popular social media platform in Ireland with 1.3 million users according to new research from digital behaviour analysis firm GlobalWebIndex who surveyed over 1,000 consumers in the last quarter of 2013.

The survey found that YouTube is the second most popular platform in Ireland with 27% of those surveyed or 640,000 people using it in the past month compared to a global average of 21%.

Google+ is used by 19% of Irish people (or 450,000) compared with a global penetration of 22%.

Twitter, which attracts an estimated 410,000 users each month, has a 17% penetration compared to a global average of 22%, putting it in fourth place.

LinkedIn performed better than expected, GlobalWebIndex reported, with 12% of Ireland’s internet users actively using it in the past month, well ahead of the global average of 9%.

However one-third of Irish internet users (or around 800,000 people) said they hadn’t used any of the 19 major social networks in the past month.

Those who do use social media tend to use it for offers and promotions (74%) while 44% seek advice, 19% use it for group buying, 15% to post praises and 15% to post complaints.