Value Of Excellent Recommendations By Method, April 2014 [CHART]

Recommendations are received with a degree of trust and influence unmatched by any paid media, according to Nielsen. Now, a new study from ShareThis produced with the Paley Center for Media finds that shared online content (via email or social networking) could have almost the same degree of influence as in-person recommendations, though it’s important to note that the analysis was limited to 3 product types. Nevertheless, the study contains some intriguing findings, also suggesting that the power of shared content exceeds that of consumer reviews.

Across the three categories – supermarket, automotive, and mini-tablet – the average lift in purchase incidence from an “excellent” online share (a strong positive one) was found to be 9.5%. What that means, according to the analysis, is that an excellent online share increases the perceived value of these products by an average of 9.5% over a neutral share. That breaks down to 11.2% for grocery items, 9.2% for automotive, and 8.1% for mini-tablets. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.