Content Discovery via Social Media
Nielsen examines the role of social media in content discovery compared to search engines and portals and while they turn up some interesting data, I have a few reservations about their findings.
The “Social Media” segment they define includes respondents who said that when looking for new information online they start their search with wikipedia, blogs, or social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. Half of the 18% of “Socializers” said Wikipedia. To me the social aspects of the content you find at Wikipedia are quite different from what you find on blogs or Twitter and I’m not sure it’s appropriate to lump these people together.
It is interesting to note that even among “Socializers” the hardcore social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, are the least trusted sources of information about new purchases.
I think what this is really about is level of proficiency and experience with finding information on the Internet. Those who find their information through social networks tends to be more web savvy and are more comfortable navigating the Internet to find what they need. I doubt that most people who use Facebook or even Twitter would think of it as a place to find information actively even if they are already doing so passively through shared links from friends, etc.
I think this speaks to the finding that just over a quarter of “Socializers” say there is too much information Online. The general user has content fed to them from the most popular blogs and portal sites and when they need to go looking for something new it tends to be very specific so they rarely experience the vast amount of information that is available to them.
Overall though, I do think that Nielsen’s point that people are more likely to trust content from their social networks is right and that in the future they will become more popular as sources for actively finding information.
