Word-of-mouth is the top influencer for just about everything consumers do, and many social media marketers take that as an encouraging sign. After all, social media are about conversations. But, at least when it comes to video viewing, online dialogue is not as valuable as what Knowledge Networks refers to as “verbal” word-of-mouth.
Online video viewers were most likely to discover content and decide what to watch based on conversations that took place either in person or over the phone, according to the “How People Use Video Navigation” report. Traditional TV viewers were most influenced by TV ads, but verbal word-of-mouth ranked second for them as well. Social media was significantly more influential for discovering online viewing than traditional TV viewing, but still did not come close to real-life advice.
Search engines played a bigger role in online viewing than social media, as did TV ads and stories and reviews on both the Internet and TV. Internet reviews had about twice as much influence on online video viewing versus television viewing.
Knowledge Networks also found that 56% of online streamers of full-length TV programs or movies are viewing “purposefully”—that is, heading to the computer with the intent to watch something specific. That’s somewhat higher than the proportion of TV watchers, at 44%. Just 22% of online amateur-content streamers are purposeful viewers.
“We see a variety of important, often untapped opportunities for leveraging the ways people learn about and decide to watch video,” said David Tice, vice president and group account director of Knowledge Networks, in a statement. “And, with online video, one sees the possibility of placing too much emphasis on social media sources, such as tweets from celebrities, as direct drivers of viewing.”
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Check out today’s other article, “Social Media Marketers Declare Success.”