When considering the influences affecting consumers shopping online today, online companies need more than ever to consider the influence e-communities hold over members of the group.
Influence comes in many forms and has evolved from recommendations from friends and family to being swayed by ‘e-communities’ springing up online.
The most obvious examples are social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter where people with similar interests swap product recommendations and ‘unofficially’ review products they’ve bought.
According to Netmarketer, 66% of those social networkers are more likely to buy a product as a result of a recommendation from another member of their social network.
For the online company, this represents another avenue for promoting their products, albeit perhaps one they have less control over, but also one which, with careful marketing, can result in increased positive recognition of their products.
It need not just be online companies and retailers that get involved with Twitter or Facebook either. In many ways platforms like twitter offer more traditional companies the opportunity to create an online voice without the need to invest in websites or staff with internet experience. Creating a company twitter feed can be completed in minutes and easily updated even by internet novices.
As an example The Supermarket Online have adopted this method of communicating – their presence on Facebook and twitter not only creates a personality for the brand, which followers can relate too but the upshot is they can share reviews of their products with a captive audience too.