As I look forward to my daily dose of social media news, I came across an interesting article by Professor Reichheld.  He launched the idea a couple of years ago that recommendations influence actual purchase. He’s proved it with real market data. 

How likely is it that you would recommend a brand, a company or a product to a friend, a colleague or a family member?

His study was conducted in China, where there are 172 million internet users.  Cyworld and Mixi are the most popular social network sites in Korea and Japan. 

In his findings nearly 90% of brand conversation is face to face.

80% of consumers say the internet is the most important medium in their lives, followed by mobile phone, tv and newspaper. 

31% in the study are sure their peers bought something that was recommended by them. 

Let’s bring it back home now. The first thing I thought of  is the influence you and I have as consumers shouldn’t be underestimated.

Whether it’s blogs or where ever you are connected socially, many consumers are sharing brand experiences good or bad with each other online.

For example on twitter consumers are complaining about the new apple mac operating system.  We also heard about the recent earthquake in San Francisco from a member on twitter before it hit the mainstream media.

Are you part of the conversation?