About half of consumers who visit social networking sites wouldn’t mind doing a little holiday research while they’re there.
Some 49% would look for gift ideas, seek out upcoming sales or download coupons from the sites. Fully 47% said they would look for gift ideas while only 29% said they would buy products directly from a social site, according to an American Marketing Association survey of 1,098 Net-savvy consumers.
Ironically, respondents were lukewarm about online consumer reviews. Only 19% said they would rely on reviews for automotive research, the top vote-getter, followed by 17% for consumer electronics and 15% for computers and software, according to the AMA.
Most online shoppers still prefer to research gift ideas through search engines, cited by 43%, followed by company Web sites, cited by 29%, the survey found.
Chicago-based AMA conducted the survey online Nov. 9-12 with Opinion Research Corp. AMA will present further findings at its first Mplanet online marketing conference this week, Nov. 29-Dec. 1 in Orlando, FL.
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