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210 Managing Customers Through Economic Cycles
● 41% of Internet users read blogs.
● 47% of the time people spend on the Internet is spent
looking at content.
● 33% of the time is spent communicating.
And most telling for businesses:
● 91% of users are likely to buy and make recommenda-
tions online.
Ms Delobelle’s research also shows the growing importance
of social networks:
● Twitter has one million users with three million messages
per day.
● Linkedin has 19 million users.
● MySpace has 110 million users.
Collaborative: Originally the Internet was seen as a one-
way medium. Consumers could find information; businesses
could send out information. That has been transformed. It’s
now a two-way vehicle that enables collaboration and true
conversations.
Given that trust is a core need before a consumer will
purchase, the collaborative nature becomes even more
important when you consider the Edelman Trust Index on
various groups, according to which the following percent-
ages of people expressed trust:
● Public Relations Person – 20%
● CEO – 29%
● Academic – 57%
● Industry analysts – 59%
● Peers – 70%.
The pervasiveness of the Internet makes “word of mouth”
exponentially important as it has supercharged consumers’