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This research proves once again that social media has penetrated parts of the business world at a tremendous speed. It also indicates that corporate familiarity with and usage of social media within the Inc. 500 has continued to grow in the past 12 months.

As the social economy swells and continues to flourish, many of us are abandoning the forums and systems where businesses held the illusion of control in favor of communities where we dictate the level of value we give and take. Accordingly, brands are turning in our direction. We are, after all, the keepers of social capital and with it, we make valuable decisions and also impact and influence the decisions of others.

The mobile phone is another emerging digital tool for the holidays and is expected to be used by nearly one in five consumers (19 percent) to assist with their holiday shopping. Those consumers plan to find store locations (55 percent), research prices (45 percent), find product information (40 percent), get discounts and coupons (32 percent) and read reviews (31 percent). One in four (25 percent) even expect to make a holiday purchase with their phone.

Reviews have become another key online source of information, with nearly four in 10 consumers (39 percent) indicating they often read consumer-generated reviews of stores or products online, and one-quarter (25 percent) saying they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation. More than a third (34 percent) say that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than advertising.

1 minute ago Adam Ostrow View comments8 Facebook and Twitter Making a Major Impact on Purchase Decisions [STATS]Buzz this!8 156ShareBuzz this!8Share156 email share var shared_object = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Google Nexus One: Now With Multitouch", url: "http://mashable.com/2010/02/02/nexus-one-multi-touch/" }, {button:false,onmouseover:false}); shared_object.attachButton(document.getElementById('st_sharethis')); shared_object.attachChicklet('email', document.getElementById('st_email')); email share var shared_object = SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Facebook and Twitter Making a Major Impact on Purchase Decisions [STATS]", url: "http://mashable.com/2010/03/16/facebook-twitter-purchase-decisions/" }, {button:false,onmouseover:false}); shared_object.attachButton(document.getElementById('st_sharethis')); shared_object.attachChicklet('email', document.getElementById('st_email')); A new study shows that those who are fans or followers of a brand on Facebook or Twitter, respectively, are significantly more likely to buy products and services or recommend the brand to a friend.

So over 10% of the world’s professionals are already on LinkedIn. And with the social network now signing up a new member every second of every hour of every day, it shouldn’t be too long before the other 90% of the world’s business professionals eventually wind up in the LinkedIn universe.

The number of people who use social networks from their smartphones skyrocketed 187%, to 18.3 million unique users, in July, compared with the same month a year earlier, says Nielsen. Social networking is among the fastest-growing activities on mobile devices, along with search and checking news, says Jon Stewart, Nielsen's research director for technology and search.

About 65 million of Facebook's 300 million members are mobile users. Eight months ago, it was 20 million. Of MySpace's estimated 125 million members worldwide, about 25 million use mobile devices. A year ago, it was 6 million.

"I think you get a bit of an insight into the psychology of the different users of social networks.

NOWISM | “Consumers’ ingrained* lust for instant gratification is being satisfied by a host of novel, important (offline and online) real-time products, services and experiences. Consumers are also feverishly contributing to the real-time content avalanche that’s building as we speak. As a result, expect your brand and company to have no choice but to finally mirror and join the ‘now’, in all its splendid chaos, realness and excitement.”

Basics Of Social Media Roi

n fact, 84% of respondents said they don’t currently measure the ROI (return on investment) of their social media programs.

"Mobile will become the center of your digital channel relationships," Harteveldt said, pointing to 36% of smartphone users who access the Web daily from their devices. One in four use the device to research products they will buy either online or offline. The heavy lifting needed to become an effective multichannel marketer often involves eliminating silo operations; aggregating, analyzing and acting on consumer-profile data from across the company; and integrating online and offline consumer marketing, sales and service.

In a grab for young male consumers, Pizza Hut is using social media and mobile connected devices to partner with Electronic Arts Sports and other video game companies, fight night and films such as Terminator 4.

Forrester reports that online captured 29% of consumers' reported general merchandise retail spending in the second quarter of 2009. Half of all online Americans participate in social networks, a number that has increased 46% in the past year.

People have long shared product opinions with friends and family through word-of-mouth. Today, social media tools enable consumers to extend their connections and conduct commerce in powerful new ways.

Social network users are a highly coveted group of consumers. Across all age brackets, they were more likely than average to make an online purchase, according to a May 2009 survey by Anderson Analytics. What’s more, social network users are sharing recommendations with greater frequency than generally expected. A Q1 2009 Razorfish survey of social network users found that some 29% reported sharing their views online at least every few weeks, while 10% said they made such contributions at least every few days.

According to a new study from Pew Internet and American Life Project, technology does not lead to social isolation, as many often suspected. Instead, researchers found that online participation and mobile phone usage leads to people having larger and more diverse core discussion networks.

On average, a person spends 195 days of the year having mobile phone contact with others, but face-to-face interactions occur on about 210 days per year.

In addition, mobile users have around 15% more family members with whom they can discuss important matters and tend to have 25% more core network members who are not family members. Overall, those who use mobile phones have core networks that are 12% larger than those who don't.

This research should put an end to the argument over the relevance of social media in the industrial sector. In fact, it appears that by percentage, B2B is ahead of B2C in some key categories.

This research should put an end to the argument over the relevance of social media in the industrial sector. In fact, it appears that by percentage, B2B is ahead of B2C in some key categories.