New study reveals 1 in 3 Internet users make purchase decisions influenced by social networking sites

I recently recieved an email newsletter from OCLC that included a summary from a news release. According to a study by iProspect,

"The power of social networks appears to be growing. A new report from search engine marketing firm iProspect® finds that:

• One in three Internet users make purchase decisions influenced by sites that contain social content, with Amazon.com being the most influential of all.
• One in four adult Internet users regularly visit the most popular social networking sites, including MySpace, YouTube and Amazon.com.
• Visitors arrive at social networking sites primarily through direct navigation, Google search, Yahoo! search, and links in emails (in that order).
• Internet users visit social networking sites for a variety of reasons, including entertainment, connecting with others, researching a product or service, and purchasing a product or service.
• While social networking sites are a growing and important online channel, all three major search engines have a much higher percentage of total U.S. online population visiting their sites on a daily and weekly basis.

iProspect defines a social networking site as one that allows Internet users to add user-generated content such as comments, reviews, feedback, ratings or their own dedicated pages. "

Many of us probably don't think of Amazon as a social networking site, but their definition makes sense. Sort of widens the application, doesn't it?

You can view the news release at http://www.iprospect.com/media/press2007_04_10.htm