The Importance of Online AND Offline WOM

Having read through the findings of Keller Fay’s latest study into the effectiveness of WOM in online and offline venues, I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised when the report states that word of mouth expressed face to face is viewed as more credible than online conversations. It is easier to encourage trust face-to-face, as I discovered when I commissioned occupational psychologists, Pearn Kandola to carry out a study for Cisco a couple of years back. The Pearn Kandola research found that:

 

“Users of electronic communication can take up to four times as long to exchange the same number of messages as communicating face-to-face, particularly as non-verbal cues can account for up to 63 percent of the social meaning within face-to-face exchanges. Trust can be fragile…because of ‘behavioral invisibility’ when [people] cannot observe each other.”

 

Other findings from the Keller Fay study indicate that teenagers participate in a higher percentage of online WOM than members of other age groups, which I think reflects the considreable percentage of young people engaged in social interaction online (more than 90% of 11-20 year olds in the UK are registered to social networking site such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook). So, whereas I don’t think online WOM will overtake the influence of offline face-to-face WOM any time soon, I am certain the gap will narrow over time as social media becomes the norm.

 

One thing that the study doesn’t cover, however, is the comparison of single influence compared to group influence – where online WOM really comes into its own. For example, if I want to find a suitable holiday resort, I will of course listen to the face-to-face advise of a friend or collegue, but I think my decision is more likely to be swayed by half a dozen positive or negative reviews posted by ‘strangers’ on an online site such as TripAdvisor.

 

So in essence, I think that different communications channels – both online and offline – can carry varying levels of influence dependent on specific scenarios.

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