Social networks have created a new way of communicating. They have become a kind of inevitable, prominent element. We are all connected to all of our contacts and we are at the same moment in which we do things. We are on vacation, we upload a photo of our glorious hotel breakfast. We buy a product, we quickly tell it on Facebook or Twitter sharing how good (or bad) the experience has been. We share the information in real time and receive the information in real time and that has completely changed how we relate to it.
And if things start to be so immediate, our reaction to them also begins to be so. We are always in a sort of real-time conversation with others and we are always commenting on what happens in the moment that happens. But this immediacy has not only an impact on information and our reaction to it but also modifies other elements. Our buying habits and purchasing decisions are greatly modified by what happens in social networks.
The social environment has become a new prescriber
The products that are mentioned by friends and family enter into our purchasing decisions and lead them while taking direct action to find what they want to consume. Who didn’t make a question in social networks about what to buy? And who did not ask for recommendations and opinions about a product that interests you?
The social networking buying buttons were born a little with that idea in the head. Consumers used social networks as an element of buying recommendation and discovered through the many products they wanted, so why not capitalize on this reality and turn it into a way to generate business figures? Many were the social networks that tried it not so long ago, but all this peak of interest stayed in boring waters and did not really work. However, you should not think that social networks do not work as buying recommendations and have no impact on impulse purchases. They have it but in another way.
Consumers do not buy on social networks but do use them as a vehicle to find what to buy. Social networks are not a store, but a reference element that has a great impact when it comes to redirecting the consumer. There is social proof, seeing others buying a product and receiving a kind of social blessing to do the same, to prove it.
