by samA recent survey by Pew Internet and American Life shows some really interesting statistics. The internet, in general, and search engines in particular, are the most commonly used sources for information regarding local businesses.
The interesting part is the difference between the percentage of people using the Internet and the percentage of people using local TV channels. Till sometime back, newspapers were the most important source, followed by TV.
People would divulge hours of paper reading to find out information, offers, reviews, etc. about local businesses and hangout places. As the cyber age progressed and social networking grew, newspapers and other print mediums have seen their rivals well surpass them when it comes to people getting information.
The impact has been such that Programmatic advertising agencies have suddenly started getting their due attention and even companies have realised that the internet is where the actual potential is and hence have started investing heavily in SEO, Facebook advertising, PPC campaigns, etc.
The survey done by Pew Internet and American Life covered a total of 1000 American adults, who were surveyed over the phone to compile a data list that will be of great help to the advertising agency.
Here are excerpts from the data list that Pew compiled.
The survey revealed that a good 55% of the surveyed group sought information regarding restaurants, clubs, and bars and used various sources for the same. The share of each source in providing information is as follows:
- Search engines are the most used source, with 38% of people relying on them for information. This is one reason why SEO has become the priority of every website.
- Speciality websites like Yelp and others have a 17% share
- The most shocking result is that of social media, which has only a 3% share, even though it was believed that social media would be the most used source. Companies might reconsider their Facebook advertising strategies.
- Newspapers still have some holding with 31% but TV has lost a lot of shares and stands at just 8%
- 23% of people still rely on word of mouth and reviews from friends and relatives
When it comes to searching for local businesses, search engines still are the most used source. The breakdown is as follows:
- Search engines are used by 36% of the surveyed people
- Specialty websites are used by 16% of the people
- Social media shares are drastically low and stay at 1%
- Newspapers are still given some importance when it comes to searching for local businesses, as 30% of people rely on them for information
- 8% rely on local TV and 5% rely on local radio
- 22% rely on word of mouth
Pew survey also reveals that people use 14 different sources to get information about local businesses, restaurants, clubs, etc. Many of the people surveyed relied on more than one source and a good portion of them received the information on the phone via SMS or an application that they use.