The PR community has welcomed research highlighting the commercial benefits of social media, which found that recommendations on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter had a very clear positive impact on sales.
London-based PR agency Skywrite conducted a survey of more than 1,000 people in a bid to gauge the true potential of social media as a business marketing tool.
It revealed that 16% of respondents said they had gone on to buy a product or service after reading a recommendation on a social networking site.
The study also showed differences between the way men and women follow up on recommendations in the social media space.
Women were more likely to check out a product or service in response to a positive customer rating, with 75% of women making further enquiries compared with only 50% of men.
By contrast, 31% of men ended up actually making a purchase compared with just 17% of women, making them a somewhat better prospect for converting positive reviews into sales.
PR agencies have long been aware of the potential of social media in building customer relationships and boosting brand awareness, but the survey also demonstrates the importance of customer reviews in directly influencing sales.
What's more, the clear differences between male and female customer behaviour provide useful intelligence to marketers looking to adopt a more targeted approach to their social media campaigns.
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