40% Prefer Social Media Over Search Engines For Content Discovery

A couple of years ago, the only way to find a good restaurant in town or a TV programme worth watching was by asking Google. But times have changed: now 40% of younger Brits rely more on social media than search engines when they want recommendations, according to a study from Blinkx I read last week.

The Nation of Sharers poll, which approached 2,000 Britons, revealed that the type of content people most often share on social media is music videos, along with funny animal videos and shopping videos.

The video search specialist also found that 85% of people in the 18-34 age group regularly share content through their social media newsfeeds. The ‘share mania’ has also hit older Britons, with 57% of people aged 55 and over now sharing content online as well.

Blinkx also found that brands’ social media profiles are preferred by only 15% of Facebook users as a source of content. Twitter emerged as a platform where the number of users actively following brands to discover content is much higher; an activity mentioned by 28% of respondents.

The use of search engines as we know it is declining; more and more people now prefer to use social media when searching for information online, Blinkx founder and chief strategy officer Suranga Chandratillake commented. Thanks to the growing popularity of social platforms, people now deem it more convenient to monitor and process long streams of information, increasingly through smartphones and tablets. This gives brands the chance to deliver genuine and valuable content that people would be happy to share and recommend, according to Chandratillake.