Localeze: Social networks are increasingly influencing local business searches

A February 2012 report from Localeze and 15miles, compiled by comScore, found that 15% of local business searchers used social networks to find information in 2011, up 67% from 9% the year before and from just 4% in 2008. Those who use local search are doing so frequently: 35% do so daily, and another 34% do so weekly. The majority (91%) of local business search results come from Facebook, followed by Twitter (37%), MySpace (30%), LinkedIn (25%), and Foursquare (14%).

Massive expansion of social network users

Local information users on social networks are also very engaged in local search content. In 2011, 45% of users wrote online reviews, an increase from 38% in 2010 and 67% more than all local searchers last year (27%).

In fact, the report shows that 76% of users who access local business information through social networks have posted at least one online review in the past 30 days, compared to 55% in the same period last year. Of these, 27% have posted more than 10 reviews.

In addition, the proportion of local information users on social networks this year is 52%, compared with 49% in 2010, which is 80% higher than the users who have made comments in the overall survey sample (29%).

Daily deals bring repeat business

The data in the report shows that among the respondents of daily transactions in 2011, 60% have visited local business information. Through the survey of consumer satisfaction conducted by 88% of Groupon users and 86% of LivingSocial users, it can be found that the daily transaction satisfaction of group buying websites is relatively high. And among these respondents, there are more repeat customers: 45% of customers said that they bought several things from the same merchant, and another 41% of users said that they were planning to do so (buy multiple times from a store).

According to statistics, 53% of consumers said they would shop in both new stores and stores they had purchased from before, while 31% of consumers were accustomed to being repeat customers.

Local search results are the most trustworthy and relevant

61% of local information searchers said they were happy to know that local search results were the most relevant. This easily surpassed organic search results (27%), paid search (10%), and pay-per-performance models (2%). Among all respondents, 58% of consumers also believe that local search is the most trustworthy, which also surpasses organic search results (31%), paid search (9%), and pay-per-performance models (2%). In February 2012, JiWire published a report on mobile user behavior in the fourth quarter of 2011, which stated that 80% of mobile users feel that local advertising is more practical for them, and 3/4 of them have responded to location information.

Additional Information

63% of local information searchers said they would be more likely to make a purchase if they could find information about a local business online, even though this percentage is down from 69% last year.
72% of users said they would be more willing to try a local product if it was recommended on social networks.
In 2011, 49% of local businesses had already implemented local search before conceiving of a specific business, a higher proportion than 45% in 2010 and 42% in 2009.
When searching for local businesses online, mobile phone number (67%), address (67%) and business hours are considered the most valuable reference data.
Data source: Local search user research conducted by Localeze and 15miles in December 2011, integrated and published by comScore, with a sample of 4,000 online users and 1,000,000 users who agreed to anonymize their online behavior.

Compiler: Abaibai