How Much Does Social Media Influence Your Purchases?

Advertising through commercials, billboards and magazines have been influencing our purchases for decades, so much that conspiracy theorists claim they contain ‘subliminal messages’ which trick us into buying products against our better judgment. In spite of this legacy, a powerful new king of advertising is taking their place: social media.

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram are no longer just places to share pictures, ‘like’ or ‘follow’ people and trending topics, or collect your ‘favorite things’ onto virtual pegboards. Businesses are truly beginning to grasp the influence these social gathering places have on nearly every aspect of our life, including our finances.

How many business or product pages do you ‘follow’? Do you rely on social media to inform you of the latest trends, the greatest new gadgets, and what products your friends and family are using and buying? If so, you’re not alone. Socialmediatoday.com gathered statistics that show exactly how powerful social media is on our purchases:

71% of consumers are likely to purchase an item based on referrals from social media
81% admit being influenced based on recommendations/posts from friends
78% of us admit to being influenced directly by businesses’ posts
74% of us rely on social media to make a purchase decision

Allowing your financial decisions to be influenced by social media can be either positive or negative. Awareness of the pitfalls while using the advantages is the best way to approach this unavoidable blending of your social and consumer life.

The Sneaky Ways Social Media Affects Your Spending

Exploiting the crowd mentality.

The crowd mentality applies to more than finances, but in this case, it’s the voice that urges you to buy something because ‘everybody’ else already did and you don’t want to feel left out. Before social media, we didn’t have as much awareness of what other people were purchasing.