Google closing in but Facebook remains most preferred: Survey

93% respondents in Accenture survey like Facebook, 73% find Google the best

Online websites and shopping destinations are growing by the day but digital consumers, when in cyber space, seem to have certain set preferences. While Facebook remains the most preferred platform, with 93 per cent of respondents in an Accenture survey voting for it, Google is the second-best (73 per cent) and YouTube third (40 per cent).

The survey was conducted during the first half of this year, among 600 digital consumers across age groups, in various Indian cities.

The people who visited Facebook did so for multiple reasons — to socialising and network, to look for information related on products, brands or companies, or to check offers and discounts on pages.

 

Almost 19 per cent of those surveyed said they spent an hour and a half on social media, while 30 per cent said they spent about half an hour to one hour; 27 per cent said they spent 15-30 minutes.

Besides socialising, networking and seeking information, digital consumers searched jobs, read news and checked out blogs and product reviews, the survey showed.

 

Interestingly, smartphones have surpassed desktop computers as the preferred medium or device to go online. Thirty-eight per cent of the respondents said they mostly used their smartphones to communicate or access the internet, while 35 per cent preferred desktop computers and 25 per cent laptops. The proportion of those using tablets for the purpose was a mere two per cent, Accenture said.

Google Search was the most popular mode for gathering brand or product-related information, followed by social media and company websites, the respondents said. Almost 67 per cent of those surveyed said they visited five or more company pages on Facebook every week, for brand information. Eighty-six per cent said they were not satisfied with company websites when posting queries or seeking information on products and services, while 62 per cent were not satisfied with the look and feel of company websites and 57 per cent found it difficult to navigate company websites for information they wanted.

In a sign of growing popularity of e-commerce websites, 72 per cent of respondents said they preferred to shop at an e-tailer than a company website (that means, if a company website has an e-commerce option), simply because the online marketplace offered exclusive discounts, lots of products and services, besides easy navigation and multiple payment mode options. The transactions were also safe and bonus and loyalty points could be easily redeemed, some respondents said.

“A marketer should bring a brand promise to life through a differentiated digital experience, besides managing a consistent digital presence across search optimisation tools, social media and company websites.

Marketers should also use company websites to drive purchase rather than awareness alone,” Accenture said in its study.