Why face-to-face beats Facebook

Brands need to focus more on earning endorsements as trust in advertising declines, according to new research from MEPRA and YouGov

MEPRA and YouGov find recommendations mean more when made in person than through social media.

An independent survey of more than 1,000 UAE residents about how trust is built in products and services has highlighted that people still rely overwhelmingly on personal recommendations in the social media and advertising age.

Some 84 per cent of those polled said they trusted face-to-face recommendations of products and services from their friends and family. When asked the same question about online, social media-based recommendations from friends and family, that number dropped to 55 per cent. Only 39 per cent of respondents trusted online recommendations from social media influencers or people with large followings.

The survey, which was commissioned by the Middle East Public Relations Association ( MEPRA) and conducted by YouGov, also covered trust in media and advertising. Trust in print publications, in newspapers and magazines, was highest, at 48 per cent, followed by radio and television, both of which scored a 44 per cent trust rating. Blogs were the least trusted source of information, at 39 per cent.

Ray Eglington, chairman of MEPRA, says: “Over the past decade, paid advocacy such as advertising and the use of social media influencers has grown exponentially. But what is clear from this survey is that earning the voluntary endorsement of millions of ordinary people remains the key to brand success. That is what public relations is all about.”

Social media has become the most important source of information for people. Some 57 per cent said social media has become a key source of information about goods and services today. However, half of the respondents also said that they have little trust in what they see on social media. Newspapers were the secondmost i mportant source of information for half of the respondents, followed by television (45 per cent) and radio (41 per cent). More than half of the respondents ( 59 per cent) agreed with the statement that so-called ‘fake news’ has lowered their trust in mainstream news media.

For advertising, the most trusted formats were television and billboards (both at 45 per cent), followed by radio (41 per cent), and online (37 per cent). More than half of respondents (57 per cent) said they trust advertising less today than they did five years ago. Brand websites scored higher than both media and advertising for trustworthiness; 53 per cent of respondents said they trust corporate websites. Conversely, almost twothirds of people (63 per cent) have more trust in what a third party says about goods or services than what a brand says about its own products.

On social media, Facebook is by far the most useful source of information on goods and services, with 52 per cent of respondents using the site to know more about brands. WhatsApp was second, at 17 per cent, and LinkedIn was third, with 10 per cent.