Vision Critical releases results of robust three-country social media study at International Institute of Communications conference in Montreal.

New York, October 26, 2009 – Despite accelerated usage among all age groups, online social networks, forums and blogs still aren’t as trustworthy a media source as traditional channels like radio, newspapers and television. That’s one finding from Vision Critical’s® new social media study, the results of which were presented today at the annual International Institute of Communications (IIC) conference in Montreal, Canada.

The company surveyed approximately 6,000 people in the US, UK and Canada and found that while 40 to 50 percent trust AM/FM radio, online news, print newspapers and television, only 14 percent trust online social networks – such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – and just 13 percent trust online forums, blogs, reviews or chat rooms. Even 18- to 29-year-olds, the age group most likely to use social networks, indicated the least amount of trust in social media relative to more traditional channels.*

Matt Kleinschmit, Vision Critical’s Senior Vice President of Emerging Media, says the results are surprising and have profound implications for business: “For advertisers who view social media as an emerging channel for brand building and marketing, just being in social media is not enough,” says Kleinschmit. “Brands need to be contextually linked to the networks that consumers are engaged with.”

Kleinschmit adds, “There is no doubt that social media has the potential to revolutionize the traditional media landscape by facilitating an unprecedented era of connectedness between producers and consumers all around the world. For more traditional media providers who are seeing their respective ad dollars recede, however, this points to a key competitive advantage that should be embraced and communicated to both consumers and advertisers alike. ”

Matt Kleinschmit will be joined by Angus Reid, CEO of Vision Critical, and Jaideep Mukerji, Vice President of Public Affairs in presenting the complete research findings at the annual IIC conference in Montreal on October 26. The full presentation explores how businesses can take full advantage of social media to bring together media, content and device convergence.

*Methodology: Online interviews with 2,005 people from the US, 2,019 from the UK, 1,950 from Canada. Margin of error is 2.19 percent in the US, 2.18 percent in the UK and 2.22 percent in Canada.