Social Media now more than ever is having a strong influence on people purchasing decisions.  Users are taking into consideration feedback from friends, families and fellow social media users.

The Nielson Company has just released a report which confirms this link, finding that social media is increasingly having a higher impact on the purchasing decisions in the Asia Pacific region.  Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube have appeared top of the most trusted sources.

The report also found that 74 per cent of the world’s population has visited a social networking/blogging site, and Internet users are spending an average of six hours per month on social media sites.

The Nielson Company report also found that users in Japan post over one million blogs per month with 16 per cent of Japanese internet users also using Twitter,  Highlighting the huge visitor increase to the site over the last year.  Leaping from less than 200,000 to more than 10 million in the year to April 2010

Among other findings, The Nielson Company reported that over 80 per cent of social media content in China is delivered via bulletin boards and Korea is one of the world’s most social media engaged countries. .

To learn more on the subject, the Social Media World Forum Asia is returning to Singapore on the 22nd and 23rd of September covering the latest in social media, brand case studies, topical Q&A and debates. For more information please visit: www.socialmedia-forum.com/asia/