No Revolution

Survey: Advertisers Flock to 'Untrustworthy' Media: "Only 21% of consumers trust product information within such social media when mulling a product purchase. Consumers are twice as likely to trust information on a corporate Web site or on a professional review site such as Edmunds.com, the research found.

Nevertheless, the survey, which was released Aug. 29 by the New York-based Jupiter, found about 20% of advertisers surveyed planned to use viral marketing next year, mostly for branding purposes.

“New viral marketers will adopt advertising within blogs and social sites just as heavily as experienced viral marketers, and will also place increasing brand awareness ahead of direct-response goals,” according to the survey, which was conducted in April among 273 U.S. advertisers and 4,182 consumers."