Facebook Inc (FB): Surprised? It’s Not Pinterest That Drives Consumer Spending

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is such a large social network that it is sometimes impossible to conceive of the enormity of its influence in the world. There is very little to compare to it in terms of size with its 1 billion known users, so that many times the only way to compare Facebook to anything else in the marketplace is through percentages. And one of the more popular comparisons is done by those who watch marketing and advertising and monitor ROI in the digital media.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has seemed to compare very favorably with other social networks in terms of its bang for the advertising buck, and there is a recent report that seems to suggest more of the same. This report takes it from a slightly different angle, though, as Vision Critical surveyed almost 6,000 consumers in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom to ask about their consumer habits on various social networks that they used.

And even when the massive Facebook user number is reconstituted to a percentage, the numbers still are very favorable – Facebook generates more consumer spending that either Pinterest or Twitter, according to the survey.  Of those surveyed, 73 percent said they used Facebook, 24 percent used Twitter and 15 percent were fans of Pinterest. And these consumers were asked about buying habits, nearly two in five of those who use Facebook said they had bought something after liking it or sharing it on Facebook, while 29 percent of those on Pinterest did so and 22 percent of those on Twitter said they bought something  recently after liking or following a product or brand.

Another interesting find in the survey was that those on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter were more likely to but something they had liked or shared  because they were  already researching and considering the item beforehand, while those on Pinterest tended to be more spontaneous in their purchases. Among the breakdown of the audiences, women made up the majority of the Facebook users (57 percent) and Pinterest users (83 percent) but men favored Twitter (54 percent). The largest age demographics in all three social networks was the 35-54 age group, with the 18-34 demographic being second on Pinterest and Twitter but (surprisingly?) the 55-and-older group on Facebook.

What are your thoughts about this latest survey? Do you see the power of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in your own buying habits or in those close to you? Is this a phenomenon, or do you think it is more a product of scale? Do you think the stock price reflects this power, and do you think investors like fund manager Leon Cooperman (see his full equity portfolio) pay attention? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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