Story provided by Mediabistro – 

People trust product and brand recommendations from other people more than they trust traditional media or advertising channels, and friends and family recommendations on social media channels, particularly Facebook, are trusted most of all.

The average consumer mentions specific brands over 90 times per week in conversations with friends, family and co-workers, and shoppers trust Facebook (68 percent) more than blogs (63 percent) and retail websites (63 percent). And while social media overall is deemed a better source of recommendations than other channels, such as email, Pinterest (56 percent), YouTube (51 percent) and Twitter (41 percent) are seen as less reliable than Facebook.

This infographic from Social Media Link takes a closer look at the value of social media recommendations.