Blogs, podcasts, online communities and social networking tools are the biggest influence in business purchasing decisions, according to new research.
The results come from ITtoolbox, an online community for IT decision-makers and PJA Advertising & Marketing's IT Social Media Index.
The survey measured social media consumption trends among IT decision-makers and how it affected their purchasing decisions.
It gained responses from more than 2,000 IT professionals at all levels, who were asked to compare the influence of social media and vendor websites, trade magazines and editorial websites.
Social media was cited as the most trustworthy online source of information.
Mike O'Toole, a partner at PJA, said: "According to the findings, the IT community now spend as much or more time consuming social media as they do consuming editorial media or vendor content.
"We've seen lots of research about social media usage, but this is the first study to link usage to something tangible - how IT executives are using social media and user-generated content to make better purchasing decisions."
