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terms of numbers on their online communities, others like A Small World and
ZeroTwoNine have distinguished themselves not by the quantity of the users
but by the quality of the members of the communities. A Small World, whose
members are 90 percent employed with an average income of $330,000 (the
other 10 percent range from millionaire philanthropists to aristocratic inheri-
tors), is one of the few online communities with the highest concentration of
the world's wealthy on a single platform. As you may already know, A Small
World doesn't admit everyone and those that are admitted have to respect very
strict guidelines to avoid being thrown out. Those that contend that a social
network that doesn't have at least one million users is not relevant are evaluat-
ing the social web in terms of quantity rather than quality. As we know, qual-
ity matters more than quantity in luxury.
4. People on social networks shop more online than offline
Social networkers are more likely to shop online than non-users of social
networks but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are likely to shop more
online than offline. People on several social networks like A Small World
often seek other people's advice, opinions and suggestions on brands, prod-
ucts, services, hotels, travel destinations and so on and, more often than not,
these messages become public discussion forums. It's not uncommon to see
a thread of discussion on topics such as “Which brand's luggage collection
defines endless style?” attracting as many as 1,000 participants, each one
naming their preferred brands and outlining their differential qualities. Such
conversations inform, educate and influence both the participants and observ-
ers and go a long way in shaping perceptions towards brands and changing
the mind-set and even value systems of people. All of these will eventually
translate to a purchase decision at some point and the brand choice could
very well be as a result of the discussion in the online community. In fact,
63 percent of people that spend time online consider product and brand
reviews from other consumers to be as credible as the reviews made by
experts. Also, 87 percent of members of online communities seek brand opin-
ion from fellow members whether it is for purchase or information purposes.
5. Wealthy people do not use online social networks
This assumption sounds like a real joke. Recent research from the Luxury
Institute indicates that 60 percent of wealthy Americans belong to at least
one social network. This scenario isn't far from the reality in other mar-
kets. Apart from being active on social networks like LinkedIn, A Small
World and even the likes of Twitter and MySpace, wealthy people also
enjoy blogging and conversing with virtual friends. They are particularly
active in discussions on their areas of interest like sailing, flying, photog-
raphy and the good old shopping. A case in point is the online community
A Small World with more than 300,000 members whose average house-
hold income is $330,000, not counting millionaires like Tiger Woods and
Ivanka Trump. Also, user platforms like Twitter allow everyone to com-
municate with their “followers” through short but frequent messages that
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