Fashion marketing: College-age consumers much more connected than 4 years ago

It is not a surprise, but the results of the 7th Annual Alloy College Explorer, conducted by Harris Interactive, show that the class of 2011 uses the internet a lot more than the same age group only 4 years ago.
Fashion marketers will notice the relative importance of word-of-mouth when it come to discovering new brands and of social networking sites (27% use them, and that is before they have actually set foot on campus).
So, are you still laughing at Wal-Mart's Back-to-College fashion group on FaceBook? (Fashion marketing news).

Some findings from the study, as presented on MarketingVox:

- 27 percent of co-eds cite choosing to stay in touch with friends via social networking site over face-to-face communication (at 11 percent), or over phone (23 percent) .
- 54 percent of college students (ages 18-30) visit a social network in a typical day.
- 66 percent of students are learning about brands, products and services from their friends, and word of mouth has soared with 61 percent reporting its power (up from 48 percent).
Interestingly, a bit more than 25 percent of students claim they have never visited a user-generated site.