SIXTY-ONE PER cent of Irish internet users find Irish content sites “trustworthy” – and 66 per cent praised their “reliability” in a new survey.

The research, carried out by Amárach for the Association of Online Publishers Ireland, looked at levels of engagement Irish internet users have with Irish publications online – as well as with social media sites and online portals (such as Yahoo!, MSN and eircom.net).

Here are some of the key findings:

Half of internet users (51 per cent) say they always find what they are looking for on Irish content sites (30 per cent for social networks and 41 per cent for portals)

on Irish content sites (30 per cent for social networks and 41 per cent for portals) Half of internet users (49 per cent) say Irish content sites are “ opinion leaders ” (27 per cent each agree with that statement in the context of social networks and portals)

” (27 per cent each agree with that statement in the context of social networks and portals) Sixty-one per cent of users think Irish content sites are “ trustworthy ” (social networks – 18 per cent; portals – 35 per cent)

” (social networks – 18 per cent; portals – 35 per cent) Good content is a must for the Irish online user – 70 per cent said that they found content that was relevant to the Irish audience on Irish content sites (37 per cent found the same on social networks; 32 per cent said the same of portals); 68 per cent of users thought that that Irish content sites had “good quality” content

While 64 per cent of those surveyed said they found Irish content sites “interesting“, 53 per cent said they speak/engage with others about things they have seen on these sites while 54 per cent find that content “engaging” and 56 per cent “entertaining”. Again social media sites and portals score a little lower in these areas.

As well as these figures on how Irish internet users find the content of the actual sites, the survey also gives an insight into how they view advertising on them. Thirty-eight per cent of users said they “trust” the advertising they see on Irish content sites (only 17 per cent trust advertising on social networks, and 26 per cent trust those ads they see on portals). Interestingly, this figure rises to 50 per cent of those in the 25-34 age category. Eighty-one per cent of users agree that advertising is well-matched to the content on Irish content sites.

This graph from the research shows more about the interaction of Irish internet users with advertising that they see online:

(via Amárach/Aop.ie)

The report’s authors concluded that the more an audience trusts a content site and finds its content relevant to them and their interests, the more effective advertising will be on that site. Gerard O’Neill of Amárach Research said that the survey showed how Irish consumers are “differentiating between the sites that they use” and that “brand awareness and purchasing decisions is higher for Irish content sites versus other types of sites”.