Much of what we read online in terms of surveys, polls and ratings when it comes to social media is sometimes all a matter of opinion — a company’s opinion that is. Companies can conduct their surveys in whatever manner and style they want to, and can report the results in the same manner. That doesn’t mean that results are neither false or non-genuine, but means that they should be taken with caution since gauging them would be a matter of assessing a person’s opinion, which is essentially hard to do.

Therefore, rightly assessing the opinion of a recent survey conducted by the YPartnership-Harrison Group requires that you make a conscious decision to take many things into consideration before making a final assumption. Their recent survey suggests that American travelers value the opinion of social media sites rather low when it comes to making their travel selections. The survey suggests that social sites like Facebook and Twitter are of no consequence to travelers and their decisions. The survey assessed the opinion of over 2,500 U.S. adults. The income bracket of those surveyed was $50,000 or more, and the surveyed parties had to have taken a trip for business or leisure within the previous 12 months and traveled up to 75 miles away from home.

Much of what affected the study was noted as respondents thinking that social media was only applicable and valuable for those persons who were interested in building and grooming social networks. Their opinion was that the only people who got anything or contributed to social networking sites were those who are not necessarily looking for concrete or quality information about a range of subjects, but more interested in connecting to share, exchange and enjoy other things. Although the study was conducted by a well-known agency, the results certainly don’t speak to the 100 million+ Facebook and Twitter users who exchange reviews and opinions daily on travel, education and business.