Social networkers value special offers

A survey by travel and lifestyle social-network site WAYN has found airport lounge passes and special offers with priority access to events top the list of benefits most valued by users.

WAYN asked 6,000 members what benefits they value and how much they would be prepared to pay for these. Special offers for, and priority access to, events in top cities were of most value to almost 49% of respondents in the lifestyle category, closely followed by special offers at top restaurants at 46%.

Airport lounge passes emerged as the clear winner for 54% in the travel category, while a free mobile translator was valuable to 44% and SMS credits to 42%.

The survey also looked at online engagement benefits and a new feature enabling users to see who likes them and find out why was valued by 49%. The ability to customise the look and feel of WAYN was popular with 46%, while the ability to create private forums and invite people to participate was deemed useful by almost 39%.

Asked how much they would be prepared to pay for such services, 70% of respondents said between $5 and $10 and 17% between $10 and $20

Of the 6,000 surveyed, 15% were members of the WAYN VIP Club which offers 100 free international SMSs per month, the ability to create private forums and other benefits.