Study: Social media influences the buying decisions of 38 million Americans

That number is up 14 percent over the last six months, according to Knowledge Networks, which released the results of a recent social media/mobile study.

Among the study’s findings are that teens and adult social media users in 2011 reported high levels of influence:

• 23.1 million discover new brands or products through social media (up 22 percent from 2010);