The Hertz Corp . released the results of the “Hertz Path to Purchase Study,” in which one key finding revealed that by sharing or clicking on shared links about Hertz, its competitors, car rental and/or travel, increased the user’s likelihood to make a purchase by 30% compared to users who did not engage in these social conversations.

According to a May 31 announcement, the survey — conducted by its media communications agency, OMD, and an online sharing platform, ShareThis — examined Hertz customers’ pre-purchase behaviors including content viewing, searching and site visitation in order to determine the impact of social behaviors.

The study found that users who were involved in social activity from the beginning of the purchase process were four times as likely to search for car rental terms and twice as likely to visit the Hertz website.

Timely targeting was also vital to the final purchase as the study showed that if a brand reaches out to a customer in the earlier stages, then it will be able to provide direct messages to help the customer farther into the purchase.

The study is based off 11.5 million users and 3.2 million travel category URLs.

“Examining the value and purchasing implications of 'sharing' is important to us, and the study will help identify how Hertz can most effectively connect with customers at the most relevant touch points,” Hertz Chairman and CEO Mark P. Frissora said.