A new online Harris Interactive poll conducted on behalf of nRelate, a content discovery platform, provides new insights into how consumers are searching for and consuming content on the Internet.

Some highlighted results:

92% of U.S. adults read content online, spending more than 7 hours per week looking for content (this is higher among the younger age groups, 18-44);

Americans read 3-4 articles per session and watch 2-3 videos per session, on average (this number is higher among males for both articles and videos);

31%  of online consumers indicate search engines are not the primary sources for finding content (articles and videos);

48% of online consumers say that after reading an article, they are more likely to click on related content (e.g., article, video);

51% of online consumers say they read and click on content pushed to them via email newsletters from brands whose products and services they use.

While researching, users are most likely to click on search results (48 percent), followed by links at the bottom of the article they've just read (28 percent) as opposed to links found on Facebook (8 percent).

When it comes to purchase decisions, consumers say they trust content from a brand's website (44%), an article discovered through a search engine (31%) an expert on a topic (28%), or a mainstream news site (20%) more than they do content posted by a friend on a social network (10%).

76% of online consumers indicate they do not get most of their content recommendations from friends on social networks.

Quality is key, and online consumers indicate quality content has the following attributes:

• From a source already known in the offline world (60%);

• Includes images (24%);

• Includes author image and byline (23%);

• Includes embedded video (11%)

The takeaway for attorneys is this: the very basics you need to successfully market your law firm today includes:

• A website
• A blog
• A social media presence across all major platforms: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+
• Participation on lawyer-centric websites like Avvo, JDSupra, Lawyers.com, etc.
• An email marketing program
• A search engine optimization (SEO) program for all of the above