DreamGrow Social Media

Market Share of Social Networking Sites 2009

I have had a lot of people asking me about market shares of different social networking sites. So I went out and searched for most resent data I could find. While there’s really not much information freely available I compiled this list of sources that are all dated some time this year.

Top 10 Social Networking Websites & Forums October 2009, the Hitwise data is based on US market share of visits.

A Map Of Social (Network) Dominance. Really cool interactive map application with data from June 2009. Which social network is the most popular in each country?

Facebook statistics by country. Gender, age groups, percentage of online population. Very useful site. Updates frequently with current data from November 3, 2009.

Whee! New numbers on social network usage. Compete.com data from January 2009 showing uniques visitors and monthly visits of 25 top social networks.

Global Faces and Networked Places (PDF). A Nielsen report on Social Networking’s New Global Footprint. March 2009. Putting the growth of social networks, popularity and engagement into context.

How the Old, the Young and Everyone in Between Uses Social Networks. What are the reasons different generations are in social media and which social networks they use. US data from May 2009.

Facebook Growth Increases in Latin America, Argentina Now Largest Country in Region. Brazil growing at a rate of 33 percent per month. Data from November 1, 2009.

Facebook Is Now the Fourth Largest Site In The World. ComScore data of worldwide audience from June 2009.

Top Twenty Five Social Networking Sites, May 2009. Number of unique visitors with yoy change the data is actually only for top 20 sites. Top 10 of display ad impressions and projected ad income of Facebook, MySpace and other destinations in social media.

Chinese Social Networks ‘Virtually’ Out-Earn Facebook And MySpace. Facebook and MySpace are 17 and 13 respectively among social networking sites in China. Data from around April 2009.

China social networking sites statistics 2009 (updated).

If you know of any good resources with up to date data then please share in the comments.

• Related article Social media statistics and data for the weekend

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Image credit: spekulator

Avinash Kaushik Reviews Social Media Analytics Tools for Twitter

Avinash Kaushik reviews some social media analytics tools. Four Twitter analysis tools to be exact. As usual he’s pretty outspoken about tools that just spit data at you. Alway ask, what action can I take in light of the data. So for these four Avinash had this to say

…show sweet signs of

1. Truly understanding the medium and uniqueness of the channel and
2. Are not just reporting “hits”, rather coming up with clever metrics.

And the tools are:

• Klout. Twitter Analytics
• GraphEdge. Twitter Analytics
• TweetPsych. Linguistic Analysis
• Twitter StreamGraphs. Content Visualization

Social Media Research Driving Automotive Marketing

Some time ago we wrote about Social media helping to spike up Mercury sales in New England. Here is a slideshow that looks into ways car marketers could use social media to engage potential customers.

Weekend social media reading

Social Media in the 2009 Inc. 500: New Tools & New Trends
The study compares adoption of social media over three years (2007, 2008 and 2009) by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies. Regardless of the particular technology, social media matters and is here to stay. Forty-three percent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy. And an incredible 91% of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008).

Online Video Advertising: Doubles Engagement, Boosts ROI (PDF)
Adding video to your online campaign can significantly improve your marketing results. Marketers are responding in kind with a larger slice of their advertising budgets. What makes online video advertising so successful? What can make your video campaign even better? In this in-depth bulletin, based on the knowledge accumulated at Eyeblaster from serving a large portion of the online video campaigns worldwide, we share our insights.

Consumers Open to Marketing Messages on Social Media Sites
Forty-six percent of respondents say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook. The survey of more than 3,000 U.S. consumers comprised 100+ questions to determine how various segments of consumers use social networks in their daily lives, specifically in regard to finding out about different types of products and in relation to other media channels. The study found that marketers who embrace the medium and communicate relevant messages in consumers’ language and on their terms could gain customers and grow sales.

Do Fortune 100 companies need a Twitter-vention?
With more than 20 million people on Twitter in the U.S. (50 million worldwide), there are ample opportunities for audiences to engage with corporations and brands. Weber Shandwick conducted research to evaluate how effectively Fortune 100 companies used Twitter to its full potential as an engagement platform. The results provide key learnings for companies who want to make sure their party is one that’s buzzing. Think of Twitter as the über corporate cocktail party. Your influential guests will stay only if the conversation is entertaining, valuable and interesting.

FEED: The 2009 Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report

FEED is Razorfish’s annual study charting how technology is changing the way consumers engage with brands. The report, and the blog, are written by Garrick Schmitt, Group Vice President, Experience Planning. Get the PDF.

Portrait of a Twitter user

Status update demographics accross major services. 19% of internet users say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This is almost twice as much as in the previous surveys from December 2008 and April 2009, where this nomber was only 11%.

Gadget people are using status-update services. The more devices someone owns, the more likely they are to use Twitter or another service to update their status. Use of status-update services by device count:

• 39% of users with more than three internet-conncted devices
• 28% of users with three devices
• 19% of users with two devices
• 10% of users with one device

The median age of the user is:

• Twitter 31
• MySpace 26
• LinkedIn 39
• Facebook 33

Read more in Twitter and Status Updating, Fall 2009.

Is Social Media addictive?

Do you have to check Facebook and Twitter every few minutes? Tweeting, texting, posting everywhere you go? A study by consumer electronics shopping site, Retrevo.com went looking for answers on how much control social media has on peoples’ lives. The results:

• 27% of respondents under 35 check Facebook more than 10 times a day.
• About one third of people under 35 tweet afrer sex (36%) and on a date (34%). 40% tweet while driving!
• Twitter is addictive as 39% of people under 35 check updates more than 10 times a day.

I believe that social media will take a very large part of the time we currently use for “web”, TV and other media. But the question of how often do you check a social media site will soon be pointless. Most of us will use it continuously. Nobody asks how many times a day you check TV. Or… better yet, how many times a day you talk to people?

So the answer to the original question is “yes” as much as whatching TV or talking to people is addictive.

SocialTwist Social Media Sharing Trends 2009

Really interesting result for me was that: Analysis shows that the most popular channel for sharing content is email. Nearly 60 per cent use email to share content.

Other major findings

• Despite the social media revolution – traditional forms of networking like email and instant messaging continue to be the most popular mediums of sharing content across the Internet. Nearly 60 percent of overall sharing happens over emails.
• Facebook has displaced MySpace as the most popular social networking site when it comes to sharing content.
• It is clear that Twitter is perceived to be a news broadcast platform and not a “sharing” platform. It enjoys only 5% of “shared information” traffic among popular social platforms.
• Bookmarks are rapidly losing their significance in the social media space. Only 2% of shares happen over Bookmarking sites.
• When it comes to email services, Yahoo Mail is still the most preferred, followed by MSN. Gmail is way behind.
• Google’s services like Google Bookmarking, Google Talk, Gmail, and Blogger have failed to replicate the brand’s search engine success online, especially when it comes to ’shared information.’
• LinkedIn, as a networking site, ranks the lowest when it comes to social media sharing.

via SocialTwist Social Media Sharing Trends 2009.

Social Media Campaigns are a Waste of Money!

Social media is a place where people interact with each other and, if you are luck, this may include your brand. This is engagement. Everybody wants it, but to achieve that you have to think long term not one off campaigns. We have seen politicians do that a lot. The last tweet or blog post has the same date as the election day. A few months before next election they come out of hibernation and try to engage you again.

You may have “friends” who turn to you only when they need something. This is the same thing as a campaign in social media. So, don’t do social media campaigns! I took the last sentence from Brendan Hughes who dug deeper into the matter of campaigns versus engagement in social media:

What’s wrong with a campaign then? In a campaign approach, you’re missing the essence of the nature (and thus the opportunity) of social media. It’s about relationships, and to draw a parallel, a social media campaign is a bit like a one night stand. Everyone had a bit of fun, but ultimately I feel a bit used.

In our work we meet a lot of agency people. What strikes me as odd is that if they go into all that trouble to make and launch a campaign, why wouldn’t they go one step further and make it a long term program? This campaign mentality seems to be a rule rather than exception. You should take that last step and really connect with people.

Socialnomics: Social Media ROI video

From Socialnomics – Social Media Blog

Social media statistics and data for the weekend

New empirical data for SEO and social media marketing strategies – measuring is he key to widespread corporate adoption. Really great post.
Without units of measurement it’s hard to experiment, and without experiments it’s hard to have data to drive conclusions. This is a sucky situation for the scientist in me. Recently, however, I’ve come across several sources of empirical, experimentally-sound data sources that do tell us how to be awesome at both SEO and social media.

Retailers use social media to advertise Black Friday deals
One in five shoppers plans to use social sites in their holiday shopping this season, according to Deloitte Research. Hundreds of Black Friday bargains from retailers such as diverse as OfficeMax and Old Navy already are being leaked on deal sites, even though the big sales blitz is still a couple weeks away.

Gen Y women share product and brand secrets via social media
Gen Y women actually are less likely to try something mentioned in a blog by professionals or subject experts (22%) vs. the 28% of a blog by someone they consider their peer. Gen X women appear to give them the same credit, 16% likely to try something new whether hearing from subject expert or random blogger. The original survey is here (“Why Y Women http://media.onsugar.com/static/imgs/WhyYWomen.pdf PDF)

Social Media Users Open to Branding, Marketing
After seeing an ad on a social media site, 34% of respondents have used a search engine to find information on a product, service, or brand; 30% say they have learned about a new product, service, or brand from a social media site.
Among Facebook users who have connected with a brand on the site:

• 46% say they are likely to talk about or recommend a product.
• 44% say they are likely to purchase a product.
• 37% say they are likely to link to an ad for a product.
• 27% say they are likely to post an ad for a product.

Business.com’s 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study
Nearly 65% of respondents reported using social media as part of their normal work routine,including reading blogs, visiting business profiles on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn or using Twitter to find information and/or communicate about business-related matters.