DreamGrow Social Media

Social Media and Young Adults

Pew Internet & American Life Project released a study about internet and social media use among Millennial generation by situating it within similar data for adolescents and adults older than 30. The data on teens is drawn from a survey conducted between June 26 and September 24, 2009 of 800 adolescents (ages 12 to 17). The adult data are drawn from a survey conducted between August 18 and September 14, 2009 of 2,253 adults (age 18 and over). Here are some of the key findings:

Blogging is down among young adults

• One of the findings is that young people are blogging less than they used to. 14% of online teens say they blog, down from 28% in 2006.
• Also the commenting activity is lower as 52% of teen social network users report commenting on friends’ blogs, down from the 76% who did so in 2006.
• In 2009 15% of internet users ages 18-29 maintain a blog —a 9% point drop in two years. However, 11% of internet users ages thirty and older now maintain a personal blog (7% in 2007).

Social networking sites’ usage numbers

• 73% of wired American teens use social networking websites. 55% of online teens used social networking sites in November 2006.
• 47% of online adults use social networking sites, up from 37% in November 2008.
• 72% of online 18-29 year olds use social networking websites, significantly higher than the 40% of internet users ages 30 and up who use these sites.
• Adults are increasingly fragmenting their social networking experience as a majority of those who use social networking sites – 52% say they have two or more different profiles.
• Among adult profile owners 73% have a Facebook profile, 48% have a MySpace profile and 14% have a profile on LinkedIn.

Teens are not using Twitter

• 8% of internet users ages 12-17 use Twitter. Older teens are more likely to use Twitter than their younger counterparts; 10% of online teens ages 14-17 do so, compared with 5% of those ages 12-13.
• Young adults lead the way when it comes to using Twitter or status updating. One-third of online 18-29 year olds post or read status updates.

Mobile

• Three-quarters of teens and 93% of adults ages 18-29 now have a cell phone.

Internet usage

• 93% of teens ages 12-17 and young adults ages 18-29 go online. 74% of all adults ages 18 and older go online.
• 48% of online teens have bought things online: books, clothing or music, up from 31% in 2000.

Image credit Bina Sveda

Social networking B2B vs. B2C

B2B companies who are using social networks are more active than B2C counterparts. This is most visible in microblogging, discussions on third-party sites, blogging and monitoring their social footprint on different sites. B2C companies are ahead in a few areas: social media advertising, user ratings and reviews, and online communities for customers and prospects.

Some pretty interesting stats from emarketer.com.

Resources: How to Use Social Media?

In my search for different cases of social media I have stumbled on a lot of lists about organizations using social media. To make them easier to find I post them all here for reference. Special thanks goes to Peter Kim for starting the huge list in A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples.

A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples. Pure gold! 1,140 examples at the time of this post. You can sort them by company name, type of social media, industry and country.

Ray Schiel’s list of uses of social media by category: online video, applications, widgets, social networks, blogging, podcasting, crowdsourcing, bookmarking and tagging, microblogging, photosharing, wiki, virtual worlds, mashup, word of mouth, pr, etc.

26 Social Media Marketing Examples in Detail on Ignite Social Media’s blog. 22 cases analyzed four more to go. This list goes deeper and gives an overview of what’s really happening.

Social Media Blogs Top 200. Learn from the gurus and improve. The list uses PageRank, FeedBurner, Alexa, and Technorati, the average number of comments for ranking.

The Top 50 Social Media Blogs Of The Year EvanCarmichael.com has created a list of great social media blogs.

15 Top Social Media Agencies. Who are the top dogs on the business. Learn guys. Social media companies can be research focused, software heavy, app developers, monitoring services or consulting firms. The social media agency is one that helps companies extend their brand and marketing through training, long term strategy, and execution.

It’ll take a lot of time to go through all that material but if you know a really good resourece then please add it in the comments.

Advertising spend on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent

Time spent on social network and blogging sites accounted for 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet in August 2009.

“This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used,” said Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen’s online division. “While video and text content remain central to the Web experience – the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth.”

Online Display Ad Spending on Top Social Network Sites More than Doubles in August 2009.  Year-over-year, estimated online advertising spend on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent, from approximately $49 million in August 2008 to approximately $108 million in August 2009. The share of estimated spend on these sites has also grown, increasing from a seven percent share of total online ad spend in August 2008 to a 15 percent share in August 2009. via Nielsen | Nielsen Reports 17 Percent Of Time Spent On The Internet In August Devoted.

Social Media Handbook for Local Red Cross Units

Social Media Handbook for Local Red Cross Units might come handy when creating your own social media game plan. So, read and use what parts you can. Handbook in Google Docs.