DreamGrow Social Media

Social Media Weekend: TED Videos, News Readers, Evangelist, Career

5 Insightful TED Talks on Social Media. The best part of the TED conferences is that videos of the talks are archived and free to view right on the website. Mashable highlights a few recent and exceptional talks from TED’s past, with a focus on social media.

Facebook Largest News Reader? Last week, Google Reader accounted for .01% of upstream visits to News and Media websites, about the same level as a year ago. Google News accounted for 1.39% of visits and Facebook 3.52%.

Turn your employees into social media ambassadors. Develop a policy that outlines corporate guidelines for communicating in the online world. Encourage management to actively spread the message through social media.

Social Media Consulting vs Viral Advertising: Can All ‘Creatives’ Please Go Back to the 80s. Social Media consulting is not an opportunity to go wild with creative-led, viral-inspired, 60-second advertising. A virus is an illness – much like a Social Media plan without a stack of analytics to back it up and a deep understanding of how Social tools actually work and why people use them.

33 Signals Of An Alpha Social Media Evangelist. What are the key characteristics of all social media evangelists? What make them stand out from the crowd and march toward the “alpha” category?

4 Essential Traits for Social Media Success in Your Career. Want to know what it takes to start, and develop, a successful career path in the realm of social media?

Study: Spending On Email, Social And Search Rising. Email service provider ExactTarget released a study this week showing marketers plan to boost spending in email, social media and other non-traditional outreach channels this year.

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

Study: Students would have technology before people

A study released by Twix, showed students would rather give up their significant other than technology when taking a study break.

This may seem shocking to some. I would argue that this is a very reasonable choice. This is not really people versus technology. Technology helps me to connect and interact with hundreds of people.

I would say that the question is really would you give up connecting to all of your friends or one of your friends. In this case isolating yourself from everybody in favor of one significant other would not seem as a good alternative.

Study shows that two thirds of students would choose a network over one node.

Melinda Messineo, associate professor of sociology at Ball State, said that social networking plays a part in results from this study.

Students can most likely stand not talking to one person, as long as they can maintain a connection with others through social networks.

Other findings from the study:

• Two in five named the Internet/social media as the number one thing they couldn’t live without at college
• Little more than half of their daily interactions (55 percent) are in-person.
• Today 74 percent of students arrive at college more focused on getting a job after graduation than students 10 (58 percent), 20 (56 percent) and 30 (55 percent) years ago.
• Current students are seven times more likely to reach for their computers (63 percent) than the remote (8 percent); 10 years ago they were twice as likely (54 percent; 28 percent).

On the other hand, when looking at picture I chose to illustrate this post, it also depends on the significant other. Image credit Alek von Felkerzam

Research: Student Grades Not Affected By Social Networking

The study “Social Networking Usage and Grades Among College Students” (PDF) finds that students who heavily engage in social networking do just as well academically as students who are less interested in keeping in touch with the medium.

The study indicates that social media is being integrated with rather than interfering with students’ academic lives. College students have grown up with social networks, and the study shows they are now simply part of how students interact with each other with no apparent impact on grades. – UNH adjunct professor Chuck Martin

It seems that most of the time that is used for social networks comes from TV, idle surfing, and gaming. This way the time spent on social networking sites could be said to be a “higher quality” activity. The time for studying and other important thing stays the same.

The research shows that there is no correlation between the amount of time students spend using social media and their grades. Grades followed similar distributions for all colleges.

63% of heavy users received high grades, compared to 65% of light users. 37% of heavy users of social media received what were defined as lower grades and 35% of light users fell into same category.

The study showed that Facebook and YouTube are the most popular social media sites, with 96% of students saying they use Facebook and 84% saying they use YouTube. 20% said they use blogs, 14% use Twitter, 12% use MySpace and 10% use LinkedIn.

89% of students use social networks for social reasons and 79% use them for entertainment. 26% of students use social media for educational reasons and 16% for professional reasons.
_________
Image credit Mary Gober

Online Communities: A Longitudinal Analysis of Communication Activities

An interesting study (PDF) from way back discusses how community size and activities reflect the healt of that community. It is from 2003, but in th light of recent social media explosion this isa very useful material.

Another piece of interesting research is Membership Size, Communication Activity, and Sustainability: A Resource-Based Model of Online Social Structures PDF. It is even older than the first one but still has a lot of relevant suff in it.

There is an increasing interest in the factors underljdng the development of online social structures. It has been proposed that these structures are new forms of organizing which are not subject to the same constraints as traditional social structures.

Drawing from prior studies of traditional social structures and empirical analyses of longitudinal data from a sample of Internet-based groups, this exploratory work considers the role of size and communication activity in sustainable online social structures.

Social media weekend: Women, ROI, Social Sales

Another installment of resources for people who just can’t let go of social media.

Identification of Influencers Increases Campaign Effectiveness by 50%. Vibrant customer communities enable companies to identify their most influenctial customers through behavioral profiling and social network analysis (SNA) techniques, and are therefore vital tools not only for their immediate benefits in member-driven support, promotion, and innovation, but as a means for attracting customers to serve as influencers in future marketing campaigns. Here’s the PDF(http://www.lithium.com/pdfs/whitepapers/Building-Customer-Networks-for-Successful-Word-of-Mouth-Marketing_DNn9P5Hp.pdf).

US Women in Social Networks, 2nd Annual Social Media Study (PDF). 86% of women have a profile on a social networking website, up 48% since last year. This increase is even greater for older women (126%), whose participation grew from 31% to 70%. Women under 30 boast a 96% participation rate on social networks. Facebook overshadows all other social networking websites.

2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study (PDF). Business.com’s 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study was designed to assess current trends in the use of social media in North American businesses. Based on 2,948 valid responses to our online Business Social Media Benchmarking Survey during August and early September, 2009, the results provide a very useful benchmark for where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social media across different activities and sites. Registration page, if PDF does’nt work.

Dell drives $6.5 million in revenue from Twitter. @DellOutlet is now close to 1.5 million followers on Twitter, and back in June we indicated that @DellOutlet earned $3 million in revenue from Twitter. Today it’s not just Dell Outlet having success connecting with customers on Twitter. In total, Dell’s global reach on Twitter has resulted in more than $6.5 million in revenue.

The Art of Social Sales: Sales 2.0 Strategies in 5 Industries. Learn how high-tech, non-profits, retail, sports and telcos leverage new strategies to engage with customers. Develop strategies to use social networks to generate leads and cultivate relationships. Learn how companies like newScale and ConnectandSell are using LinkedIn and Twitter. Participate in the conversations that your newly empowered consumers are having.

Marketing Shifts: By 2014, Interactive Spend Hits $55 Bil. Interactive marketing will approach $55 billion and will represent 21% of all marketing spend in 2014 — benefiting from search, online display, email marketing, social media and mobile marketing, per Forrester’s Interactive Marketing Forecast. I believ this number to be much higher as we factor in other budgets that are connected to e-channels: salaries and IT.
________
Image credit: Ivan Petrov

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.

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.

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.

Successful strategies for marketing in the social networking platform?

What are the differences in online and offline advertising and marketing. Why do campaigns fall on their faces when marketeers are trying to use old strategies in new channels. This excellent paper looks at the social component and tries to find key points to achieve success in social marketing.

It is clear that social networking marketing is very different from traditional marketing. In fact, online and offline advertising are two different fields. One cannot use the old model of advertising in the new landscape.

In this 162 page paper by Weng Wah Wong looks into online advertising, social advertising in the social media environment. The main question of the research is “What strategies can be successfully employed by advertising and marketing practitioners within the social networking platform?”

To address the main question three sub-questions were answered:

• What elements do current social marketing campaigns exhibit?
  A social marketing campaign exhibits five types of characteristics which are participation, openness, conversation, community and connectedness
• What elements make marketing with social networking unique and different from other forms of online advertising?
  The flexibility, the precision targeting and the viral element that is in built in a social networking site are the main reasons that make marketing with social networking unique and different. It allows brands to target specifically to their target audience while no other forms of online advertising can provide such accuracy. Harnessing on the social power of recommendations, the consumer no longer hears only from the brand but hears the brand message through friends which increases the credibility and trust of consumer and the brand.
• What strategies can be devised to enable advertisers to maximize success on the social networking platform?
  An integrated campaign, offline and online will be the most strategic strategies that will maximize their success on the social networking platforms because it reaches the consumer through all touch points and driving traffic to the web through offline activities and online activities. In order for the web strategies to work, advertisers need to understand their consumer and learn how to interact and engage with the consumers without being intrusive. Successfully executing this will allow the brand message to be passed along (that is, by word of mouth).

The research is from 2008 but not to worry, the findings are still valid and probably will be for some time. You can find the full paper in Scribd.