DreamGrow Social Media

Top Social Brands of 2009

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all? Today I came accross a list of 100 top social brands of 2009 put together by a social media management company Vitrue. The top 10 is…

1. iPhone
2. Disney
3. CNN
4. MTV
5. NBA
6. iTunes
7. Wii
8. Apple
9. Xbox
10. Nike

…and it looks weird. I really couldn’t put my finger on it but then I read that:

Some powerhouse technology brands were omitted from the list as they provide the backbone of many social networks. While Google, Facebook and others are top brands, The Vitrue 100 is measuring companies that are using social technology, not those who are the technology.

So you have to take that with a grain of salt. A list of social brands that excludes Google, Facebook, Youtube, Ophra, etc. So I started to look for a second opinion. It wasn’t too hard to find Social Radar Top 50 Social Brands of 2009. Their top 10 is a bit more believable (at least for me).

1. Twitter
2. Google
3. Facebook
4. iPhone
5. YouTube
6. Obama
7. Mac
8. Apple
9. iPod
10. Microsoft

Maybe it is my tech bias or something else but this list seems more in step with my understanding of top social brands. So what do you think?
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Image credit Melodi T

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

Iconic: Michael Jackson tops Amazon – totally

This is a brand that’s relevant to a lot of people. I don’t think we are going to see anything like that any time soon or ever. After Michael Jackson’s death he’s albums have taken up a lot of space space on Amazon. 19 of the 25 top selling albums.

Click on the image to enlarge.