Archive for social media research
How Marketers Are Using Paid Social Media: New Research
Blogs Outrank Social Networks for Consumer Influence: New Research
9 Consumer Social Media Trends That Could Impact Marketers
Are you wondering how consumers are using social media?
Would you like some insights to help your business better understand people’s social habits?
In this article, I examine a report published by Edison Research focused on people’s latest social habits.
These findings provide useful insights about consumer behavior and how your business can respond.
Here are 9 of the most interesting findings from the study.
#1: Almost 58 million Americans Use Social Sites Daily
A social habit is the tendency to use social media sites several times a day. By mid-2012, the number of Americans with the social habit had risen to 22% (approximately 58 million people) from 18% in 2011.
The use of social media in America has increased almost five-fold since 2008.
A similar study by NM Incite provides further insight as to why people use social media. 89% do it to keep in touch with friends and family, 67% for entertainment, 66% to learn about products and services and 48% for career networking.
Key Takeaway: As consumers invest more time on social media sites, try to find new ways to connect and engage with consumers throughout the day. For example, post a short question on your Facebook Page in the morning, a helpful article in the afternoon and an interesting photo or brief video in the evening. And don’t forget weekends.
Remember too that consumers are interested in learning about your products and services, so showcase them and use appealing images and keyword-rich descriptions. Also consider introducing an e-commerce experience on your Facebook Page.
#2: Twitter Driving New and More Engaged Users
Twitter continued to draw new users by impressive numbers. 23% of consumers surveyed joined Twitter six months before, 30% joined less than a year before and another 25% joined less than two years before. The study also showed that engagement levels among Twitter users rose from 69% in 2011 to 76% in 2012.
Twitter is a magnet for attracting new users.
Key Takeaway: New Twitter users will not know whom to follow right away. Make it easy for them to follow your business and tweet useful resources and thoughtful tips that answer their questions, rather than tweeting promotional content.
This will also help establish you as a thought leader in your industry, particularly if your tweets are focused mostly on a specific subject.
#3: 40% of Americans Exposed to “Tweets” from Traditional Media
The study found that 43% of Americans hear or read about “tweets” almost every day in traditional media. Another 16% hear this term regularly, but not daily. TV shows such as CNN’s AC 360 and Piers Morgan Tonight are known for promoting and extending conversations to their Twitter platforms.
Americans are being exposed to Twitter terminology through traditional media.
Key takeaway: Every day, TV audiences are being heavily exposed to Twitter and the idea of tweeting. If your business advertises on TV (or is thinking about it), be sure to encourage your audience to take the conversation online in the form of tweets. Don’t forget to give viewers a unique hashtag to distinguish your brand.
To get your creative juices flowing, take a look at this stunning TV ad by American Express with numerous mentions of “tweets” and “Twitter.”
#4: Number of People Following Brands Doubles
This was an interesting discovery. Turns out that social media users are more interested in brands than ever before. In fact, brand-following behavior on social media sites increased by a respectable 17% in the last two years, and by 8% from 2011 to 2012. It’s likely that this trend will continue on the same upward path.
Interest in brands is actually growing among social media users across the board.
Key Takeaway: According to Get Satisfaction, the top reasons why users follow brands are to get free offers and deals, because they are existing customers, for interesting or entertaining content and because their friends are fans of the brand. Make sure the offers you make on your website are also promoted on your social media channels. For example free research reports, webinars or product giveaways.
Be creative and change up your offers every so often to keep things fresh and your fans engaged.
#5: Facebook Dominates for Brands
A whopping 79% of consumers prefer to connect with brands on Facebook, while only 9% prefer Twitter for brand-following. Why Facebook?
- Facebook is a familiar space. Consumers already spend a lot of time there connecting with friends and family; therefore, it’s a small effort on their part to connect with brands.
- Secondly, Facebook users are heavily influenced by their friends. If a friend likes a brand, they too will like a brand (remember “birds of a feather…”!).
- Finally, Facebook offers a more user-friendly and visually interesting interface than other platforms. This allows brands to leverage offers, giveaways, contests and other entertaining content in a more appealing way.
More consumers prefer to connect with brands on Facebook.
Key Takeaway: To increase the number of your Facebook fans, consider offering free gifts and entertaining content (or a combination of these). Otherwise you could also reward loyal fans and attract new ones by providing real value (i.e., 50% off or more—not 5% or 10%—according to Dave Kerpen of Likeable Media).
Again remember that contests and sweepstakes create a lot of excitement and energy, because the idea of shared opportunity spreads fast on Facebook.
#6: Young Facebook Users Have Lots of Friends
Notice from the graph that 18- to 24-year-old Facebook users have the highest number of friends, while more mature users have fewer friends. Keep in mind that “birds of a feather flock together,” so friends of fans tend to behave like actual fans on Facebook.
Younger users have more Facebook friends than mature users.
Key Takeaway: To increase your brand’s visibility on Facebook, don’t just target your fans, target their friends as well. Develop personas (or profiles) of your target audience and identify their demographics, interests, pain points, social behavior, etc.
This information will help you to create content that is highly optimized for them. Then create messages that are sharable, such as promotions that require voting (if a fan votes, their friends will be persuaded to vote as well). The idea is to get high visibility on your fans’ newsfeeds, thus encouraging interaction with their friends as well.
#7: Only One-Quarter of Social Networkers Use “Daily Deals” Sites
Generally the American population is not crazy about daily deals services such as Groupon or LivingSocial, and only 23% of social networkers are registered users of these sites. Numerous sources suggest that there’s a lot of buyer’s remorse associated with Groupon.
But now Amazon and Google have grabbed a piece of the daily deals business. It’ll be interesting to see how consumers respond to these brands over the next 12 months.
Daily deals are not drawing consumer attention as they did several years ago.
Key Takeaway: Unfortunately the entire Groupon business model has long been held in question. But from the consumer’s point of view, everyone still likes a good deal. If you’re using Groupon or Living Social, just be careful and make sure there is a profitable return for your business.
Otherwise you may want to reevaluate your goals to check whether this kind of model is still a good fit for you.
#8: One-Third of Social Media Users Do Not Interact
Most people like to engage (post status updates) on social media sites. However, 34% of users are silent for various reasons. According to TopRank Online Marketing Blog, some are lurkers (those who just sit tight and absorb information), while others are newbies who haven’t quite honed their online social skills.
A good number of social media users are listeners, not talkers.
Key Takeaway: Silent users such as lurkers and newbies may not interact with friends or brands, but they are listening and can be valuable connections for your business. If you notice lurkers among your followers, try to reach out directly to them via direct messages. They’ll be more likely to respond if you rouse them with a thought-provoking question or comment.
To draw out newbies, use the usual best practice of sharing tips, tricks and other helpful content. As they start to figure their way around, they’ll remember you for helping them along the way.
#9: People Are Checking in Less Frequently
Both Gowalla and Foursquare saw sharp declines in user activity in 2012. In fact, 57% of users said they “almost never” check in. Of course, Gowalla shut down in early 2012, but even with Foursquare still open for business, consumers started to opt out of the check-in craze due to privacy concerns, according to a study published on Mashable. Others did not consider badges or upgraded status to be sufficient motivation to check in.
The check-in craze is dying down due to privacy concerns.
Key Takeaway: If you use location-based marketing to promote your business, try using a combination of specials and discounts to encourage more clients. Because people are concerned about privacy and safety issues, your business will have to offer unrivaled deals for customers to give up their location. For example, “Check in with three friends and get four free drinks,” or “Mayor gets 35% off entire bill.”
Final Wrap-up
Marketers have a great opportunity to respond to these findings and develop strategies that appeal to changing consumer habits. Continue to focus on Facebook and Twitter as these platforms draw in new users. On the downside, be careful about using daily deals and location-based marketing because consumers are apprehensive about these services.
Over to you: What do you think? As a marketer, which of these social habits did you find most interesting? Please tell us why you think so and share your thoughts below.
How to Use Social Media for Customer Research
Looking for a low-cost way to conduct consumer research?
Social media can provide a free treasure trove of data about your customers.
With the right social media tools, you can learn what questions your customers have and which types of content they’re sharing.
This information will help you answer their questions, solve their problems and define your social media and content strategies.
In this post, you’ll learn how to quickly conduct research on social media and put it into action.
Find Out What Questions Your Customers Are Asking
Hearing the questions your prospective customers are asking and problems they’re facing can help you find new customers, support existing ones and outline a content strategy that will appeal to both.
The best products solve problems. If you can solve someone’s problem, they’ll be much more likely to check out your products, because they already trust you as an expert.
Here are three places to easily find which types of questions are being asked.
Twitter Search is the perfect place to start looking for customer questions. Just search Twitter for your topic or niche and include a “?” in the search.
For example, searches for “Facebook marketing ?” or “yoga ?” will return any tweet with those keywords and a question mark.
Twitter's advanced search can surface users' questions on any topic.
From here, you can answer Twitter users’ questions with your industry expertise. Remember to be helpful, not self-promotional.
You’ll also find people with problems that your product or service can solve. In those cases, feel free to suggest your product. Make sure to provide helpful information, including why your solution is best.
Quora is the highest-quality question and answer (Q&A) site online. Technology and startups were the first topics to gain traction, but Quora now has great content on everything from cooking to film.
To see how Quora works, start by typing a question into the search bar. You’ll see previous questions that match yours as well as a link to add a new question. Just click on an existing question for an example of how the site works.
You can type questions directly into Quora's search bar.
Next, type your business’s main keyword or niche into the search bar and find the most relevant topic, not question.
Search for a topic on Quora to find all of the related questions.
Click that topic to navigate to the topic page. From here, you’ll see all of the questions on a given subject. You can read answers from other users, contribute your own, follow the topic on Quora or set up an RSS feed of questions.
To set up an RSS feed, just add “/rss” to the end of the URL. For example, the topic page for yoga is http://www.quora.com/Yoga. The RSS feed for this page is http://www.quora.com/Yoga/rss. Now you can automatically monitor a Quora topic from your RSS feed reader and contribute where appropriate.
The questions you find here can help you define your business offering and improve your marketing strategies.
LinkedIn Answers may be the best social media research site for B2B companies. The Q&A section of LinkedIn’s site has over 20 categories of questions including Business Travel, Management and Technology.
Use LinkedIn to answer business questions and find B2B customers.
As on Quora, you can see who has answered each question and click on their profile to learn more about them.
You can answer questions publicly or reply privately. Make sure to provide a useful, topical answer. If you don’t, your answer may be flagged as an advertisement or connection-building spam.
LinkedIn Answers has a scoring system called Expertise. Whenever a questioner chooses your answer as the best one, you gain expertise points. With enough points, you will rank on a category’s Experts chart.
Getting ranked as an expert will help users interested in that category find you. Don’t answer questions just for the points. Contributing helpful information and providing a great answer is the best way to market your business on LinkedIn.
Find Out What Content Your Customers Are Sharing
Your social media content strategy should be driven by the overlap between your expertise and your customers’ needs and interests.
By learning which types of content your customers are sharing, you can create content that will get shared. I’m not suggesting that you copy content. Instead, you should take inspiration from the type and tone of the most shared content.
Are people sharing how-to blog posts, funny memes or instructional videos? Is the most shared content authoritative or friendly and conversational?
With this research, you’ll learn what your audience is most interested in sharing and understand the type of content you need to create.
Here are three places to easily find which types of content are being shared.
Start by browsing all of the tweets for your target keywords. Observe how people are talking about your niche and what they’re sharing. Do you see a lot of links? Tweets with photos attached? Remember that Twitter skews towards sharing article links.
You can focus on just the content people are linking to using Twitter’s advanced search. Add “filter:links” to the end of your search query. For example, search for “yoga filter:links” to see all tweets containing the word yoga and a link.
Using Twitter's advanced search, you can filter for tweets containing a link.
Using the Discover tab, you can find the top content among the Twitter users you follow. If you’re following users in your target market, you’ll see the most popular news articles and blog posts.
A sample story from Twitter's Discover tab shows an article that was tweeted by five different accounts.
The Discover tab is a great way to stay up to date with the latest news in your industry. Being current will help you produce timely, shareable content for your followers. Make sure to comment on this news and offer your perspective.
If you’re not already following users in your niche, you can find accounts to follow on WeFollow or Listorious.
Pinterest, the online pinboard, is a great source of visual inspiration. You’ll be able to see which types of images are repinned and liked the most. Depending on your topic, you may find photographs, graphics, instructions, cartoons or memes to be the most popular medium.
Then you can create images for Pinterest or other visual social networks like Tumblr or Facebook.
The Pinterest home page will show you the most popular content, regardless of topic. This view is helpful for understanding what works across Pinterest, but it doesn’t show you what’s best for your niche.
For more specific content, use the Categories menu to view popular pins in the most relevant vertical. Even if a category is too broad for your business, you’ll start to see what works for your type of customer.
Choose one of Pinterest's categories to find popular content. Categories include everything from Geek to Tattoos to Weddings.
For the most accurate view, search for your keywords to see the most popular and relevant pins.
Search for your keywords on Pinterest to find out which types of pins are the most popular.
Searching for popular pieces of content is more difficult on Facebook than on Twitter or Pinterest. Facebook does offer a search option for public posts, but they aren’t sorted by popularity.
Instead, you’ll need to go directly to the Facebook pages of your competitors and other businesses, publications and organizations in your industry. You only need to focus on pages with lots of fans because they’ll have enough data to see popularity trends.
Browse the top Facebook pages in your niche to see which posts are liked, commented on and shared the most. If you don’t know much about the competition, find one or two pages that you do know. Then see which pages they like. You’ll find these likes in a box near the top right column of the page’s Timeline.
Find related Facebook pages by browsing the Likes box near the top right of any page's Timeline.
Look closely at the most shared content on 5-10 pages covering the same content as you. Are image posts being shared? Are fans responding to question posts? See which types of content are working best. Then create your own based on what people like.
Social network monitoring is the easiest way to learn more about your target customers. By seeing what questions they’re asking and what content they’re sharing, you can offer support, establish yourself as an industry expert, define your social media strategy and improve your products.
What do you think? How do you use social media to learn more about your customers? Share your experience in the comments box below.
The Science of Facebook Engagement
Canadian Execs Divided on Value of Social Media, but Plan to Keep Spending
How B2B Marketers Use Social Media: New Research
Do you primarily market to other businesses?
Are you wondering, “How does social media work differently for B2B businesses?”
In the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Mike Stelzner asked marketers how they’re using social media.
More than 1900 business-to-business (B2B) marketers shared their insights on what’s working with social media marketing and where they’d like to improve.
In this article I’m going to focus on those areas where B2B marketers have significantly different experiences than their consumer-focused counterparts.
Let’s dig in.
B2B Marketers Show Confidence in Social Media
Of the B2B marketers who took this year’s survey, over 93% use social media to market their businesses. While that’s slightly below their consumer-focused brethren (95.2%), there’s been a significant increase since the 2010 survey when only 88% of B2B marketers responded affirmatively.
Just over 93% of B2B marketers are using social media for marketing purposes (slightly behind B2C marketers).
B2B Marketers Have More Experience
Based on the results of this survey, marketers from B2B brands are more likely to have 3 or more years’ experience than their B2C counterparts (18% of B2B vs. 14% of B2C).
B2B marketers bring more long-term experience to social media marketing than B2C, but lag behind slightly in the 1- to 3-year category.
Social Media Is Getting Results
When asked about the benefits of social media marketing, B2B marketers noted the following:
- Over 56% of B2B marketers acquired new business partnerships through social media (compared to 45% of B2C marketers)
- Nearly 60% of B2B marketers saw improved search rankings from their social efforts (compared to 50% of B2C marketers)
- B2B marketers are more able to gather marketplace insights from their social efforts (nearly 69% vs. 60% of B2C marketers)
- The one area where B2B marketers significantly lag behind their B2C counterparts is in developing a loyal fan base. 63% of B2C marketers found social media helped them develop loyal fans, compared to only 53% of B2B marketers.
Observation:
It’s worth considering why more businesses aren’t seeing a direct correlation between their social media efforts and increased sales or reduced marketing expenses. It likely ties back to the #1 question marketers want answered: “How do I measure the effect of social media marketing on my business?”
This question was asked by over 20% of those surveyed. Businesses won’t know if they are seeing results if they don’t know how to measure their efforts.
For some ideas on this, see Nichole Kelly’s article called 5 Tips for Moving Social Media Leads into the Sales Funnel.
What Tools Do B2B Marketers Use?
While almost all B2C marketers (over 96%) use Facebook as a marketing tool, a significantly fewer 87% of B2B brands do the same according to this study. This barely surpasses the adoption of LinkedIn (86.6%) and Twitter (84%).
B2B marketers are also more likely to use blogs (65% vs. 57%) and Google+ (44% vs. 36%).
B2B marketers use Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and Google+ more than B2C marketers.
Observation:
I recently wrote an article showing how pervasively Facebook has penetrated the social media market. Given this, it may seem surprising to see B2B marketers valuing other platforms so highly, but these experienced marketers clearly understand where their target audience spends their time.
Do you know where your audience hangs out online?
Where Will B2B Marketers Invest More Time?
There is little difference in how B2B and B2C marketers will increase their time investment except when it comes to Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging.
In 2012, B2B marketers are far more likely to increase their use of LinkedIn. In fact, over 76% of B2B marketers will increase their use, compared to only 55% of B2C marketers. These are both increases from 2011 (71% of B2B and 51% of B2C).
71% of B2B marketers plan to invest more time in blogging (compared to 65% of B2C marketers).
A significant majority of marketers will increase their use of Facebook this year, but B2B marketers (68%) lag behind B2C companies (76%).
What Do B2B Marketers Want to Learn?
If you offer educational products or consulting for B2B marketers, you’ll be interested to know that B2B marketers want to learn about Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter, in that order. Only in the case of LinkedIn does their interest surpass that of B2C marketers (56% of B2B vs. 50% of B2C).
The top topics B2B marketers want to learn about (compared to B2C) are:
- Measuring effectiveness of social media (77% vs. 78%)
- Converting activities to sales (72% vs. 69%)
- Discovering best social media tactics (69% vs. 74%)
Only in the case of converting activities to sales do B2B marketers exceed B2C marketers in their desire to learn.
Other Forms of B2B Marketing
It has been properly noted that many other marketing tools (like event marketing) are very social. Social media didn’t suddenly make marketers social. Nor does it replace such valuable tools as email and search engine optimization.
Heidi Cohen quips that we couldn’t have social media without email; how else would you log in to all of these platforms?
That understood, B2B marketers have a somewhat different experience marketing outside of social media. Only in the areas of email and press releases do they invest similarly.
B2B marketers are significantly more likely to use search engine optimization (67% vs. 62% of B2C), event marketing (68% vs. 60%) and webinars (28% vs. 12%).
B2B marketers are much less likely to use direct mail (37% vs. 45%), online ads (33% vs. 43%), sponsorships (25% vs. 31%), television ads (4% vs. 17%), radio ads (8% vs. 25%), and print display ads (25% vs. 47%).
B2B marketers have very different marketing strategies outside of social media.
In terms of future plans for these platforms, B2B marketers plan to increase their use of search engine optimization (69%), event marketing (62%) and email (61%). These are similar to B2C marketers’ responses, except that event marketing is far less important for B2C (51%).
Businesses Are Social Too
In studying history, one can see countless mistakes made by governments and businesses when they forget to view citizens and employees as human beings. In social media marketing it’s important to remember that other businesses are comprised of real people who behave socially (online and offline).
As demonstrated by this year’s industry report, many B2B marketers have found ways to connect with their audiences. How is it going for you?
What do you think? Please share your experiences and questions in the box below.
People don’t like to be measured, they like to be valued…
2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report
Are you wondering how your peers are using social media?
Wondering if you should focus on Google+ or Pinterest?
In our fourth annual social media study, more than 3800 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, how much time they invest and what the rewards are.
Here’s a Preview
Watch this quick video overview:
To understand how marketers are using social media, Social Media Examiner conducted its fourth annual 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report.
We set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing with this report.
A significant 3800 marketers provided valuable insight you won’t find elsewhere.
In this free report, you’ll discover:
- What social networks marketers will focus on in the future
- The top 10 social media questions marketers want answered
- How much time marketers invest with social media activities
- The top benefits of social media marketing and how time invested affects results
- The most used social media tools and services
- Activities social media marketers are outsourcing
- And much more!
If you’re responsible for marketing your business, you’ll want to closely analyze the pages of this free 42-page report and use it to persuade others.
Download Now
This report is free and available for immediate download until April 19.
Remember, the nature of social media is to “share,” so if you like the report, please let your peers know about it.
>> Download the report here (see instructions below). Alternatively, view the report in Scribd.
NOTE: Having trouble downloading? The file is large and may not display properly in some browsers. Try following the directions below (note that the words in the menus may vary by browser):
Michael can be reached at report@socialmediaexaminer.com.
What do you think about these findings? Please share your comments in the box below.
5 Social Media Tips for Finding and Engaging Your Target Audience: New Research
Do you know where your customers and prospects spend time online?
Marketers have long relied on market research to determine where to spend their advertising dollars on television, radio and print advertisements.
In the last few years, research organizations have begun providing intelligence on how consumers behave on social networks.
The following article is based on new social media research studies.
These findings will help you better strategize your company’s social efforts to match your customers’ behaviors.
#1: Know Where Your Customers Spend Their Time
Three recent research studies show active Internet users spend anywhere from 16% to nearly 25% of their online time on social networks.
In comScore’s 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, researchers found that 90% of all U.S. Internet users visited social networking sites in December 2011. Additionally, consumers are spending 1 out of every 6 online minutes on social networks (16.6%). That’s up from less than 15% at the end of 2010.
If trends continue, social networks will soon surpass Internet portals like AOL and Yahoo!
Nielsen recently released the State of the Media: U.S. Digital Consumption Report, Q3-Q4 2011. The study found Internet users spend 21.3% of their time on social networking sites. This report shows a much smaller percentage of time spent on Internet portals like Yahoo!
Note the significant differences between this Nielsen study and comScore's.
PQ Media found the average U.S. Internet user spends around 33 hours per month on the Internet and about 8 of those hours on social media.
These researchers didn’t disclose their methodologies, so we can’t explain why the results differ so dramatically, though I imagine it’s due to how they defined some of their terms. That said, all three reports show an upward trend in the volume and percentage of time spent on social networks.
Key Lesson:
Your online customers are spending significant amounts of time on social networks. While the average person might only spend 15-30 minutes per day, many people spend multiple hours each week. Your strategic marketing plan should include a steady dose of social media along with email and other marketing strategies that reach your target audience.
#2: Find Content That Will Resonate Deeply With Your Audience
The comScore graphic above shows an upward trend in online entertainment consumption. Given the growing numbers of consumers ages 18-34 who watch videos and engage on social networks simultaneously, it is important for marketers to become skilled at engaging in conversations about hot cultural topics seen in the entertainment industry.
Nielsen’s study revealed that owners of mobile devices are increasingly multi-tasking while watching a TV program. While the majority of people check their email, a significant 44% also visit social sites.
Nielsen shows what people do on their mobile devices during a TV program.
The top two sites visited while watching TV are the social sites Facebook and YouTube. This paints an interesting picture of people watching YouTube videos while also watching a TV program. It suggests that people want to be engaged.
Nielsen also revealed the top 10 sites mobile users visit while watching TV.
What if your brand could engage people in conversations about popular TV shows, movies or sporting events while they are watching it? What if your brand became a trusted thought leader on a hot cultural topic?
I’d like to introduce you to someone who did just that. While he stumbled upon this, maybe you could proactively learn from his experience.
Case Study
Meet Cliff Ravenscraft, also known as the Podcast Answer Man. In 2006, Cliff decided to start a podcast about the TV show Lost. He did this as a personal hobby, but quickly discovered the enormous social power of podcasting when he had over 15,000 subscribers after his third episode.
As the Podcast Answer Man, Cliff provides training and assistance to podcasters of all experience levels.
Cliff has learned to match his personal interests in technology, television, books and faith with things that attract his growing audience.
For instance, he started a podcast on the popular young-adult books series, The Hunger Games, which has grown an audience of over 15,000 subscribers. He expects that number to double or triple after the movie is released in late March 2012.
Now that he has built a massive audience listening to his more than 20 weekly podcasts, he can promote the products and services he has for sale. Some of his audience members make purchases, but most keep coming back just because they care about the content he is sharing.
What if you could build a massive audience by tapping into the things you and your target audience both care about? That’s what can happen as you become a student of culture and your audience’s preferences and interests.
TIP: Your employees and friends may be some of your best research assistants in this quest.
#3: Focus on Facebook—It’s Where Consumers Spend Most of Their Online Social Time
We’ve known Facebook is the biggest social media site in terms of monthly active users (last published as 845 million). But comScore’s study shows Facebook dominates in two other ways.
First, Facebook is the premier player among all web properties in terms of time spent—and that means engagement.
Google exceeds Facebook for monthly unique visitors, but Facebook wins the engagement game.
Second, when compared with other social media platforms, Facebook has achieved an even more impressive percentage of mindshare. Facebook captures 14.6% of Internet users’ time compared to a combined 2% for all other social networking sites. Facebook also captures 16% of all page views.
Facebook's level of engagement has progressively exceeded all other social platforms.
The rise of Twitter and LinkedIn as the second and third most visited social networking sites is evidenced by another comScore graphic. Equally revealing are the rapid decline of MySpace and the ascendance of Google+ and Pinterest. (It should be noted that social sites like Twitter and Google+ likely get significant engagement through mobile devices, third-party apps and other forms of content.)
In just 12 months, MySpace fell from second place to fourth and appears on a further decline.
To highlight the engagement issue even more, comScore shows how Facebook keeps the average user onsite for 7 hours each month. Tumblr and Pinterest have also successfully engaged their users by keeping them onsite for more than an hour each.
Tumblr and Pinterest are the only second-tier sites to successfully keep users onsite for more than 60 minutes each month.
A final sign that Facebook is getting more eyeballs comes through comScore’s findings about display advertising.
Facebook ads receive more than twice as many impressions as Yahoo! sites and eight times more than Google sites.
Key Lessons:
- If your goal is to engage your customers through social networks, you would be wise to invest in Facebook (and keep your eye on Pinterest, and maybe Tumblr, depending on your demographic);
- Even though Facebook’s engagement numbers are impressive, if your customers are spending their time on LinkedIn or Twitter, that’s where you should be;
- If you’re buying online ads, consider the power of Facebook’s display network. If you’re looking for ideas on how to increase engagement on Facebook, check out this Facebook article by Jim Belosic.
#4: It’s Time to Take Video Seriously
Americans are watching increasing numbers of videos online. According to comScore, this number has jumped over 43% to 100 million daily views (that’s roughly one-third of the U.S. population watching a video online each day).
More Americans are watching a growing number of videos online.
Of the 43.5 billion videos viewed in December 2011, over half of those were on Google properties (21.9 billion), primarily YouTube.
With the advent of long-form video content online through vendors like Netflix and Hulu, there’s been an increase in how long users will watch a video from 5 minutes to nearly 6 minutes. This may open the door for marketers looking to produce edutainment videos (combining education and entertainment to produce engaging videos that keep people watching).
The way people watch videos is changing with the advent of mobile phones, notebooks and gaming systems. These differences are especially pronounced in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.
For example, Nielsen found that someone from the Asia/Pacific region is more than twice as likely to watch a video on a mobile device as a North American. However, a European is half as likely to watch on a mobile device as the average global consumer.
Nielsen found users from the Asia/Pacific region exceed global averages in all four categories of video consumption.
Learn From the Best
Many companies are using video channels well, but many small- and medium-sized businesses have yet to embrace this powerful platform.
I like what Whole Foods has done by creating over 500 videos that have been seen by over 2.8 million people. They provide a wide variety of videos including how-to’s and a funny organic love story series. None of these require professional videography skills. All you need is just a bit of training on how to use YouTube to drive traffic to your website.
Be sure to watch the funny Organic Love Story video from Valentine's Day (already their most popular video after only 3 weeks).
#5: Consider the Role of Mobile
PQ Media found that 100 million U.S. users access the Internet through smartphones, with 60% of those being business end-users. comScore determined that 8% of all Internet traffic comes from mobile devices.
The time spent on social networks through mobile devices is relatively low (around 5%), but the numbers are still significant. For example, Facebook found that 423 million unique visitors accessed their site in December 2011 through mobile devices.
Nielsen compared how men and women differ in how they access social networking sites. Aside from the obvious choice of computers, mobile phones take second place with women being 10% more likely to access social sites on their phones.
The impact of gender on how users access social sites.
Mobile devices are changing the landscape of retail sales. Shoppers can compare prices, read reviews and get real-time opinions from their friends through social media channels all while on their smartphones. Smart marketers will take this into account when creating content and finding ways to engage customers.
Key Lessons:
- Be sure your website is mobile-optimized;
- Create content that is easy to consume and respond to via mobile devices (shorter responses are better);
- If your audience is business-oriented or located in the Asia/Pacific region, make sure to develop a mobile strategy.
Now it’s Your Turn
What do you think? How does this research inform or inspire your social media plans for the next quarter? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.
