December 4th, 2007 by admin
It’s commonly thought that with the success of sites like MySpace and Facebook, the U.S. is the hub of social networking activity. However, Asia is not only the fastest-growing region for social networking, it is also the largest:
By contrast, fewer Latin Americans visit social networking sites, but are much more engaged:
Each region has a different leader as measured by total time spent. Friendster, for example, was once a pioneer in the U.S. but now attracts a relatively small U.S. audience (North Americans spent 4.4 million hours on Friendster in August 2007 - seventh overall in North America - versus MySpace’s leading 223.1 million hours). However, people in Asia spend more time on Friendster than any other social networking site.
If you are a global marketer, there’s a great opportunity to capitalize on the rapid adoption of social networking sites outside of the U.S. But you’re going to have to ‘get local’ and understand which sites will maximize your reach in a particular region.
http://www.comscore.com/blog/2007/10/consumer_trends_in_social_netw.html
December 4th, 2007 by admin
What the comScore data reveal is that MySpace is far more developed as an advertising platform than Facebook – along a variety of dimensions. For example, in September MySpace attracted 68.4 million unique visitors, 2.2 times the 30.6 million that visited Facebook. But, MySpace visitors also consumed 1.4 times more pages per visitor and MySpace delivered 2.2 times more ads on each page viewed (with each ad being about twice the size of the ads run on Facebook). Cumulatively, this translates into MySpace delivering 6.6 times more display ad views than Facebook.
Clearly, these data point to the huge upside that exists for Facebook to increase its advertising business relative to MySpace by continuing to build its user base (Facebook unique visitors in September were up 129% versus year ago while MySpace increased by a slower 23%) and by increasing the number of ads they’re delivering per page viewed. Of course, it can be expected that, as the number of ads delivered on Facebook increases, astute marketers will also begin paying more attention to changes in the “share of advertising views” that they’re getting within their particular product category and target audience to see if their “share of voice” is declining.
October 1st, 2007 by admin
More than half of the executives surveyed say they are pleased with the results of their investments in Internet technologies over the past five years, and nearly three-quarters say that their companies plan to maintain or increase investments in Web 2.0 technologies in coming years.
Among the executives familiar with the nine Web 2.0 trends cited in this survey more than three-fourths say that their companies are already investing in one or more of these trends. The most frequently cited investment is Web services, being used or considered by 80% of the respondents familiar with the tools. Peer-to-peer networking also is popular; 47% say they are using or considering it.
Why Web 2.0?
Executives say they are using Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with customers and business partners and to encourage collaboration inside the company. 70% say they are using some combination of these technologies for communicating with their customers. For example, about 1/5 of them say they are using blogs to improve customer service or solicit customer feedback.
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?L2=16&L3=16&ar=1913&pagenum=1
October 1st, 2007 by admin
Kind of interesting look at the social web, based on estimated market value and Alexa reach.
August 20th, 2007 by admin
The 18 million US college students that head back to campus this fall will be the most wired yet. Some 17.1 million of them, or 95%, will use the Internet at least once a month, and their time spent online was measured in hours per day–not per week.
I’m confused… who are these 5% of college students who AREN’T online? I’ve been out of college for a few years now and I was FULLY wired throughout my entire collegiate career. How can a college student get away with not getting online at least once in a month? With Facebook’s penetration into the collegians around 90%, it’s seems like crazy talk to me that there would be such a high percent of college students who use the web so infrequently.
Social networking is an essential part of campus life. So much so that even parents, professors and future employers are signing up. On many campuses, upward of 80% of students use social networking sites on a regular basis.
In light of their strong use of social networks, college students are a key audience for online word-of-mouth marketing efforts. In addition, they are more likely than the rest of the population to use online video and user-generated content such as blogs.
August 14th, 2007 by admin
Pretty cool stuff.
August 14th, 2007 by admin
A new study released today by the National School Boards Association shows that 96 percent of students with online access use social networking technologies - defined as as chatting, text messaging, blogging, and visiting online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, and Webkinz. 81 percent say they have visited a social networking Web site within the past three months and 71 percent say they use social networking tools at least weekly. The report also claims that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education. Nearly 60 percent of online students report discussing education-related topics such as college or college planning, learning outside of school, and careers. And 50 percent of online students say they talk specifically about schoolwork.The study also shows that students are engaging in creative activities on social networking internet sites; including writing, art, and contributing to collaborative online projects “whether or not these activities are related to schoolwork”. Almost half of students (49 percent) say that they have uploaded pictures they have made or photos they have taken, and more than one in five students (22 percent) report that they have uploaded video they have created. Those figures are “at some point”. The weekly figures are shown in the graph below and suggest that it’s probably 1/4 or less of students who do creative activities online at least once a week.
What the NSBA data shows - see the report for the full details - is that US teens and tweens are not “passive couch potatoes online”, as the report put it. This generation is very participative and creative online. Or at least growing more creative as time goes on and the Internet becomes more pervasive.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/nsba_study_shows_that_online_creativity_increasing.php
education-and-social-networks.pdf
August 14th, 2007 by admin
August 14th, 2007 by admin
Forget the stereotype of Facebook as being for college kids. Really, it’s for Canadians. Toronto is the #1 local network by number of Facebook members; Vancouver, #3. Calgary, Montreal, Edmonton, and Halifax round out the top 20.
http://valleywag.com/tech/top/facebook-revealed-as-canadian-social-network-276758.php
August 14th, 2007 by admin
Here’s a map of the world, showing the dominant social networks by country, according to Alexa.
Some patterns from the data:
- Orkut leads in the Indian subcontinent, as well as Brazil;
- Facebook is stronger, internationally, than Myspace, with surprising strongholds in the Middle East;
- hi5.com is the most international of all the social networks, leading in Peru, Colombia, Central America, and other, scattered countries such as Mongolia, Romania, and Tunisia;
- both Bebo and Skyblog follow colonial patterns, the first strong in smaller English-speaking countries such as Ireland and New Zealand, and the latter in Francophone countries;
- and Friendster, the original social network, leads all across Southeast Asia.
- Fotolog, a photo service defeated in the US by Friendster, has re-emerged as the dominant social network in Argentina and Chile.
http://valleywag.com/tech/maps/the-world-map-of-social-networks-273201.phphttp://valleywag.com/tech/maps/the-world-map-of-social-networks-273201.php
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