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Twitter Strikes Back

The latest Consumer Sharing Trends Report is here and Twitter is back from its slump, with a major growth trajectory of 43 percent. The Twitter flock flew right past Facebook (14 percent growth), LinkedIn (12 percent growth), and Pinterest (5 percent growth). Reddit also joined the top growing channels for the first time with 25 percent growth compared to 11% decline in Q4 2013. Sharing via email continues its steep descent, with 25 percent decline in Q1.

As consumers continue to share content such as articles, photos, videos and more via their social networks at unprecedented rates, another notable trend this quarter is that surges like Twitter’s are driven by mobile sharing, which surpassed desktop sharing in Q1. Sharing on mobile devices grew 2.5 times faster than sharing on the desktop at 28 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

In addition to measuring the growth by social channel and device, our Q1 2014 report also looks at demographic sharing trends, including age and race. Key findings include:

• iPhone vs. Android battle heats up: While the iPhone still holds the lead for the mobile device people use to share most often at 25 percent, Android smartphones are closing the gap at 17 percent, which was up at the end of the quarter from 15 percent in January 2014.

• Age matters: Reddit attracts the youngest demographic with the highest number of 18-30 year olds sharing content, whereas LinkedIn and Facebook see the most activity from older users. Twitter and Pinterest sharers tend to be younger than Facebook and LinkedIn, but slightly older than those sharing on Reddit.

• Hispanic consumers are driving growth in sharing: Sharing by Hispanic consumers, who make up the fastest-growing consumer group in the U.S., reinforced our findings from the Hispanic Consumer Study. Compared to African American and Caucasian sharers, Hispanic consumers shared most on Twitter with 42 percent growth and Reddit with 36 percent growth.

The quarterly Consumer Sharing Trends Report analyzes consumer sharing behavior from Q1 2014 across nearly every social channel on desktop and mobile devices. The large-scale social data offers valuable insight into what, where and how consumers share online, which is not only a true indicator of interest and intent, but also a powerful way for publishers and advertisers to drive content and brand engagement.  Read More

Social Media 2014 Statistics – an interactive Infographic you’ve been waiting for!

How fast Social Media is expanding in 2014? Do you know how many active users Facebook has? How fast Google+ is evolving? How many users have never tweeted after opening their account on Twitter? Do these numbers matter to you? Let me give you a quick example-

A friend of mine who has been struggling to hire a PHP developer was chatting with me and I suggested him to try Facebook ads to reach out good developers based on his desirable location and other preferences. He wasn’t ready to try this at all. I took the liberty and started some Facebook ads on my own, fixed a budget of $20 for a day for a pilot project. He was stunned to see the results, more than 23K people reached, 300+ visited the site and 43 forwarded their resume or called him. All this, just for $20.

If you’re managing social media for your businesses, it is important to keep track of statistics so it keeps your strategy in-line. Last year we received an overwhelming response with our social media statistics of 2013. This year again we have taken upon ourselves to answer all your questions about various social networks and their active/total users in 2014!

The infographic below covers all the latest Social Media facts, figures, numbers and statistics of 2014. Some of the mind-blowing facts are mentioned here:

• 75% of the engagement on a Facebook post happens in the first 5 hours.
• 53% of interaction between Google+ user and a brand is positive.
• 44% of users on Twitter have never sent a tweet!
• 84% of women and 50% of men stay active on Pinterest.
• More than 2 users sign-up for LinkedIn every second.
• 23% of teens consider Instagram as their favourite social network.
• Weekends are the most popular time to share Vines.
• Number of snaps sent per day on SnapChat is 400 Million. (Yeah! that’s true)
• 40% of YouTube traffic comes from mobile.
• B2B marketers using blogs generate 67% more leads. Check out more about lead generation through Social Media.

See Infographic

 

Social Media Trends 2014: the latest data, infographics and statistics

Quick revision: social media trends 2014 and what 2013 gave us

2013 was the year when the basis of what will be a trend in the future was established.
Let’s check out some facts that confirm this:

• Mobile devices will increasingly play an important role, considering more than60% the population access social media content using them.
  Extra piece of information:
  In its QA report Facebook pointed out that 53% of its profit come from “mobile ads”, which “only” means 1.25 billion dollars. If Facebook does it, then why not you?

 

• 80-20” was established as the rule to share content. Its efficacy was proven, brands now respect it and apply it more than ever: 20% of the content must be about the brand, and 80% must be general interest information that contributes something nice to the users’ lives.
  Extra piece of information:
  In the same QA announcement Facebook stated its efforts will be oriented towards contextualizing and personalizing content: anything from adds to devices, formatss, content, sales, email marketing, etc.

 

• Microvideo: this type of content, will be on the same level as pictures and will become more and more popular thanks to the 15-second demonstration by Instagram and then with Vine, introduced by Twitter.

 

• Social Selling: sale through social networks since they are considered part of the new sales model. Since the web has turned social organizations adapted their processes so as to seize this channel and along with that comes customer service within these platforms.

Now let’s take a look at the general trends in more detail, following this infographic prepared by TalkWalker. The following aspects will be the focus of investment and attention for the marketing community:

Notwithstanting these previous numbers, according to the report carried out (we’ll later go into more detail about this) by The Content Marketing Institute, companies invest in social media but still questions its effectivity which shows us there’s still a long way to go in building trust and investment in social networks. There’s no doubt we’re just getting started, it’s the beginning of an era..

The Search Engine Journal, in its infographic provides us with some insights that enable us to design new strategies for this year:

• 93% of marketers use social networks for business (= being on social networks is no longer an option but an obligation).
• 70% of brands are already on Google + (= it’s the main factor of any SEO strategy, if you want to be found you need to be on G+)
• 34% of marketers have been able to sell successfuly via Twitter.
• Facebook, Twitter and G+ are the most used 3 platforms for business and marketers.
• 

• Tip: the key is to have brand advocates

   

  • 70% of marketers have been successful gaining new customers via social networks.
    Extra piece of information 1: 57% of users trust more in the opinion of his/her contacts than in what the brand has got to say about its product or service.
    Extra piece of information 2: 47% of social networks users state that Facebook has had a bigger impact on their decision to buy than any other social network .

  Read More

 

12 Essential Elements of a Social Media Marketing Strategy

If you’re starting from scratch, it can feel overwhelming.

You know that others have been successful at social media marketing, but there are so many moving parts that creating a plan of your own can be daunting. If you are brand new to social media and looking for a straightforward way to start, follow the advice below.

12 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success

1. Research and know your audience. What topics and interests are they are most social about? What problems are they trying to solve? What are their pain points?
2. Use the same social networks as your audience. Are Facebook and Twitter their platforms of choice? Do most of them use Pinterest and Instagram? Go where your target audience is to create awareness,engagement, and brand ambassadors.
3. Identify your KPIs (key performance indicators. They measure progress toward your goals. What do you want your social media efforts to accomplish? What does success look like in quantifiable terms?
4. Write a social media marketing playbook. The playbook should detail your KPIs, audience profiles, brand personas, campaign concepts, promotional events, contests, content themes, crisis management plan, etc. Make sure to tailor strategies that are unique to each of your social media channels.
5. Align the people at your company with the plan. Get everyone on board with your strategy. Divide responsibilities among your team, such as who is in charge of posting to your blog and each social media network, who will respond to comments and @mentions, and who will own metrics tracking and reporting.
6. Set aside some time at the beginning of each week to prepare. Take 30-60 minutes to schedule tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts, Pinterest pins, and other social media content. Come up with some original ideas, links to your own content, and links to outside content that is useful or interesting to your audience.
7. Develop a content marketing calendar. Use one of the example spreadsheets I’ve created as a starting point to plan content topics, headlines, related links, desired scheduling, name of authors, etc.
8. Post content that is relevant to newsworthy topics and events. As soon as breaking news comes out about anything related to your brand or industry, you should share your opinion and become part of the conversation.
9. Treat all of your social channels differently. Don’t post the same message everywhere – remember who the audience is on each platform and how they interact. What works on Facebook will fall flat on Twitter, and vice versa.
10. Assign someone to act as a customer service rep. It’s vital to be responsive to user generated content, comments, and feedback (positive or not). CRM (customer relationship management) is a fundamental to social media marketing success.
11. Schedule metrics reporting. Reporting metrics can occur weekly, monthly, or bimonthly depending on your goals and desired outcomes.
12. Reanalyze your plan on a regular basis. If something in your plan isn’t working, switch it up or do some A/B testing to determine what your audience responds to better. Use 2 versions of your content simultaneously and measure to see which one is more successful and use it going forward.  Read More

The Difference Between Being ‘Undiscovered’ And ‘Epic’ On Social Media

There is little doubt that Rihanna is the definition of a superstar. Her discography is littered with multiplatinum albums and singles. She has successful worldwide tours under her belt, countless Grammys, AMAs, Brit awards, and even a nod for The World’s 100 Most Influential People from Time Magazine in 2012.

And her level of celebrity is reflected in a vast online following. With close to 90 million page likes, Rihanna is one of the most popular artists on Facebook. She counts more than 37 million followers on Twitter TWTR +0.07%, and has surpassed 7 billion total video views on Vevo. But that hasn’t always been the case. As artists increase in popularity, so does the size of their social following. In fact it does so by the rule of proportionate growth, meaning that the more than fans you already have, the more fans you will add.  Read More

Hello Ello, Goodbye Facebook: Social media network without ads woos US users

Can social networks products function without advertising? So far, the most successful example of a social media product that didn’t rely on any advertising is WhatsApp, which was bought by Facebook for $19 billion.

While WhatsApp hasn’t been flooded with ads for now and it looks unlikely in the future, a new social media website called Ello, which has been created by California-based artist and designer Paul Budnitz, is premised on the no advertisers policy. Ello is invite-only for now and according to this post on TheDailyDot is also attracting several members of the LGBT community.

The website’s homepage says the idea is to not treat the user as a product and to keep user data and privacy safe. The page reads,  Read More

Seahawks win big in TV ratings, social media

SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks opened up the 2014 NFL season with an impressive effort in front of more than 68,000 fans at CenturyLink Field on Thursday, but the game’s impact went well beyond the Emerald City.

The national television audience for the Hawks’ 36-16 thumping of the Green Bay Packers was 26.9 million people, making it the third most-viewed opening game in NFL history, according to Deadline.com. That number also made the NBC-broadcast matchup the biggest television event in terms of total viewership since the 2014 Academy Awards on March 2.

Social media was in on the action as well. According to data compiled by Facebook, the game generated more than 15 million interactions – comments plus “likes” – from more than 8.5 million Facebook users.

The social media giant also released a map Friday based on which NFL team users “like.” The results are then grouped by county to see which teams have the most reach.

Unsurprisingly, the Seahawks dominate the Pacific Northwest, owning the entire state of Washington, much of Oregon and Idaho and parts of Montana. They’re hemmed in by fans of the arch-rival San Francisco 49ers to the south and their opponent in Super Bowl XLVIII, the Denver Broncos, to the east.  Read More

 

For Social Media Viewing, Twitter Is Live TV; Facebook Is DVR

When you follow someone on Twitter, you see everything they post. When you follow someone on Facebook, it decides what you see. Which is right? I’d say both, and it comes down to the live TV versus DVR personalities of each service.

Should Facebook Show Everything?

The issue of Facebook deciding what to show people in their Facebook news feed came up this week when Nick Bilton of the New York Times wrote about how over the past year, the engagement on his posts had dropped, despite his having gained a huge increase in Facebook followers.

That echoed concerns from Star Trek alum and social media extraordinaire George Takei, who last year was alarmed that his Facebook engagement was down. He wondered, as Bilton did, if this was perhaps something Facebook was doing to get him and others to pay for better visibility. Billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, also got in on the criticisms last year.

I used to be in the “Facebook should show everything” camp. For example, when the Subscribe feature (now called Follow) launched in 2011, I wished it was available for Facebook Pages, not just for people, so that the visibility of content from those pages didn’t feel so out-of-control for the publisher.

As I wrote:

If someone wants to follow a publication or website on Facebook, they shouldn’t have to hope that they’re not going to miss content they may want to see, because Facebook decided something wasn’t important enough to show.

Since then, I’ve come to realize that I don’t want Facebook to show me everything in the same way that Twitter does. Moreover, even though Twitter shows me everything, I don’t actually see everything. Time to unpack the TV metaphors.

The “Live TV” Of Twitter

When you follow accounts on Twitter, everything they post flows into your Twitter timeline. You’re going to see it all. Twitter’s not sitting behind the scenes trying to decide what non-paid tweets it thinks are more important and should be shown nor what should be held back. In short, Twitter’s not trying to separate out the signal from the noise.

That’s not to say that “noise” is bad. Twitter, to me, is like having a TV on in the background while I work. I glance to it from time to time, and if something big or important happens, I look up and pay attention.  Read More

UBS Facing Battle On Facebook After Nasdaq Set Aside $62 Million

By Nina Mehta and Laura Marcinek

Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ)’s creation of a $62 million pool to pay brokers that lost money in Facebook Inc.’s public debut shows how far apart the exchange owner is from UBS AG (UBSN) on who is to blame for losses in the botched deal.

Switzerland’s biggest bank said yesterday that its second- quarter profit fell 58 percent in part because of losses that exceeded $350 million in the May 18 initial public offering. UBS is among brokers including Knight (KCG) Capital Group Inc. that have said they’ll seek compensation after a design flaw in Nasdaq’s computers delayed orders and confirmations just as the shares were about to start changing hands.

UBS promised legal action to get back more than five times as much money as Nasdaq has set aside. In proposing to revamp and enlarge the restitution fund on July 20, Nasdaq said it was seeking a reasonable way to compensate firms for which its “system difficulties caused objective, discernible harm,” according to a regulatory filing.

“I don’t see them getting anywhere close to covering this type of number,” Jillian Miller, an Atlanta-based exchange analyst at BMO Capital Markets, said in a phone interview. “Nasdaq was fairly clear on their conference call that they saw their proposal as a relatively final document. It’ll probably go forward as it is now, with Nasdaq keeping its proposal and UBS trying to sue them.”

Read More