Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where it is headed

Author(s) : ComScore

                                          

In March 2007, 56% of the world’s online population was on social networking.
Email reigned supreme as the king of communication channels online.
The growth in popularity in social networking has created and engendered new online consumer behaviors.

Hypothesis:

1. Social Media is the World’s Most Popular Online Activity
2. Social networking behavior both transcends and reflects regional differences around the world
3. The importance of Facebook cannot be overstated
4. Microblogging is a disruptive force
5. Local social networks are making inroads globally
6. It’s not just young people using social networking anymore-it’s everyone
7. Communications are going Social
8. Social networking leads in online display advertising in the US, but lags in share of dollars
9. The next disrupters have yet to be decided
10. Mobile devices are fueling the social addiction

Results:

1. There are 1,2 billion users of social networking in the world, that is to say 82% of the world’s online population.
Social networking has more than tripled in the last few years. Nearly 1 in every 5 minutes (20%) spent online is now spent on social networking sites, contrary to in March 2007, only 6%.
 
 

2. The total time spent by users on social networking grew by at least 35% over the past year, for each region. (North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific). United States is the region where the percentage of online population using social networking is the biggest: 98%, contrary to China who reach a 53% rate. Moreover, women spend more hours on social networking than men: 6,5h for her and 5h for him.
 
3. Facebook is not the first social networking used in every region. Indeed, in Brazil it’s Orkut which have the biggest total unique visitors (35 contrary to 30 for Facebook), and the best average minutes per visitor (232 contrary to 205 for Facebook).
 
4. Twitter, Tumblr and Sina Weibo are every three microblogging. Tumblr and Sina Weibo (Chinese microblogging leader) realized the best inroad on the Web: +172% for Tumblr and +181% for Sina Weibo). In 2011, the moment the most tweeted was Video Music Awards in August 2011, with 8 868 tweets/second! Amazing!
 
5. Linkedin generates the most traffic from the US, it shows its highest market penetration in the Netherlands, where it reached more than a quarter (27 percent) of the Dutch online population in October 2011.
6. Between July 2010 and October 2011 social networking reach in older segment has all but caught up. Indeed, it’s now quite similar across age groups. Users 55 and older represent the fastest growing in social networking usage (+9,3%) contrary to users 15-24 who have a 5% reach.
 
 
7. Teenagers and young adults age 15-24 use more social networking (34%) than instant messengers (-42%) and Email (-22%) between July 2010 and October 2011. It’s possible that social networking could become the most important communication channel across all age groups.
 
8. More than a quarter of ads are seen on social networking sites, the category only attracts 15% of US display ad dollars. Facebook is by far the largest publisher, he delivered 28% of display ad impressions.
 
9. Google+ surged to 25 million global unique visitors in less than a month, faster than other social networking like Facebook which took 36 months and Twitter 33 months. Sina Weibo exhibited the highest growth rate for audience size over 2010 at 181% and Tumblr with a 172% increase. Microblogging could emerge as a pivotal force shaping the future of social networking behavior.
 
 
 
10. The UK shows the highest social networking penetration among mobile users at 35,4%. This phenomenon can be attributed to the growth in popularity of smartphones. In the US, 38,8% smartphones users accessed social networking site or blog almost every day and 64,1% accessed social networking site or blog almost every in a month among 40,4% accessed via app. In UE5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK), 23,1% accessed social networking site or blog almost every day and 45,2% every in a month among 22,8% accessed via app.
 
Conclusion:
 
This report highlights two key factors that will continue to drive the web and will impact marketing, business and people’s lives and change behaviours.
It is the emergence of a “mobile” and “social” web that will become self learning and even predictive because the social graph with its explicit and implicit data will know more about us than we even know about ourselves.
Author:                        
ComScore is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. comscore helps its clients better understand, leverage and profit from the rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape by providing data, analytics and on-demand software solutions for the measurement of online ads and audiences, media planning, website analytics, cross media, e-commerce […] and a broad variety of emerging forms of digital consumer behavior.

The impact of using social networks at the service of sustainable development and its use by professionals

Author(s) : Réseau Femmes et Développement Durable (FDD)

 For the past 15 years, the world has witnessed the phenomenon of social networks. Social networks are difficult to define, one could say it is a huge sharing and strengthening social ties between people (around the center of similar interests …). Networks were quickly integrated into the challenges of sustainable development, thanks to a predominantly digital innovation. Therefore, the use of social networks by professionals is increasing. Thus, it would be interesting to ask:
– How social networks are building around sustainable development for professionals?
– Does social networks may transform the behavior of users?
– What are the benefits and the risks in terms of communication?
1. Social networks and sustainable development
 
Crédit Agricole has launched a project to integrate students with disabilities easier in companies. The goal is to find new ways of collaboration with disabilities and learn to work together, to improve communication for the generations coming. Social networks appear as the most effective and viral communication tool.
Crédit Agricole has proposed a challenge to 50 students by asking them to imagine a strategy of integration for the disabled people. The results showed that social networks are fundamental; it allows multiple sources of inspirations and sharing.(example of a tutorial about social networks and sustainable development. Please see the Youtube link)
There is another example with WiserEarth, a vertical network serving the collective intelligence. There are many associations, communities or organizations dedicated to sustainable development in the world. We must come together to achieve objectives more easily and quickly. It also can help to promote partnerships. Once again, social networks appear to be the ideal solution to get there! Its model is similar than Wikipedia, the internet user can propose its own content, becoming an activist and participating to the changes of communication tools.  The new trend is to be connected, to gather, to collaborate and to grow! It then come an obvious change of the society through the use of new communication tools. This phenomenon is called “connectivism”.
Connectivism
 
2. Social networks are changing the behavior of society.
 
As shown by the phenomenon of “retweet”. We are becoming a zapping generation, because everything is and must be shortened (Example: Twitter and its tweet about 140 characters like a SMS). It is obvious that the information knows an incomparable speed. However, we can wonder about the content’s quality.
Nowadays, what seems to be more important isn’t the accuracy but the quickness of the exchange. The media “Down to the Earth” from Danone can be an example to understand the issues of professional social networks. This social link was created by Danone and operates on four themes (Nature, Nutrition, and Social Business Ecosystem) on the reputation of the company, in order to be more credible to its consumers. The aim is to have influence thanks to the users’ interaction and to make the platform a reference on the issues covered.
3. Benefits and risks of using social networks
Advantages: Using social networks also allows professionals to develop their reputation, and to support or develop expertise on a subject, and to manage their after-sales service (Example: a customer who complains via Twitter is visible by everyone). In addition, a social network can also help to federate its employees and for recruitment. These networks can create new modes of communication such as carpooling, as it facilitates exchanges and also to develop new services. Sustainable development also encourages users to choose virtuous communication. There is the phenomenon of “crowd sourcing”, the content creators have the power to influence business companies (Example: restaurants’ rating, 70% of Internet users rely on it while they don’t know each other). These new means of communication show that the consumer first!
Risks: There are still some risks associated with this communication. Company credibility cannot be defined by the number of followers or subscribers. The company must continue to listen and accept conversation whatever happens. That is to say, to be reactive and to should remain humble. In addition, it is important to be “transparent” and to accept every comment. It is not recommended to use fake profiles because it is very badly received.
 A facebook page static and “non-living”, for example, can be seen as a company non reactive, with a lack of dynamism.
Facebook risks
To conclude, the use of social networks is very beneficial for sustainable development and to improve the image of a company. However, it is necessary to know the advantages and the risks, to define communication objectives, and to manage its presence on selected media.
Using social networks as an amplifier is a very difficult art but is becoming essential in an era when Internet, “that’s our world”.
In short, companies who want to use social networks should:
 – Be transparent
 – Accept the conversation / critics
 – To be humble
 – Create content relevant, innovative and authentic

The Ultimate Email Marketing Guidebook: Increasing Subscriber Engagement

Author(s) : StrongMail Systems

 

 

StrongMail is a platform which proposes e-mail marketing solutions of personalized according to the advertising campaign and to the message to be delivered. It is used to increase the interactivity with the subscribers. According to a leading study, the use of StrongMail increases the participation of the subscriber by 52 %, and improves the segmentation and the targeting by 49 %.

 

 

I)    The interest of StrongMail

In 2011, increasing of the number of subscribers is an absolute priority for e-mail marketing. By integrating StrongMail into your system you will be capable of defining AND MEASURING the commitment of your subscribers. Then to develop the contents of your offers to DRIVE AN interaction with your subscribers and to motivate the subscriber to supply relevant information. And in the end to have a creative design of the offer to attract attention.

Then customers can use these studies to maximize the efficiency of their email campaigns of and finally to make a better marketing. Of From this experts’ department, you could reduce the cost of your marketing program of, and better target your customers. And thus of increase your income. StrongMail allows understanding the numerous factors which influence the performance of your e-mails.

II)    The solutions of e-mail marketing

This white book describes several methods advised to increase the efficiency of advertising campaigns by e-mail. You will find thanks for the subscribers with promotional lotteries a special offer to share with his friends, to insert links towards the social networks so that the subscribers remain constantly informed of the offers. But also rewards for the customers who express their opinions, e-mails so that the customers confirm their subscription, titles with concentrated but clear messages, a visual performance with dynamic messages.

To hire your addressees, it is necessary to supply a relevant e-mail which incites an interaction. The subscribers want to be understood and to feel unique. This is why it is necessary to personalize the e-mail, to be creative and to attract attention. It is also necessary to adopt a relevant segmentation so that the e-mail campaign is effective.

Top 10 Need to Knows About Social Networking and Where it is headed.

Author(s) : ComScore

 

 

 

With the widespread adoption of the Internet around the world came the rise of social networking as a global phenomenon.In March 2007, Social Networking as a category had a global audience of less than 500 million users, representing just 56 percent of the world’s online population.

 
Hypothesis: 
 
1. Social Media is the World’s Most Popular Online Activity
2. Social networking behavior both transcends and reflects regional differences around the world
3. The importance of Facebook cannot be overstated
4. Microblogging is a disruptive force
5. Local social networks are making inroads globally
6. It’s not just young people using social networking anymore-it’s everyone
7. Communications are going Social
8. Social networking leads in online display advertising in the US, but lags in share of dollars
9. The next disrupters have yet to be decided
10. Mobile devices are fueling the social addiction

Results:

1. Social networking sites now reach 82 percent of the world’s online population, representing 1.2 billion users around the world. Social networking’s emergence is the amount of time people currently engage with it. In October 2011, Social Networking ranked as the most popular content category in worldwide engagement,accounting for 19 percent of all time spent online.

2. The total time spent by users on social networking grew by at least 35% over the past year, for each region. (North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific). United States is the region where the percentage of online population using social networking is the biggest: 98%, contrary to China who reach a 53% rate. Moreover, women spend more hours on social networking than men: 6,5h for her and 5h for him.

3.There are another social network around the world like Orkut in Brazil.This social network has more visitors than Facebook ( 35 againts 30 for Facebook).

4.The three most mircoblogging as Tumblr,twitter and Sina Weibo (Chinese leader ). Twitter reaches 1 in 10 Internet users worldwide to rank among the top social networks, and posted an impressive growth rate of 59 percent over the past year. Sina Weibo and Tumblr have posted the highest growth rates of the Top 20 global social networks.

5. As global social networking usage continues to expand, there is another trend worth noting, which is a shift in geographic footprint of some of the major sites Linkedin exceeds myspace and becomes the fourth global networks.

6. Even more striking, in regions such as North America and Latin America, Social Networking reached at least 93 percent of online users age 55 and older. Another group showing significant gains are males. Although males still lag in terms of reach and engagement with social networking,
they exhibited a nearly 10-percentage point increase in reach from July 2010. 
 
7. Teenagers and young adults age 15-24 use more social networking (34%) than instant messengers (-42%) and Email (-22%) between July 2010 and October 2011. It’s possible that social networking could become the most important communication channel across all age groups

8. Social Networking has maintained a significant lead over other categories in the past year, even outpacing Portals – which spans multiple content categories including News, Sports and Email – with its 19 percent share of display ad impressions.

9. Google+ was the more faster than other social networking like facebook or twitter. Indeed, 25millions global unique visitors were on Google+ less than a month. Facebook and twitter took more than one year. Sina Weibo exhibited the highest growth rate for audience size over 2010 at 181% and Tumblr with a 172% increase. Microblogging could emerge as a pivotal force shaping the future of social networking behavior.

10. From a technology standpoint, mobile devices represent the future of social networking as they provide the means for users to connect on-the-go, facilitating real-time interaction.
European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom), nearly a quarter (24 percent) of the total mobile population reported engaging with their social networks on their mobile devices.

Conclusion: 

This report shows that two key factors drive the web with positive impact on marketing, people lives and business.
During the rise of mobile networks has a positive impact on social networks, pushing the world to used it. These social networks show then explicit and implicit information that we don’t know about us.

Synthesis of “CONNECTED EUROPE”

Author(s) : Hugo Grillat

Introduction
 
The USA is known as an advanced country for the new technology, but now the UE5 market is grower than the United States. In this document we can see this market thanks to few graphs.
 
 
Hypothesis
 
UE5 better than USA
Apple against Google
Consumer habits changed
Results
 
Smartphones are everywhere, but more in Europe Union 5 than in USA ! Not for their number, but for their rate of penetration: 42% in EU5 whereas in USA it is 39%.
 
All these devices need an Operating System to work, and even if Symbian (Nokia) has the more users it also has the most negative growth (-6,2% in end 2011). The biggest battle is between Apple (IOS) and Google (Android). And for the smartphones OS, Android takes the first place with about 30 000 000 users and 330% of growth ! Apple has about 22 000 000 users and 54,3% of growth.
But when we compare the OS for the smartphones + tablets + others devices (iPod Touch), Apple takes top spot with 30% of the market against 27% for Android.
 
1 
 
These users are very different, but a majority stands: the male (125 for a base of 100), between 18 and 24 years old (200 for a base of 100); follow the 25-34 years old, 13-17 and 35-44. 
 
With these new devices, we change our habits. For starting, with the hours where we are connected: Now the computer is used especially during the day (for the work per example), whereas the mobile and more again the tablet are used the evening.
 
2 
 
In relation with the commerce, these devices are a very powerful tool ! In 2011 13,6 millions people accessed a retail site via smartphone in the EU5, it is plus 112% since the last year.
 
20,3% people accessed to their bank accounts, 13,9% to an online retail, 12,1% to an electronic payment, etc. And more that the site and application, now we use our smartphone in the real retails store, especially to took picture of a product, text or call someone about a product, scan a barcode…
 
3 
 
 
Conclusion
 
The Europe Union 5 is very dynamic in the tablet & smartphone’s market. In this huge market two companies reach the top of the sells: Apple and Google. They both are neck and neck with different devices and software. With these devices our consuming habits have changed, we buy on internet, check everything, compare, consult… and it is just the beginning.
 
 
Reference
 
All statistics and graphs come from ComScore and Telefonica.

Mobile phone problems

Author(s) : Jan Lauren Boyles and Lee Rainie

Mobile Phone Problems

 

Despite the many benefits they can bring, cell phones are causing many disadvantages for the personal life of their users. 

Indeed, because of some intrusions into their mobile phones, owners cell may find them faced with unwanted services.

The Pew Internet Project (PIP) decided to do some search upon this subject in order to discover what are the main problems caused by mobile phones.

This is an organization which explores the impact of internet on children, families, communities, work place, schools, health care and civic or political life. It’s an initiative of the Pew Research Center that provides informations on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.

In a survey of April 2012, the PIP has identified the major problems faced by mobile phone users. This study was conducted only within the United States population through phone calls.

In responding to this survey, the American public has allowed PIP to list several negative factors, but four of them are cited by most Americans. These four main problems are:

dropped calls

unwanted sales and marketing calls

spam and unwanted texts

slow download speeds

To detect these problems, the questions asked by the PIP were really focused on the unwanted aspect of intrusions.

 

According to this survey, some 88% of American adults have cell phones, some 79% of cell phone owners say they use text messaging on their cells and some 55% of cell phone owners say they use their phones to go online to browse on Internet, exchange emails, or download apps.

This study also showed that the users of smartphones are more affected by these problems. This is particularly because these phones have more functions and possibilities.

Moreover, the survey revealed a difference between the different populations of the United States. Indeed, the results show that African-Americans and Hispanics are more affected by these problems than white people. This could be because they are more likely to use only their cell phone to call and get on the Internet (based on PIP).

 

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, we can say that cell phones have become essential tools for everyday life. They are part of the technological revolution of the 21st century and evolve more over the years. However, the disadvantages of technical and personal orders also made their appearance.

Now the challenge is to ensure the safety of users while minimizing the problems they face with their cell phones.

Buzz Building : 7 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success

Author(s) : Silverpop | Engagement Marketing Solutions

Buzz Building – 7 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success

Introduction: In 2012, customers and prospects spent more and more time on social networks,
which are now a major marketing method for companies. If you can gather customers and
prospects around your brand, it means that you are doing your job well and you can be optimistic
about future sales. If you can’t be, Silverpop brings you 7 steps to teach you how to build the
right “buzz” on the Internet.

Hypothesis: What do you need to create a great social marketing campaign, bring new customers
and gather them around your brand to keep them and help you to sell ?

1 – Determine your goals and your strategy
Stop focusing on tactical metrics: don’t believe. Think about the reason why you’re using social
media: acquisition or retention tool? Start small and surely: when you feel comfortable with
social media, then you can look for a precise objective. How to do it right? Don’t communicate
like a robot, with untimely ads (you can hire a community manager) but involve people who are
enthusiastic and driven.

2 – Understand your market
Choose your social network according to the habits of your prospects/customers. The key to marketing success on social media is the ability to target communities and customers that align best with your content.
Allocate your resources wisely by understanding customer social behavior. Directly ask the
customer their preferences via surveys or go directly inside the community (not only the big ones,
small ones are important as well). Also look for resources on the web.

3 – Align execution with key channels
Go further than “Twitter or Facebook?” debates. Integrate messages in every social channel.
Invite customers to choose their preferences, push them to be involved on every social network
you’re on (use their emails, spread the word on twitter…) because this how you’re going to get a
maximum impact. Customers are going through different networks all day long and by taking an
integrated multichannel approach, your message will have many more chances to reach them. Just
be careful to maintain a focused and uniformed message. Encourage sharing, make specific and
global campaigns.

http://7.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/social-media-content-strategy-225.jpg4 – Create content that connects (with people and networks)
Content is king in the way that the more it’s relevant, the more it will be effective. 100,000
fans who can’t share valuable content are not as useful as 50,000 fans that can. To optimize this
content, follow these three rules: lose the corporate speak (stop selling, start being human and
transparent when you’re speaking), deliver valuable educating content and be consistent (have a
regular cadence, tweet/post everyday to be sure to be seen).

5 – Engage the marketplace
Going viral is the dream of every marketer and here are a few tips to maximize your chances of
doing so: build a solid seeding social network and community with the help of your valuable/
fun (a social network needs to be fun and not boring. It’s meant to be time-consuming) content.
Listen and respond to the community that you’re monitoring, don’t forget to seed to content with
articles which will generate reactions and conversation around the topic!

6 – Identify and Enable Influencers and Fanshttp://www.luclesperance.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/CM.jpg
Social media is at its best when you have customer to customer relations and the company isn’t doing anything in appearance. Identify brand ambassadors (Track them by key data) who are going to tweet or respond to questions instead of you. Ninety percent of people are going to trust them (it’s a study), so these ambassadors can have a huge impact. Obviously you’re not going to meet only brand enthusiasts and in this case, you need to resolve problems on a case-to-case basis. Also, don’t forget to treat your ambassadors well if you want them to become more loyal and invested.

7 – Monitor social activity
It’s great to be invested in social networks, but it’s important to know how effective your effortsare. You need to quantify your performances, improve your understanding of customers andprospects, learn to be more efficient in your programs (for example if something worked in acampaign especially on twitter, you can try to make a twitter-only campaign with this thing). Use analytics tools from your social network provider to monitor your efforts Question yourselves:where have we made mistakes, what’s efficient? Asking yourself these types of questions willhelp you to evaluate your progress and go to the next level.

Conclusion: The key to succeeding in social networks is to retain the customers who are goingto help bring new ones. This goes by several important points to never forget: the content is thepriority, you have to push the customers to “work” for you. Monitoring social activity also gives you a competitive advantage.