Archive for the ‘Analytics’ Category
Facebook Closing In On MySpace In U.S
April 17th, 2009 | 
Author: The social network added about 4 million unique visitors in March to reach 61.2 million and close within 9 million of MySpace, the top social network in the U.S. But while MySpace’s audience of 70.2 million has shrunk by 4% in the last year, Facebook’s has jumped 72%.
At the current rate of growth, Facebook is poised to overtake its social networking rival in the U.S. in the next few months. The company already surpassed MySpace last year as the most-trafficked social network globally. Facebook this month announced that it crossed the 200 million mark in active users worldwide, while Facebook has an estimated 130 million.
At stake in the U.S. are more than bragging rights, however, since the domestic market is where most of the ad dollars that Facebook and MySpace compete for come from. Facebook isn’t the only social property moving up. ComScore reported Wednesday that Twitter’s audience nearly tripled to 9.3 million in the last month as broader media coverage of the micro-blogging phenomenon helped propel growth.
Facebook Hits 200 Million Users
That was fast. Facebook has hit 200 million active users only seven months after the social network hit 100 million users and 90 days after reaching 150 million. On average, Facebook has added 500,000 new members a day since late August, according to the blog Inside Facebook.
If it were a country, the site would be the fifth most populous, larger than Brazil and Japan. In a blog post Wednesday about the milestone, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote: “Both U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicholas Sarkozy have used Facebook as (a) way to organize their supporters. From the protests against the Colombian FARC, a 40-year-old terrorist organization, to fighting oppressive, fringe groups in India, people use Facebook as a platform to build connections and organize action.”
To mark the occasion, Facebook has begun a campaign selling a collection of virtual gifts for the benefit of 16 charitable and advocacy organizations including UNICEF and the UN Refugee Agency’s “Gimme Shelter” campaign. It also set up a site for people to share stories about how Facebook helped them effect change or connect with a distant relative.
Twitter Wouldn’t Sell For $1 Billion, Says Source
Source: TechCrunch
Update to our post last night about Google/Twitter talks: New sources say that Google is interested in acquiring Twitter, and has had talks with the company about a deal. Google’s internal valuation, however, would value the company at a token premium above Twitter’s last round of financing valuation, around $250 million. Some Twitter insiders want the deal, but our sources say CEO Evan Williams wouldn’t sell even for $1 billion. “He may blink, but he wouldn’t do it,” said one source.
Google may also be concerned with antitrust issues around any major search-related acquisition, we’ve heard (and others have noted).
Clearly there’s a lot of posturing going on, and quite possibly some dissent in the ranks at Twitter. The company is officially stating “Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we’re just getting started.” Which is exactly what any company would say under any circumstances. The fact that Facebook acquisition discussions got so far last year suggests that they were open to merger discussions. But the valuation needed to get a deal done has increased dramatically since then.
Would Google pay more than $1 billion for Twitter? No idea. But there’s no way Microsoft lets a deal be negotiated without putting its bid in, too. And if these two giants see Twitter as the future of search, $1 billion is peanuts.
The Discovery Engine Is Coming
A few weeks ago we started testing Twitter Search in the web interface for a subset of folks. We had the search box way up near the top of the page and the results on a separate page. It turns out that’s not the awesome way to do it. The best way to experience Twitter Search is when it’s a natural part of your normal Twitter experience.
Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast?
That staggering growth rate — doubling in size in just eight months — suggests Facebook is rapidly becoming the Web’s dominant social ecosystem and an essential personal and business networking tool in much of the wired world.
Yet Facebook executives say they aren’t planning to observe their latest milestone in any significant way. It is, perhaps, a poor time to celebrate. The company that has given users new ways to connect and speak truth to power now often finds itself as the target of that formidable grass-roots firepower — most recently over controversial changes it made to users’ home pages.
Analyst: Newspapers' Loss Could Be Online's Gain
by Gavin O’Malley,
“Advertisers realized that the newspaper model was flawed,” Khan said during a presentation organized by lead-generation company Pontiflex on Thursday. “They didn’t change their business model to adapt to the new reality.”
That new reality, Khan explained, is made up of several trends all working against the newspaper business, from dramatic audience fragmentation to consumers relying less and less on print resources for breaking news.
Yet, according to Khan, newspapers’ loss is potentially the industry’s gain. “It’s a $40 billion ad market, and that should move somewhere,” he said.
Giving Web professionals still more hope, Khan noted that broadband penetration and e-commerce continues to increase, and grab market-share both domestically and abroad.
Indeed, in the U.S., ecommerce represented a mere 3.9% of all commerce last year — a percentage that will continue to grow, and, notably, give an added boost to online advertising along the way.
SES NY: 8 Tips to Boost SEM Results
In the last session of the day, attendees were rewarded with 8 awesome tips to boost Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Results. Some you may know and some you may not, but there is definitely something for everyone.
1. Always. Test. Everything
Assume that everything is broken. Ask your self by how much is it broken and how do we reduce the delta between where we are and where we want to be? Always be improving.
Make sure your ads are fresh. Tailor copy to seasonal or world events to give the sense of freshness and relevancy.
Using Google to test messages, headlines and landing page copy is more cost effective and real-time than a focus group. Understand what messages resonate prior to creating entire campaigns.
What’s hot to test right now:
a. discounts and deals
b. sense of urgency
2. Tell the Right Story to the Right Person
Know your product, know your audience and be consistent to avoid frustrating your audience.
Connect the dots between the search query, your ad and the headline/copy on the landing page.
Understand the specific keywords your target is using and deliver specific content to them.
3. Don’t be Fooled by Google Broad Match
Google broad match allows you to match 1000’s of queries to a single keyword. While it’s easy and quick, it’s not always the best option. It can match to bad keywords, just as easy as it can match to good keywords.
The problem with Google Broad Match is that the keyword phrase you see in your dashboard, isn’t necessarily the word that your ad was shown for.
How do you get the good without the bad?
Track, Learn and Adjust.
a. use search query reports. Be careful though, the bad keywords are hidden in a line item ‘all other keywords’
b. Google Analytics Raw Query Hack
Use the good keywords for AdGroups, to bid higher and customize ad text
Use the bad keywords to update negative keywords
c. server log analysis (doable, but hard)
4. Blogging & SEO
If you launch a blog, blog 3-5x per week and on average 300 words per post. Make sure you interact with the blogosphere including linking, commenting and guest blogging.
Use keyword hyperlinks and refrain from hyperlinking ‘read more’ and ‘click here’.
5. Usability Testing. Do it!
Perform user testing. It doesn’t have to be expensive or intimidating and shouldn’t only align to the HIPPOs (highest paid person’s opinion).
Put on your client hat because what’s easy to you, may be hard for others.
Use tools like crazyegg to track user actions on pages.
Make sure your site is 100% compatible with Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer (and its different versions).
IBM Study: Media Companies Falling Behind in Digital Space
NEW YORK: A new study from IBM reveals a “growing rift” between advertisers, consumers and content owners, as media companies “struggle to keep pace with” new demands from tech-savvy viewers and marketers.
The study, which surveyed 2,800 consumers in six continents, as well as ad industry professionals worldwide, states that “media companies are falling behind in meeting the growing expectations of digital savvy consumers and the advertisers looking to reach them,” and points to a “growing rift between advertisers and content owners, media distributors and agencies.”
IBM is calling on content owners to “fundamentally” change the way they deliver information to audiences. Saul Berman, IBM’s global leader for strategy and change consulting services, and co-author of the new study, states: “To succeed—especially in the current economic environment—media companies will need to develop a new set of capabilities to support the industry’s evolving demands which include micro targeting, real-time ROI measurement and cross-platform integration. Now is the time for companies to move quickly to become more effective with their assets and build for the future.”
Beyond Advertising: Choosing a Strategic Path to the Digital Consumer cites four key trends in the media business today: consumer adoption of new distribution formats, a shift in advertising spend, digital migration of platforms and the emergence of new capabilities due to moves by new entrants and existing players.
Top 10 Social Networks for Entrepreneurs
Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 09), and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog.
Looking for a job? Consider creating your own. There are a number of social resources to help you connect with other entrepreneurs and get your business ideas off the ground.
Here are the top 10 social networks for entrepreneurs. Each helps entrepreneurs succeed by providing them with the guidance, tools and resources they need to setup their company and gain exposure.
1. Entrepreneur Connect
Entrepreneur Media, the company that produces Entrepreneur Magazine, started a social network over a year ago specifically for entrepreneurs and small business owners called Entrepreneur Connect. Like all social networks, you have the opportunity to create your own profile, explore the community, share ideas with other entrepreneurs and network. Unlike most social networks, this one frowns upon too much self-promotion and applauds idea sharing.
You can use this network to connect to service providers, suppliers, advisers and colleagues. Just like LinkedIn and FacebookFacebook reviews
, there are professional groups that you can join or create. Another cool feature is that you’re able to start your own blog and possibly have it appear on the main page. This is similar to what Fast Company has done with their website.
Social Networking Is No Respecter of Age
Source: Center for Media Research
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
According to The Nielsen Company’s “Global Faces and Networked Places,” revealing the new global footprint of social networking including both social networks and blogs, “Member Communities” have become the fourth most popular online category, ahead of personal email, and growing twice as fast as search, portals, PC software and email. Active reach in “member communities” now exceeds e-mail participation by 67 percent to 65 percent.
John Burbank, CEO of Nielsen Online, says “social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience… (and) will continue to alter… the global online landscape… (as well as) the consumer experience at large… ”
According to the report, the world’s most popular social network is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Other key findings include:
- One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.
- The biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group
- Mobile, in social networking, is up 249% in the UK and 156% in the US over last year; 2 million people in the UK, and 10.6 million in the US
The story is consistent across the world, ‘Member Communities’ have taken a foothold in every major market from 50% of the online population in Switzerland and Germany to 80% in Brazil. Facebook has become the largest player on the global stage. The study found that Facebook’s greatest growth has come from 35-49 year-olds, and it has added twice as many 50-64 year-olds as those under 18. Now that social media has broken out of the youth demographic, the search for a workable ad model is even more urgent, says the report.
“If the successful ad model can be found,” says the report, “a significant shift in advertising revenue from ‘traditional’ online media towards social media could be realized.”
The prevailing wisdom, concludes the report, is that the current level of advertising activity on social networks isn’t consummate with the size and highly engaged levels of the audience. But, the Nielsen report says, advertising and social media to date have not been compatible. Advertising has typically performed poorly in chat and e-mail because of social media’s communications role. The larger challenge for advertising is to move from an interruptive role to joining conversations, concludes Nielsen.
Member Communities’ now reach over 5 percentage points more of the Internet population than it did a year ago, a growth rate more than twice that of any of the other four largest sectors.
| Social Networking Growth | ||||
| Rank | Sector | Global Active Reach Dec 2008 | Global Active Reach Dec 2007 | % Point Increase in Active Reach |
| 1 | Search |
85.9% |
84.0% |
1.9% |
| 2 | General Interest Portals & Communities |
85.2 |
83.4 |
1.9 |
| 3 | Software Manufacturers |
73.4 |
72.0 |
1.4 |
| 4 | Member Communities |
66.8 |
61.4 |
5.4 |
| 5 |
65.1 |
62.5 |
2.7 |
|
| Source: NielsenOnline, February 2009 (e.g. In Dec 08 the Search sector reached 1.9 (% points) more of the world’s online population than it did in Dec 07) | ||||
Social networks online started out among the younger audience. As the networks have become more mainstream with the passage of time, the audience has become broader and older. Consequently, people under 18 years old are making up less of the social network and blogging audience, whereas the 50+ age group are accounting for more of the audience.
In terms of sheer audience numbers, the greatest growth for Facebook has come from people aged 35-49 years of age (+24.1 million). Facebook has added almost twice as many 50-64 year olds visitors (+13.6 million) than it has added under 18 year old visitors (+7.3 million). If the average month-on-month audience changes over the last six months were to continue, by mid-June 2009 there would be as many 35-49 year olds on Facebook as 18-34 year olds.
| Increase in Unique Audience (Dec. ‘07-Dec. ‘08 Millions) | ||
| Age Group | Male (MM) | Female (MM) |
| 2 – 17 |
3.7 |
3.6 |
| 18 – 34 |
10.9 |
11.9 |
| 35 – 49 |
12.4 |
11.7 |
| 50 – 64 |
6.0 |
7.6 |
| 65+ |
1.9 |
1.3 |
| Source: NielsenOnline, Custom Analytics, February 2009 | ||
| Share of Audience Composition (Dec. ‘07-Dec. ‘08) | |
| Age Group | % Share Change in Member Community |
| 2-17 |
(-9%) |
| 18-34 |
(-1%) |
| 35-49 |
2% |
| 50-64 |
4% |
| 65+ |
7% |
| Source: NielsenOnline, Custom Analytics, February 2009 | |
The report concludes that a key reason why advertising on social networks hasn’t been as successful as on the more ‘traditional’ publishers is because social networkers serve as both the suppliers and consumers of content. In the traditional model they simply consume the content supplied by the publisher. Therefore, members have a greater sense of ‘ownership’ around the personal content they provide and are less inclined to accept advertising around it. As the site becomes more attractive to advertisers it becomes less appealing to members who see highly-targeted ads as invading privacy.
For more about the study and to download the (free) full paper from Nielsen, please visit here.
