Social Media at Work

UPDATE 1/10/2009:

Click here to see our social media statistics posts.

We have re-designed the site so that all of our social media research statistics are now in individual posts, which makes it easier for you to find them using tags.  Let us know if this works, and follow @TWTRSTATS, which we will use to tweet new posts.

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A collection of social media research facts and stats, organized by date in which they were published.  If you have a better idea for how to organize this, let us know.

July 2009

• What Martha’s Twitter Followers Want: @MarthaStewart asks her followers why they use Twitter and 1600 respond in a few hours; 7% said “Boredom”.  (minOnline story reporting on Martha’s talk at a recent DaSilva & Philips Future of Celebrity conference)
  

June 2009

• Survey: Business journalists see social media as positive – 68% of journalists surveyed say social media’s impact on b-to-b reporting has been “positive,” according to a study conducted by Arketi Group, a public relations and marketing firm. Article and more details at BtoB Online.
• Survey: Social media emerges as direct marketing channel – 66% of email marketers are  planning to integrate social media and email marketing channels this year (Strongmail survey of 500 marketers, BtoB article)
• State of the Twittersphere June 2009 (PDF) – HubSpot report compiled by Dan Zarrella based on data from Twitter Grader about Twitter account activity levels.
• Twitter Hype Punctured by Study – BBC story based on Harvard study of 300,542 users in May 2009, which shows that 10% of Twitter users generate more than 90% of the content.  The study also looked at gender differences, noting that men had 15% more followers than women despite there being slightly more females users of Twitter than males.  Additional coverage of the study at MinOnline.  The full report (“Men Follow Men and Nobody Tweets”) on Harvard Business Publishing.
• GenY Doesn’t Tweet: Participatory Marketing Network research shows only 20% of 18- to-24-year-olds use Twitter (CNet coverage)

May 2009

• Social Media Users Want to Network, Not Buy Products – minOnline article on a Knowledge Networks report called “How People Use Social Media,” produced as part of The Home Technology Monitor.  54% say “staying connected” to friends, family is what they like most about social media.
• The 100 most mentioned brands on Twitter:  the 100 most mentioned brands on Twitter, their Twitter user names and number of followers as of May 8, 2009. (Brand Republic)
• Social network ad spending projected to contract this year, by 3% to $1.14 billion, according to Internet eMarketer. (Due primarily in drop at MySpace.) (BtoB)
• Twitter Still Headed To The Moon With 17 Million U.S. Visitors In April:  ComScore estimates U.S. unique visitors  to Twitter reaching 17 million in April, an 83 percent increase from March (TechCrunch)
• Oprah, Ashton Propel Twitter’s Traffic Past The WSJ, NYT: paidContent.org story based on Comcast stats showing Twitter unique visitors surged to more than 19 million in April, passing nytimes.com.

April 2009

• Traffic to search.twitter.com up 541% Jan – Apr 2009 (chart in a Silicon Alley Insider story speculating on the possiblity of Microsoft buying Twitter)
• Twitter Quitters:  Nielsen estimates a less than 30 percent retention rate.
• Twitter Users = Information Junkies – MarketingProfs study of what drives Twitter users (getting information in a timely manner) and what it really means to have more followers. (MediaPost)
  
• The Oprah Effect Works on Twitter – Hitwise reports that Twitter traffic surged 24% on April 17, the day of Oprah’s first tweet. On that day, 37% of visits were from new visitors. (Hitwise)
• Twitter on Track to Double Traffic Again – Oprah, CNN and Ashton Kutcher have driven Twitter’s traffic numbers into the stratosphere; includes analysis of page views to individual celebrity pages (TechCrunch)
• Majority of Marketers Using Social Media – 88% of marketers surveyed in Michael Stelzner’s Social Media Marketing Industry Report are using social media, but most only for the last few months (minOnline)
• Twitter Added 5 Million Users In March – the astounding growth of Twitter continues (paidContent, based on comScore stats)
• Facebook reaches 200 million active users – only 90 days after reaching 150 million (MediaPost)
• Twitter US demographics: 53% female, these stats show more heavy weighting in 18-34 age group (quantcast)
• Twitter traffic explodes:  comScore stats for US and global Twitter traffic, plus age demos.  Worldwide visitors closed in on 10 million in Feb., 45-54 year-olds are the highest indexing age group. (comScore)
• Twitter passes the NY Times in traffic: Compete estimates Twitter traffic in March reached 14 million unique visitors (Bnet)
• Social Media reaches “empowered women”: 42% reported visiting social media sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, according to a new Forrester report (MediaPost)

March 2009

• Twitter business usage in the UK: 17% of UK firms are on Twitter, 6,000 new firms join each day. (HSBC Knowledge Centre)
• The Road to 200 Million – very cool infographic from The New York Times illustrates that as Facebook has grown, it has become more global and more mainstream.  Also includes some neat analysis of the social graph of a typical Facebook user.
• Twitter is now the top social network used by US hospitals
• Social Media for Social Causes Study: The Results – Mashable article with statistics from the Community Philanthropy 2.0 report:  profiles, demographics, what donors want from social media engagement with social causes
• Facebook Users Growing Up Fast – US Facebook Users by Age Group, MediaPost / InsideFacebook.com
• Global Growth in Social Networks (Dec 07 – Dec 08) – Nielsen Online
• Twitter Mobile Usage (Feb 09) – Nielsen NetView
• Unique Visitors to Twitter.com by Age Demographic (Feb 09) – Nielsen NetView