Users | goldcoastsocialmedia.com.au

Tablet users don’t want to pay – study

October 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Tablets thumb Tablet users dont want to pay study Although tablet owners spend more time consuming news than poking around on Facebook, they’re reluctant to pay for news content.

That’s according to a study released on Tuesday by the Pew Research Center’s Project for the Excellence in Journalism.

It found that 11 per cent of American adults own a tablet of some kind, and they spend on average 90 minutes a day using the device.

Consuming news is one of the most popular activities, up there with email and more popular than social networking. Only general web-browsing proved more popular on tablets than news and email.

Even so, just 14 per cent of those who consume news on tablets said they have paid for news content on their devices. Another 23 per cent, though, pay for a print subscription that includes tablet content. So in all, about a third of tablet news consumers have paid to access news on their gadgets.

‘That is a much higher number than previous research has found more broadly of people paying for digital content,’ the report says.

Nonetheless, a ‘large majority’ of people who have not paid for news are ‘reluctant to do so, even if that was the only way to get news from their favourite sources’, the report adds.

This is bad news for media companies hoping to boost revenue by charging for content on Apple’s iPad and other tablets. Of the people who have not paid directly to access news on their tablet, just 21 per cent said they would spend $US5 ($A4.79) a month if that was the only way to access their favourite news outlet.

Apps, it turns out, are not the most popular way to access news content. Only 21 per cent of tablet news users said they get their news mainly through apps they have downloaded. By contrast, 40 per cent said they get their news mainly by way of a web browser, while 31 per cent said they use apps and the browser equally.

The study was conducted on landlines and mobile phones from June 30 to July 31 among 5014 adults in the US.

Story source: www.bigpond.com

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: study, tablet, Users

Older Facebook Users Click More, Like Less

September 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

While propensity to click-through on Facebook is positively correlated with age, propensity to like is not, according to data released in August 2011 by Facebook marketing consulting firm SocialCode. Age has a strong positive effect on whether a user will click, but has a less pronounced opposite effect on the likelihood of them becoming a fan of a page.

Fifty-plus-year-old users, the oldest segment in the study, are 28.2% more likely to click through and 9% less likely to like than 18-29-year-old users, the youngest group observed. Compared to the rest of the younger population, 50-plus users see a 22.6% higher CTR and 8.4% lower like rate.

Interestingly, CTR by age rises much more directly than like rate by age falls. CTR rises almost continuously as user age progresses, rise in an almost direct line as users age, with a minimal plateau inside the 30-39-year-old age bracket.

However, the like rate shows some strong fluctuation before plummeting once the user enters the 50-plus bracket. Among 18-to-29-year-olds, the like rate is about 39.5%, and then dips to about 38.5% in the 30-t0-39-year-old demographic.

However, the like rate jumps back to its highest point of slightly more than 39.5% among 40-to-49-year-olds. It then dramatically drops to slightly more than 36% in the 50-plus group of Facebook users.

Overall, women are 11% more likely to click on an ad than men. Like rates, however, are almost even for men and women, with men actually 2.2% more likely to like an ad than women.

In addition, when broken down by age, age has a much more pronounced effect on CTR for women than it does for men, whereas for men there is a stronger effect on like rate than for women.

For women, CTR is 31.2% higher for the 50 plus age group compared to 18-29-year-olds, whereas men only see a 16.2% difference. Compared to all age groups, 50-plus women’s CTR is 22% higher, compared to a 16.4% difference for males.

However, the oldest male segment has an 11.7% higher like rate than the youngest segment, and 9.5% higher like rate than all age groups. Women only see 7.2% and 7.9% differences, respectively.

Consumers are tapping into their networks of friends, fans, and followers to discover, discuss and purchase goods and services in ever-more sophisticated ways, according to an August 2011 advisory from consumer trends firm trendwatching.com. As a result, trendwatching.com advises it’s never been more important for brands to make sure they too have what it calls the “F-Factor,” with “F” standing for friends, fans and followers.

trendwatching.com identifies five key ways the F-Factor influences consumer behavior:

1. F-Discovery: How consumers discover new products and services by relying on their social networks.
2. F-Rated: How consumers will increasingly (and automatically) receive targeted ratings, recommendations and reviews from their social networks.
3. F-Feedback: New ways in which consumers can ask their friends and followers to improve and validate their buying decisions.
4. F-Together: How shopping is becoming increasingly social, even when consumers and their peers are not physically together.
5. F-Me: How consumers’ social networks are literally being turned into products and services.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Click, Facebook, Older, Users

‘Super Greenies’ are Heavy Online Users

August 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

scarborough socnet use by environmental active aug11.thumbnail ‘Super Greenies’ are Heavy Online Users “Super Greenies” (adults who engage in 10 or more environmentally friendly activities on a regular basis) tend to use the internet more heavily than average adults, according to [pdf] an August 2011 study from Scarborough Research. For example, data from “All About the Super Greenies” indicates 51% of Super Greenies have visited Facebook in the past 30 days, making them 36% more likely than average adults to use Facebook.

The social networks where Super Greenies overindex the most, however, are LinkedIn and Twitter. Thirteen percent of Super Greenies have visited LinkedIn in the past 30 days, making them 179% more likely than average to have done so. And while only 9% have visited Twitter in the past 30 days, this is still almost double (96%) the average rate.

‘Super Greenies’ are Heavy Online Users Super Greenies are avid consumers of online media beyond social networks. Forty-two percent have visited a newspaper website in the past 30 days, 61% more than average. And 38% have visited a broadcast TV website in the past 30 days, 38% more than average.

As with social networks, Super Greenies’ highest levels of overindexing on media sites is actually highest where their overall usage is lowest. Only 12% have visited Hulu in the past 30 days, roughly double (99% more) the average rate. And the 19% who have visited a radio station site in the past 30 days is 48% higher than average, second only to newspaper site usage for overindexing.

Super Greenies also consume local online content at rates higher than the overall population. Sixty-nine percent have checked local weather in the past 30 days, 51% more than the average adult. The most notable local content Super Greenies check online more than the total population is traffic, which 15% of Super Greenies have checked in the past 30 days, 231% higher than the average rate.

Super Greenies are top spenders in all retail categories measured by Scarborough. Super Greenies are 71% more likely than the overall population to own a foreign luxury vehicle. Half of Super Greenies have volunteered in the past year, and are 90% more likely than the average adult to have done so. 42% of Super Greenies have visited an art museum in the past year, making them 220% more likely than the total population to have done so.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Greenies, Heavy, Online, Super, Users

Twitter users send 200mn tweets a day

July 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Twitter users are sending 200 million tweets a day, up from 65 million a year ago, the micro-blogging service says.

‘For context on the speed of Twitter’s growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million tweets a day,’ Twitter said in a blog post on Thursday.

The San Francisco-based Twitter was founded in 2006. It has more than 200 million users.

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 13 per cent of the online US adults aged 18 and older use Twitter, up from eight per cent in November 2010.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: 200mn, tweets, Twitter, Users

SocNet Users Get Older

June 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The average age of social network users rose between 2008 and 2010, according to data from the Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project. For example, the percentage of social network users age 18-22 fell 43%, from 28% to 16%.

In addition, the percentage of social network users age 23-35 dropped 20%, from 40% to 32%. Meanwhile, the percentage of users age 36-49 rose 18%, from 22% to 26%. Most significantly, the percentage of users age 50-65 more than doubled, from 9% to 20%.

In total, 52% of social network users in 2010 were 36 and up, a 58% increase from 33% in 2008.

SocNet Users Get Older There is considerable variance in the way people use various social networking sites. For example, 52% of Facebook users and 33% of Twitter users engage with the platform daily, while only 7% of MySpace and 6% of LinkedIn users do the same.

On Facebook on an average day, 15% of Facebook users update their own status, 22% comment on another’s post or status, 20% comment on another user’s photos, 26% “Like” another user’s content, and 10% send another user a private message.

The average American has just more than two discussion confidants (2.16); that is, people with whom they discuss important matters. Controlling for other factors, Pew found that someone who uses Facebook several times per day averages 9% more close, core ties in their overall social network compared with other internet users.

Pew looked at how much total support, emotional support, companionship and instrumental aid adults receive. On a scale of 100, the average American scored 75 on a scale of total support, 75 on emotional support (such as receiving advice), 76 in companionship (such as having people to spend time with), and 75 in instrumental aid (such as having someone to help if they are sick in bed).

Internet users in general score three points higher in total support, six points higher in companionship, and four points higher in instrumental support. A Facebook user who uses the site multiple times per day tends to score an additional five points higher in total support, five points higher in emotional support, and five points higher in companionship, than internet users of similar demographic characteristics. For Facebook users, the additional boost is equivalent to about half the total support that the average American receives as a result of being married or cohabitating with a partner.

While Facebook has the highest engagement rate of the “big five” social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube), the highest percentage of online consumers think having a LinkedIn account is important, according to an April 2011 study from ROI Research and Performics. Data from “S-Net: A Study in Social Media Usage and Behaviour” indicates 59% of online consumers rate having a LinkedIn account 4 or 5 on a five-point importance scale, compared to 53% giving this level of importance to having a Facebook account.

About the Data: Pew conducted a survey of 2,225 social network users on landline and cell phone from October 20 – November 28, 2010.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Older, SocNet, Users

Twitter Users Want Businesses to Answer Them

June 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Social sites like Quora are designed specifically as question-and-answer venues where users can get expert help, but Twitter often serves as an informal tool for the same purpose. Users might ask their followers for advice, ask the world what a particular trending topic means, or hope for customer service help from a brand.

According to May 2011 research from InboxQ, a service to feed businesses questions from Twitter, Twitter users—especially ones with more followers and thus, presumably, more experience—tend to ask questions with tweets directed at all followers rather than using @ replies or direct messages. This means questions are often not directed at a relevant brand, but many users want brands to answer them anyway.

Eight in 10 Twitter users surveyed worldwide said they thought the answers businesses posted on Twitter were at least as trustworthy as those from regular people, and about six in 10 said they wanted businesses to respond to them on the microblogging service.

Yet just 21% of Twitter users with under 100 followers and 41% of users with over 100 followers said they had actually received a response from a business via Twitter.

Users indicated that more responsive brands would benefit from greater loyalty and purchasing. Almost 60% of respondents said they would be more likely to follow a brand that answered them, and 64% said they would be more likely to make a purchase from that brand.

InboxQ may have an interest in getting businesses to pay attention to questions posted to Twitter, but this research meshes with an already robust body of data about the kinds of interactions many social media users hope to have with brands. Consumers often indicate that they understand and accept the value exchange of connecting with companies in return for information that can help them. And they also often want brands to pay attention to them and not take their business for granted now that they have access to the powerful voice social media provides.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Answer, Businesses, Twitter, Users

Older Facebook Users Catching On to ‘Liking’ Brands

June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

It took older web users a few years to begin social networking after it had been popularized by the younger set, but they soon became the fastest-growing segment of users on sites like Facebook. Now it appears they are also growing into a specific social media habit that had been more popular among younger adults: connecting with brands.

As recently as September 2010, based on research from Wedbush Securities, it seemed as if Facebook engagement with brands just might not interest users over age 55. At that point, only about one in four of Facebook’s oldest users had “liked” a brand on the site, compared with 60% of those ages 18 to 34.

By November 2010, over-55s had begun to close the gap, however, and by April 2011, nearly half were connecting with brands. Engagement had also risen among 18- to 34-year-olds as well as the 35-to-54 age group over the period. Overall, 59% of adult Facebook users had “liked” a brand as of April, up from 47% the previous September. Uptake among the oldest users appears to have been a major factor in this rise.

Increased engagement among older boomers and seniors suggests that Facebook users of all ages have some interest in connecting with brand pages, rather than appealing only to young adults. Since most older Facebook users still have not “liked” a brand, there could still be room to grow in this demographic. The climbing level of activity among the middle age group indicates that younger boomers could have just as much potential social engagement with brands as millennials and Gen Xers.

Typically, social media users report connecting with brands to get deals and discounts, as well as information about products and special offers. But what brand fans expect can vary. For example, affluent social media users tended to follow brands because of a preexisting affinity for them, and a desire to be kept informed. Many older users will fall into this group, due to the point they have reached in their careers and their longer opportunity to build up net worth.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Brands, Catching, Facebook, Liking, Older, Users

7.5 million Facebook users are under 13

May 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Some 7.5 million of the 20 million minors who used Facebook in the past year were younger than 13, and a million of them were bullied, harassed or threatened on the site, an American study shows.

Even more troubling, more than five million Facebook users were 10 years old or younger, and they were allowed to use Facebook largely without parental supervision leaving them vulnerable to threats ranging from malware to sexual predators, the State of the Net survey by Consumer Reports found.

Facebook’s terms of service require users to be at least 13 years old but many children, or their parents, get around that rule by giving a false birth date when they sign up for the social networking site.

Parents of kids 10 and younger who use Facebook ‘seem to be largely unconcerned’ by their children’s use of the site, possibly because they think a young child is less vulnerable to internet risks, the study says.

But while a 10-year-old might not download pornography on the internet, he or she does ‘need protection from other hazards that might lurk on the internet, such as links that infect their computer with malware and invitations from strangers, not to mention bullies,’ the study says.

More than five million US households have been exposed in the past year to ‘some type of abuse’ via Facebook, including virus infections, identity theft and bullying, says the study, for which 2,089 US households were interviewed earlier this year.

Consumer Reports urged parents to delete their pre-teens’ Facebook accounts — or ask Facebook to do so by using the site’s ‘report an underage child’ form — and to monitor teenage kids’ accounts by friending them or keeping an eye on their activity via siblings’ or friends’ Facebook pages.

It also called on Facebook to ‘beef up its screening to drastically reduce the number of underage members.’

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said in a statement that the social networking site encourages ‘communication between parents/guardians and kids about their use of the internet.

‘Just as parents are always teaching and reminding kids how to cross the road safely, talking about internet safety should be just as important a lesson to learn,’ Noyes said.

But he also stressed ‘just how difficult it is to implement age restrictions on the internet’ and said there is ‘no single solution to ensuring younger children don’t circumvent a system or lie about their age.’

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Facebook, million, under, Users

Geolocation Users See Social Benefit

April 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Finding a place liked by people they trust came in a distant second, cited by only about half as many geolocation users (21%). The only other benefit cited by a double-digit percentage of users was insight about travel/movement patterns (17%).

Survey results indicate about four in 10 (39%) smartphone operators use one or more location-based apps, with 61% not using any. Awareness levels are higher than usage levels, as 56% of smartphone operators report knowing about location-based apps.

About four in 10 (42%) smartphone users consider Facebook Places their primary geolocation app, while roughly a quarter of the sample each choose Google Latitude and Foursquare, respectively. Twitter Places, Gowalla, and Whrrl collectively account for only 6%.

White Horse analysis suggests that Facebook Places has such strong adoption numbers because of the incidental lift provided by the success of the Facebook mobile app, which White Horse says was the most downloaded app on the planet at the time the report was released. If even a quarter of that number were in the US, user experimentation alone would make Facebook the leader in terms of gross market penetration.

Among smartphone owners who are aware of location-based apps but choose not to use them, about one-third cite privacy concerns as the chief barrier to their usage. More than 25% say they have no need, interest or benefit related to location-based apps, and close to 20% say location-based apps are redundant to how they already connect to their smartphones.

Another possible reason for the dominance of Facebook Places is the fact Facebook usage is considerably higher amongst smartphone users, according to recent data from ExactTarget which finds 23% of smartphone users check Facebook constantly throughout the day. This figure is about double the 12% of non-smartphone users who do so. Furthermore, 32% of smartphone users check Facebook at least once per day, 14% higher than the 28% of non-smartphone users who are daily Facebook checkers.

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Benefit, Geolocation, Social, Users

Days of Double-Digit Growth in Social Network Users Are Over

March 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Social networking now reaches most internet users in the US and has become an integral part of their lives. Thanks to the rapid growth of Facebook, updating status, posting comments and sharing links with friends have become routine activities for millions of people.

eMarketer estimates nearly 150 million US web users will use social networks via any device at least monthly this year, bringing the reach of such sites to 63.7% of the online population. But the days of double-digit growth in users are over as social networking reaches a saturation point. By 2013, 164.2 million Americans will use social networks, or 67% of internet users.

“With fewer new users signing up, social network users will be more sophisticated and discerning about the people and brands they want to engage with,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “US Social Network Usage: 2011 Demographic and Behavioral Trends.”

Even as the social network audience has broadened to include a significant number of people from the Generation X, boomer and senior age segments, the youngest age groups are still the most represented, active and engaged. The enormous usage increases in some older age groups over the past two years will be less pronounced in the coming years.

Still, more than half of internet users ages 45 to 64 and over four out of five 12- to- 34-year-old online users will be regular social network users in 2011. The highest penetration level of all age groups will remain in the 18-to-24 age group, where 90% of internet users will use social networks this year.

“In 2011, social networks will need to cement their relationships with their users, particularly people ages 35 and older, in order to keep them engaged,” said Williamson. “Marketers and media companies can contribute to this effort by creating compelling user experiences that make people want to stay connected to social networks so they can gain access to experiences, deals or content they may not be able to find anywhere else.”

View the original article here

Filed Under: News Tagged With: DoubleDigit, Growth, Network, Social, Users

Tags