Social Media Research

73% of US online adults use social networks; 71% use Facebook, more than LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter combined

Just about 75% of US mature person Internet clients (73 percent) now utilize a long range interpersonal communication website. Besides, nearly 42 percent of online grown-ups in the nation now utilize different informal communities. 

The most recent figures hail from Pew Research Center's Internet Project. Unsurprisingly, Facebook keeps on standing out:

What may be amazing to some, on the other hand, is that a greater number of Americans who are online use Facebook than the following three most well known informal organizations. While Facebook has a 71 percent entrance rate, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Twitter joined indicate only 61 percent. 

Pinterest figured out how to increase the most rate focuses, climbing from 15 percent to 21 percent between 2012 and 2013, and passing Twitter to get third spot, setting simply behind Linkedin. Facebook and the Facebook-possessed Instagram both picked up 4 rate focuses while Linkedin and Twitter picked up 2 rate focuses. 

Seat noted that while Facebook figures out how to remain prevalent over a various blend of demographic aggregations, in any case it leaves truly an opening for different locales to improve their exceptional demographic client profiles. Put basically, Facebook is for everybody and everything else is for others. 

Pinterest keeps on speaking to female clients (ladies are four times as likely as men to be Pinterest clients), and Linkedin is particularly prominent around school graduates and Internet clients in higher salary families. Then, Twitter and Instagram have specific engage more youthful mature people, urban tenants, and non-whites. 

Yet Facebook isn't simply the most prevalent interpersonal organization: it likewise has large amounts of engagement around its clients. 63 percent of Facebook clients visit the site no less than once a day, with 40 percent completing so different times for the duration of the day. 

While Instagram and Twitter have an altogether more diminutive number of clients, their clients additionally have a tendency to visit them often. 57 percent of Instagram clients visit the site no less than once a day (35 percent do so numerous times each day), and 46 percent of Twitter clients are day by day guests (29 percent going by various times each day). 

Seat's study was directed between August 7 and September 16 by looking over 1,801 Americans matured 18 and more advanced in years. The association pegs the room for mistakes at in addition to or less 2.6 rate focuses for the sum test and 2.9 rate focuses for Internet clients.

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80% of Facebook's Like and Share Clicks Come From Outside the U.S.

Facebook redesigned its Like and Share buttons last month, and the result has been a slight rise in clicks, all thanks to its international users.

Exclusive data released to Mashable Monday revealed that Facebook has seen a 5% increase in clicks on Like and Share buttons since deploying the new design, according to a company spokesperson. The buttons, which appear on more than 7.5 million third-party websites, are viewed by Internet users more than 22 billion times per day.

SEE ALSO: Facebook: Here's How Your News Feed Works

Facebook did not share details on the specific number of clicks, but did break down some geographic data regarding those who use the buttons online. In fact, 80% of all Like and Share engagement takes place outside of the United States, which makes sense considering 83% of Facebook's monthly active users are outside of the U.S. and Canada.

The Asia-Pacific and Western European regions accounted for the largest share of the clicks, claiming 21% each. Like and Share buttons are least popular in the Middle East, which only accounted for 3% of all engagement.

Here's a breakdown of the stats:

• Asia-Pacific accounted for 21% of impressions of Facebook's Like and Share buttons
• Latin America: 13%
• U.S.: 20%
• Western Europe: 21%
• Central and Eastern Europe: 18%
• Africa: 3%
• Middle East: 2%
• Canada: 3%

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

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New Facebook Marketing Research Shows What Works

Are you wondering what works with Facebook and what’s a waste of time?

Do hashtags make a difference?

What about sponsored stories?

There’s recently been ton of research to understand how Facebook marketing is helping (or hurting) businesses.

Here are five noteworthy Facebook findings we uncovered from the latest published research.

#1: 78% of U.S. Facebook Users Are Mobile

Facebook is at the center of a sizable shift to mobile. In the U.S. alone, 78% of all Facebook users (just shy of 100 million people) logged into their Facebook accounts via mobile this year (TechCrunch).

Research from eMarketer predicts that this number will continue to grow and by 2017,154.7 million Americans will be using Facebook on their mobile devices.

Key Takeaways:

Mobile and social go hand in hand. If your target audience is in the U.S., you should follow Facebook’s lead and adapt a mobile-first strategy. Here are a few tips tooptimize your Facebook page for mobile users:

• Take a look at your Facebook page on your mobile device to see what others are seeing (Public view, not Admin view).
• Since the mobile experience doesn’t show your complete timeline, highlight your best content with a pinned post.
• Photos are the best-performing post types on Facebook, so be sure to add colorful, interesting images to all your posts, offers and ads.
• If you have a local business, encourage customers to check in on Facebook at your location (more on that later!). Mobile searchers tend to make local buying decisions (e.g., where to eat, where to shop, etc.). Recommendations and check-ins from mobile users’ friends appear first on their mobile devices, making it a fantastic tool for word-of-mouth marketing.

#2: Paid Ads Improve Reach and Post Performance

According to the 2013 Social Rich Media Benchmark Report (ShopIgniter), promoting your Facebook posts with a paid ad increases organic and viral reach significantly but reduces click-throughs.

This is true for all post types (video, offers, photos, links and questions) except status updates. In the case of status updates, unpaid posts have a much higher reach than paid posts.

Key Takeaways:

Paid ads make a big difference on Facebook—at least in terms of reach and impressions. But before you start investing in Facebook ads, think about your target audience, focus on your marketing goals and understand how different post types perform when they’re promoted with ads.

Paid ads are used for promotional content, which by default draws less engagement than non-promotional content. If you’re more interested in driving brand awareness or increasing your customer base, then by all means use paid ads because of their viral nature.

But if you’re trying to build your email list (you’ll need folks to click through to a landing page), then paying to promote the post might be a waste of cash, according to the research. And don’t forget, whenever you want people to click, give them lots of images!

#3: Negative Feedback Hurts Conversion

Facebook doesn’t have a Dislike button. However, users can show their aversion toward your content by hiding it from their news feed.

More research from ShopIgniter shows that negative feedback—which includes the following actions by users: Hide Post, Hide All Posts, Report as Spam, Unlike Page—increases (hurts conversion) the more you add paid media to your posts.

The chart shows the negative feedback rate for paid and organic Facebook posts. Longer bars are bad as they indicate higher negative feedback.

Key Takeaways:

• For most post types except links, negative feedback increases when paid ads are used.
• As far as paid posts go, notes are most disliked (hardly anyone uses them anyway), followed by video.
• Although photos are popular on Facebook, not all photos are created equal. As a marketer, you should know exactly what your audience’s preferences areby posting photos they will enjoy, like and share. If you’re not sure, do some A/B split tests with various images to find out.
• The ‘Question’ is king—You can’t go wrong with asking questions on Facebook. At best you’ll get lots of responses, and at the very worst you’ll get little or no negative feedback.
• Surprisingly, Facebook Offers generate less negative feedback than links! That’s because everyone likes a good deal, even if it ‘interrupts’ your news feed through an ad.
• The best thing to do is mix up your posts. Try both paid and unpaid versions of the same post type. At the end of the day, only your Page Insights can tell you what will work for you and what will not.

#4: Facebook Hashtags Are NOT Working

According to EdgeRank Checker, Facebook hashtags have done nothing to help with additional exposure for your brand. In fact the opposite is true.

The research indicates that posts with hashtags are not only less likely to go viral, but also make people less likely to engage with the content.

Key Takeaways:

EdgeRank doesn’t tell us why Facebook hashtags are failing. We only know that people are not clicking them. Here are some possibilities:

First, for a lot of people, hashtags feel out of place on Facebook. There’s even a Facebook page called “This is not Twitter. Hashtags don’t work here” where 15,000 fans are making a strong case that what works on one platform doesn’t necessarily work on another. They argue that hashtags on Facebook “interrupt the flow of communication and people tend to abuse them.”

Second is perception. Before the official launch of hashtags in June of this year, people or brands who used hashtags on Facebook were perceived to be clueless. Other users figured they didn’t understand how to use Facebook. There have also been complaints that status updates with hashtags are nothing more than automated posts created by lazy marketers on Twitter.

So based on the research, if you want your fans and their friends to share your Facebook posts, you may want to avoid using hashtags or at least do a lot of your own testing to see if they’re helping or hurting your brand.

#5: And the Highest CTR Goes to… Sponsored Check-in Stories!

Sponsored check-in stories, where users are shown an ad in their news feed for a place they previously checked in, received by far the highest click-through rate (CTR) among all ad types and sponsored stories.

The Facebook Ads Benchmark Report (Salesforce) shows that at 3.2%, this CTR is even higher than sponsored like stories, which are very popular with marketers.

Key Takeaways:

Sponsored check-in stories are used to reach your fans’ friends on their news feed. High CTRs could be indicative of peer influence. When a Facebook user sees (on her news feed) that her friend has checked into a particular store, she’ll be curious to learn more about that location and will probably click through for more information.

As the owner of that business, you want to encourage more people to take the same action, so you’ll pay to highlight the original action of checking in.

So if you’re thinking about building a local fan base, engaging and rewarding customers, or reaching your customers’ friends, why not design a campaign around the check-in stories that your customers are generating? Fair warning—sponsored check-in stories are very expensive (in terms of cost per impression or CPM), but the investment could be worth it if more customers come to your store and buy your products. It’s something to think about!

Your Turn

What do you think? Which of these trends or insights do you agree or disagree with? Please share your thoughts in the comment box below.