A Look at Today’s Social Media Trends

This week on the Blogosphere we’ll look at four blog posts that highlight today’s social media trends, as well as the ongoing struggle among B2B marketers to measure lead generation across marketing touchpoints. According to a recent study, there’s a downward trend among Twitter users who demonstrate brand support on the social network, yet an increase in user-to-company interaction on Facebook’s network. Reportedly the most active interaction on Facebook currently is the “Like” feature, which one blog suggests could be used by almost 65 million users daily. While people frequently update their statuses on Facebook and Twitter, their use of status update services on wireless devices remains surprisingly low. Additionally, we’ll look at a study where almost half of the respondents claim to only look at the last marketing touchpoint when it comes to lead generation measurement.

Are Your Ears Burning? In Social Networks, One-Third of Consumers Talk Brands Every Week

BrianSolis.com | Brian Solis | 7-6-10

In this post, Solis takes a look at a study by ROI Research, which assessed the interaction between social network users and brands. Solis points out that even though there’s a lot of promise in these stats in suggesting Twitter users to be a major supporter of brands online, the stats still suggest a minor downward trend. Between 2009 and 2010, the study shows a slight decrease in the percentage of Twitter users who claimed they would recommend the company or product, talk about the company or product and purchase the brand/company’s product. The percentage of users surveyed who claimed they would link to an advertisement for the company or product remained the same. Solis revisits his previous hypothesis that companies would eventually start to allocate more resources toward their brand’s presence on Facebook rather than Twitter. He nods at the study’s findings as potential support for his prediction. Between 2009 and 2010, there was a minor increase in the percentage of Facebook users who reported that connecting with companies on Facebook makes them feel like a valued customer, that they enjoy interacting with companies through Facebook and that they believe the social network is a valuable method for finding information about companies and products.

• Between 2009 and 2010, there was a minor downward trend in Twitter users’ support of companies and products on the social network, whereas there was a slight increase in the percentage of users who reported interacting with brands on Facebook.
• Based on this data, we can see the multifaceted uses of Facebook and Twitter. The study further supports the claim that social media has various uses and that different networks support different use cases and should be treated accordingly.

Twitter, Facebook Lack Mobile Influence

Media Post | Laurie Sullivan | 7-8-10
In a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, out of the 59% of respondents who claim to use wireless devices, only 10% of them reported using their mobile phones and wireless laptops to employ status update services, like Facebook and Twitter. The data demonstrated that users purpose these wireless devices for numerous other activities, however. Fifty-four percent have used their mobile phones to send photos, 23% have visited social networking sites, 20% watched videos and 15% uploaded photos or videos. Non-voice data applications have seen increased usage in the past years, with using a mobile device to take a photo being the most popular. Internet use via mobile has seen continual growth among adults ages 30-49, as well as an increase in the frequency with which they go online throughout the day: 43% of adult users access the Internet several times a day.

• According to the data, users have been relatively slow to adopt Facebook and Twitter status update services into their day-to-day mobile activity.
• Wireless device users are accessing the Internet with increasing frequency, yet mostly for the purpose of sending photos, visiting social networking sites, watching videos and uploading photos or videos.

Almost 65 Million Facebook Users “Like” Things Daily

All Facebook | Nick O’Neill | 7-7-10

Based on Facebook’s self-reported statistics, All Facebook makes the claim that nearly 65 million Facebook users “Like” on Facebook, every day. Therefore, making the “Like” option the most frequented action on Facebook. If Facebook’s claims are accurate, Neill says, that 50% of their active users login to Facebook on any given day and their active user base is nearly 500 million, the data would suggest that about 26% of users “Like” items once they login to Facebook each day. Neill claims that it’s hardly unexpected that Facebook’s concentrating so much effort on the “Like” feature with data like this.

• According to All Facebook, almost 65 million Facebook users “Like” on Facebook daily.
• Based on Facebook’s self-reported statistics, this would mean that approximately 26% of users “Like” things on Facebook every day.

B2Bs Still Struggle to Tie Leads to Marketing Touchpoints

eMarketer | 7-7-10

A 2010 study led by the Lenskold Group found that almost half (44%) of B2B marketers reported that their lead generation measurement only extended as far as the last marketing touchpoint, fewer (21%) claimed that they use more advanced techniques that allow them to measure lead generation across several touchpoints and 20% said they do not track leads to any specific marketing touchpoints. While the number of respondents who claim to calculate a few financial metrics—namely, cost-per-lead and cost-per-sale—has increased significantly between 2008 and 2010 (34% to 43%), the number of marketers who measure ROI or net present value has stayed relatively stagnant over the same time range (26% to 27%). Marketers who measured ROI found it easier to follow leads to marketing touchpoints. Eleven percent claimed they did not employ any tracking, whereas 40% reported using only traditional metrics. Marketers utilizing more sophisticated ROI metrics, found their marketing strategies to be more efficient and successful than marketers overlooking these metrics.

• 44% of B2B marketers worldwide report their lead generation measurement only extended as far as the last marketing touchpoint, 21% measure lead generation across several touchpoints and 20% do not track leads to any marketing touchpoints.
• There appears to be more prospective revenue in lead generation marketing, but only by implementing success metrics, ROI measurement and improved tracking.

Is Facebook Destined to Climb Higher on Marketers’ Social Media Marketing Agendas Than Twitter?

We’re interested to hear your thoughts and comments on this blog post. To receive this weekly summary, or any other Optify updates, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or subscribe to our RSS feed. There are a few questions we’d like to hear your feedback on: Do you agree with Solis’ prediction? Do you think Facebook will increasingly gain the attention of marketers over Twitter in their social media marketing efforts? Do you agree with this statement in respect to B2B companies? Share your thoughts with us.