Wednesday, July 15, 2009

What Your Favorite Social Media Site Says about You

Posted by Amanda Walsh

There was some interesting social media research done recently by Anderson Analytics on “What Your Favorite Social Networking Web Site Says about You” found in a recent Adage.com article by Beth Snyder Bulik.

The study shows that 110 million Americans or 60% of the online population use social networks. The Anderson study implemented online in June surveyed 5,000 respondents and went in-depth with 1,250 users who have used a social network at least once in the last month.

The study divides general social-media users into four categories: business users, fun seekers, social-media mavens and late followers.

According to Tom Anderson, founder and managing partner of Anderson Analytics, a fundamental user group was found to be the “social-media mavens” because they typically have high incomes and decision-making power at companies. The “fun seekers” group is comprised of students who are transitioning into employees.

Out of four popular social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn, the study discovered some interesting facts:

Facebook has the most users totaling about 77 million. Facebookers tend to have the most average of interests. The topics of news, sports and travel resulted only slightly higher than the rest. Users are “more likely to be married (40%), white (80%) and retired (6%) and have the second-highest average income, at $61,000 and an average of 121 connections.”

Twitter users are most interested in pop culture and tend to use the social media service to promote their blogs or company Web sites in terms of entrepreneurial endeavors. Many users were part-time employees with an average income of $58,000 averaging 28 followers while following approximately 32 other Twitterers.

Twitterers reported that they were not super hooked on the site, however -- 43% said they could live without it. Whereas Facebook users were extremely loyal, 75% announced Facebook as their favorite site, and another 59% say they have increased their use of the site in the past six months.

MySpace users tend to be young and apparently not as loyal as Facebook or Twitter users. Their activity was reported as much less in the past six months. MySpace users tend to post about particular hobbies and pictures of family and friends. The report indicated this group of users had the lowest income of $44,000 and an average of 131 connections.

On LinkedIn 57% of users are male versus 43% female. Most users have joined for business or work connections. Their interests tend to be news, sports, politics and employment information. These users had the highest income of $89,000. Two random, yet interesting discoveries showed that LinkedIn users indicated interests in gambling and soap operas!

1 comment:

Nancy Fox said...

I found this interesting - was surprised to learn more men than women were on Linked In.

What I would have like to learn more about is "what do these sites say about me???" as a business person. On each of these sites, what's the message I am leaving people with about me?

Nancy Fox
www.hubstreet.com