Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

Social Networking Use Rises 48% Among US Women

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Social Networking

Social Networking


A majority of US women use social networking sites, and half of them say social networking sites influence their shopping habits, according to a recent study on online social networking among women from social media platform SheSpeaks.

According to the SheSpeaks Second Annual Media Study (pdf), 86% of US women now have a profile on at least one social networking site, a 48% increase from 58% who had a profile in 2008. Since 2008, the percentage of women reporting they log into their social networking sites at least once a day grew 36%, from 53% to 72%.

Of particular interest to retailers, 50% of female social media users say they have purchased products because of information on social networking sites, and 40% report they have used coupon codes found on social network.

Facebook Most Popular

Facebook is the most popular social networking site among women. Some 95% of respondents who have a social networking profile say they use Facebook, a 46% increase from 65% last year. MySpace dropped 33% in popularity, with 42% of female social networking participants reporting they have a MySpace account, compared with 63% in 2008.

Twitter, which was included in the study for the first time this year, has a 38% participation rate, SheSpeaks said.

“Although Facebook is currently more popular than Twitter among women, they each share a purpose in women’s lives,” said Aliza Freud, founder and CEO of SheSpeaks. “Facebook serves women’s need to interact with friends and share photos, while Twitter has become a tool that is primarily used for professional networking and learning about up-to-the-minute news, promotions and deals.”

Hearing what friends are doing, having fun and expressing themselves top the list of reasons why women say they use Facebook and Twitter, though more women visit Facebook to express themselves and have fun. However, a higher percentage useTwitter to learn new things, promote themselves/their work and follow celebrities.

Online Video Grows in Popularity

The study also found online video has grown in popularity over the last year. Almost 40% of the women in the study report that they frequently watch video and TV content online, and 85% say they watch it frequently or sometimes.

A separate poll of SheSpeaks members found that clips from news and TV programming were the most commonly watched type of online video in the prior week (68%), followed by videos that are forwarded (49%), full news and TV programs (40%), and videos posted by friends (40%). Entertaining advertisements were the least popular type of video, but were still watched by one-third of women within the last week.

The study paints a more optimistic picture of social networking’s growth in popularity among US adults than other studies released earlier this year, reports Retailer Daily. According to the most recent Consumer Internet Barometer report from The Conference Board, released in June 2009, growth is occurring but not as rapidly as indicated by SheSpeaks study. The Consumer Internet Barometer indicates 43% of internet users participate in social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. This is a 16-percentage-point jump from the 27% of users participating in social networking sites a year ago.

Online social networking participation has especially grown among users ages 55 and up, the study found. Last year, only 6% of internet users in this age group participated in online social networking, compared with 19% this year.

About the study: The Second Annual Media Study is based on responses 1,500 adult women who are members of the SheSpeaks social networking community gave to an annual survey.

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Social Networking – Why You Should Start Your Own Community

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

After the enormous popularity explosion that followed the launch of MySpace many Internet entrepreneurs and marketers found themselves wondering why they did not come up with MySpace first. The idea of social networking is nothing new but before MySpace it was not seen on such a large, user friendly, level. Quite a few Internet savvy people would have loved the chance to make a fortune selling advertisement space to major movie studios, television stations, bands, and much more. Surprisingly creating a website like MySpace is not nearly as difficult as you may be imagining.

In order to establish a social networking website it is necessary to invest in your own, customized, social networking software. This software is created by a developer that specializes in creating programs to be used for social networking and will be branded for your own use. While hiring a development company and setting up web hosting along with marketing can be expensive in the long run it will be worth it.

Even though many people prefer setting up their own profiles on sites like MySpace and using them to promote their own businesses setting up your own website will give you much more control over your promotion and increase your opportunity for financial success. When using third party sites you are totally dependent on their system and have to hope that there is no downtime, errors with messaging, or anything else that can have an adverse affect on your promotional efforts. You are also at the mercy of their staff that may or may not close or lock your account for a variety of reasons real or imagined leaving you to cool your heels until someone has the time to answer your support ticket.

Setting up your own social networking site will give you total control over the community. You will be able to invite your friends and business associates to sign up and then watch the news spread through word of mouth. Unlike other website ventures social networking leads to word of mouth news being spread because once a user has a profile set up they want the world to see it. Plus you will be able to set up a site that showcases your own interests be it body art, music, television, animation, or anything else you can imagine.

If you are interested in starting your own social networking website you will need to contact a web design company that specializes in social networking sites. Since there is a lot of work involved in the development and upkeep of any social networking site you will want to choose a company with experience in the field. Once you have found a web design company that has designed sites that are similar to your own vision contact them with any questions you might have. In many instances these companies will be able to recommend web hosting and even provide marketing assistance. With all of this in mind if you are someone that wishes you were the owner of MySpace it is time to invest in your own social networking site.

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Build a Community Site and Keep Your Company Connected

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Have you been looking for a way to build the level of teamwork between your employees without seeming like you’re forcing the issue? Build a community website for your employees and watch them grow closer. A lot of the time when the people that work together in an office don’t really form a tight team it’s because they don’t really know one other and don’t share anything except an office.

Since people are busy working they might not have the chance to sit down and chat with their co-workers or form friendships with other people in the office. But when you build a community web site just for the people that work in the office where people can fill out profiles, share family photos and other important aspects of their lives you are giving them the chance to share things with their co-workers online, when it’s convenient for them. Co-workers can share information and stories about themselves using blogs and discussion forums and leave messages for their co-workers on their co-workers profiles.

If your company is a large one and employees are spread out in many different offices or on different floors then you can build a community web site to make sure that everyone stays in the loop and gets the same information. It’s also more effective to send someone in another message asking them to come see you about something or to remind them of a meeting than it is to call them if they are already on the phone or email them if they don’t check their email very often.

Employees can use the forums and messaging applications to blow off steam, ask each other questions about procedure and policy, and support each other. An inter-office community web site has been shown to dramatically increase the ability of teams to work together and to increase the overall efficiency of the day to day running of the office.

You can also build a community web site for the office that will be a central communication point for everyone in the office. You can post sales figures, monthly goals, meeting times or other information all on the community web site where everyone has access. That way no one can say they weren’t told about a deadline or missed a meeting because they didn’t know when it was. Good teamwork is all about communication, and every office needs a lot of teamwork in order to operate successfully. Build a community web site for your employees and you’ll probably see an increase in productivity and communication almost immediately.

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Posted in Internet Marketing, Social Networks, Web Development | No Comments »