Media strategist and Business Week columnist Ben Kunz points us to global research from Forrester, which shows that while 31% of Europeans and Americans online are ‘conversationalists’, most are simply spectators watching from the sidelines.

Not only that but the % of active “creators” in the US, EU and Australia have gone down at the same time as overall (and so passive) social media numbers have gone up.

Ben’s conclusion is as follows:

“The implication is that as social media goes mainstream (Facebook is now the No. 3 website among U.S. adults age 45-54), more users are spending more time watching and less submitting.

“This may be good news for advertisers who seek to use social channels as a push medium for their message, and not-so-good news for those who believe everyone wants to actively engage in a two-way conversation with their brand.”

It also highlights the need to have a system in place to identify those creators and conversationalists, who everyone else is watching (and is influenced by).

The rise and rise of the mommy blogger

A lot of those participants and conversationalists are in fact mothers.   On The Wall Blog Gordon MacMillan has a piece out about the ‘rise and rise of the mommy blogger.’

In particular, Gordon makes the point that ‘mommy bloggers’ are sometimes just mothers that blog, it’s not the case that they will always blog about parenting matters.

According to this chart from emarketer, one in eight (12.1%) US mothers on the Internet will be blogging this year.   Similarly, a study from TNS at the end of 2008 found that UK mothers spend 47% of their free time online.

It’s worth re-emphasising exactly why mothers are so active on social media and this ties into a conversation I had the other day – how can you find the time to blog?

The flippant answer – don’t have a social life (I was talking to two 20 somethings who do).  The more serious answer – online social tools are actually pretty well suited for parents.

It works well if you have bursts of free time in 30 min segments here and there (like new mothers).    It also works for people who are sometimes awake at odd hours (again parents), and finally as a way of keeping in touch with an extended social circle when circumstances (so small children) might not allow you to.

The above post is one of the items on this week’s Rabbit Feed.  Every week at Rabbit we put together a weekly online digest, you can sign up to receive by email.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Maybe It’s Social Media Creation That’s Dead (smallbusinessmavericks.com)
• New Report Says Social Media Creators Have Stopped Creating (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Report: Your New Facebook Friend Stalks You More Than Others (socialtimes.com)

What’s the secret to Facebook success?  Post pictures up on your page on Friday mornings.

This is according to Virtue (which makes social media management tools), which published a white paper on Facebook page engagement.  Virtue first of all looked at 100 random Facebook pages, and then took two pages for two vertical sectors – one for Quick Server Restaurants (or Fast Food) and one for Consumer Packaged Goods.

As part of its research Virtue found that:

Image posts work best.   They get 22% more engagement than video posts, and 54% more engagement than text posts.   But video is still better than text.   Why do images work better than video?  Virtue says that it’s because looking at a picture is the least time consuming option, and because making a truly effective video can be somewhat hit and miss.

For Facebook pages overall, Friday is the most and Sunday the least effective day.   Not only that, but if you put up a post before Noon you get 65% more engagement.

However, there were variations for the two verticals.   The QSR (fast food) page did best on Wednesdays.  A case of the mid working week fast food binge?  Meanwhile for the consumer packaged goods page, Thursday was the most effective day.   And if you are representing a fast food brand, then the rule about posting in the morning doesn’t apply to you.   Instead, posting in the afternoon gets you 12% more engagement.

(Via Marketing Charts)

Related articles by Zemanta

• How To Post Effectively on Facebook (mindjumpers.com)
• Customize Facebook Landing page using Pagemodo (madrasgeek.com)
• Scott Meis: MediaPost Publications Facebook: How Formats, Timing Affect Response 09/22/2010 (mediapost.com)

Perhaps no big surprise – the Pew Internet & American Life Project says that young adults (the under 30s) use mobile data apps the most by a fairly large margin.

However, the same Pew study (via Marketing Charts) shows that this gap is narrowing. It seems that all age groups now like taking photos with their cameras – 93% of 18 to 29 year olds but also 67% of 50-64 year olds.

Pew’s research also shows that the biggest growth rate when it comes to the use of mobile data applications on smart phones comes from the 30-49 year old audience – the audience that’s actually most likely to be issued a smartphone for work, or to have the money to buy that iPhone4 outright.

One in five (20%) 30-49 year olds will watch a video on their phones compared to 40% of the under 30s.

Mobile video use is in fact a significant figure to look out for.

Last year a study by Transpera found that significant use of mobile video is usually a sign that someone is ‘graduating’ from using their laptop or PC to their mobile phone as their primary Internet device.

Gays and Lesbians are social media leaders
Another study that caught my eye from Marketing Charts today, was the fact that Gays and Lesbians are significantly more likely to be social media participants than the general population – at least in the US where Harris conducted the study to find out.

While 25% of heterosexual Americans read news blogs, among gay and lesbian adults that figure jumps to 36%.

Meanwhile, 29% of gay and lesbians read an entertainment blog every day, compared to 16% of heterosexuals. When it comes to readership of blogs overall, 54% of gays and lesbians read them, the figure for adults overall is 40%.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Survey: Gays More Frequent Social Networkers (foxnews.com)
• Study: Gay And Lesbian Adults Are More Avid Blog Readers, Social Network Users (techcrunch.com)
• Gay people ‘more likely to join Facebook and Twitter’ (telegraph.co.uk)

Canadian research firm Sysomos has come out with some interesting, if not that surprising, research about Twitter A-listers and their followers.

That research can be summed up like this:  Celebs might have hundreds of thousands or even 1+ million followers, but that’s very often made up of people who specifically joined Twitter to follow said celeb and have done nothing since.  Hence they are not engaged on Twitter and may in fact be part of the 83% who according to RJ Metrics don’t log into their accounts every month.

That also ties into the recent research that 50% of under 35s re influenced by friends. on social media, but only 17% by celebs

By contrast, people who follow the so-called social media “gurus” are engaged and influential in their own right.   And in the middle, we have people who follow media Twitter accounts.   They are Twitter consumers.  And while they don’t live and breath it, neither have they just checked in to see Ashton Kutcher and checked out again.

The following three tables pretty much say it all:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Judging a Twitter User by Their Followers (Sysomos) (techmeme.com)
• Celebrities’ Twitter Followers Have Zero Influence [STUDY] (mashable.com)
• What Do @BarackObama and @TechCrunch Followers Have In Common? (techcrunch.com)
• People in their 20s and 30s and in the US most likely to blog (liesdamnedliesstatistics.com)
• On Twitter, It’s Just Five Degrees of Separation (readwriteweb.com)

Late last year there were stats coming out of the US implying that Twitter’s growth was stalling.   Not so says analyst firm Sysomos, which has come out with a report showing what’s gone on for the first quarter of 2010.

Sysomos estimates that March will see 1,477 million tweets being made, compared to 928 million in December 2009.   Number of tweets per day also passed 50 million+ in February.

A lot of that growth however comes from outside the US.   Sysomos has previously posted research showing that the social network as a whole was becoming steadily less US-focused and anglophone.  Back in January, US users were just above half of the total – 50.88% – compared to 62% in June 2009.

Given that non US growth over the quarter has consistently been higher than US growth (see chart below), it’s a safe bet that the US share of users is now below the 50% mark.

Finally the Sysomos research confirms what study after study has shown – a core of committed users accounts for most activity, and the rate of churn is very high – over 80%.

In March, Twitter users who had been with the network for 9+ month accounted for 41.6% of activity, while so-called newbies who had joined in the first three months only accounted for 22%.

If you see one person scapegoating someone else – even without reason – the chances are you will do so too.

The research, by USC Marshall School of Business and Stanford University, show that the work blamestorm after something goes wrong is something that quickly catches on.   On a more sinister note I think, it demonstrates how marginalisation and finger pointing at certain groups (for example immigrants) spreads and finds a willing audience.

According to Science Daily, two academics conducted four different experiements, “and found that publicly blaming others dramatically increases the likelihood that the practice will become viral.”

In one example, participants read about California Governor Schwarzenegger blaming special interest groups for the failure of a special election that cost $250.   The ones who did so were more likely to blame others for their own unrelated short-comings.   In other words an aura of negativity spreads, even if it’s about something completely different.

The reason?  “It triggers the perception that one’s self-image is under assault and must be protected.”   So, “not me, guv!”

Looking at the workplace, one of the academics Nathaneal J Fast, says that a blame culture creates a ‘culture of fear‘ and advises companies to embrace failures and mistakes as something to move on from, like Intuit, which has a ‘When learning hurts’ session.

Also touch-feely ‘self affirmation’ seems to help.   In one of the experiments, people who affirmed their ‘self-worth’, were less likely to point fingers.

That makes a lot of sense really.  Foster a positive environment in your organisation and it will spread, or there’s a constant tendency to shift responsibility, that will take hold too and have unintended, wider consequences when it comes to productivity, the day to day atmosphere and so on.

Image – !anaughty!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tech mishaps and the human problem (entrepreneur.venturebeat.com)

Research company Decitica has a study out about the four types of consumers in the recession and beyond. It’s a US survey but it’s probably more widely relevant.

Essentially the stats (via marketing charts) confirm that a more frugal mindshift has set hold among many consumers with almost half being either classed as ‘steadfast frugalists’ or ‘involuntary penny pinchers.’

Apparently Steadfast Frugalists (20%) have made saving a virtue, “engaging in prudence with unequivocal enthusiasm.” They are to be found in all age groups and social classes and they are most likely to continue cutting back once the recession ends. Meanwhile involuntary penny pinchers (29%) have been forced into cutting back and are as expected more likely to be found in lower income groups.

Pragmatic spenders (29%) have cut back for now but will return to their old ways once the economy bounces back, while apathetic materialists (22%) are carrying on much as normal.

Even if only 20% of consumers internalise their recession habits long-term – 85% of the steadfast frugalists say they find price comparison to be ‘satisying’, giving more scope for price comparison websites and consumer review ones.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Five approaches to social marketing from a Meerkat…and a sixth from Cory Doctorow (liesdamnedliesstatistics.com)
• Bing hit by costly security loophole (guardian.co.uk)
• ‘No bill cuts’ for cash customers (news.bbc.co.uk)

Econsultancy has details of a study that shows that half (48%) of tweeple have searched about a brand after being introduced to it on Twitter, compared to 32% across all social networks.

Econsultancy says, “If true, that’s a big deal.”   Yes it is – just like the earlier research showing that 20% of tweets are about brands it provides tangible proof that social media and Twitter engagement pays off.

The research was conducted by Performics Marketing and ROI research.  According to the results, 44% of people had recommended a product on Twitter and 39% discussed it.   Facebook ranked even higher for product recommendations, with 46% recommending brands on there.

An earlier study by Comscore similarly showed that people exposed to brand chatter on social media were significantly more likely both to search for that brand and click on search ads.

Image – Wisleywoven

Related articles by Zemanta

• Consumers Sharing Brand Opinions on Social Networks (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Twitter Lists will organize the social graph (socialmediatoday.com)
• Social media going corporate (sfgate.com)

Every week we track consumer and social media research and publish it on our blog ‘News From the Herd’. We wanted to start compiling some of the best stats we find in a quarterly newsletter, and as a result welcome to the first issue of ‘lies, damned lies and statistics.’

To download the latest issue, use the link below (right-click and save as):

Issue One | Q1