The Taste Graph is the foundation that powers Hunch’s predictions. It is the growing, constantly-improving, massive data structure that fuels not only Hunch.com, but also partner site customization and our open API.
Our latest Infographic takes a deeper look at Hunch’s Taste Graph: what it takes to produce it, what goes into it, and how it works. And once again, our thanks to the awesome team at Column Five Media who designed this Infographic.
Did you know that out of all social networking users 92% partake in Facebook, 29% participate on MySpace, 18% are on LinkedIn and Twitter is the least utilized network with just 13% usage? Or that males on LinkedIn nearly double the number of females, yet female usage of Twitter almost doubles male usage?
Today Pew Internet & American Life Project, a project of the Pew Research Center, launched a detailed report on how social networking affects our lives that contains these results and
more surprising information. The report includes a wealth of information from whether or not social media is making people less social in real life to detailed demographic data about U.S. usage of each network.
The goal of this report was to discover what social networking is actually doing to people in their personal offline lives. These are the highlights and conclusions from the 80+ page report.
Who Uses Social Media Networking Sites?
Some of the initial information that Pew Internet presents relates to the social user and who they actually are by age, race and gender.
One of the most weighty stats about social networking usage is the fact that overall social networking usage has nearly doubled from 2008 to 2010. Back in 2008 26% of adults were utilizing a social networking service (SNS) whereas 47% of adults were using a SNS in 2010.
Age
Leading the increase in social networking usage were those over the age of 35, which grew nearly twice as fast as those 18-35 in the same time period. Only 18% of Internet users over the age of 35 used a social networking service in 2008 and by 2010 that number was up to 48%. The average age of an adult SNS user jumped from 33 years old in 2008 to 38 years old in 2010
Gender
Typical to similar studies the report backs up the fact that social networking users skew female. A notable change showed the discrepancy actually grew from 6% more females in 2008 to 12% more female social networking users in 2010:
Site-by-Site Breakdown
One of the most interesting elements of the report is the site-by-site statistics that showed who actually uses the various social networking sites.
Age
A few surprising stats arose from these findings, including the fact that the average MySpace user (32 years old) is younger than both the average Facebook user (38) & Twitter (33) user. LinkedIn skews the highest out of all the networks with users having an average age of 40.
Gender
LinkedIn is the only social network that has more men than women and the disparity is rather large with men nearly doubling the number of women. Twitter, on the other hand is almost exactly the opposite of LinkedIn with woman making up 64% of the total users.
Race & Ethnicity
The information contained in the report shows that the vast majority of social networking users in the U.S. are white; the lack of minority participation on most networks is staggering.
African-American users have the lowest presence on LinkedIn making up only 2% of the total users. The highest saturation of African Americans is on MySpace with 16% of the total users.
Hispanic users are not prominent on social networking services either. LinkedIn is comprised of only 4% Hispanics, compared to the approximate 14.5% Hispanic makeup of the national population. Hispanics do however make up 12% of both the Twitter and MySpace user base.
LinkedIn is far and away the most saturated site when it comes to white users who make up a whopping 85% of the user base.
Social Networking Usage
Much of the information that Pew Internet uncovered about social usage was expected like MySpace having users who have been members the longest, Twitter having members for the shortest time lengths, but there was some interesting data in regards to everyday usage.
The main finding in regards to usage is that Facebook is far and away the most popular social networking site. Other sites don’t come remotely close to the popularity of Facebook. Of all users on social networks, 92% use Facebook, 29% use MySpace, 18% use LinkedIn and just 13% use Twitter. That’s right, people who have a social networking account are least likely to use Twitter.
Frequency
While Twitter finished in last place out of the main 4 sites the frequency of use of Twitter is quite high. Facebook again leads the pack in frequency of use with 52% of users checking at least once a day, but Twitter is close behind with 33% of users on the service daily:
Facebook Statistics & Usage
Facebook is a focus of this report and thorough usage data and user behavior is included throughout.
Facebook users are quite active in not only using the service, but interacting with others.
- 22% of users comment on another’s post or status
- 26% of users “like” another user’s content
- 15% of users update their own status
- 20% of users comment on another user’s photos
The most active Facebook users tend to be women. 19% of women update their status at least once a day, while men are about half that number (11%) when it comes to daily status updates:
In addition to commenting and updating statuses, Facebook users do “like” quite a bit of content.
- 44% of users in the 18-22 age range “like” content on a daily basis.
- Men are less likely to “like” Facebook content than women. 20% of women “like” content several times a day compared to just 9% of men.
Breakdown of Friend Relationships
In addition to usage, the report sheds light on the what the most common makeup of Facebook friends might be.
- 22% people from high school
- 12% extended family
- 10% coworkers
- 9% college friends
- 8% immediate family
- 7% people from voluntary groups
- 2% neighbors
Does Social Networking Hinder Real-Life Social Experiences?
The biggest question that Pew Internet wanted to answer with this report was whether or not social networking hindered off line activity and interactions. The answer is clear, it most certainly does not. Not only do SNS fail to retard offline growth, they actually help users develop connections and form stronger relationships in the real world.
Some of the most interesting stats that prove social networks are more than just online relationships are:
- Only 3% of users’ Facebook friends have never met in person. While 89% of all Facebook friends have met in person more than once.
- Internet users have a much more diverse network than those who don’t use the internet. Out of all social networks, LinkedIn users have the most diverse networks.
- The average user of a social networking site has more close ties than a non-Internet user and is half as likely to be socially isolated as the average American.
- Internet Users are more trusting of others than non-Internet users. Facebook users are over 3 times more likely than non-internet users to agree that “most people can be trusted.”
- Social networking users may have more of a life than non-internet users. There is a higher percentage of SNS users to partake in a community group, sports league or youth group than a non-internet user.
Other Interesting Learnings
- Private messages are not frequently used. Only 38% of users claim to use Facebook’s private messages at once a week or more.
- MySpace users have a greater probability to take multiple viewpoints than any other social networking site.
- Internet users are more likely to know their neighbors’ names than non-internet users
- LinkedIn is the only platform that skews male. Nearly twice as many men (63%) as women (37%) use LinkedIn. All other SNS platforms have significantly more female users than male users.
I’d like to share a brief demographic analysis of social networks that helps explain who uses social networks, and for what purpose.
Before diving in, I think its best to discuss where our data comes from. Amzini is a directory of over 900 social websites that are visited over 7 billion times per month, by over 900 million visitors (Compete.com). We collect demographic information on each website from Alexa.com, who uses their toolbar to provide estimations of the audience's composition for each site. On an individual site level, these statistics often must be taken with a grain of salt due to small sample sizes and Alexa's bias towards the technologically saavy crowd. However, since our statistics are deduced from 900 websites that average 9 million visits/month per site, our demographic figures provide a unique and informative new look into the social networking industry.
The demographic averages for our entire data set tell a familiar story; social networking is dominated by younger generations with no children, and online networking activity picks up in college. Now that I told you what you already know, let’s look at a categorical breakdown and heat-map featuring demographic data separated into Amzini's 11 main categories.
Age
As a whole, we see exactly what we expected... social networks are most popular among the youngest generation (18-34) and are used less frequently for each successive age group over 35. This trend is often attributed to an increased likeness for technology among youth. However, the heat map to the right highlights the important role generational differences in interests plays in creating such a young social networking demographic.
Youth ages 18-24 tend to use social networks to supplement social life, learning, and having fun. These happen to be the three strongest suits of social networking. The categories that are most popular among this age group are Friends/Dating (social life), info-sharing/education (learning), and creative arts/gaming (having fun). Combined, these 6 categories make up about 91% of the total visits per month among sites on Amzini!
The most diverse use of social networks comes from the 25-34 year old age group. This demographic tends to continue to use the services they used in college, but less often. However, as they start to have new interests (business, family), the data suggests this is the age group most likely to use online social engagement to benefit their business/career, discuss or plan travels, and share family-related experiences online.
For the demographic above 35, there is clearly some technological bias against social networking. However, the reasonably high likeliness of these age groups to use business, family, and dating networks suggests that social networking's popularity among youth may be not just be due to technological differences, but to a better fit of interests.
Questions
Social options are becoming available for more and more new interests... Do you think these networks are entering in response to a more diverse market? Or do you think the market is diversifying due to innovations that make social engagement valuable for a more diverse set of needs?
Education
The participation rate for social networks across the board tends to be higher for people with college-level education. In college, your network expands beyond your hometown and there is a tremendous amount of information shared between students. As mentioned before, social networking is a great fit for these needs, so the high use among people with college education is not surprising.
Two categories break this trend. The first, Gaming, has an unusually high participation rate among people without college experience. With an extraordinarily young following, it is likely that a high percentage of gamers are simply too young to have college experience.
The second trend-breaker, Places, has a very high participation rate among people with graduate-level schooling. This statistic can likely be attributed to the positive correlation between graduate school and income, and between income and travel.
Questions
Does it surprise you that Gaming is the only category where social networks are used more often than other sites among people with no college experience?
Gender and Children
A social network's gender is probably the demographic most strongly influenced by the community's niche. Many categories present data in line with stereotypes... Gaming is strongly dominated by males, lifestyle and family by females. There are, however, some surprises here. Dating, Places, and Business actually are used more often by females while education networks are used most by males. Are these as you expected?
The dominance of a population without children is likely strongly influenced by the correlation between age and having children. It is also likely that older generations have a decreased need to meet new people as they settle down and have kids. The obvious exception to this trend is the 'Family' category, for which having kids is often the primary reason for participation in the first place.
Browsing Location
The heat-map of browsing location reveals strong use of social networks in the workplace. This raises an interesting debate. On one hand, strong engagement with social networks at work may suggest social networking is becoming a distraction in the workplace. On the other hand, this engagement may be representative of the increasing application of social websites for practical purposes (beyond socializing with friends).
Social networking is becoming a growing asset to businesses as both a marketing and a communication tool. While extremely strong numbers for the Business and Places categories likely reflect this use, you have to wonder if lifestyle, friends, and interest networks are being used in a social context rather than just for marketing purposes.
Questions
What do you think about the use of social internet at work? Do these numbers reflect a growing importance of online communities for businesses? Or are social networks becoming a distraction for workers?
We've given some brief interpretations of this interesting data set, but there are many interesting topics of discussion that we have not covered. What story stands out to you?
Online ad firm Vibrant was able to build a healthy ad business by delivering contextually relevant text ads when users mouse over specific words within news articles and other content on the Web. Now, the company wants to bring the same contextual relevance to display ads.Vibrant has rolled out VIA Dynamic, a display ad product that takes into account the subject matter of a particular Web page when deciding which creative placement to serve at a given moment. According to Vibrant, VIA Dynamic can instantly assess a Web page’s content using a combination of semantic analysis, word frequency, demographic information and other factors—and it can then serve whatever creative placement is deemed most appropriate.
Nine in 10 (91%) US email users have subscribed to a company’s email and later decided they don’t want to receive it, according to [pdf] a new report from Exact Target and CoTweet. Data from “The Social Break-up” also indicates 18% of email users say they never open email from companies, and 77% of all US online consumers say they have become more cautious in the past year about giving their email addresses to companies.
Email Still Popular
Despite the above statistics, email use in general remains extremely popular with US online consumers. A full 95% use email, and 93% subscribe to at least one permission-based email per day. Forty-two percent of those subscribers say they are more likely to buy a company’s products once they have signed up for its permission-based email.
Unsubscribe Most Common Negative Email Reaction
Study data indicates that when online consumers are no longer interested in a company’s permission-based emails, they get right to the point. Two-thirds (67%) simply unsubscribe. Another 17% delete the emails when they arrive, and 8% click a spam or junk button.
More passively, 6% simply do nothing. Two percent take the action of setting up a filter.
Frequency Biggest Email Turnoff
The most common complaint given by consumers as a reason they unsubscribe from a company’s permission-based emails is that they come too frequently (54%). Another 49% (more than one answer permitted to this question) cite the content becoming boring or repetitive over time. Receiving too many emails closely follows, being cited by 47% of respondents.
After these three reasons, the percentages drop significantly. Twenty-five percent of respondents say they unsubscribe because the content wasn’t relevant from the start, and 24% prefer to seek out information rather than have it pushed by companies. Another 22% only signed up for a one-time offer, with smaller percentages citing changing circumstances, switching to another company, and finding another way of getting the information.
Email Segmentation, Blasts Most Common
Four in 10 global marketers (43%) use email segmentation to personalize messages by audience, according to a recent survey from Alterian. Another 44% are still employing email blasts of some kind, although 26% use basic personalization and 18% blast out on a mass basis.
