ALL ABOUT MEDIA: February 2015

SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH LANDSCAPE

Social media are computer-mediated tools that allow people to create, share or exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks. Social media is defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.

Social media are different from traditional or industrial media in many ways, including quality frequency, usability, immediacy, and permanence
Social apps are among the most used features of mobile devices. In fact, 65% of social network activity is from mobile devices. This means that mobile devices are becoming the first choice for social media users. Also, more users will be getting smart devices, so there will be even more users consuming their web content from mobile devices than are doing so currently. In order to give them the best experience possible, and as mobile devices become even more popular, social networks are developing their platforms with the idea of “mobile first.”
This means that websites not only have to be responsive, they have to be developed from the ground up with the mobile user in mind. Ads and shopping systems will be tailored to mobile devices. They will be geo-targeted, allowing advertisers to display appropriate ads based on location.
One of the most important trends to be aware of for 2015 is e-commerce over social networks (s-Commerce). Social media networks are developing ways to handle payments without someone having to leave the network. They want to be your online wallet. They know that the shorter the path to conversion, the more likely is it that the conversion will take place. They want to handle the transaction for you, making the transaction the shortest path possible. They want the conversion to take place on their network so users don’t have to leave their site
For example, Time magazine recently revealed that Face book has a payment feature hidden within the messenger app. This would work well with their auto fill feature that allows users to save their credit card info. This would also integrate nicely with their buy button, allowing Facebook users to make their purchases through Face book.
This would do away with the need to send the reader to PayPal, Square, Stripe, Apple Pay, or any other payment method of choice. This would also show an even greater need to integrate your website with Face book and Twitter and be active on social networks.
Twitter has also gotten into the one-stop-shop market with their very own buy button. The button can be embedded into tweets so buyers can shop directly from the tweets themselves instead of being redirected to another site.
Tumblr is also getting in on the social shopping trend with their very own Buy, Pledge, and Get Involved buttons. Users can post links from sites such as Etsy, Artsy, Kick-starter, and Do Something.
Snap chat has partnered with Square to create Snap cash. Snap cash uses Square’s servers to let you easily send money directly to your friend’s back accounts, so making payments is faster and remains secure.
Social shopping is here to stay. Face book, Twitter, Tumbler, and Snap chat are just the starting point and you can bet the rest will follow.
Getting involved with social shopping is a smart move because you already have a network to sell to. It’s a live and active media network that’s a perfect platform for short term deals. The deal can be shared quickly and users never have to leave the network. It works because you can go where they are and you don’t have to entice them to go somewhere else.
This would also solve the issue of analytics. It can be difficult to track sales campaigns because you have to know where traffic came from. This is doable, but it can also get out of hand. This would let you track through the network instead of the entire web, making the analytics easier to follow and understand.
This can help web designers and developers in several ways. For one, you will be able to receive payments through social networks. For another, you can develop systems for clients to connect their websites directly with their social shopping systems.
After almost two-and-half years, it is with great pleasure that I officially unveil the fourth edition of The Conversation Prism. Viewed and downloaded millions of times over, The Conversation Prism in its various stages has captures snapshot of important moments in the history and evolution of Social Media.
For those unfamiliar with The Conversation Prism, it is an evolving infographic that captures the state of social media, organized by how important social networks are used by professional and everyday consumers. It was created to serve as a visual tool for brands to consider unforeseen opportunities through a holistic lens. Over the years, it has served as a business tool as well as art decorating the walls and screens of offices, conference halls, and also homes.
With research beginning in 2007, the original Conversation Prism debuted in 2008 as a visual map of the social media landscape. Years and four iterations later, it remains an ongoing study in digital ethnography that tracks dominant and promising social networks and organizes them by how they’re used in everyday life.
It is provided as a free download in many sizes and shapes here including a wall-sized po15

Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites

SOCIAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE AFFECT NIGERIA MARKET.
According to Fatima Muhammad Gambo Of Nigeria Nitel online Edition.

There have been huge collections of argument on the benefits that can accrue from the advent of social media in the world. In such arguments, the typical people involved are the ones that will quickly cling to its benefit, others are those that identify its demerits and the third group comprises those that do not care about the subject, the merit it brings and whatever demerits it may have.

The usage of the social media is characterized by mixed feelings, especially in Nigeria. There have been several calls for the establishment of a framework for the regulation of the Internet. Some schools of thought insist that it is a medium of extending freedom of speech to a lot of individuals that wouldn’t have had it. At the middle of this opposing ideologies, are the group of people that do not have access to, nor appreciate the value of social media and the various to which they can be put.

There was a widely known global debate on Twitter recently based on the link between social media and the environment. This event was hosted by a group of young societal advocates who asked “Can Social Media Save the Planet?” as the focus of the debate. Such debates have the tendency to inspire, empower and connect people to act positively on the use of social media in the society.

The Internet has become a daily need for a lot of people recently, especially with the innovation that saw the emergence of social network websites which made more people to get involved in various online media and causes. In countries like Nigeria, where communication is increasingly channelled through by the newest social networks, it might be impossible to identify the value in the types of interaction that might be promoted on social media like Twitter and Face book.

Face book allows the connection with friends, family and other relatives virtually. The popularity of the website has made it a major application that connects people throughout the world and has transformed relationships across the world. On Face book, anything can be posted by a user on his/her wall. The wall of the user is a common ground that family and friends can actually place their comments, as can the user. This medium is used by a lot of people to post some of their personal information and updates about them including others. Globally, there are about 1 billion users of Face book.

On Twitter, anybody’s status can be seen and updates can be received about someone a user might chose to follow on the network. In fact, a user can follow companies, tech blogs, news channels, celebrities and a lot more. The most important benefit on Twitter is that a user can post his/her updates too and this is where Twitter is different from Face book. Twitter is a very useful network of the people that like to follow live news faster than any media reporter or news channel. Twitter has hundreds of tweets every minute including news link, blogs, and many more. Because this, the network has become a very useful information medium.

The activities on Twitter are not just about following others or being followed; one can also have a group of friends to get united with, just as it is on Face book. A user can chat with friends and get to discuss issues. Professionally, one can engage on Twitter for business networking, corporate solutions, hiring workers, and many more. Personally, one can engage in dating, meeting friends, relatives and family members and many more.

On Face book everyone keeps in touch with friends and relatives, and on Twitter they follow the whereabouts of their favourite models in life, search for news or ‘blabber’ with different characters on the timeline. The power to democratize the coverage of news relies on social network as conversation that makes the news is discussed by the users of social network. They have the capacity to write what they believe is important and the changes they want to see in the society.

It cannot be denied that social media has also changed the way the tradition news sources give information out to the public. A lot of people have argued that posting articles online have led to the decrease in the values of a lot them. However, this is part of the trend and improves the level of information to the uninformed in society. In the developed countries, environmentalists have achieved remarkable success in reaching the public with their messages through different social media and to help raise awareness about different issues. This trend has also been extended to developing countries overtime.

Ultimately, in Nigeria today, while a number of unsavory incidents have come about from the advent of social media, the truth is that they have made substantial impact in the social, economic and political spheres. It is no wonder that millions of people and businesses now connect regularly by the means of mobile phones, computers, laptops and tablets.

22 Social Media Facts and Statistics

Social web demographics

Social media is a blur of tweets, shares and content. No longer is it just used by the young and the restless. It is global and embedded in every corner of the web.
So some questions. Which age groups are using social media, what countries are big Face book users and what percentage are using mobile to access social media?
This is the who and the where of social media users.

72% of all internet users are now active on social media
18-29 year olds have an 89% usage
The 30-49 bracket sits at 72%
60 percent of 50 to 60 year olds are active on social media
In the 65 plus bracket, 43% are using social media
Time spent on Face book per hour spent online by country. Here are the top three. USA citizens get the top gong at 16% followed by the Aussies at 14 minutes and the Brits at 13 minutes.
71% of users access social media from a mobile device.

The paradigm of social media only being used by the younger generation should be put to rest now.

Face book

Face book is still the biggest kid on the block, but there are some pundits predicting that by 2016 Google+ will surpass Face book on “social sharing”.
Here are some of the latest figures to mull over.

There are now over 1.15 billion Facebook users
One million web pages are accessed using the “Login with Facebook” feature
23 percent of Facebook users login at least 5 times per day
47% of Americans say Facebook is their #1 influencer of purchases
70% of marketers used Facebook to gain new customers

Google+

Prying the numbers out of Google for Google+ has always been a challenge. A bit like getting a date with the prettiest girl in the class. Not impossible but it doesn’t happen very often.
So what are the latest numbers?

There are now over 1 billion with Google+ enabled accounts
It has reached 359 million monthly active users
Google+ is growing at 33% per annum.
The 45 to 54 year old bracket increased its usage on Google+ by 56% since 2012

When you consider that Google+ has only been around for less than three years, then it is a success on many levels. So Google must be happy with with its investment, which is north of $500 million that it initially invested in Google+

Twitter

Twitter has to be taken seriously. Last year it took off its short pants and become a public company. So what is happening in the Twitter sphere?

There are now over 550 million registered users
34% of marketers use Twitter to successfully generate leads
Twitter was the fastest growing network with a 44% growth from 2012-2013
215 million monthly active users

Twitter has also made some changes in the last few months that has made it more visual and engaging. Business should no longer be ignoring the 140 character pip squeak.
This year expect the visual social media networks to hit more home runs.
Keep an eye on these two:

Pinterest with 20 million active monthly users
Instagram with 150 million active monthly users.

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MySpace and Face book comparisons:

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Social Media Site	Number of Active Users	Statistic Source

Facebook	1.32 billion
Instagram	200 Million
Twitter	271 Million
Linkedin	300 Million
Pinterest	70 Million

There are 7 billion people in the world, roughly 3 billion of them are on the internet. Facebook dominates the space with over 33% of all the users. Let's look at the age demographics.

Facebook - 1.2 Billion Users

Facebook Age Demographic	Number of Users	Percentage of User Base
13-17	9.8 Million	5.4%
18-24	42 Million	23.3%
25-34	44 Million	24.4%
35-54	56 Million	31.1%
55+	28 Million	15.6%

Face book’s user base is dominated by 25+, but they still have 50+ million user under the age 25. Face book is a great place to start social media marketing, because your audience will generally lie within one of their age demographics.

Instagram - 200 Million Users

Instagram Age Demographic	Number of Users	Percentage of User Base
18-29	74 Million	37%
30-49	36 Million	18%
50-64	12 Million	6%

An astonishing 57% of Instagram's users access the site daily. That is 100 million eyeballs every day. The age demographic is very young alongside trendy older folk (This year I became one of those trendy older folk). Instagram can be a very effective platform for visual marketing. Don't forget you can make your own photos with text in them. Also note, Facebook acquired Instagram in Q1 of 2012. Using Instagram requires a mobile device, you cannot post from a browser. Posting from Instagram to Twitter and Facebook is very easy.

Twitter - 271 Million Users

Twitter Age Demographic	Number of Users	Percentage of User Base
18-29	95 Million	35%
30-49	54 Million	20%
50-64	30 Million	11%
65+	13.5 Million	5%

Twitter is a unique micro blogging platform that is dominated by a younger market. But let's not discredit 30 Million users from age 50-64 is significant. Twitter users are predominantly male and over 60% of the user base make over 30,000 a year.

Linkedin - 300 Million Users

LinkedIn Age Demographic	Number of Users	Percentage of User Base
18-29	45 Million	15%
30-49	81 Million	27%
50-64	72 Million	24%
65+	39 Million	13%

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SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS STORY