Datalicious Blog - Data Driven Marketing

Gigya and Compete report on increasing importance of social network referral traffic over Google

We all heard the news when Facebook overtook Google as the most popular website in the US in March this year according to Hitwise but now the guys at Gigya have released a research report based on Compete data that adds an interesting new perspective to this trend suggesting that social networks are becoming the next/new search.

Although Facebook has overaken Google as the most populate website, marketers were wondering if that would actually translate into increased traffic to their sites which according to the Gigya reports is exactly the case. The below chart clearly shows that referral traffic from social networks has become a major traffic source that rivals Google and marketers would be well advised to develop suitable strategies to address this trend.
A social revolution is dictating dramatic changes in how companies run their websites, and their business. With the advent of social feeds - a live stream of friends’ activity shared on social networks like Facebook and Twitter - consumers can more easily rely on trusted personal relationships to determine what’s worthwhile to read, watch, play and buy online. For many, the conclusion is startling; referral traffic is as significant from social networks as it is from search engines, making Social the next Search.

Gigya info-graphic on the different social network identities people are using to sign-in online

The guys at Gigya created a great info-graphic showing what accounts and online identities people are using to sign-in online.

The most popular social identities are Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and Twitter, but popularity differs by user segments and website categories. Users are most likely to log on to entertainment sites via Facebook, but Twitter for news sites, etc. 

Given the data that is available to companies if their users subscribe using one of their social online identities you wonder why there's still normal subscription processes being used, especially as the social identities probably have better data quality anyway (i.e. you want Facebook to have your real/main email address).

GetResponse study on impact of social sharing features in emails shows 30% increase in CTRs

GetResponse just released an interesting new study on the impact of social media sharing options in email.
 
Among other topics the study investigated if social emails improve click-through rates and found that if you let readers share your email messages on their social pages, they’ll generate on average 30% higher click-through rates. The click-through rates also varied by social network with Twitter and Facebook leading the field.
 
Download the full report here

New Syncapse empirical research on Facebook fan value, additional product spend and brand loyalty

"A fan base is a self-segmented group of highly valuable customers."

After all the buzz about the value of a Facebook fan, Syncapse just released the first proper empirical review on this topic which I encourage everyone to read (and it's free anyway). Especially the figures on average additional product spending by brand are pretty interesting (see below chart).

Summary of key findings
  • Fans spend an additional $71.84 on average compared to non-fans
  • Fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using the brand
  • Fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a product
Many brands overcomplicate their measurement requirements by tracking dozens of independent variables. Many oversimplify by trying to apply a single number concept of value, and far too many fail to quantify ROI in such a way as to convince a CFO of the merit of increasing or shifting investment towards Facebook marketing. [...] This study will examine the five leading contributors to Facebook fan value. (1) Product Spending (2) Brand Loyalty, (3) Propensity to Recommend, (4) Brand Affinity and (5) Earned Media Value.
Download the full Syncapse research report here

Flowtown identifies social profiles, demographics and influencers from customers email addresses

I just came across this new service called Flowtown which is pretty interesting. 
 
The platform lets you upload your contact's email addresses for which it then returns the respective social profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr and StumleUpon. And if all you have is an email address, the service can also give you a name, age, gender, occupation and location. But the best part is the integration with Klout, a service that determines a person's influence level based on Twitter and basically identifies your most influential contacts for you. 
 
Have a look at the below chart, which shows the statistics for all my 1,800 contacts compared to the 50 identified influencers. Not surprisingly, but still interesting to see is that the influencers are definitely much more likely to have a social profile online across multiple networks and that all Twitter influencers also have a Facebook and LinkedIn account.
Visit the official Flowtown website or watch the below demo video to find out more.
 

Silverpop research: Viral link sharing propensity from email newsletters by social network

Interesting research study from Silverpop on measuring viral sharing of email content in select social networks.

Key insights from the study include

  • Most companies include four to five different sharing links
  • The life of a shared message is about one week
  • Just including sharing links isn't enough, content is key
  • This is supported by inconsistent click-through rates
  • Facebook dominates among the social networks
  • View rates are still low but expected to grow with social media
  • Over 20% increase in reach due to social sharing

Interesting is also, that the main social networks (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) that are most often included in emails are not necessarily the ones attracting the most clicks on sharing links (see graph below).

Download the original research study here
http://www.silverpop.com/landing-engage/eMarketer_html/ShareStudy_oct.html

Alertbox: Distributing Content Through Social Networks and RSS

Great research from Jakob Nielsen on how business users interact with social networks, I especially like the part on 'overly frequent postings' which really annoy me (and I hope we're not in the same category).

Summary: Users like the simplicity of messages that pass into oblivion over time, but were frequently frustrated by unscannable writing, overly frequent postings, and their inability to locate companies on social networks.

Some key insights form the article

  • Users prefer casual style for business messages on social networks
  • RSS feeds are seen as more trustworthy
  • RSS feeds are checked at work, social networks from home
  • Only 6% of users accessed corporate social networks from mobiles
  • People like a single stream of news that pushes old stuff down
  • Users are unlikely to search for old messages or scroll down
  • Posting frequency and expectations are tied to the service
  • If you post too rarely, your material will drift out of users' time-streams
  • If you post too much, you'll crowd out other messages
  • Three great motivators are fear, greed (deals), exclusivity (latest news)
  • Sites that are not updated regularly give a bad impression
  • Users don't actively seek out companies in social networks
  • There's usually another trigger such as recommendations (re-tweets!)
  • Overall message usefulness still scores low but trustworthiness high
  • Useful messages have substance, are timely, provided expected info
  • Trustworthiness is influenced by clear user names and logos
  • The shorter the message, the more important the writing

Read the original article here
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/streams-feeds.html

Or buy the research report here (and email me a copy please)
http://www.nngroup.com/reports/streams/