Mostly from the Internet, sometimes by Conrad Lisco.
According to a new report from Forrester, 62% of retailers with an online presence stated that the returns on social marketing were unclear. And 68% stated that if Facebook went away tomorrow, it would not adversely affect web sales. Not sure what those companies are doing [wrong], but it shows they realizing Facebook's full potential.
According to JP Morgan, companies like Amazon are seeing commpelling traffic and sales numbers - nearly 8% of Amazon's October 2010 traffic was referred from Facebook, up more than 328% YoY, and meant $25M in sales...
SocialCode, reporting on a new Facebook advertising research study, examining over four million data points from a wide variety of industries, says that for ads with a 'Like' button, older Facebook users have a higher CTR while younger Facebook users will tend to click 'Like' directly within the Facebook ad.
While propensity to click-through on Facebook is positively correlated with age, writes Marketing Charts, propensity to like is not. Age has a strong positive effect on whether a user will click, but has a less pronounced opposite effect on the likelihood of them becoming a fan of a page.
Fifty-plus-year-old users, the oldest segment in the study, are 28.2% more likely to click through and 9% less likely to like than 18-29-year-old users, the youngest group observed. Compared to the rest of the younger population, 50-plus users see a 22.6% higher CTR and 8.4% lower like rate.
Laura O'Shaughnessy, CEO, SocialCode, observes that "... younger Facebook users are more comfortable using the 'Like' button than older users at this point... (though) older users have a high level of interaction and curiosity about the ads... (but) are also the newest subset to join the social network... "
When broken down by gender, age has a much more pronounced effect on CTR for women than it does for men, whereas for men there is a stronger effect on 'Like' rate than women:
• Overall, women are 11% more likely to click on an ad
• 'Like' rates are almost even for men and women; men are actually 2.2% more likely to 'Like' an ad than women
• For women, CTR is 31.2% higher for the 50+ age group versus 18-29 year olds; men only see a 16.2% difference between the age groups
• Versus all age groups, 50+ women's CTR is 22% higher versus a 16.4% difference for males
• The oldest male segment has an 11.7% lower 'Like' rate than the youngest segment, and 9.5% lower 'Like' rate versus all age groups; Women only see a 7.2% and 7.9% difference respectively
Other interesting findings:
Research firm Gartner surveyed 6,295 respondents, between the ages of 13 and 74, in 11 developed and developing markets in December 2010 and January 2011. The findings show signs of “social media fatigue" showing up in mature social media markets around the world.
Consumers were asked about their use of and opinions about social media sites with the aim of examining usage trends and how enthusiastic users were about social media in general across a range of countries. While the survey reinforced overall enthusiasm for social media, with teenagers and 20-somethings more likely to say that they had increased their usage, users in the US, UK and Japan -- countries considered to be among the most developed social media markets -- had decreased their usage by as much as 40%.
Markets where use was higher included South Korea and Italy, where almost 50% of respondents said they used their social media sites more. Conversely, countries with the most respondents saying they used the site less included Brazil and Russia — both with between 30-40% of respondents exhibiting less enthusiasm.
Overall, 24% of respondents said they use their favorite social media site less than when they first signed up. Respondents who indicated that they were using less were asked what negative factors might be influencing their decision. 33% said they were concerned about privacy. Attitudes to privacy were age-related, with teenagers citing privacy concerns significantly less often than older respondents (22% of teenagers agreed or strongly agreed that privacy concerns were decreasing their enthusiasm, versus an average of 33%).
“The trend shows some social media fatigue among early adopters, and the fact that 31% of Aspirers [younger, more mobile, brand-conscious consumers] indicated that they were getting bored with their social network is a situation that social media providers should monitor, as they will need to innovate and diversify to keep consumer attention," said Brian Blau, research director at Gartner.
