Category: Analysis

Twitter as a Marketing Tool – What do Advertisers really think?

Post author By Swati
Post date July 29, 2009

140 characters and let your “followers” know what you are up to! Has Twitter already experienced its fifteen minutes of fame? Let’s find out. Recently LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll surveyed 1,015 advertisers from agencies or corporations involved in the advertising decision making process online.

What Advertisers think

Highlights:

As the common opinion goes, under half, i.e., 45% of advertisers say that Twitter is something is in its infancy and its use will grow exponentially over the next few years.
21 %, i.e., 1 out of every 5 advertisers believe Twitter will not move into the mainstream and is something mostly young people and the media will use.
17 %, i.e., just under 1 out of 5 advertisers believe Twitter is already over and it’s time to find the next best thing.
17% of advertisers say they don’t know enough about Twitter to have an opinion on it.

Divide on Opinions of Twitter

Younger advertisers are more likely to have an opinion on Twitter than their older counterparts, as only 11% of 18-39 year olds do not know enough about Twitter to have an opinion.
20% of advertisers between the age group of 40-49 years and 21% of advertisers who are 50 and older do not know enough about Twitter to have an opinion.

How effective is Twitter?

Just 8% of advertisers feel that Twitter is very effective for promoting products and ideas.
50% of advertisers say it is somewhat effective.
One-third, i.e., 34% of advertisers say it is not that effective.
8% advertisers believe it is not at all effective for promoting products and ideas.

[Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding]

Predictions

Report indicates that advertisers and marketers expect Twitter to grow
Advertisers feel that Twitter’s effectiveness as a marketing tool will mostly depend on consumer’s education on:
- What Twitter is?
- Why they should pay attention to it?
- Why they should “tweet”?
Advertisers and marketers can play an important role in promoting consumer education and move Twitter beyond infancy.

Do share your comments on what you think.

Tags Advertising, Twitter

Analysis

The Power of Twitter – How effective is it anyway?

Post author By Swati
Post date July 29, 2009
2 Comments on The Power of Twitter – How effective is it anyway?

Twitter has been creating lot of media buzz, and is in fact the fastest growing site with an increase of 1,928 % year-over-year, according to the recent reports. Its one million unique visitors in the month of June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in the month of June 2009 make Twitter the 4^th most visited 10 Member Community Destinations in June.

However, reports from LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll indicate that this micro-blogging service could be more of a craze than anything else in the US. According to the reports, very few people say that Twitter is a very effective tool for promoting products and ideas.

What people think

Highlights from the report:

Over two-thirds, i.e., 69% of the users say they do not know enough about Twitter to have an opinion about it.
Over 1 out of 10, i.e., 12 % users say it is just at its infancy.
12% users also say it is just something that young people and the media will use.
8% of users say it is already over and it’s time to find the next best thing.
11% of 18-39 year olds do not know enough about Twitter to have an opinion.
Half of adults, i.e., 55% of users who are between 18-34 years old say they don’t know enough to have an opinion, compared to 80% of those 55 and older.

[Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding| Base: All adults, US]

How effective is Twitter for the end user?

Highlights from the report:

8% of users say it is very effective for promoting ideas and products
42% believe it is just somewhat effective.
31%, i.e., 3 out of 10 users say Twitter is not that effective
19% users feel it is not at all effective for promoting products and ideas.

[Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% due to rounding | Base: All adults, US]

Share your comments on what you think about Twitter and how useful you find it.

Tags Twitter

Analysis

Language of Spam – Templates and Translations for Multilingual Attacks

Post author By Swati
Post date July 29, 2009

According to MessageLabs Intelligence report for July, there has been a spike in the spam levels in countries where English is not the primary language. Spammers are becoming multi-lingual by using automated translation services to enable multiple language spam runs. They are targeting countries correctly rather than sending spam to all countries English language.

Reports indicate more than 95 % spam emails in Germany and The Netherlands, an increase by 13% since May. Worldwide in the month of July, most spam is seen to be in English, while 1 in every 20 spam messages, was in non-English.

Global language of spam

In Germany, 46.5% of all spam is in German and 2.5% in French.
In The Netherlands, 25% of spam is in the Dutch language.
In France, 53% is in French and 4% in German.
In Japan, 62.3% of the spam is found to be in Oriental non-English languages.
In China, 54.7% of the spam is found to be in Oriental non-English languages.

Highlights from the report:

• Spam – 89.4% in July (1% decrease since June)

• Viruses – one in 295.2 emails in July contained malware (0.03% decrease since June)

• Phishing – one in 327.6 emails comprised a phishing attack (0.05% decrease since June)

• Malicious websites – 3,618 new sites blocked per day (88.5% increase since June)

• Spam language localization – one in 20 emails is now non-English language

• Michael Jackson’s death – from spam to malware to advance fee fraud scams

• URL-shortened spam – accounting for as much as 6.2% of all spam

• Fourth of July spam -– Waledac botnet attempts to benefit from US festivities

Spammers are using translation services and templates to easily develop multiple language spam runs, and web-based malware writers take a break as less than 1 %of web malware in July is new. Cyber-criminals continue to use world news and events to their advantage. People have simply been clicking on malicious links within an email and it adds that unsuspecting user to the Waledec botnet. Also, Michael Jackson’s death continues to get attention, from both fans and as well as fraudsters.

Share your comments on what you think.

(Source: MessageLabs Press Release)

Tags Anti-Spam, Anti-Virus, Internet, Phishing, templates, Tips & Hacks

Analysis

What Makes Facebook Popular?

Post author By Swati
Post date July 27, 2009
5 Comments on What Makes Facebook Popular?

Recent reports suggest that Facebook has rapidly been gaining popularity to become the largest player on the global stage, and dominant in many countries. There has got to be something that it’s doing extremely well to have achieved such heights. So, let’s take a look at some of the areas where Facebook has gone “right”, and added to its rapid growth.

1. Clean design

Reports from Neilson Online tell us that most people find Facebook to be well organized, simple and easy-to use. I personally found Facebook really confusing at first, till I eventually got used to it. Although opinions might vary, Orkut, in my books, is a lot simpler with a much easy-to-use interface.

2. Privacy controls

Users have a much higher control over their content and account, and can manage who sees their content or not. Facebook has tailored its privacy controls based on 3 principles: Control, Simplicity and Connection.

3. Little advertising clutter

Reports indicate that Facebook appeals to a larger audience because of less advertising compared to many of its competitors.

4. Large demographic

Facebook has a broader appeal and is not limited to a particular demographic as such, like students or youth alone.

5. Multi-purpose networking activities

Facebook focuses not just on entertainment but also connecting. Facebook is an all-in-one – Reunion, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Personals, Flickr and Twitter all put together.

6. Creative architecture and features

Various applications, invites, requests and Facebook’s open architecture are some of the things that have led to a much higher visitor engagement.

7. Media buzz

Facebook took off well from minute go due to the large free media coverage it received and still is till date.

Local offerings keep Facebook at bay in some countries:

Facebook has majorly come into global prominence in the last two years. However, there are countries where Facebook is yet to catch up. For instance:

In Germany, local player Wer-kennt-wen is twice as popular as Facebook.
In Japan, Mixi is around 27 times more popular than Facebook.
In Brazil, Orkut is 29 times more popular. Facebook barely exists in Brazil compared to Orkut – being visited by just over 2% of Brazilians online.
In China, because of a different culture, language and the regulatory issues of doing business, the US social networks aren’t dominant there. By the time the US networks arrived, local players such as Xiaonei; the portal QQ and 51.com had achieved dominance in key demographic groups.
In the US also, MySpace had established itself as an entertainment portal rather than just a pure social network. Although Facebook has taken over MySpace, but it still remains a huge player in the country.

Do you, as a Facebook user, agree with the statistics from the report mentioned above? Feel free to add more points to the list and share your thoughts on what you think.

Tags Facebook, Social Media, Social Networking

Analysis

Top 10 Social Networking Sites in India

Post author By Swati
Post date July 23, 2009
149 Comments on Top 10 Social Networking Sites in India

Global social networking brands are continuously gaining prominence in India, and this is quite evident from comScore’s recent report on India’s top social networking sites. As compared to the previous year (2007), there has been a 51 % increase in the number of visitors on such sites amounting to more than 19 million visitors by the end of 2008.

Top 10 Social Networking Sites in India (2008 vs. 2007)

Rank	Social Networking Site	Total Unique Visitors (m) (Dec07)	Total Unique Visitors (m) (Dec08)	% Change
1	Orkut.com	7.123	12.869	81
2	Facebook.com	1.619	4.044	150
3	Bharatstudent.com	1.736	3.269	88
4	hi5.com	714	2.012	182
5	ibibo.Com	1.970	990	-50
6	MySpace Sites	352	741	110
7	LinkedIn.com	293	513	75
8	PerfSpot.com	2.106	433	-79
9	BIGADDA.com	515	385	-25
10	Fropper.com	256	248	-3

The study reveals that Orkut, Facebook, hi5, LinkedIn and MySpace all have witnessed prominent growth in visitation.

Highlights:

Orkut tops the list of the most visited social networking site with more than 12.8 million visitors. This means an increase of 81 % from the last year.
Orkut’s audience was three times the size of its nearest competitor in the category.
Facebook.com ranked at the number 2 spot with 4 million visitors. This has been an increase of 150 % as compared to the previous year.
Next in line at number 3 is the local social networking site Bharatstudent.com with 3.3 million visitors. This site showed an increase by 88 %.
hi5.com comes in next at number 4 with 2 million visitors, which means an increase by 182 %.

Says Will Hodgman, comScore executive vice president:

“Social networking continued to grow strongly in India this past year, with several of the top global brands carving out a more prominent position. While there is certainly room for several players in the social networking space in India, the sites that have the right blend of having both a strong brand and cultural relevance will be best positioned for future growth.”

Share your comments on what you think.

(Source: comScore World Metrix)

Tags India, Social Media, Social Networking, Top 10

Analysis

Blogging and Social Networking Among Top 5 Most Popular Online Activities Worldwide

Post author By Swati
Post date July 21, 2009
2 Comments on Blogging and Social Networking Among Top 5 Most Popular Online Activities Worldwide

Looking at the trends, I am not surprised. Social Networking and blogging indeed has become the global consumer phenomenon. Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all internet time, reports from Neilson Online indicate.

‘Member Communities’ has apparently taken over ‘Emailing’ and has become the world’s 4^th most popular online sector. Topping the list is of course ‘Search’, at the Number 2 spot is ‘General Interest Portals’ and at the 3^rd spot is ‘PC software applications’.

Top 5 Most Popular Sectors on the Internet

Rank	Sector	Global Active Reach (Dec 08)	Global Active Reach (Dec 07)	% Point Increase in Active Reach
1	Search	85.9%	84.0%	1.9%
2	General Interest Portals & Communities	85.2%	83.4%	1.9%
3	Software Manufacturers	73.4%	72.0%	1.4%
4	Member Communities	66.8%	61.4%	5.4%
5	E-mail	65.1%	62.5%	2.7%

Member Communities take a foothold in the market

Highlights from the report:

Member Communities have reached over 5 % points more of the Internet population than it did a year ago. The growth rate is more than twice that of any of the other four largest sectors.
The strongest growth has come in Germany. It has reached 51% of Germans online compared to 39% last year. This amounts to an increase of over 12 % points.
With the sector reaching 10% points more of the online population in each of these countries than it did a year ago, large growth has also occurred in:
1. The UK
2. Spain
3. Italy
4. Switzerland

Online reach of the Member Community Websites

The stats appear consistent across the globe. ‘Member Communities’ has taken a footing in every major market from 50% of the online population in Switzerland and Germany to 80% in Brazil. Germany has seen the greatest increase in online reach of Member Community websites. Take a look…

The reports also indicate an enormous spike in the time spent by people on these sites. It is very interesting to see how people spend their time online that has ramifications for how people behave, share and interact within their day to day lives.

Share your comments on what you think.

Tags Blogging, Internet, Social Media, Social Networking

Analysis

Top 10 Member Community Sites- Facebook Leads, Twitter Leaps

Post author By Swati
Post date July 20, 2009
1 Comment on Top 10 Member Community Sites- Facebook Leads, Twitter Leaps

According to a recent study done by Neilsion Online, his is the 6^th month in a row that Facebook has topped the US 10 Member Community Destinations listing, with 87.3 million unique visitors in June 2009. Not just this, Facebook is also the Number 1 social networking site among the Top 10 when ranked by the average time spent by a per person, which was an average of 4 hours and 33 minutes in the month of June. According to the study, this is a 198 % year-over-year increase.

Among the top 10 Member Community Destinations, Twitter happens to be the fastest growing site with an increase of 1,928 % year-over-year. Its 1 million unique visitors in the month of June 2008 to 21 million unique visitors in the month of June 2009 make Twitter the 4^th most visited 10 Member Community Destinations in June. The average time per person on Twitter increased from 5 minutes and 2 seconds in June 2008 to 31 minutes and 17 seconds in June 2009, and this makes Twitter the fastest growing site among the top 10.

At the number 3 spot ranks Blogger with almost 43 million unique visitors in June 2009. At the 5^th spot ranks WordPress with almost 17 million unique visitors.

Top 10 Member Community Sites

Rank	Site	Jun-08	Jun-09	Y-O-Y
1	Facebook	29,292	87,254	198%
2	Myspace.com	59,549	62,831	6%
3	Blogger	40,553	42,922	6%
4	Twitter.com	1,033	20,950	1,928%
5	WordPress.com	17,201	16,922	-2%
6	Classmates Online	15,474	16,224	5%
7	LinkedIn	9,583	11,417	19%
8	Six Apart TypePad	11,189	10,079	-10%
9	Yahoo Groups	9,801	8,364	-15%
10	Tagged.com	2,867	7,625	166%

Share your comments on what you think.

(Source: nielsen-online)

Tags Social Media, Top 10

Analysis

Top 10 Search Engines

When you create a blog, the most important thing you do is, submit your blog in top search engines. Search engine optimization is one of the most important factors in bloggers. Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.

Here is a short list of the search engines which will give you a good response:

In the blogging world, we say that if your blog is being indexed in the above search engines at a good position, then you are a successful and an established blogger. As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

(Image source: google)

[Editor’s Note: This post is submitted by our guest blogger Prateek Dixit, the owner of thetechnoclub.

If you, too would like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

Tags Blogging, Search Engine

Rank	Social Network	Global Unique Audience (millions)	Active Reach (Dec 08)	Active Reach (Dec 07)	Relative Change in Active Reach
1	Facebook	108.3	29.9%	11.1%	168%
2	MySpace	81.0	22.4%	23.0%	-3%
3	Classmates Online	19.7	5.5%	3.9%	40%
4	Orkut	17.5	4.9%	4.6%	7%
5	LinkedIn	15.0	4.2%	1.8%	137%

What Advertisers think

Divide on Opinions of Twitter

How effective is Twitter?

Predictions

What people think

How effective is Twitter for the end user?

Global language of spam

Highlights from the report:

1. Clean design

3. Little advertising clutter

4. Large demographic

5. Multi-purpose networking activities

6. Creative architecture and features

7. Media buzz

Local offerings keep Facebook at bay in some countries:

Top 10 Social Networking Sites in India (2008 vs. 2007)

Highlights:

The most popular social networks in countries where Facebook is a leader

The most popular social networks in countries where Facebook is NOT a leader

Difference between Facebook and MySpace – MUSIC!

Top 5 Most Popular Sectors on the Internet

Member Communities take a foothold in the market

Online reach of the Member Community Websites

Top 10 Member Community Sites