Studies & Stats

Google and Yahoo’s Search Terms of 2009

It’s hard to believe that today we entered the last month of the year.  This is the time of year where it seems Barbara Walters reviews just about anything and everything from the year.  From news events to the people that made headlines, and I’m sure In the weeks ahead, we will be seeing an abundance of reports and reviews from the past year.  We’ve already started with them.  Just last week, CNN showcased their Heroes of the Year show, while NBC aired ‘People of the Year.’

While the year were filled with high and lows, both Google & Yahoo have released the top search terms for 2009.  (more…)

From the Forbes 500 to the Facebook 50

Every year, it seems many of us wait for the list to see which companies will make it on to the Fortune 500.  Well now, a few of those companies have joined a new list.  The Facebook 50.  The new group was created by The Big Money, an online magazine focusing on the important aspects of economics and money.  The list covers to top ranking companies who are using Facebook to the best of their advantage.

Many have questioned The Big Money, because besides Facebook, there are plenty of other social media platforms companies are using, Twitter for example.  However the website explains, “social media is highly fickle; there is some reason to think that as soon as a site becomes an effective platform for corporate promotion, its irrelevance is imminent. That could still happen to Facebook, and in the last several months Twitter has gained a lot of momentum and millions of users. For now, however, Facebook still offers several advantages over its rivals: size, return usage, and the depth and variety of what companies can do.” (more…)

Wal-Mart And Amazon Battle It Out For Top Holiday Deals

Let the chaos begin, the holiday shopping season has officially arrived.  While the world is an economic battle, another battle is brewing between many online retailers, most specifically between Amazon & Walmart.  Last Friday, millions of people started their holiday shopping, lining up to get their hands on some of the best deals around.  It turns out though that many skipped the lines and did their shopping exclusively online.

Data from Experian Hitwise shows that Walmart.com took the top spot for sales on Thanksgiving Day, while Amazon.com had the biggest revenue for Black Friday.  Unfortunately, Experian Hitwise said that among the top 500 online retail stores, the number of U.S. visits were down 15% on Thanksgiving Day compared to  the same day last year.  Online traffic on Black Friday was also down nearly 4% compared to 2008.  (more…)

Blogging Drives 55 Percent More Traffic to Sites

Blogging on your company website could help you bring in more traffic. At least that’s what HubSpot is saying after a recent survey. The company sampled 1,531 HubSpot customers, most of which were small- to mid-sized businesses.  Roughly 52 percent, or 795 businesses, had blogs on their sites, while the remaining 736 did not. 

The study shows that companies with blogs received 55 percent more traffic than with those without. If you are wondering why it is so important to have more visitors to your site, HubSpot says it’s “because more visitors mean more people to convert to leads and sales.” (more…)

Fortune 100 Companies Confused By Twitter

A recent report from Weber Shandwick, a New York-based public relations firm, shows that many of the Fortune 100 companies are still trying to figure out the Twitter phenomenon taking over the planet.  However, they are going to need to get onboard soon if they want to keep up with the world.  The social-networking site has been very useful for companies by giving customers another way to stay in contact with their business.

Surprisingly, 27 of the 100 companies had never even touched Twitter, while the other 73 companies had created a total of 540 Twitter accounts for various departments within their company.  While that seems like a lot of accounts, the report found that only 32% showed personality on their profile along with well-designed backgrounds in addition to names and/or photos of those who posted tweets. 

Four percent of the accounts were no longer used and was due to either the account being “set up specifically for an event that had since ended or the account was simply abandoned. “Eleven percent of the accounts were quiet, and were categorized as placeholders to prevent what is known as “brand-jacking.”  The term comes from companies creating an account so that no one else will take the account.  This can cause confusion and potentially damage company reputations.  This shows that companies realize the important of Twitter, but aren’t necessarily using it. The remaining 53 percent would post, but with no personality, and only posting company news or product information. (more…)

Social Media Words Enter Official Lexicon

“Word: something that is said. A speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use.”  That’s the definition of a word, according to Merriam-Webster. 

The world is full of them.  In fact, there are more than 258,000 words in the English language.  They range from everyday words to silly words like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  While most of us can actually pronounce supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, the longest word in the English dictionary is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which I’m not sure anyone can really pronounce.  Want to try pronouncing Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahul? No, I didn’t just hit a bunch of keys on the keyboard, either.  It’s actually the Maori name for a hill in New Zealand, and is officially the world’s longest name for a place.

These past few years, pop culture influenced which words make it into the English dictionary. Beyonce’s “Bootylicious” was added to the dictionary a few years ago, while the world of Harry Potter helped “muggle,” a person who possesses no magical powers, reserve a spot in the English dictionary as well.  While pop culture has had a significant impact on the world, it looks like it has stepped aside as social media starts to influence the world even more. (more…)

Twitter Study Shows When We Tweet

Twitter is climbing the charts as one of everyone’s favorite social media tools.  A new study released some interesting facts about the micro-blogging website, which allows you to send a message to all your followers in 140 characters or less.  Pingdom, a Europe based company, tracked Twitter for three weeks, trying to figure out when and how much users tweet.  It seems like a simple report, but it’s actually quite interesting.

Over the three weeks, the report found that on average over 27.3 million tweets were sent every day.  If you break that down, that’s an average of 1,138,772 tweets per hour.  It’s obvious and noted that Americans have the largest presence on the site. (more…)

The Twitter Plateau

Last month, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams announced that Twitter’s US growth had been slowing recently.  Today several new reports released some confirming and challenging information.

Compete.com, which monitors website traffic, had reported Twitter’s unique views, have been relatively close and haven’t changed much since June.  Of course last year at this time, the site had roughly 3.4 million unique views, and just last month saw close to 20 million more unique views.  The plateau has been a bit confusing for experts though because Twitter has been embraced by everyone from celebrities, every day people, businesses and organizations.  (more…)

Consumers Ready for Social Media Holiday Deals

Everyone is gearing up for the holiday season.  While many businesses have said that they will be using social media sites this year to attract online shoppers and offering exclusive discounts to users, consumers are already scoping out discounts through social media networks. 

The advertising agency Razorfish released the results of survey on Tuesday, suggesting that online businesses should start to see profits for the holiday season very soon, if not immediately.  Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, falls on November 30 this year and has been the No. 1 online shopping day since its start in 2004, but online shoppers are looking to start their holiday shopping early this year.  (more…)

Study: Technology Does Not Hinder Social Interaction

Much has been written about technology’s role in fostering social isolation, but is it possible that those books, academic papers and popular songs were wrong all along? According to a study released Nov. 4 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, the answer is a resounding yes. Researchers concluded that the use of cell phones and online social networks actual compels people to be more sociable.

The study looked at people’s tendency to visit public places of their own accord – including cafes, parks and volunteer centers – as it corresponds to their use of cell phones and social-networking sites. As it turned out, “techies” were more likely to be sociable than the average American. (more…)