Top 8 Reasons Why Men and Women Use Facebook
Facebook turned 10 on Tuesday, and with 1.23 billion monthly active users, 37 offices worldwide and more than 6,000 employees, it’s something to celebrate.
But how are Facebook users actually using the social network after a decade?
According to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research, 54% of female responders said they use Facebook to view photos and videos, while 42% of male responders said they use it to share with a wide audience — the top two reasons cited by women and men, respectively. Other uses include seeing funny posts, following news and using the platform as a support network.
Created by Statista, the following chart shows the eight “major reasons” that male and female users cited for using Facebook.
Twitter Is for the Young, Facebook Is for All Ages – Social Media Marketing
Facebook users come in all shapes, sizes and ages, at least compared to LinkedIn users and Twitter users.
Half of Twitter’s unique visitors in October were under 35 years old. By contrast, two-thirds of LinkedIn’s unique visitors were older than 35.
After the age of 44, Facebook usage starts to outpace Twitter usage.
Statista’s chart shows the age distribution of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook users.
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Mashable composite. iStock, bilgic, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook
Twitter Is for the Young, Facebook Is for All Ages – Social Media Marketing
Facebook users come in all shapes, sizes and ages, at least compared to LinkedIn users and Twitter users.
Half of Twitter’s unique visitors in October were under 35 years old. By contrast, two-thirds of LinkedIn’s unique visitors were older than 35.
After the age of 44, Facebook usage starts to outpace Twitter usage.
Statista’s chart shows the age distribution of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook users.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Mashable composite. iStock, bilgic, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook
Facebook Will Let You Save Links to Read Later
Mark Zuckerberg has described his social network as a “personalized newspaper” — and for seasoned users with a wide-range of like-minded friends, it’s hard not to argue that the articles that pop up in your news feed constitute the most engrossing read in the world, if not exactly the most timely one.
But Zuckerberg also knows you could be reading Facebook more in any given day. What about those times when you’re just skimming the app during a spare minute? What if you don’t have time to read any of those fascinating links?
If you’ve ever gone hunting through your feed for an article you saw earlier, you’ll welcome the news that Facebook appears to be testing a “save for later” feature. This isn’t the first time the company has tested the idea, but it does appear to be more advanced and closer to wide release.
The concept first cropped up on a version of the Facebook app for iPhone and iPad in 2012. In that iteration, you held your finger on a story to save it to a separate list. Now, according to the blog MyTechSkool, which first spotted it, users will see a button with a bookmark icon they can press.
This is what apps such as Instapaper, Pocket and Read It Later have been doing for years, of course. The Apple browser, Safari, added a similar feature called Reading List (available on mobile in iOS6 and on the desktop with Mac OS X Mavericks).
But the Facebook feature differs in significant ways. First of all, you can save more than just articles — in theory, you’ll be able to set aside anything from your cousin’s holiday snaps to a change in your secret crush’s relationship status. Call it a social To Do list.
Secondly, it allows you to do your later reading within Facebook — meaning Zuckerberg gets to monitor and monetize ever more of your reading behavior. What we don’t know yet: whether you’ll be able to read those articles, links and saved social snippets when you’re offline.
We’ve reached out to Facebook to find out when the company intends to roll this out to all users. In the meantime, let us know in the comments below whether you see the Saved feature yet.
[via AllthingsD]
Image: Stephen Lam, Getty Images News
Is Facebook a Truly Mobile-First Company Yet?
Has Facebook finally succeeded in becoming a mobile-first company? That’s the big question heading into the social network’s third quarter earnings results Wednesday.
Facebook has impressed analysts and investors in each quarter so far this year by reporting strong growth in mobile ad revenue. The company revealed that mobile ads accounted for 41% of total ad revenue in the second quarter this year, up from 30% in the first quarter and essentially nothing a year earlier. If that growth continues, Facebook could approach or even surpass the 50% mark this quarter.
Facebook has taken steps in recent weeks to make mobile ads more effective, including testing autoplay video ads in the news feed and introducing more calls to action on mobile app install ads to entice users to click, though it’s doubtful either had much impact on the previous quarter results.
Beyond the mobile ad stats, analysts will likely be looking for any updates or hints about the company’s new and as yet unannounced ad products. Instagram is expected to introduce ads this week, perhaps finally justifying the amount Facebook paid for the company. On the other hand, Facebook has repeatedly delayed introducing video ads on the homepage raising questions about when and how the company will choose to go this route.
Overall, Facebook is expected to report earnings per share of $0.19 on revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, up from earnings of $0.12 a share on revenue of $1.26 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
Facebook stock has been on a tear this year, rising to as high as $54.83 earlier this month, roughly three times the low of $17.55 a share it hit a year earlier. The stock was hovering just below $50 a share in early trading Wednesday, an increase of 1% on the day.
Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Is Facebook a Truly Mobile-First Company Yet?
Has Facebook finally succeeded in becoming a mobile-first company? That’s the big question heading into the social network’s third quarter earnings results Wednesday.
Facebook has impressed analysts and investors in each quarter so far this year by reporting strong growth in mobile ad revenue. The company revealed that mobile ads accounted for 41% of total ad revenue in the second quarter this year, up from 30% in the first quarter and essentially nothing a year earlier. If that growth continues, Facebook could approach or even surpass the 50% mark this quarter.
Facebook has taken steps in recent weeks to make mobile ads more effective, including testing autoplay video ads in the news feed and introducing more calls to action on mobile app install ads to entice users to click, though it’s doubtful either had much impact on the previous quarter results.
Beyond the mobile ad stats, analysts will likely be looking for any updates or hints about the company’s new and as yet unannounced ad products. Instagram is expected to introduce ads this week, perhaps finally justifying the amount Facebook paid for the company. On the other hand, Facebook has repeatedly delayed introducing video ads on the homepage raising questions about when and how the company will choose to go this route.
Overall, Facebook is expected to report earnings per share of $0.19 on revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, up from earnings of $0.12 a share on revenue of $1.26 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.
Facebook stock has been on a tear this year, rising to as high as $54.83 earlier this month, roughly three times the low of $17.55 a share it hit a year earlier. The stock was hovering just below $50 a share in early trading Wednesday, an increase of 1% on the day.
Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Twitter Arrives on TV in India
Technology and platform convergence is the next big thing that businesses are looking for –- whether it be mobile and Internet or Internet and TV. It’s all about a revenue stream for the future.
Airtel Digital TV, an arm of Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel, revealed Monday that it has integrated Twitter with its digital TV offerings for the first time. With this new form of convergence, users can actually tweet while watching TV and can view tweets related to their TV shows as well. It launches Tuesday at no extra charge to subscribers.
Jana Messerschmidt, Twitter’s VP of business development and platforms, said, “We are excited to see partners like Airtel innovating with our platform and helping their audience connect with the TV programs they love.”
Airtel’s Twitter know-how actually comes from Bangalore-based startup Brizz TV, which works in the areas of TV technology and is powering this new service for Airtel Digital TV. To start watching-and-tweeting, subscribers just have to click their remote’s green button. Initially, the service will be available on select TV channels, but more will be added.
Airtel Digital TV has 373 channels including 17 high definition and five interactive channels. It claimed to have 8.5 million subscribers at the end of June 2013.
Although Airtel hasn’t disclosed the business model of this partnership with Twitter, it’s fairly safe to assume that the telco will stream targeted Twitter ads and marketing promotions to its TV subscribers. Airtel could also use this to better promote its other Internet services. Since the voice and SMS business is no longer the prime revenue generator in India, it is forcing telcos to innovate and develop new ways to get income.
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Image: Scott Beale
Facebook Average Referral Traffic to Media Sites Up 170% This Year
Flexing its muscles as a public-facing forum, Facebook reported Monday that the average referral track from Facebook to media sites jumped 170% last year.
Facebook also disclosed that from September 2012 to September 2013, Time’s referral traffic rose 208%, BuzzFeed’s increased by 855% and Bleacher Report experienced a boost of 1,081%. Facebook also announced a feature called Stories to Share for page managers of media firms that recommends which stories to share on Facebook.
Andy Mitchell, director of partnerships for Facebook, attributes much of the growth in referrals to improvements in Facebook’s News Feed algorithm. “We’re getting better at showing the right story at people who are interested in it,” he says. In addition, Facebook has shared best practices with media firms, which help them post more effectively, he says.
New research from SimpleReach bolsters the claim. SimpleReach found that Facebook drives more traffic to media sites than any other social media platform.
Meanwhile, Facebook had some advice to media firms: Post more. Facebook worked with 29 media sites over a seven-day period recently and found a greater number of posts “frequently” increases referral traffic by more than 80%. During that test period the site posted 57% more articles, which netted an 89% increase in outbound clicks to their domains plus 10% more Likes on average. The number of net fans per page rose 49%.
That said, Mitchell does acknowledge that the law of diminishing returns applies: At some point, you can overload fans with too many posts. Facebook doesn’t have a recommended number of posts. Mitchell says media properties have to determine a figure on their own.
Along the same lines, Stories to Share helps those media firms figure out which stories to post next. The recommendation widget is pretty straightforward: It analyzes your homepage to see which stories people are sharing the most on Facebook even though the media property hasn’t yet shared it through its Facebook account. That feature is going live on Monday with 1,5000 news organizations. Stories to Share had been in beta with a handful of news organizations (the company declined to identify which ones) over the past few weeks.
The emphasis on media partners comes as Facebook has recently revved competition with the much-smaller Twitter for ad-spending opportunities related to real-time marketing like second-screen conversations and trending news items. Encouraging news organizations to post more often will aid a Trending Articles feature that seems to be a likely next move for the company.
Image: Getty/KIMIHIRO HOSHINO
When Facebook Was Down, Brands Pounced – Social Media Marketing
Facebook experienced widespread service disruptions for much of Monday morning, which prevented users from posting and engaging with posts on the social network.
While the outage may have been a headache for Facebook and many users, some brands decided to turn it into a marketing opportunity — for better or worse:
#Facebookdown Grab your Venus razor and Embrace your extra "me" time. pic.twitter.com/pUYjLVobBb
— Gillette Venus (@GilletteVenus) October 21, 2013
#facebookdown? Ci pensiamo noi. pic.twitter.com/NLKDR5j47s
— Red Bull Italy (@redbullITA) October 21, 2013
Post by Waterstones.
Facebook is down, but don't worry, here’s our status update: thirsty #facebookdown pic.twitter.com/RJXVWkvnur
— Jupiler (@Jupiler) October 21, 2013
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Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty
Facebook Suffers Sitewide Errors for Many Users – Digital News
As of Monday morning, Facebook is experiencing errors across the site. It won’t allow many users to update your status, post comments, send messages or post photos. Users are also unable to Like posts.
Trying to update your status will yield this message: “There was a problem updating your status. Please try again in a few minutes.”
Facebook status update issues are not uncommon, but this one seems global — we’ve tested it from several IPs and received the same message.
According to web service status tracker Downrightnow, Facebook is likely experiencing a service disruption.
Facebook did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
This story is developing…
Image: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images, Facebook
