Social Web & Social Commerce Stats from Econsultancy

The latest Global Internet Statistics Compendium is available from Econsultancy, the useful curated reference tome of third party data for planning, business case development and selling, including some useful stats on the social web and social commerce.

The report can be accessed here, but here’s a summary of choice facts and figures…

Overall Digital Market

• There are more than 2 billion internet users worldwide [Source: ITU, December 2010], accessing (as of December 2010) an estimated 255 million websites worldwide (21.4 million of these were added in 2010) [Source: Netcraft, via Pingdom, January 2011], containing together more than 1 trillion pages of content [Source: Bing, June 2009].
• People spend 30% of leisure time online [Source: ―Digital World, Digital Life, TNS Global Interactive, December 2008]

The Social Web

• By July 2009, the number of social networking users had surpassed the number of email users
• By November 2007, social networking usage (time) surpassed email usage [Source: MorganStanley, March 2010]
• Social networking accounts for 50% of all mobile internet traffic. [Source: Airwide Solutions, via ReadWriteMobile, November 2010]
• Mobile operators forecast that 94% of phone users will communicate by social networks. 87% will use SMS/MMS and 81% will use voice. [Source: Airwide Solutions, via ReadWriteMobile, November 2010]
• Facebook has announced that it has officially reached 500 million active users. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• Around 250 million people use Facebook on a daily basis. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• The average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news blogs etc.) are shared each month on Facebook. [Source: Facebook, August 2010]
• Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• More than 550,000 active applications are currently on Facebook Platform [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• More than one million websites have integrated with the platform and over 150 million people engage with Facebook on external websites each month [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• Mobile access has exploded. There are now more than 100 million active users currently accessing the site through mobile technology. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• Facebook Like
  • Almost 7 out of 10 e-marketers surveyed have already implemented Facebook Like or plan to implement it. [Source: SeeWhy Research, July 2010]
  • 40% of respondents clicked the  ̳like‘ button for, or  ̳liked‘, a company, brand or association on Facebook to receive discounts and promotions. [Source: ExactTarget, September 2010]
  • Nearly 40% of consumers  ̳like‘ companies on Facebook to publicly display their brand affiliation to friends. [Source: ExactTarget, via Social Media Examiner, October 2010]
  • 43% of users  ̳like‘ or are fans of at least one brand on Facebook. [Source: ExactTarget, via Social Media Examiner, October 2010]
  • Of Facebook users who  ̳like‘ at least one brand, 17% say they are more likely to buy after  ̳liking‘. [Source: ExactTarget, via Social Media Examiner, October 2010]
• The number of advertisers running display ads across YouTube has increased by around 1,000% in the last year. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• Twitter claim to have 190 million users and that there are some 65 million tweets a day. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]

Deal Sharing

• What have you shared in the last 3 months? [Source: CMB Consumer Pulse, September 2010] – Family pictures and video (62%) – News about friends and family (52%) – Funny videos (43%) – News articles and blog posts (36%) – Coupons and discounts (32%)

Video Sharing

• There are 20 million YouTube videos uploaded to Facebook each month. [Source: GigaOM, June 2010]
• There are more than two billion views on YouTube each day. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]24 hours-worth of video content is uploaded every minute. [Source: Econsultancy blog, July 2010]
• Top viral ads of all time [Source: AdAge, via marketing charts, September 2010] – Top 10 viral ads by unique views

• • Blendtec – Will It Blend – 134.2 million views
  • Evian – Live Young – 103.9 million views
  • Old Spice – Responses – 57.1 million views
  • Pepsi – Gladiator – 46.7 million views
  • Microsoft – Xbox Project Natal – 42.7 million views
  • Dove – Evolution – 41.1 million views
  • T-Mobile – T-Mobile Dance – 35.5 million views
  • Doritos – Crash the Super Bowl 2010 – 34.2 million views
  • Old Spice – Odor Blocker – 34 million views
  • DC Shoes – Gymkhana Two – 32.9 million views

Opinion Sharing (Word of Mouth)

• Spending on Word of Mouth marketing increased by 14.2% to $1.54bn in 2008 [Source: PQ Media, August 2009]
• Total spending on WoM is expected to increase at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2008 to 2013. [Source: PQ Media, August 2009]
• PQ Media expects Word of Mouth marketing spending to increase to $3bn US in 2013. [Source: PQ Media, August 2009]
• Packaged goods and food and drink brands accounted for nearly 30% of all WoM spending in 2008. [Source: PQ Media, August 2009]

Opinion Sharing (Reviews)

• Traffic to the top 10 review sites grew on average 158% last year. [Source: Compete.com, via Search Engine People, July 2010]  97% who made a purchase based on an online review found the review to be accurate. [Source: comScore/The Kelsey Group, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 92% have more confidence in information found online than they do in anything from a sales clerk or other source. [Source: Wall Street Journal, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 90% of online consumers trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust unknown users, 27% trust experts, 14% trust advertising, 8% trust celebrities. [Source: Erik Qualman, Socialnomics, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 75% of people don‘t believe that companies tell the truth in advertisements. [Source: Yankelovich, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 70% consult reviews or ratings before purchasing [Source: BusinessWeek, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 7 in 10 who read reviews share them with friends, family and colleagues thus amplifying their impact. [Source: Deloitte & Touche, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 51% of consumers use the Internet even before making a purchase in shops. [Source: Verdict Research, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 45% say they are influenced ―a fair amount or a great deal by reviews on social sites from people they follow (46% say reviews in newspaper or magazine influence them). [Source: Harris Poll, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• Reviews on a site can boost conversion +20%. [Source: Bazaarvoice.com/resources/stats  ̳Conversion Results‘, via Search Engine People, July 2010]
• 63% of shoppers consistently read reviews prior to making a purchase decision. [Source: PowerReviews, Customer Reviews and Online Shopping Habits, June 2010]
• 72% of consumers rate customer ratings and reviews on retail sites very/extremely important when it comes to selecting and purchasing a product. [Source: PowerReviews, Customer Reviews and Online Shopping Habits, June 2010]:
• 71% rated user-generated customer reviews as the community/social media tool having the highest impact on buying behaviour. [Source: PowerReviews, Customer Reviews and Online Shopping Habits, June 2010]:
• Only a quarter (25%) of companies surveyed for Econsultancy‘s Customer Engagement Report tap into user ratings and feedback. [Source: Econsultancy / cScape Customer Engagement Report 2010]
• 81% of people use consumer reviews in their purchase decisions. [Source: Nielsen Online via BizReport, February 2009]

Social Media Marketing

• For 59% of companies, social media is a primarily a marketing channel and managed out of marketing departments. [Source: StrongMail, December 2010]
• When it comes to social media, 51% find advertising ―annoying and irrelevant [Source: IDC via Econsultancy Blog, March 2009]
• 35% of companies plan to invest social media marketing budget in Facebook marketing programs in 2011. [Source: StrongMail, December 2010]
• 63% of companies see awareness building as the primary value of social media as a marketing channel (building customer loyalty is number 2). [Source: StrongMail, December 2010]
• Only 14% of businesses are outsourcing any aspect of their social media marketing. [Source: 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Social Media Examiner, April 2010]
• Many branded pages on social networks are not attracting viewers, with half of advertisers‘ profile pages attracting less than 1,000 friends, while the European average was 6,494. [Source: Jupiter via NMA, June 2008]

Social Commerce

• Heavy social networkers aged 11-14 are 65% more likely to buy clothes online, 40% more likely to buy books online and 20% more likely to purchase music downloads [Source: TGI, via MediaTel, July 2010]
• Amongst 11-14s, heavy social networkers (3 times a day or more) are 50% more likely to be asked for advice by their school friends about toiletries and cosmetics, 40% more likely to be asked about mobile phones or fashion, and 20% more likely to be asked about new music. [Source: TGI, via MediaTel, July 2010]
• Social gamers are twice as likely to shop within the gaming environment. [Source: Interpret, via Econsultancy, November 2010]
• Gamers are 70% more likely to make purchases within a  ̳gamified‘ environment. [Source: Interpret, via Econsultancy, November 2010]
• Gamers are more likely to be online shoppers, influencers and product reviewers. [Source: Interpret, via Econsultancy, November 2010]
• 53% of retail transactions involving Facebook directly converted (from Facebook to checkout). [Source: Efficient Frontier, November 2010]