Instagram and Pinterest continue to dominate the social landscape as users double down on visual content
“New data from Pew Research has found that the proportion of Instagram and Pinterest users has doubled since Pew first started tracking social media adoption in 2012.
“Instagram continues to rise, with 28% of adults now using the social platform, up from 26% in last report. Pinterest is the highest achiever, pulling in over 3% more users since last year. Pinterest’s users still skew strongly towards young females – 44% of online women use the site, compared with 16% of online men. As with Pinterest, more women (31%) are active on Instagram than men (24%).
“The data reinforces much of what we’re already being told – visual social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are becoming increasingly important, and messaging is still the communicative pipeline that connects the younger generation.”
To read the full report, visit Social Media Today.
LinkedIn and Twitter suffer expected social setbacks as usage stalls
“Use of LinkedIn and Twitter, on the other hand, is now starting to slow. The latest report found that neither LinkedIn or Twitter experienced “any significant increase in usage between September 2014 and April 2015.”
“The data indicates that LinkedIn usage has declined since the last survey, but the margin of error was 2.6 percentage points. Because of this, Pew classifies the result as no growth, rather than a drop. In the case of Twitter, their struggles with growth are well documented, so it’s not surprising to see their rate remain static.
“The lack of growth at LinkedIn is a particularly interesting element, considering they reported strong user and engagement growth in their most recent earnings report.”
To read the full report, visit Social Media Today.
Facebook still reigns social supreme, despite the competition nipping at its heels
“The report more or less confirms what we know about millennials, Facebook, and the rising use of messaging apps on smartphones. The data reveals “the noteworthy and rapid emergence of different kinds of communications tools serving different social needs.”
“The numbers underline Facebook’s ubiquity – even 48% of those aged 65 and over are now active on the platform. Overall, Facebook is still king, with 72% of adults using the site.”
To read the full article, visit Social Media Today.
Google now controls 65% of the entire search market, with Bing trailing behind at 33%
“In the simplest terms, the world of organic search is roughly 2/3 Google, 1/3 Bing. Those are the numbers provided by comScore for the US search market.
“In terms of non-network share, Bing saw a tiny 0.1% gain in July, as did Ask. Google was flat with 64%, unchanged for the past three months.
The latest search statistics have been released by comScore.
“Together, Bing and Yahoo combined in July for 33.1% market share. AOL will soon be a Bing-powered search property. If that were the case today, the share of Bing and Bing-powered searches would represent 34.3% of all search query volume.”
To read the full article, visit Search Engine Land.
Whilst undeniably impressive, Google’s search market share is actually down from 2014
“Looking at the data, it is clear that Google is slightly less dominant than it was at this time last year.
“While still holding on to a healthy 65% of the search market, that’s less than the 68.7% Google held at this time last year. It amounts to a 5.6% decrease in year-over-year market share.
“According to the numbers, Bing is growing, while Google is attracting fewer searches than it did at this time last year.”
To read the full article, visit Search Engine Journal.
Google officially flips the switch on tweets appearing directly within its SERPs
“Next time you perform a Google search on your desktop, keep a look out for something new: tweets.
“Google quietly updated search via desktop on Friday to include relevant tweets in search results about whatever you’re searching. Searching for Taylor Swift, for example, now summons a virtual carousel of tweets from the pop star, tucked underneath news links towards the top of web site results.
A search for Taylor Swift will bring up a bevvy of the singer’s social posts when browsing Google’s SERPs.
“Today’s change follows a similar move earlier this year, when Google began integrating tweets into mobile results, and comes roughly six months after Twitter announced a deal with the tech giant.”
Despite its social leanings, Pinterest may be preparing to break out of the mould and make the daring crossover into web search
More than 2/3 of ‘Pinners’ use their mobile devices to look at pins while they’re physically in stores. Though Pinterest isn’t typically compared to Google or Bing, these numbers illustrate that it’s still a search platform at core, particularly in the mobile space.
Simon Jenkins, Social Media Director at Tug has completely changed the way he talks about the platform with clients. In the past, he referred to Pinterest as “where you go if you like cupcakes.” Now, he acknowledges that it’s become a player in search, noting that friends of his use the platform to find wedding ideas, just as you would on Google.
“If you looked at Twitter and Facebook even five years ago, people weren’t talking about them in terms of search,” Jenkins says. “Because of the rise of social search, any social platform used by a decent amount of people will be thought about in terms of, ‘How do we use this for search?”
To read the full article, visit Search Engine Watch.
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