Who’s Using Which Social Networks?

January 2015: As we start another year, YouGov has just released a new survey regarding Social Network usage among adults in the US. And, it seems that the majority are members of social networks: overall only 15% stated they are not a member of any social networks. This number is higher for men (18%) than it is for women (12%). Among the larger platform,s only LinkedIn and Google+ have more male than female members.

As expected, Facebook is still in the lead, with three-quarters of all survey participants (80% of women, 70% of men) reporting being members. From the other networks, Twitter has (31%), Google+ has (29%) and LinkedIn has (28%). While men and women reported roughly equal use of Twitter, men were slightly ahead in Google+ usage (31% vs. 28%), with the gap larger on LinkedIn (30% vs. 25%).

Bringing up the rear is Pinterest with 18%. Interestingly, there is a large gap between men and women using Pinterest (28% among women; 9% among men). This is followed by the fast-growing Instagram (13%), although its audience leans more heavily towards teens, whom were excluded from the survey.

This data originates from a survey questioning how users react to certain type of post (such as racist, political, and sexist ones). The survey was fielded online from December 19-22, 2014 among 2,341 adults (18+), with the figures weighted to be representative of all US adults.

The YouGov survey results indicate the following usage among age groups:

Twitter usage is highest among the 18-34 bracket (41%), with the 35-54 (31%) and 55+ (23%) brackets following behind;
That disparity is even greater for Instagram, with 27% stated penetration among 18-34-year-olds, versus 12% among the 35-54 group and 4% in the 55+ bracket; and
The +55 group (31%) is the largest user group on LinkedIn, compared to 28% of 35-54-year-olds and 23% of 18-34-year-olds.

Finally, when looking at race and ethnicity (in the US), the results reveal that:

Twitter continues to appeal to Black Americans (42%) more than Whites (29%) and Hispanics (26%);
LinkedIn is less popular among Hispanics (18%) than among Whites (28%) and Black Americans (28%);
Instagram proves more attractive to Black Americans (19%) and Hispanics (15%) than to Whites (11%); and
Google+ similarly sees higher reported penetration among Black Americans (35%) and Hispanics (34%) than among Whites (27%).

The allure of luxury goods

The results of the UK Luxury Benchmark survey from Ledbury Research, run in partnership with the Walpole – the UK’s luxury industry body have just been released.

Reading through the summary of findings from the report, it is very obvious that the market dynamics are changing, especially where and when the purchase is made. BRIC markets are in, and the marque of luxury appeals to a a much wider, emerging market, where the consumers are younger and mostly found online.

Following are the highlights..

UK Luxury Benchmark Report 2012

– The UK luxury goods market stood at £5.8bn by the end of 2011.
– The internet has extended the reach of luxury brands: today’s luxury consumer is new to the brand, younger, and found online.
– Tourism remains a key factor in the success of the UK luxury market, and 63% of brands have made plans to specifically target this audience.
– Though London dominates the revenues of the luxury sector in the UK, 60% of stores are based outside the capital.
– Looking abroad, British luxury brands are heavily involved in overseas operations. There is strong interest in the BRIC economies, China in particular, but other emerging regions are beginning to make their mark.
– Assessing the marketing activity of the leading brands, it is clear that focus remains on reaching these younger consumers and growing the client base.
– While 74% of British luxury brands are optimistic for the year ahead, many have expressed a level of cautiousness. This is reflected in the mixed expectations for sales in 2012.

http://www.ledburyresearch.com/walpole