As I noted in my previous blog, I am in the midst of Myspace research development as well as Facebook research development. Here is part 1 of the directional findings from the qualitative panel. Please note that these are directional findings and they may be revised/updated based on further analysis or changing user behavior.
General Usage Findings
The Myspace research development and Facebook research development has revealed an overall consistency across both social networks, in regards to why panelists visit their account on a daily basis and what they do on it (Note: Panelists are visiting their accounts 30-100+ times a month):
Most Noted Reasons That Panelists Visited Their Account:
- They want to find out if anything was happening on their account. “To check on things, any new notifications, etc.” and respond to these.
- Because the social network informed them they had activity on their account, via an email to their non social network email account. Most common and frequent activities on the account are friend requests, comments, new messages, and bulletins.
Other Noted Reasons That Panelists Visited Their Account:
- “Update profile” (Myspace and Facebook: new profile picture, status, updated information, etc.)
- “Find band pages/music” (Myspace specific)
- “Find music venue pages to get concert date information” (Myspace specific)
- “Had to contact a friend and try to get cubs tickets” (Myspace specific)
- “To post a bulletin” (Myspace specific)
- “Bored” (Facebook specific)
- “I wanted to follow up on my Scrabulous game” (Facebook specific)
- “Searched for long lost friends” (Facebook specific)
What They Do:
A core set of usage activities emerged within myspace and facebook panelists: respond to emails, send emails, look at wall postings, read bulletins, post bulletins, address friend requests, read/make comments, look at updated profiles, look at friends’ pages, respond to invites, read comments/make comments, commenting to photos.
These set activities seem to be initiated by:
- Notifications and emails from the social networks informed panelists of the activity on their account. These act as a to-do list for panelists.
- Newsfeeds: They provide a “to do lists” for panelists.
- Indication of new messages on their profile page gives them a starting point if they are “checking in” unaided.
Once they addressed these things that “needed to be done” on their account they did not tend to surf other real estate or applications or add applications as part of a daily usage pattern.
Other Usage Findings
- Facebook panelists used the “events” tool when they are planning an event. Panelists responded to the invites generated by this tool.
- Some Myspace primary users remarked that they prefer Facebook’s event’s application because it’s much easier to use versus myspace’s event creator.
- Myspace user panelists had high instances of posting bulletins. Some myspace panelists noted this many times as their favorite feature of the day.
- There were not high instances of facebook panelists posting on The Wall.
- There were many incidences of photo posting and commenting to photos on both social networks.
- There were instances of uploading mobile photos.
- Some Myspace panelists listened to music on their profile page and many changed their profile song on a regular basis.
- Facebook panelists did not indicate these activities.
How Should Advertisers Act On These Findings:
- Ensure that the brand message is encountered throughout the daily usage activities to drive brand awareness.
- Create new ways to involve the brand within the daily user activities.
- Create ways to be a leisure activity within social networking, because social networking is a leisure activity for panelists in addition to staying connected with friends.
- Have presence in music and music related promotions in myspace.
- Consider supporting local bands as well as major bands. Supporting and designing promotions around local bands may be more effective than designing promotions around large corporate bands.
- Consider creating branded tools that make it more fun and easier to consume and organize their music and music lifestyle.
- Pioneer new music tools on facebook.
- Create new photo tools that make it more fun to share and engage with photos.
- Consider print services for mobile photo uploads–it is likely that they don’t have a hard copy of their favorite mobile images.
These insights guide social media strategy planning and the supporting social media tactics. If you would like specific insights for your company from a social network specialist, please contact jenni@weluvdigital.com or 323-828-8137.
27 Responses to Social Network Research Findings
Kelly Brown June 12, 2009
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jenni July 11, 2009
We’re glad that you enjoyed the article. More insights to come. Feel free to post our URL on your blog or social network. We’d love to have more people visit the blog.
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