Over the weekend Keith McArthur from Veritas (that’s a ballsy name for a PR agency, eh?) pitched me on the results of their new social media survey. Given that we’re finishing up a book on the subject (it’s back from the editor on Wednesday), it piqued my interest. The results will be available on Tuesday here, but he’s giving some bloggers a sneak peak.
Here are a couple of interesting results. They asked 2,265 Canadians the following question:
Which of the following best describes your current use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace?
For the 1,295 who have used social media, the results look like:
18% – I added my profile to one of these sites but I haven’t been back since.
9% – I used to be active on these sites, but not anymore.
30% – I added my profile to one of these sites, and I occasionally check it.
26% – I often visit sites like Facebook or MySpace.
17% – I am constantly visiting sites such as Facebook or MySpace.
I’d say that’s pretty reflective of my non-geeky friends.
The other result that popped out at me was a question they asked “444 people who identified themselves as senior managers or marketing executives” (is that a sufficiently large sample group?). After a series of other questions, they asked:
Which, if any, of the following will you cut back on in order to increase your social media budget?
The top three answers were direct mail marketing, print advertising and radio advertising. That can’t be great news for the newspapers and radio stations of the world.
DarrenBarefoot.com 