Social Networks – More ‘She Said’ Than ‘He Said’

We are all aware that social networks, social marketing, social media and just plan old being social are the new wave regarding the Internet and its magical powers to make the world a better place for all. As we move further along in the life cycle of this still relatively new phenomenon (OK, all of you folks who have ‘been doing this for years’ can huff and puff at this point) there will be more opportunity to slice and dice the nature of the social network and the networkers that inhabit them. The folks over at Pingdom have taken a stab at looking at the gender breakdown of this group and found that women rule. Kinda.

84% (16 out of 19) of the sites have more female than male users.

The social news sites Digg, Reddit and Slashdot have significantly more male users than female. The standout here is Slashdot which takes male geekdom to new heights with 82% male users.

If we hadn’t included the three social news sites, all of the sites would have had more females than males.

Twitter and Facebook have almost the same male-female ratio; Twitter with 59% female users and Facebook with 57%.

Now we need to apply the classic question that all marketers must eventually apply to statistics and sales presentations: So what?

But before we go there we can’t waste the very nice chart that the Pingdom folks put together for you to look at.

I suspect that these ratios may always hold true to some degree but as there are more an more business applications of social media they may balance out a bit depending on the situation. Easy for me to say, sure. Honestly, social media is just like a very other tool that is used to reach people for a specific reason. Knowing how many is neat but the more important question is why someone is there. Certain networks may attract more of one gender over another for reasons that will then truly tell a marketer what the value of that network may be to them. And of course, just because it is that way now is no assurance that it will remain that way.

So Pilgrims, as you awake from your tryptophan induced haze what is your take on the various guys and girls clubs in the social networking space?

Does Bing’s Trending Search Terms List Reveal Its Weakness?

When I first perused Bing’s top trending search terms of 2009, I started to scratch my head.

Take a look at the list:

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard

Where was “iPhone” “Obama” or “Twilight?” As a nation, do we really have an unhealthy fascination with learning everything we can about deceased personalities?

Then I remembered this:

Around 45% of all searches to Bing originate from MSN.com.

<Speculation>

Ahh, that explains it. When the ~600 million monthly visitors hit the MSN.com homepage, they are inevitably presented with the big news story of the day. No news stories where bigger than the deaths of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays–and you could argue the Cash for Clunkers program. After that, the Bing list includes other news-driven events–with Twitter the lone search term not apparently news driven.

With that in mind, it’s no wonder Microsoft recently gave MSN.com a facelift. It also reveals perhaps a weakness in Bing’s attempts to challenge Google. Google is the place we go to for ALL kinds of information. Bing’s traffic–at least half of it–is the result of some prompting by MSN.com.

The challenge for Bing is to increase its share of non-news-driven searches. Next year’s list will reveal whether Bing has been able to achieve that or not.

</Speculation>

Online Spending Up Year Over Year for Black Friday

Let’s face it this holiday season is a pivotal one for all of us from a macro point of view. While many retailers will be focused on their individual bottom lines it will be important to look at how this whole ‘first weekend’ of the holiday shopping season plays out from start to finish with the latest entry, Cyber Monday, happening as you read this.

First the good news. Online sales for Black Friday were up 11% over last year according to comScore and the rest of November was an improvement over the prior year. Let’s remember, though, that last year’s holiday season was on the heels of “Bailout 1” and waiting for a new president to be inaugurated. In other words, last year sucked so any improvement over those numbers needs to be tempered.

Overall, meaning the performance of the Black Friday weekend in total, was less heartening in that it appears that people are intent on spending less and there was virtually no increase in spending overall from last year. Yahoo News reports

Consumers spent significantly less per person at the start of the holiday season this weekend, dimming hopes for a retail comeback that would help propel the economy early in 2010.

Consumers said they will have spent nearly 8 percent less on average, or about $343 per person, over the weekend that includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday and runs through Sunday, according to the NRF (National Federation of Retailers).

Traffic to stores and websites rose to 195 million people from 172 million in 2008, but shoppers were focused on buying low-priced items, like $10 toys and $9 books, the NRF said.

Total spending for the holiday weekend rose to an estimated $41.2 billion, up 0.5 percent from a year earlier, NRF said.

Since I am not a prognosticator I am not going to offer some thoughts on where this will all go. What I will say is that this will not be the time for irrational exuberance over numbers that look nice in a silo. This season is about online and offline together and if there is little or no increase (or even a decrease) in spending then we are looking at some interesting times ahead.

Tiger Woods Crashing a $1 Billion Reputation With His Silence?

In the absence of an official statement, your stakeholders will fill the void with rumor and speculation.

I’ve preached that enough times, you’d think that even Tiger Woods would have heard about it.

Apparently not:

Which is leading to this:

With rumors like that, you’d think that Woods would be grabbing the nearest TV camera and setting the record straight. Now, you might argue that Woods deserves his privacy–just like any other individual. The problem is, Tiger Woods is not just a person, he’s a $1 billion brand.

Yes, a brand.

Look, I’m not denying his right to privacy, but if he wants to continue being the face of Nike, Buick, Accenture, and such, he needs to come forward pretty soon and put the gossipers in their place.

Assuming that he can.

Who knows why Woods is keeping quiet. He does naturally appear to be less extravagant than most sports stars–more reserved–but he still needs to explain how he managed to drive into tree without any apparent mitigating circumstances. He owes his fans, the media, and his sponsors an explanation.

Yes, he does!

They invested their time, their money, their emotional commitment to Woods. He sold them a brand and now he’s not living up to it. Just like any other “product” its customers deserve to know why it’s not “working” the way it has for the past decade or more.

Cold? Sure! And Woods can continue to hold onto his privacy if he so chooses–as Bobby Brown would say, that’s his “perogative!” But, at some point he needs to decide what’s more important, Tiger Woods the person, or Tiger Woods the brand.

Because Tiger Woods the brand is in a lot of trouble at this point.

Google Caffeine Now Live On One Google Data Center

As expected the Google Caffeine index is now live on one Google data center. Note, it will not be added to more Google data centers until after the holidays.
As I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable, Matt Cutts of Google confirmed that the IP 209.85.225.103 is hitting the data center that is running the [...]

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Arrêtez Google!: EU Reportedly Developing Joint Alternative To Book Project

According to Reuters, French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said the European Union intends to develop a plan to offer a public and pan-European alternative to Google’s book scanning project. The French, among others, filed formal objections and opposition to the Google Book Search settlement with the court in New York this past September.
An amended settlement [...]

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Two Essential Search Channels To Boost Holiday Sales

Here are a couple important areas for Industrial Strength search marketers to focus on right now, both of which are feed-based: Google Product Search and Yahoo! Paid Inclusion. Below I outline why these channels matter more than ever this holiday season, and how they can help you capture substantial traffic and sales. Google Product Search [...]

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Register for SMX West Today! Best Rates Expiring Soon

Is search marketing is your livelihood? Your passion? Your future? Then come to Search Marketing Expo – SMX West for compelling content and industry connections that are certain to make you a more effective, inspired and employable internet markter. Join us for SMX West in Santa Clara, CA, March 2-4.
Register for SMX West now [...]

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News Media: Don’t Give Google The NoIndex Finger

Discussing/insulting newspaper business models is all the rage these days. Danny Sullivan has had some choice words for the whole “let’s give Google the noindex finger” thing and a few weeks ago Chris Silver Smith offered some seo advice for local newspapers. Given how on-trend the subject is I thought it might be [...]

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Google Explains Importance Of Spam Free Web Sites

Google has written two spam related posts over the Thanksgiving period on the Google Webmaster Central Blog. The first was named hard facts about comment spam and the second was named generic cialis on my website?
The first post explains how having comment spam on your blog or web site can hurt your web sites [...]

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