The top 20 most-followed people on Google+

Rank, name, followers
"#1 Britney Spears 807,743
#2 Larry Page 780,994
#3 Snoop Dogg 681,127
#4 Mark Zuckerberg 612,321
#5 Tyra Banks 571,843
#6 Paris Hilton 525,609
#7 Richard Branson 515,344
#8 Jessi June 512,775
#9 Sergey Brin 502,636
#10 Vic Gundotra 495,516
#11 Tom Anderson 482,796
#12 Dane Cook 473,356
#13 will.i.am 432,883
#14 Trey Ratcliff 403,858
#15 Thomas Hawk 399,687
#16 Felicia Day 388,210
#17 Dalai Lama 378,951
#18 Hugh Jackman 374,329
#19 Guy Kawasaki 368,127
#20 Ron Garan 366,370"
Source:  SocialStatisics.com, retrieved 1st December 2011
Notes:
Jesse June is a glamour model (!)
Vic Gundotra is a techie at Google
Trey Radcliff & Thomas Cook are both photo bloggers
Dane Cook is a comedian & actor
Felicia Day is an actress
Ron Garan is a NASA Astronaut
Tom Anderson is 'Tom from MySpace'
Mark Zuckerberg has seemingly never added anything - people just think it's amusing to add him
Compare to the Twitter top 10 - 7 of those are women, only 4 of the G+ top 10 are; Britney Spears is the only person to appear on both lists.  The other striking things are that it's still comparatively 'techie' and photography is popular.

Social, Digital & Mobile in Asia

We Are Social's Guide to Social, Digital & Mobile in Asia (Overview, Nov 2011)

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The Guardian receives 1m page views a day from its Facebook app

"Facebook has released some intersting stats on its Open Graph features for media partners, which include Yahoo! News, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Daily,  that it announced at f8. We already know that Facebook is a major driver of news traffic with twice as many getting their news via Facebook than any of social network, but the amount of traffic it is driving on a daily basis is striking.
The Guardian is picking up around one million pageviews a day while the Washington Post is getting 3.5 million monthly readers for its social reader app. The Independent has in excess of one million monthly active users are connecting their Facebook accounts and Yahoo News has seen a 600% increase in traffic.
That provides traffic that papers like the Guardian can sell ads against and it is also sending younger readers their way.
[...]
The Guardian: Built an app for Facebook.com and has been installed by nearly four million people, generating, on average, almost a million extra page impressions every day. Additionally, over half of the app’s users are 24 and under, “traditionally a very hard-to-reach demographic for news organizations,” said Andrew Miller, chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group."

Source:  The Wall Blog, 30th November 2011

Average clicks and shares on Facebook by day of week

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The data shows the number of clicks and shares on Facebook content as a percentage of the number of Fans.
Source:  Edgerank Checker, 16th November 2011

The age distribution of friends on Facebook

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(What it means is that if you're 20 it's likely that the largest age group of your Facebook friends will be 20, if you're 30 it will be 30 and so on)
Source:  Anatomy of Facebook, by the Facebook Data Team, 22nd November 2011, based on analysis of over 700m Facebook members and their friendships

118.5m people in the US & UK play social games at least once a week

"PopCap Games, maker of some of the world’s most popular video games, today unveiled the results of a survey updating a 2010 report targeting social gamers in the U.S. and U.K.  The survey found that 118.5 million people now play social games at least once a week, up 71%.  Among other results in the new survey, players are now significantly more likely to spend real-world money to buy content within social games, with 31 million players having purchased in-game currency, up 86%.
The full report, conducted by Information Solutions Group is available for download at 2011 PopCap Social Gaming Research.
The report examines play habits, attitudes and regional/demographic differences among social gamers, who represent the fastest-growing segment of the video game industry. The social game sector is anticipated to generate $5 billion by 2015 according to market research firm Parks and Associates.
The survey found that 30%, or 35 million people who now play social games are new to the category since February 2010, and that 17% percent of people who play social games regularly are new to gaming altogether, having never previously played a video game, representing 20 million new gaming consumers.  And while the average age of social gamers has gone down from 43 to 39, the average first time new social gamer is a 50+ year-old woman.
The report also uncovered regional differences in attitudes about cheating in social games, finding U.K. social gamers (11%) cheat at a higher rate than U.S. gamers (7%). Deeper insight into social gamers’ attitudes and habits surrounding cheating will be provided in a separate upcoming report.
Other key findings in the report include:
- 81 million people, or 68% of social gamers, play social games at least once a day
- 49 million people, or 41% of social gamers, play social games multiple times a day
- 33% of social gamers who played games on other platforms prior to playing social games reported spending less time playing games on other platforms
- Female social gamers outnumber men 55% to 45%
- The percentage of social gamers under 30 years old jumped from 19% to 30%
- 20% of all social gamers in the US are over 60, compared to only 7% in the U.K.
- Social gaming is a newer phenomenon in the U.K., where only 38% of social gamers have played for two years or more, versus 51% in the U.S."
Source:  Press release from PopCap, 14th November 2011
Full report here

Most consumers in developed markets don't want to engage with brands in social media

"The race online has seen businesses across the world develop profiles on social networks, such as Facebook or YouTube, to speak to customers quickly and cheaply – but TNS’s research reveals that if  these efforts are not carefully targeted, they are wasted on half of them.
It found that 57 per cent of people*** in developed markets* do not want to engage with brands via social media – rising to 60 per cent in the US and 61 per cent in the UK. Instead, misguided digital strategies are generating mountains of digital waste, from friendless Facebook accounts to blogs no one reads.  This is being combined with ever-increasing content produced by consumers – the study shows 47 per cent of digital consumers now comment about brands online.
The result is huge volumes of noise, which is polluting the digital world and making it harder for brands to be heard – presenting a major challenge for businesses trying to enter into dialogue with consumers online.
“Winning and keeping customers is harder than ever,” said Matthew Froggatt, Chief Development Officer, TNS. He continued, “The online world undoubtedly presents massive opportunities for brands, however it is only through deploying precisely tailored marketing strategies that they will be able to realise this potential. Choosing the wrong channel, or simply adding to the cacophony of online noise, risks alienating potential customers and impacting business growth.”
TNS’s Digital Life study asked consumers around the world whether they actually want to engage with brands on social networking websites – either to find out more or to make a purchase.
Although 54 per cent of people*** admit social networks are a good place to learn about products, the research shows brands must harness digital more carefully if they are to use it to their advantage and deepen relationships with customers and prospects."

Source:  Data from the TNS Digital Life survey, reported in a press release, 10th November 2011

Access the full report through their interface here

Methodology:  

"*Developed markets: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States.

** Fast growth markets: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam.

***This refers to Social Network Users only."

The average number of links for UK newspapers shared on social sites per week

"Average Social Links per Week of UK Newspaper Web sites
1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk (2,908,779 links/week)
2. www.guardian.co.uk (2,587,258 links/week)
3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk (879,783 links/week)
4. http://www.independent.co.uk (617,148 links/week)
5. http://www.thesun.co.uk (195,311 links/week)
6. http://www.ft.com (83,382 links/week)
7. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk (82,151 links/week)
8. http://www.mirror.co.uk (54,881 links/week)
9. http://www.heraldscotland.com (13,063 links/week)
10. http://www.express.co.uk (9,600 links/week)
11. http://www.dailystar.co.uk (702 links/week)
12. http://www.thetimes.co.uk (256 links/week)"
Source:  Research by Searchmetrics, carried out over 10 weeks, reported by The Drum, 8th November 2011

The American X Factor gets an average of 94,000 comments in social media per episode

"Fox's "The X Factor" is No. 1 among new series, with an average of 94,000 social comments per episode as recorded by Bluefin. It hasn't been the "American Idol"-killer that Simon Cowell obviously hoped it would be, but it's turned out to be a very solid hit for Fox. In fact, it's helping boost other shows on the network."

Source:  Data from Bluefin, reported by AdAge, 4th November 2011

Note - in the article 5 shows are compared, but frustratingly there's no direct comparison between X Factor and American Idol

Social media use by Fortune 500 companies - 62% use Twitter, 58% Facebook, and 23% have a blog

"A recent study from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth has found the adoption of social media usage among Fortune 500 companies has levelled off. Across multiple industries, usage of Twitter, Facebook and blogs in 2011 is level with or below that of 2010.
In 2010, 23 percent of Fortune 500 companies had a blog. In 2011, that figured remained unchanged at 23 percent. In 2010, 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a Twitter account. In 2011, 62 percent have an account. In 2010, 56 percent of Fortune 500 companies had a Facebook account. In 2011, 58 percent have an account."

Source:  Data from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, reported by Adrants, 2nd November 2011

The preferred sources for product & service information

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Source:  Data from NMIncite (Nielsen & McKinsey), reported in NielsenWire 14th October 2011
Note - I'm assuming that this is based on US consumers only

Over 70m Americans accessed social sites or blogs via mobile in August 2011

"comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, today released results of a study on mobile social media usage based on data from its comScore MobiLens service, which showed that 72.2 million Americans accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device in August 2011, an increase of 37 percent in the past year. The study also provided new insights into how mobile users interact with social media, finding that more than half read a post from an organization, brand or event while on their mobile device.
“Social media is one of the most popular and fastest growing mobile activities, reaching nearly one third of all U.S. mobile users,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile. “This behavior is even more prevalent among smartphone owners with three in five accessing social media each month, highlighting the importance of apps and the enhanced functionality of smartphones to social media usage on mobile devices.”
In August 2011, more than 72.2 million people accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device, an increase of 37 percent from the previous year. Nearly 40 million U.S. mobile users, more than half of the mobile social media audience, access these sites almost every day, demonstrating the importance of this activity to people’s daily routines.
Research also indicated that although more people accessed these sites via their mobile browser, the social networking app audience grew five times faster in the past year. While the mobile browsing social networking audience grew 24 percent to 42.3 million users in the past year, the mobile social networking app audience surged 126 percent to 38.5 million."

Source:  Press release from comScore, 20th October 2011

50% of the players of The Sims Social are Zynga players

"Electronic Arts came out of nowhere when it launched The Sims Social on Facebook. The social game that simulates human life took off like wildfire, surpassing FarmVille and closing in on Zynga’s most popular game, CityVille. Now Raptr, the social network for gamers, has revealed some interesting data about just who is playing The Sims Social. As suspected, many of the players came from Zynga.
The majority of The Sims Social’s user base are Zynga players, according to data collected from 10 million people on Raptr’s gamer social network. EA’s own social games and The Sims 3 accounted for only 15 percent of the total players of The Sims Social. Zynga players, on the other hand, account for 50 percent of all of The Sims Social players. About 30 percent came from other social games, and 5 percent came from World of WarCraft.
The Sims Social is now the No. 2 game on Facebook with 66 million monthly active players, compared to 76 million for CityVille, according to AppData. If roughly half of those players came from Zynga, we’re talking about close to 33 million users. Of course, not every single one of the Zynga players has quit playing a Zynga game in order to play The Sims Social. But CityVille has dropped from more than 100 million players."
Source:  VentureBeat, 12th October 2011

Average Click Throughs on Facebook Q3 2011

Data from US, UK, France, Germany & Canada

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Source:  Data TBG Digital campaigns from 5 markets in Q3 2011, collected & published in TBG Digital's Global Facebook Advertising Report, October 2011

98% of online Americans aged 18-24s use social media

"Has the term "social Web" become redundant? Nearly so, it seems, as 91% of online adults - or 129 million consumers - now access social media at least once a month.
So says a new study from Experian Simmons, which, even more remarkably, finds that 98% of online 18-to 24 year-olds use social media monthly.
Narrowing the generational divide, Experian Simmons finds that the greatest growth sector for social is among older Americans.
In fact, the share of those in the 65-plus category who use social media grew a relative 50% in the past two years alone. As such, nearly 3-in-4 online seniors now use social media in a typical month, as do 82% of those ages 55 to 64."

Source:  MediaPost, 7th October 2011

Full report here

Online buzz can drive ratings for TV shows

"An analysis conducted by NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey Company, and Nielsen looked at the correlation between online buzz and television ratings and found a statistically significant relationship throughout a TV show’s season among all age groups, with the strongest correlation among younger demos (people ages 12-17 and 18-34), and a slightly stronger overall correlation for women compared to men.  Men over 50 showed the weakest buzz-to-ratings connection leading up to a show’s premiere through the middle of the season, but that relationship strengthened by the finale as all age groups were actively discussing a TV show via social media.
Among people aged 18-34, the most active social networkers, social media buzz is most closely aligned with TV ratings for the premiere of a show.  A few weeks prior to a show’s premiere, a nine percent increase in buzz volume correlates to a one percent increase in ratings among this group.  As the middle of the season approaches and then the finale, the correlation is slightly weaker, but still significant, with a 14 percent increase in buzz corresponding to a one percent increase in ratings."

Source:  Research by NM Incite, a Nielsen/McKinsey Company, and Nielsen, reported in Nielsen's blog, 6th October 2011

Coca Cola spends more than 20% of its media budget on social media

"It’s not just that you can’t control it—when you try, it backfires. You have to understand consumers: They would like to be heard. It’s a question of cocreating content. Five years ago social media was 3% of our total media spend. Today it’s more than 20% and growing fast."
Source:  Coca Cola CEO Muhtar Kent, reported by Harvard Business Review, October 2011

Facebook's share of time spent online in the US, by day of week

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Source:  Data from Hitwise Experian, reported in their blog, 27th September 2011

Spotify gained a million new users after integration with the Facebook homepage ticker

"At f8 last Thursday, music services such as Spotify, Vevo, Rdio and Mog gained the ability to publish the listening activity of their users to Facebook’s new home page Ticker. The exposure to the friends of their users through the tickers has led to big gains for some music partners.
Most significantly, Spotify has gained one million new monthly active Facebook-integrated users since f8 to reach 4.4 million MAU. It spiked from 1.12 million to 3.25 million daily active users the day after f8, and appears to be settling back to roughly a quarter million new DAU. Rdio, MOG, and Deezer have also seen significant gains in their numbers of Facebook-integrated users."
Source:  Data from Inside Facebook, collected from looking at app users, reported on 26th September 2011

The differences between hardcore social gamers and casual gamers

"The social gamer sector is a large, and growing, market – 41% of all U.S. Internet users have played social games.  That amounts to 98 million in the U.S. alone.
Hardcore Social Gamers resemble traditional core gamers demographically: While a majority of casual social gamers are women (61%) and over 40-years-old (62%), the reverse is true for hardcore social gamers: 55% of hardcore social gamers are male and 57% are under the age of 40 (with an average age of 37).
Hardcore Social Gamers are playing lots of games.  Hardcore social gamers tend to play multiple games simultaneously (76% playing two or more).  In fact, nearly half (47%) of hardcore social gamers are playing three or more social games, while 28% are playing 4 or more social games concurrently.  Clearly, these are dedicated game enthusiasts.
Hardcore Social Gamers exhibit greater level of gameplay engagement - The level of commitment and engagement of gamer segments varies.  When it comes to amount of gameplay time, hardcore social gamers far exceed casual social gamers.  This research indicates that 68% of hardcore social gamers are playing three or more hours per day of any game, with 30% playing social games for more than an hour per session.  By contrast, only 43% of casual social gamers spend three or more hours daily playing games of any type.  And, they play social games in short bursts – 54% indicate their typical session length is 30 minutes or less."
Source:  Press release from Kabam, 22nd September 2011
Note - A hardcore social gamer is defined as "players who play strategy, RPG, or other ‘core’ segment games (MMO, action, FPS, MOBA) on a social network site."
Full study here