Christopher Ratcliff says, “The last time we heard, Facebook was struggling with ‘waves of disenfranchised youngsters looking for a hipper alternative’. Twitter is apparently struggling, with a drop in daily engagement, projected sales for the next three months falling short of expectations and a stock price plummet. Instagram has stuck the knife into fledgling platform Vine by offering similar video capabilities for its already large incumbent audience. Brands seem to prefer it too. It’s not looking pretty out there for our favourite social networks. Of course, whether you trust any of... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Add another survey to the mix of contradictory data about teens and Facebook. This one — by investment bank Piper Jaffray — found a huge dropoff in the last six months in the number of teens who say they use the social network. How huge? Teen’s Facebook use plunged 72% in the spring of 2014 to 45% this fall. According to these results, Facebook is the third most-popular social network among teens, after Facebook’s photo sharing app Instagram, used by 76% of the 7,200 U.S. students surveyed, and Twitter (59%). The results certainly jibe with the common belief that... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Ello is having its moment this week. Sparked by a influx of people in the LGBTQ community protesting Facebook’s real name policy and blown into a conflagration by the tech blogging and tweeting digerati, the three-month-old social network is being swamped with so many requests its have difficult processing them all. Thursday Ello said it was getting 4,000 signup requests on hour; Friday it was more than 40,000. The demand forced the site to cap user invitations several times to prevent crashing the system and now there’s waiting list of more than 1 million people.... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “SDL a “customer experience” software and services provider has released results of  multi-country survey of roughly 1,800 millennials (18 – 36). Not unlike other surveys the picture that emerges is of a highly mobile-centric audience that is willing to engage with marketers that earn their trust but are otherwise hard to reach. Most Millennials use at least two internet devices every day. A minority use three or even four — 37 percent in the US. The survey also found that “19 out of 20″ Millennials (globally) own smartphones and check them an average... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “Yahoo’s second quarter earnings disappointed investors who had expected somewhat higher numbers. However there were a number of encouraging spots around product and user metrics and isolated revenue improvements. First the top-line numbers: The company had $1.04 billion in revenue ex-TAC, down 3 percent year over year (YoY). Display revenue came it an $394 million, ex-TAC, down  7 percent YoY Search revenue was $428 million, ex-TAC, up 6 percent YoY”. Yahoo Earnings Disappoint, But Search And Mobile Revs Up Marketing Land  [...]

Martin Back says, “Adding to the evidence that 2014 is a mobile tipping point, social data and sharing tool provider ShareThis reported today that sharing via smartphones and tablets surged more than 30% during the second quarter. Pulling data from its network of more than 2 million U.S. publishers, ShareThis found sharing growth of 27.8% for smartphones and 3.5% for tablets when compared to the first quarter. The ShareThis figures for desktop sharing dropped 5.5 in Q2. Although ShareThis didn’t provide aggregate figures for device sharing, its growth numbers report coupled with last month’s comScore... [...]

Pete Prestipino says, “Gallup recently released data from its “State of the American Consumer: Insights for Business Leaders” report this week, an examination of consumer spending from 2008 through 2014.  The study examines how consumer spending, confidence and expectations have shifted because of the economic downturn, offering advice on how companies can “more effectively measure and manage their own customer engagement in this new normal and on how leaders can improve customer engagement and organizational performance.” Most of the report doesn’t related... [...]

The latest article on  ‘MarketingProfs’ is titled “The Psychology of Sharing [Infographic]”. Verónica Maria Jarski says, “What types of people are most likely to share content online? And why are they sharing it? The following infographic by StatPro categorizes people into six types of sharers: hipsters, careerists, altruists, connectors, boomerangs, and selectives. Careerists are sharers who “are savvy business networkers and are more likely to share content on LinkedIn,” states StatPro, whereas altruists “are helpful, reliable, thoughtful,... [...]

The latest ‘Econsultancy’ blog post is titled “Q&A: Scott Monty on Ford’s social media strategy”. Christopher Ratcliff says, “Social media is a major part of Ford’s continued evolution in digital and in many cases features some of its most groundbreaking work. Ford was the first automobile manufacturer to reveal a vehicle on Facebook, it was the first brand on Google+ and it runs perhaps one of the most uniquely enjoyable and surprising Vine accounts. Last month I wrote about why Ford’s social media strategy is so good, in which I discussed... [...]

The latest ‘Econsultancy’ blog post is titled “What are the best social media marketing campaigns of all time?”. Ben Davis says, “What are the best social media marketing campaigns of all time? First of all, let me justify the use of the phrase ‘of all time’ by looking at Facebook specifically. Facebook was available at Harvard in winter 2004 and then over time was extended to some other schools and institutions. In September 2006, anybody could join. I was considered a late adopter at my university in the UK when I finally joined in early 2007. In late 2007,... [...]