The document provides an analysis of social media conversations from 2009 to mid-2011 based on data from blogs, forums, news sources, and Twitter. It finds that conversations have become more positive and global over time. Analysis of word usage shows "time" is the most common word and conversations have shifted from how to use social media to sharing information. The report concludes that social media insights can provide valuable business intelligence if monitored continuously.

1. report
Social Media Statistics
Changes in the social sphere
from 2009 to 2011.

2. Social Media Statistics
Introduction
In March 2011, Twitter® celebrated its fifth birthday. According to Techcrunch, it took three
years, two months and one day from the first tweet to get to the billionth tweet. Now users send
a billion tweets each week. Users average 140 million tweets per day, up from 50 million tweets
per day a year ago. An average of 460,000 new Twitter accounts are created daily. An infograph
from Social Hype and OnlineSchools.org states that as of 2011, there are more than 500 million
active Facebook® users—representing one out of every 13 people on earth, with half logged in
on any given day. Faced with these astounding numbers, it’s clear that social media has become
commonplace in the fabric of society.
As more people and organizations step into the social media ring, organizations need to move
from being on social media to consuming the social media ecosystem. As a business leader, you
need to go beyond using social channels merely for building awareness and providing customer
support. You need to start using the social sphere to inform strategic decisions and execute your
organization’s business objectives, marketing plans, product roadmaps and more.
In order to do this effectively it’s important to understand the DNA of the social sphere
and the impact it can have on the future of organizations, brands, competitors and the
customer experience.
This report provides an overview of the changes in social media over the past couple of years.
It includes an analysis of blogs, forums, news sources and Twitter from 2009 to the first half of
2011. You’ll get a sense for the overall sentiment about social media, discover the geographic
areas experiencing the most social media growth, learn what conversations are taking place in
social media about social media and see why monitoring social media conversations is more
critical than ever.
Tweet this.
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3. Social Media Statistics
Analysis Methodology
Using Sysomos Media Analysis Platform (MAP) and Heartbeat the following social media
channels were analyzed to produce the insights for this report. This report is broken into two
distinct sections to first analyze social media mentions in blogs, forums and traditional news
channels, such as the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, over a two year period. For
the Twitter analysis, the second half of 2010 was compared against the first half of 2011 for all
tweets captured.
Time Period Channels in Existence
2009 to 2010 Blogs 606 million, Forums 780 million, News 161 million
2010 to mid-2011 Blogs 861 million, Forums 1,942 million, News 258 million
Twitter—July to December 2010—9,364 million tweets
January to June 2011—9,529 million tweets
Findings overview:
• A rise in positive sentiment about social media
• Global growth in social media is diminishing North America’s position as the center of
the social media universe
• Social media conversations about how to use social media effectively are being
surpassed by conversations focused on the sharing of information
• Reflective of true human nature, the word “time” has been the single most used word in
social media since 2009
Social media mentions in blogs, forums and traditional
news channels
Time Period Channels in Existence
2009 to 2010 Blogs 606 million, Forums 780 million, News 161 million
2010 to mid-2011 Blogs 861 million, Forums 1,942 million, News 258 million
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4. Social Media Statistics
Conversations are growing more positive
Automated sentiment is used to gauge the overall tone of conversations in the social
sphere and determine if they are positive, negative or neutral. When used in tandem
with offline analysis, automated sentiment can provide a strong sense for how your
organization, brand and industry are perceived. The following analyzes a big question: How
is social media itself perceived in the social sphere?
Year-over-year conversations taking place in blogs, forums and news grew more positive in
sentiment. In the 4,608 million conversations analyzed, the positive sentiment in each of
these channels rose by up to five percent and remained static or decreased by up to three
percent in negativity. All three channels experienced a drop in neutral sentiment.
Perhaps this is indicative of social media conversations expressing real opinions and being truly
conversational. With the trend of neutral sentiment on the decline, purposeful communication
and critical conversations are now surfacing. Could 2011 be the year where a post solely for the
sake of posting (but without anything meaningful to say) becomes a thing of this past?
2009-2010 2010-2011
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5. Social Media Statistics
Conversations are getting more global
Conversations spread like wildfire in the social sphere, blurring country, province/state or
city boundaries. The volumes of conversations in each geographic area determine its share
of voice. With respect to social media conversations, who is the most vocal? To the surprise
of few, the United States of America maintains the largest share of voice in social media for
2009 through 2011. There is a small but notable rise in share of voice worldwide between
the first 24 months and the last 18 months. However, the growth in the share of voice for the
United States is slightly outpacing the entire world in terms of social growth.
Looking at the rest of the world, it’s important to note that China’s share of voice rose a
remarkable 116.67 percent over last year. In addition, Japan, Brazil, and Indonesia join the
ranks of the top 11 countries replacing Italy, Turkey and India.
And who suffered the greatest drop in the top 11 spots? Spain and the United Kingdom, which
lost 50 percent and 32.76 percent of their share of voice respectively compared to last year.
Canada still ranks sixth, experiencing a small increase in share of voice from 3.4 percent to
3.6 percent. Interestingly, with a change this slight, Canada can be used as a benchmark for
the typical share of voice growth pattern of blogs, forums and news globally.
2009-2010
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6. Social Media Statistics
2010-2011
A look at conversations regarding “social media”
through text analytics
The BuzzGraph
The two following BuzzGraphs were created based on one keyword: social media. The
BuzzGraph is a visual identifier of the most prevalent words in conversations related to a
keyword. This makes it easy to determine the focus of discussions.
In the 2009-2010 BuzzGraph, extending from the center of the conversation to the right
are three interesting topics: Business, Twitter and Engagement. This could be an indication
that people are engaging in business conversation using Twitter or perhaps the discussion is
about businesses engaging with customers through Twitter. In this same time frame, for the
2008 holiday season, Dell offered deals exclusively to its Twitter followers, generating
$1 million in revenue. As this story was covered extensively in 2009, people were talking
about it.
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7. Social Media Statistics
The BuzzGraph highlights two additional words that are used often in relation to social
media: marketable and promoted. A Mashable article from 2009 may help explain. The
article states, “(Dell) tells us that they’ve now generated a total of $6.5 million in revenue
from their Twitter presence, where they have nearly 1.5 million followers on their @DellOutlet
account (and 3 million “connections” across all social sites.)” It’s likely that Dell’s activity
greatly contributed to conversations around social media.
In comparison, at the center of conversations from 2010-2011 is the keyword “shar” to
encompass “share”, “sharing” and “shares” (Sysomos abbreviates the word to “shar”—
removing the extension to capture all mentions)Is this an indicator of a stronger
“social IQ” as the population is accepting social media as a primary method of
communication and sharing?
2009-2010
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8. Social Media Statistics
2010-2011
The Wordcloud
Another means of visually understanding key conversations is the Wordcloud. Wordclouds
enable organizations to get a handle on the topics, events and themes at the center of most
conversations, while also illustrating how those words relate to a company, brand or industry.
Looking at all conversations in the social sphere, the term “time” is prominent in the center
of the Wordcloud in 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. Could this simply be reflective of human
nature? As the world speeds up around us, everyone seems more obsessed with time and
the management of it. Conversations in the social stream help validate this very common,
human concern.
Compared to 2009-2010, the share of voice in 2010-2011 was smaller for all words relating
to “social media”—illustrated in the size and boldness of the font. Perhaps this is the result
of fewer conversations about social media and the occurrence and growth of other, more
diversified topics and themes.
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9. Social Media Statistics
The 2009-2010 Wordcloud includes a single, one character symbol from a language other
than English. However, in the 2010-2011 Wordcloud, characters from various languages
appear with greater frequency. As various cultures and languages continue to populate the
social sphere we can expect to see many languages reflected throughout the social stream.
2009-2010
2010-2011
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10. Social Media Statistics
Twitter and social media conversations
Twitter Volume Recap:
Twitter—July to December 2010—9,364 million tweets
January to June 2011—9,529 million tweets
According to Techcrunch, there is an average of 460,000 new Twitter accounts being
created daily, but surprisingly there has been very little increase in tweet volume from the
second half of 2010 to the first half of 2011.
Sentiment about Twitter itself
As a study of Twitter, the medium itself, and inclusive of all conversations existing on Twitter
worldwide, 27 percent of the conversations had a positive sentiment and 18 percent had a
negative sentiment (while 55 percent of conversations remained neutral) in the latter part
of 2010.
Analysis of the first half of 2011 shows a very similar distribution—26 percent positive,
17 percent negative, and 55 percent neutral sentiment for all conversations.
This very slight decline in positive and negative conversations is actually quite different than
our observations for blogs, forums and news. The sentiment of social conversations through
the Twitter channel doesn’t seem to change that much at all.
2010
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11. Social Media Statistics
2011
Where in the world are conversations through
Twitter occurring?
As opposed to our observations of blogs, forums and news—the USA is actually dropping
in share of voice on Twitter from the end of 2010 to the middle of 2011. Does this mean that
within the social sphere, channels with the greater breadth and depth of content, such as
blogs and forums, are coming back into favor over using Twitter for social conversations?
With respect to other geographic areas, the volume of conversation through Twitter seems to
be increasing at the same rate as blogs, forums and news channels.
2010
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12. Social Media Statistics
2011
Twitter: A look at social media through text analytics
The BuzzGraph
The two following BuzzGraphs were created based on one keyword—social media. As a
visual identification of the words prevalent in conversations related to a keyword, it is easy to
determine the focus of discussions on Twitter.
In the second half of 2010, conversations occurring on Twitter focused on the website
Mashable and the various articles contained on the site that referenced social media and its
relationship to marketers.
So far in 2011, there appears to be less focus on how to use social media and more focus
around the applications for social media and the networks and channels people use for social
media engagement—for example RT, blog, Linkedin®, Facebook, workplace, and marketing.
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13. Social Media Statistics
2010
2011
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14. Social Media Statistics
The Wordcloud
The Wordclouds below contain words that connect to human emotions. In the latter half
of 2010 the word “love” appears in the center, in strong, large font. So far in 2011, the most
common word used on Twitter is “lol”. Both “love” and “lol” are terms that convey positive
feelings and represent the most frequently used words in conversation on this social channel.
In 2011 characters from multiple languages are more prominent and have increased over last
year. This is an indication that Twitter has been adopted around the world.
2010
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15. Social Media Statistics
2011
Organizations have an opportunity to start shaping the conversations occurring on Twitter by
monitoring and engaging in this social channel. Your organization, brand or community can
influence social media conversations on Twitter by first listening and then engaging. These
social conversations can be about your organization or its exceptional customer service or
product offerings?
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16. Social Media Statistics
Business Intelligence for Social Media
Social media is gaining momentum globally and the conversations are starting to become less of a
novelty and more true to human nature. This means information and insights from the social stream are
becoming more significant to organizations than ever before. We put together this overview of social
media by analyzing the billions of conversations and tweets taking place online. By the time you’ve read
this report, the social media landscape will have already shifted. The conversations from yesterday (and
the sentiment, volume and location of those conversations) have changed today and will change again
tomorrow. However, it’s possible to tap into what happened in the past and what’s happening today
with the right social media monitoring solution. Click below to learn more about Heartbeat and the
Media Analysis Platform (MAP) and discover how Sysomos products can help you learn more about
your company, your brand and your competition.
1-866-483-3338 • contact@sysomos.com • sysomos.com
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