Facebook provides a wide ranging and encompassing online social network ecosystem that allows you to share music, photos and information that can be seen by your friends in their timeline. Its impact is also starting to be seen as influencing consumer decisions as people notice online comments by friends on Facebook and make purchases based on this sharing. A recent study by Sociable Labs which included 1088 online shoppers revealed that social sharing is as helpful as Google search in shopping.

The major takeaways from the study are:

1. Social Sharing is a Vital Activity for Discovering What to Buy: 62% of online shopper-shave read product related comments from their friends on Facebook.

2. Social Sharing Causes Consumers to Act: 75% of shoppers who read social sharing comments have clicked on the product link in their friends’ Facebook posts, taking them to the product page on a retailer’s website. Also, 53% of the shoppers who have clicked through to the retailer’s site have made a purchase.

3. Positive Social Sharing Creates a Virtuous Cycle of Sharing and Purchasing: 81% of consumers who purchase products they learn about through social sharing are valuable social sharers themselves, thus creating a cycle of sharing and buying.

4. “Social Proofing” – Increases Confidence in Buying: 32% of visitors are more likely to stay and shop on a site that shows activities of shoppers who have purchased there, even when those shoppers are not their friends. When they shared activities include the shopping behavior of the visitor’s friends, that number nearly doubles to 62%. With respect to purchase, 57% of shoppers are more likely to purchase on a site that shows their friends who have purchased on that site.

5. Match the Motivations of Sharers to Share with the Motivations of Shoppers to Act: When comparing sharer and shopper motivations, a key takeaway from the study is to encourage sharers to include the reasons they bought the product, as this is the strongest motivator for shoppers to act.

The “Beyond Digital” report states that the new behaviours of connected customers, which include social viewing, distracted viewing and digesting on-demand content; have greatly impacted media providers.
As a result, media providers need to target specific “digital personalities”, delivering relevant content experiences rather than just content alone and create new cross-channel digital revenue models.
The four digital personalities identified in the report are not age-based, but instead are derived from how they access content:

1. Efficiency Experts: This largest group (41%) sees the adoption of digital devices and services as a way to make life easier.

2. Content Kings: This digital personality (9%) includes dedicated gamers, newshounds, movie buffs, music lovers and TV fans.

3. Social Butterflies: These consumers (15%) cannot imagine not being able to instantly access any of their friends.

4. Connected Maestros: This personality (35%) combines the behaviors common to Content Kings and Social Butterflies with even more sophisticated behaviours.

As consumers move away from traditional media to a multi-channel digital model it is important to identify new ways of segmenting audiences instead of simply breaking them into groups based on age and gender. However, the segmentation is only part of the challenge, as marketers must still work out how to effectively target each group with relevant campaigns.

Did you know that if all 140 million Twitter users shut down their computer for one hour, that would be the equivalent use of power to that of taking 9,128 cars off the road, for an entire year? And if every one of Facebook’s 845 million users shortened their daily showers by a single minute, we’d save enough water to fill over one million Olympic-sized swimming pools?
As computers, smart phones and tablets have become more affordable and widespread, the levels of energy used to power these devices has also risen exponentially, with no signs of slowing down.
However, by making relatively small adjustments to their behavior, users can make hugely beneficial changes to this environmental impact by acting collectively. This infographic presents a number of ways that Social Media users can share responsibility for their planet.

One might think concerns over privacy and accuracy of information might prevent people from searching for and sharing medical information online. Well, one would be wrong, according to the results of a recent PwC Health Research Institute survey.

A full one-third of U.S. consumers are using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to find medical information, research and share their symptoms, and offer opinions about doctors, treatments, drugs, and health plans. 90% of respondents from 18 to 24 years of age said they would trust medical information shared by others in their Social Media networks. This age demographic were also the most apt to share their own personal medical information online; 80% said they would, compared to less than half of the older 45- to 65-year-old survey participants.

Those who are updating social contacts on their experiences with health care issues are more likely to share positive experiences than negative, though the difference is slight.
Of those searching for information, 41% are using it to make decisions about which doctors or hospitals to use. 34% said the information they find in social networks affects their decision whether or not to take a specific medication.

"The power of Social Media for health organizations is in listening and engaging with consumers on their terms. Social Media has created a new customer service access point where consumers expect an immediate response," Kelly Barnes, U.S. Health Industries leader for PwC, said in a statement. "Health organizations have an opportunity to use Social Media as a way to better listen, participate in discussions, and engage with consumers in ways that extend their interaction beyond a clinical encounter."

Younger Users Have Larger Networks of Friends

On average, younger Facebook users have two times more friends than older users, but there's virtually no difference between men and women: Younger women have roughly the same number of Facebook friends as younger men (305 vs. 304).

Similarly, older men and women share nearly equal numbers of friends (139 vs. 133).

Allocation of Time Online Varies by Age

Some 146.5 million people in the US, or 79% of online adults, now use social networks, according to the report.
Among all socially networked adults, Social Media now accounts for 18% of time spent online, after entertainment (22%) and email (27%). However, those levels vary by age:

- Young social networkers age 18-24 spend the most (25%) of their time online, and only 17% of their time with email.

- Older social networkers age 35-44 spend 17% their time online with social networks, compared with 26% of their time with email.

Motivations for Using Social Media

A breakdown by age and gender accentuates the interest among older users, particularly women, in using Social Media to stay connected with others:

- 42% of women use Social Media to stay-in-touch, compared with 34% of women age 18-34.

- Younger users (particularly men) use Social Media for a wider variety of reasons, particularly entertainment (28%).

- Younger women spend the least amount of time (among the four age groups) using Social Media to find information (16%).