The UK is head and shoulders above its continental counterparts in mobile uptake, according to new comScore data, as 35% of UK mobile users access social networking sites on their phones, compared to the European average 23%.

Mobile social networking use in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK nearly doubled in the last year, with 55m mobile users accessing Facebook, Twitter, etc., in September alone, according to comScore’s MobiLens study. Read more »

Nearly four months after Twitter’s ‘Promoted Tweets’ started appearing in users’ feeds, the response has been remarkably, well, moot. In fact, the introduction of ads into the social network has been, daresay it, even positive, in pale contrast to previous attempts at monetisation.

Despite the few expected grumblings (see the tweets at the bottom of the page), Twitter’s approach to its promoted tweets—unobtrusive, timely, and even relevant—seems to be sitting well with it’s user base. Read more »

About 40% of UK social media users are “opportunists,” following brands out of self-interest for vouchers and competitions, and care more for “value” rather than “values,” according to a pan-European study, which tracked consumer’s online behaviour.

Opportunists, the heading that most UK social media users fall under, are also the least likely to follow brands online because they like it, rather, they want brands to tell them: “What’s in it for me?” Read more »

In the next two years, more than half of all retail sales, including offline and online activity, will in some way be affected by the web, as consumers increasingly use the internet to research products before purchasing.

According to new research, companies will increase their social media marketing budgets by 34% through 2014.

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Brands will have to wait until Q1 next year in order to have multi-admin access on their Google+ Pages, the company announced at the CrushIQ conference yesterday.

Google+ users expressed frustration at this seemingly simple lack of functionality last week when Google launched its Pages project. Read more »

Over the next 10 years, digital marketing spend is to grow six-fold to US$300bn annually, according to some estimates, and half of that growth will be attributed to social commerce—a somewhat nascent, often misunderstood economy.

Social commerce, the idea of combining social media with online shopping, had its fledgling beginnings in 2007, with the launch of Facebook “gifts,” and entered just about everyone’s radar with the spectacular rise of Groupon in 2010. Read more »

Newspapers are the worst kind of Twitter followers. They’re un-engaging. They rarely, if ever, retweet. Their followers/following figures are forever skewed. As well, according to a new study, nine-tweets-out-of-ten are just re-spouted links and headlines from their own website.

Are newspapers missing the boat when it comes to Twitter?

A study by Pew Research, which focused on 13 major US news organisations, suggests that newspapers use Twitter in very limited ways—primarily as an added means to disseminate their own material. Read more »

UK social media users are among the most resistant consumers in the world towards brands invading their personal space, according to a new study, which reflects how businesses are wasting time and money trying to reach people online who, in all likelihood, probably aren’t listening.

Dailymail.co.uk and Guardian.co.uk are the most visible UK newspaper web sites on social networks such as Facebook, StumbleUpon and Twitter, according to some new figures.

The Mail averages about 2.9m links per week, while the Guardian is linked about 2.5m times per week, according to a study by Search metrics. The Telegraph (0.88m links), Independent (0.61m) and the Sun (0.2m) rounded out the top five. Read more »

A new generation of tweeting “celebrities” (indeed, a begrudging use of the term) is having their pockets filled at the rate of $10,000 (£6,256) per tweet by awkwardly endorsing brands and, often, their ill-fitting products.

If the absurdity of Snopp Dogg hawking Toyota’s new line of minivans, or swagger waggons (sic) as he puts it, is lost on his 4.7m followers, is certainly isn’t on the likes of Ad.ly, the social marketers setting up these celebrity endorsement deals. Read more »