Please note: The Social Media Insights morning email will no longer be free beginning January 2, 2014. It will be delivered exclusively to subscribers of Business Insider Intelligence. Non-subscribers will receive a shorter afternoon version. Sign up for a free two-week trial to BI Intelligence here.
ADVERTISING — FACEBOOK VS. TWITTER: Facebook and Twitter are distinctly different platforms, but it's worth examining their two advertising businesses side-by-side for the sake of comparison. We've summarized some analysis that was curated by Marketing Profs.
Usage: Facebook has nearly five times as many monthly active users as Twitter, and they share almost 10 times more content each day.
Ad Performance: The cost per thousand impressions (CPM) on Twitter is significantly higher than it is for Facebook ads, but we could argue that Twitter's ad products, such as Promoted Tweets, are inherently more in-stream than Facebook's ad products, offering advertisers enhanced visibility. Click-through rates (CTR) are also higher for ads on Twitter than they are on Facebook.
Mobile Ad Performance: Facebook has a larger share of the mobile market, but Twitter has a greater variety of native ad formats that appear in its mobile app, while Facebook has just one. (Marketing Profs)
In Other News ...
AN EPHEMERAL WEB: In tech circles, Snapchat is often seen as the breakout success story from 2013. So, the Wall Street Journal raises the question: "Do we want an erasable Internet?" If more sites and apps begin to launch erasable features, the web will look very different in the future. (WSJ)
GOOGLE BATTLES SEO TECHNIQUES: Popular lyrics site Rap Genius has been penalized by Google for gaming search results. One of the factors that determines a site's ranking in Google Search results depends on how many incoming links are pointing to that site. However, Rap Genius was asking popular sites to manually link to its site in exchange for favors. Google interpreted this behavior as gaming the system, and so now when you search for "Rap Genius" on Google, the website no longer appears on the first page of results, which is already having a significantly negative impact on the amount of traffic the site receives. (TechCrunch)
KAKAO TALK IS A CONTENDER AGAINST OTHER MESSAGING APPS: Kakao Talk is expected to generate approximately $200 million in revenue this year, according to company estimates. That's almost five times more than it generated last year. What's more, Kakao Talk reportedly has 130 million registered users. For comparison, rival messaging app LINE recently surpassed 300 million registered users. (Bloomberg)
IS TWITTER'S STORY ABOUT USER GROWTH?: The Verge has a lengthy piece out that examines the continuous redesign of Twitter in an effort to spur user growth. However, after all its attempts, perhaps scaling to the level of Facebook or WhatsApp isn't in Twitter's best interest anyway. Rather, one could argue that Twitter's story is about giving a microphone and a stage to a select group of people who are the most respected in their industry — whether that be media, finance, music, entertainment, etc. For those industry professionals, their reach on Twitter is often already far greater than the number of people they can reach via cable or traditional news sources anyway. (The Verge)
What You May Have Missed On BI Intelligence …
[CHART] Foursquare Is Now About One-Sixth The Size Of LinkedIn, And It's Expanding Its Data Net
[CHART] Top Global Brands That Adopted Facebook Early Are Still Enjoying The Benefits
[CHART] Globally, iPhone Users Spend More And Earn More Than Android Owners, But Not Much More
[CHART] Social Media Is Starting To Become Competitive With Search As A Source Of E-Commerce Sales
[CHART] BlackBerry Unloads Some Of Its Manufacturing On Foxconn As Its Smartphone Sales Plummet