New Report Could Help Advertisers on Social Media Sites

A new report finds that the traffic on social media sites increases as the weekend grows closer.  This information could be golden for advertisers who can use this information to know when their messages are reaching more people.

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According to a post on Mashable.com, Buddy Media found that after analyzing 200 of its clients' Facebook pages, these individuals were more engaged on the social media site on Thursdays and Fridays.  On Facebook specifically they found that on these two days, traffic increases by 18%.  Twitter's Chief Revenue Officer Adam Bain also confirmed that the activity on this site is higher on Fridays.

The reason behind this increase...well there are two possibilities.  According to Jeremiah Owyang, a partner at the Altimeter Group, the fairly obvious one would be that as people are transitioning into the weekend, they begin to think less about work and more about social activities.

Rick Liebling, director of digital strategy at Coyne PR also says that it could be that there may be fewer posts overall on these days, therefore, there would be a greater number of average click-throughs.

The article quotes Dan Zarrella, a social media scientist at HubSpot, who refers to this idea as "contra-competitive timing.“

"As the overall activity seems to slow down from the hustle and bustle of the week, readers can give each tweet more attention because there are fewer other tweets fighting for it," Zarrella says. 

But what does this mean other than that #SocialMediaisTakingOverThursdaysandFridays?

For advertisers, it could be their golden ticket to higher revenues. If they know when more people are active on social media sites, then they know when to advertise more heavily here.  Knowing this can help them get their message out more effectively.

Previously, research has focused on how to get people to notice messages on social media sites, but understanding when to post them is an integral part that seems to be a more recent area of study.  This could really change the game for advertisers.  It will be interesting to see if more research like this starts to be more prevalent. I am so anxious to see what other information comes out and how advertisers use it to their advantage.

Obama's Use of Social Media

President Barack Obama is set to host a live town hall meeting on Facebook later this month.  This event will take place April 20 starting at 4:45 p.m. E.S.T.  This news comes just a day after Obama announced his reelection campaign using YouTube. 

Obama is to discuss the economy, the importance of innovation and will also answer questions posted on Facebook by individuals.   

Courtesy of Clickz.com

Facebook and the White House teamed up for this event.  According to an article on Mashable.com, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg will be involved with the event. He also used text messages and a Facebook application to spread the message of his re-election campaign.

I am anxious to see how this live meeting is going to work and think it will be a great way to kick off his campaign.  I  never thought I would see the day that a president would use Facebook in this way but I think it is such a novel idea.  So many people are on Facebook so why not use it to communicate with them? He used social media to get elected in 2008 and I believe he will use it even more heavily in the 2012 election.  He is one of the most influential men in the nation and even he understands the importance of social media and the impact it can have on the campaign. 

So...when the President of the United States is actively utilizing Facebook, it is clear that #SocialMediaisTakingOvertheWorld.