Wondering Which Social Medium to Use? College Students Rate Facebook Highest

If you've been wondering where to put your libraries' social media efforts, here's some data to help you decide.

On PR Web, there's a study by Anderson Analytics, which calls itself "the first next generation marketing research consultancy to combine new technologies--such as link analysis, and data and text mining--with traditional market research." Although the headline shouts "College Students Say Facebook is the Only Social Networking Site that Really Matters," it's worthwhile to read the whole article.

Here's one paragraph:

Among seven leading social networking sites ranked by college students in the Anderson Analytics 2009-2010 GenX2Z American College Student Survey conducted this fall [2009], Facebook was viewed as "cool" by a whopping 82% of males and 90% of females. All other SNS' were deemed "lame" by significant percentages of both male and female collegiate users. In particular, MySpace-the granddaddy of SNS'-was considered "lame" by the largest portion of college students (31%).

The site also has other interesting links to explore. Remember, don't guess or assume what your users will want or use. If you learn about them and make decisions based on real evidence, you're bound to be more successful.