Word-of-mouth: Traditional still beats online
According to “Spurring social users to search” in-person word-of-mouth still tops online word-of-mouth and in-person referrals are more likely to direct a user to search for the recommended product or service online. Furthermore the report indicates that 30% of younger users (age 18 – 34) will search for a product online after seeing an “online referral” on a social network like Facebook compared to only 20% of the respondents in the 35 – 54 age group. This article provides an interesting look at the power of traditional word-of-mouth compared to online referrals and is a must-read for brands that use social networks to build brand awareness.

Twitter User Statistics
A recent study done by Barracuda Labs show that most Twitter users aren’t “active users”. The study analysed approximately 19-million Twitter accounts and according to them only 21% of Twitter users are active. An active user is defined as a user that has tweeted at least 10 times, has at least 10 followers and follows at least 10 people. The study show that 51% of Twitter users follow less than five people and 73% of Twitter’s users have tweeted less than 10 times. The conclusion: the updates on Twitter are coming from about 25% of Twitter’s user base. Download the full report from Barracuda Labs’ website for further statistics and information.

Facebook to add location sharing service
According to insiders Facebook users will be able to see the current location of their friends from April 2010. This new service has been in the making for about a year, according to the New York Times, although no formal announcement has been made by Facebook. According to Facebook they have more than 400-million active users and 50% of those users access the network at least once a day with 100-million people logging on from their mobile phones. It will be interesting to see how Facebook users receive the new service, read the full article for more information.