Contrary to an erroneous report in The Guardian last week, Facebook isn’t losing users in the U.S. They’re just changing up their habits. According to figures provided to AllFacebook by Nielsen, Facebook users are shifting more of their social network time to their mobile devices and away from desktop. In March 2013, U.S. visitors to Facebook’s mobile application (Android & iOS) spent an average of 6 hours, 49 minutes on the site, compared to 6 hours, 44 minutes on average on desktop.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Measurement was a key topic discussed by Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg during the social network’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday, and the company’s plans for Atlas Solutions, which it acquired from Microsoft in February, were front and center.
Facebook’s transition to a mobile-first company continued with great speed during the first quarter of 2013, as the social network reported that 30 percent of its total advertising revenue during the period came from mobile, up from 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
According to market research firm Nielsen, the use of Facebook is declining in the U.S. and on desktop. As Facebook makes a mobile push, it appears more people are accessing the site through their phones and tablets. However, Nielsen said Facebook has lost 10 million users in the U.S. over the past year. It will be interesting to see what Facebook Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces later during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
Spruce Media, a Facebook Strategic Preferred Marketing Developer, examined the state of Facebook advertising in the first quarter of 2013, and reported mostly positive results, in advance of the social network’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday afternoon.
Facebook has been pushing users to share more of what they love, especially through structured status updates. Users can now post visual stories that say they’re watching “Game of Thrones,” or “The Big Bang Theory,” and those preferences will be added to users’ Timelines under favorite shows. But does liking a show’s Facebook page necessarily correlate to watching it? In a recent study, CitizenNet discovered that a 3 percent increase in likes for a show’s page usually translates into a 1 percent bump in viewership.
Facebook marketing solutions provider Spruce Media teamed up with measurement firm Nielsen and the social network to begin offering Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings, which bring a benchmark comparable with Nielsen’s television gross rating points to brands advertising on Facebook.
Local businesses are thriving on Facebook, according to statistics released Friday by Dan Levy, director of small business at the social network, who said more than 2 billion connections exist on Facebook between users and local businesses, adding that approximately 70 percent of monthly active users in the U.S. and Canada are connected to local businesses.
When Facebook’s redesigned News Feed was announced, with filtering options, many brands worried that users would simply use the “all friends” feed and bypass their messages. But there are still ways that companies can market to fans, and do it through the all friends feed. As Chelsea Hickey, marketing manager of Zuberance, explained to AllFacebook, companies can still get their messages across by catering to brand advocates.
Ending weeks of speculation, Facebook Thursday confirmed its acquisition of the Atlas Solutions ad-serving business from Microsoft.
