somersault

A new global survey on faith and atheism released by WIN-Gallup International (not related to Gallup Inc., Washington, DC) says the number of people worldwide who call themselves religious is now 59%, while 13% self-identify as atheist — a drop of 9% and increase of 3% respectively compared with a 2005 study.

The poll  — based on interviews with more than 50,000 people from 57 countries  — asked participants, “irrespective of whether they attended a place of worship, if they considered themselves to be religious, not religious, or an atheist.”

The top 10 religious populations:

     1.    Ghana

     2.    Nigeria

     3.    Armenia

     4.    Fiji

     5.    Macedonia

     6.    Romania

     7.    Iraq

     8.    Kenya

     9.    Peru

   10.   Brazil

Top 10 Atheist Populations:

     1.    China

     2.    Japan

     3.    Czech Republic

     4.    France

     5.    Korea, Rep (South)

     6.    Germany

     7.    Netherlands

     8.    Austria

     9.    Iceland

   10.   Australia

   11.   Ireland

Ireland has the second greatest drop globally, in those claiming to be religious since 2005. In Ireland, only 47% of those polled say they consider themselves religious — a 22-point drop from the 69% recorded in a similar poll conducted in 2005. Ten percent self-identify as atheist. The only country that registered a steeper decline in religiosity is Vietnam, which has a 23-point drop from 53% to 30%.

Read this in full.

Read the report (pdf).

Also see our previous blogposts, “The Global Church: Shift in the Christian Landscape,”  “Christianity: World’s Largest Religion,” and other posts tagged “Religion.” Another resource of trending religion statistics is the Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you identify and analyze market research pertinent to your brand’s marketing message.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to a new survey by Public Religion Research Institute (@publicreligion), white evangelical Protestants are significantly more likely than other major religious groups to use technology for religious purposes.

·         One-quarter of white evangelical Protestants say they’ve downloaded a podcast of a sermon or listened to a sermon online, compared to fewer than 1-in-10 white mainline Protestants and Catholics (6% each).

·         White evangelical Protestants are also more likely than white mainline Protestants or Catholics to report that their church uses technology or social media.

·         4-in-10 white evangelical Protestants say their church has an active Facebook page or website where people interact, compared to 29% of white mainline Protestants and 13% of Catholics.

·         Nearly half (49%) of white evangelical Protestants and about 4-in-10 (39%) white mainline Protestants say their church uses television or multimedia screens during worship services, compared to 11% of Catholics.

·         Nearly 1-in-5 white evangelical Protestants (19%) report having posted a status update on their Facebook page or other social networking site about being in church, compared to 6% of white mainline Protestants and 2% of Catholics.

·         Nearly 4-in-10 (37%) younger Americans (age 18-34) say they use Facebook several times a day, while about 6-in-10 (59%) seniors (age 65 and up) say they never use Facebook.

·         Younger Americans are significantly more likely than older Americans to report following a religious or spiritual leader on Twitter or Facebook (9% vs. 1%), or to say they have joined a religious or spiritual group on Facebook (10% vs. 1%).

·         Younger Americans are more than twice as likely to say they’ve downloaded a podcast of a sermon or listened to a sermon online (17% vs. 8%).

·         Younger Americans are also much more likely than older Americans to have sent or read emails during a worship service (16% vs. 3%), posted status updates on Facebook or other social networking sites about being in church (16% v. 3%) or used a cell phone to take pictures or record video during a worship service (20% v. 3%).

·         Among Americans who use Facebook, half (50%) say they don’t describe their religious beliefs at all on their Facebook profile. One-in-five (20%) Americans say their religious identity on Facebook is “Christian,” while 9% identify as Catholic, 8% identify as another Protestant denomination, 6% identify as “something else,” and 4% identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

·         White evangelical Protestants (53%) are more likely than white mainline Protestants (32%), the religiously unaffiliated (8%), and Catholics (3%) to identify simply as “Christian” on Facebook.

Read this in full.

Interestingly, one aspect of the above survey seems to defy the trend of prominent religious leaders using social media to build a following and a brand. Here’s another perspective on the survey. And see Christianity Today's (@CTmagazine), "Religious Self-Profiling" by Sarah Pulliam Bailey (@spulliam).

Also see our previous blogposts:

·        “Almost Half of Online Americans Use the Internet for Religious Purposes”

·        “More Than 1/3 of Online Adults Visit Church Websites”

·        “Study: Christians are Embracing Tablets & E-readers”

·        “Study: Religiously Active People More Likely to Engage in Civic Life”

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you identify and analyze market research for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

The above Infographic is by Psychology Degree.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you manage your social media marketing strategy.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Social Media/Word Of Mouth tab.

Publishers Weekly (@PublishersWkly) says, “In another sign that the industry is moving toward a hybrid market, fewer ebook buyers reported buying only digital titles this spring than a year ago.”

According to Book Industry Study Group’s (@BISG) newest edition of Consumer Attitudes Toward Ebook Reading report, the percentage of ebook consumers who exclusively or mostly purchase ebooks fell from nearly 70% in August 2011 to 60% in May 2012. Over the same period, the percentage of survey respondents who have no preference for either ebook or print formats, or who buy some genres in ebook format and others in print, rose from 25% percent to 34%.

Read this in full.

Read the news release.

See a copy of the core survey question set (pdf).

The following are slide presentations of this year's and last year's reports:

Also see our previous blogposts, “Even E-reader Owners Still Like Printed Books, Survey Finds,” “EPILOGUE: the future of print,” and others tagged “Ebook.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically publish and market your content in both ebook and pbook formats.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

See the SlideShare deck page.

See the report in pdf.

According to a new survey, 56% of Americans have a personal profile on a social network, up 4% from 2011. And the number of people who say they follow brands or companies online has almost doubled in the last 2 years, to 33% of those polled.

These stats are from The Social Habit 2012 study by Edison Research (@edisonresearch) (SlideShare; Blog) and Arbitron (@ArbitronInc).

See The Social Habit website (@thesocialhabit).

WCG (@WCGWorld) highlights the following from the report:

·         Social networkers check their profiles often

·         Understanding the mobile experience is critical

·         Visual content is king

·         Users of social networking sites are following brands now more than ever

·         Facebook does impact buying decisions

·         It is not all about the coupon

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Report: Half of Americans Are Now Social Networkers.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategically leverage and effectively communicate your brand message using social media.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Google’s Nexus 7 is the latest tablet on the tech scene, along with Apple’s iPad, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, and Microsoft’s Surface.

See a comparison chart above and another one by The Verge (@verge).

See all tablets compared at The Verge.

A new study by Gartner (@Gartner_inc) says consumers are choosing to use tablets now for some activities they previously used to use PCs for.

According to the findings, the “main activities moving from PCs to media tablets” included checking email, a shift observable among 81% of contributors, and reading the news, on 69%.

Over 50% prefer reading newspapers, magazines, and books on screens rather than on paper.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you use current technology to publish and market your brand’s content.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Floatingsheep.org (@floating_sheep), a website that maps the geographies of user-generated online content, says the word “church” is most often found in tweets originating in the Southeast United States, while tweets about “beer” are most common in the Northeast. The depiction of this in the map above strongly aligns with the multi-state area known as the Bible Belt (NC, SC, GA, KY, TN, AL, MS, AR, LA, OK, TX).

The Bible Belt is an informal term for a region in the southeastern and south-central United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is generally higher than the nation's average. The Bible Belt consists of much of the Southern United States extending west into Texas and Oklahoma.

See CNN’s report.

In an earlier study, Floatingsheep investigated the relative number of mentions of the word “church” in placemarks uploaded to Google. The results are reflected in the above map.

Interestingly, while the “Bible belt” in the physical world is often talked about as being synonymous with the American South, the virtual “Bible belt” additionally incorporates large parts of the Midwest.

Also see our blogpost, “Mississippi Is Most Religious USA State.”

Where would you have the most success in distributing your content?

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you plan, execute, and analyze market research for your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Research tab.

Christian Retailing (@ChristianRetail) reports on CBA-commissioned research by the Barna Group (@barnagroup) that Christians are using computer tablets and e-readers at a faster pace than most consumers.

Barna President David Kinnaman (@davidkinnaman) summarized the findings of The Rise of E-Reading: What Digital Content Means for Customer Loyalty, Products, and Retailing study in a video presentation July 15 during the opening general session of the International Christian Retail Show (@ICRShow) (#ICRS) in Orlando, Fla.

The study shows that

·         44% of pastors

·         30% of Christian store shoppers

·         25% of practicing Catholics all report they own a mobile tablet device or e-reader, compared to 18% of shoppers who don't visit Christian stores.

Also, the most popular device is the iPad — 44% of tablet-owning Christian store shoppers.

And nearly 70% of Christian store shoppers said they would definitely or probably buy an ebook or digital download from a Christian store.

Read this in full.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Family Christian Stores Now Selling Its Own Tablet,” and our other posts about tablets.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you publish and market pbooks and ebooks.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, created specifically for publishing and marketing executives.

According to MediaPost’s (@MediaPost) Online Media Daily, the spread of connected PCs, smartphones, and tablets has altered how people consume media and make purchases. So says a new study by mobile ad network InMobi (@inmobi) and Mobext, the mobile marketing arm of Havas Digital (@HavasDigital). Among the highlights:

·         Tablet use has risen quickly to 29.5 million US users, 11% of the total US population.

·         Over 60% of US tablet owners spend at least 30 minutes each day accessing media content on their tablets and 52% use a tablet to fill what previously would have been “dead time.”

·         After buying a tablet, 29% of tablet owners say they stopped surfing the Internet via their PC and/or laptop.

·         Nearly half of tablet owners — 48% — agree that tablets’ appealing design and accessibility make it is easier to access media content than on a PC or laptop.

·         When it comes to shopping, 22% of tablet users say they've shopped less in physical stores since purchasing a tablet and more than half (55%) make purchases on their device in an average month.

·         Tablet use peaks at home in the evening between 6 pm and midnight for most owners.

·         Regarding considered purchases, 55% of tablet owners say they first learn about the product on their tablet, 53% actively evaluate the product, and 58% follow through with purchasing those goods on their tablet.

Read this in full.

Read the press release.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Tablets Fuel New Habits.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you maximize your brand’s content for the digital landscape.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to the most extensive nationwide survey to look at black women’s lives in decades, conducted by The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) and the Kaiser Family Foundation (@KaiserFamFound), nearly 9 in 10 African American women rely on their spiritual faith.

As a group, black women are among the most religious people in the nation. Although black men are almost as religious as their female counterparts, there is a more stark divide along racial lines.

The survey finds that 74% of black women and 70% of black men say that “living a religious life” is very important. On that same question, the number falls to 57% of white women and 43% of white men.

But in times of turmoil, about 87% of black women — much more than any other group — say they turn to their faith to get through. Black women, across education and income levels, say living a religious life is a greater priority than being married or having children, and this call to faith either surpasses or pulls even with having a career as a life goal, the survey shows.

Read this in full.

Also see “Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll of black women in America,” “Survey paints portrait of black women in America,”and “Shifting portraits of the American black woman.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you conduct market research and analyze current trends.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Research tab.