Everyone who knows me realizes that I love numbers. To help everyone else in the enjoyment,  I am giving my professional contacts a sneak peek preview of my 2009 third quarter metrics regarding top social media sites and audience demographics.

For purposes of demographic data, variables for such data points are incredibly intense and were primarily deferred to Google’s data repository of browser/site visitors and behavioral analysis. Google has the largest repository of such information and is statistically the most accurate. Additional metrics were pulled from dozens of other sources including Compete, Quantcast, Yahoo, MSN, Alexa and custom research. When outliers created skewed metrics, data was normalized using secondary and tertiary data sources.

If someone is interested in finding out about the specifics behind the general overview or digging deeper into the metrics and weighing them against business goals, I’ll encourage them to ask the question below or contact me. From a business perspective: access to specific methods, process and data sources being used for business projects will not be free.

However, if you want to download the 20 page PDF and have it for reference you can go to our download form, partake in a very short survey, and get it for free.

The data correlation and methodology can be argued “five thousand ways from Sunday” which is a reason they were left off of the beta report. As a market intelligence and study question, we could go into data validity and specific aspects of how information is gathered and it would simply add a technical layer of data over a very simple layer of data (used for the average consumer of the report.) The report total included 62 pages (trimmed to 20 for the beta.)

I believe the average reader would have little understanding of this information and it would confuse them. This report is specifically NOT for SMM or research educated professionals, but professionals who do not understand all the technical specifics (or even care to understand the specifics.)

*In comparison, we had thought about detailing a specific technical version of the numbers but didn’t feel it would be marketable as a paid content piece to a comparably small group of SMM folk when weighed against the risk of training competitors. Unfortunately publishing the exact metrics and data sets involved would incur licensing and collection cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, so for the time being I don’t see that cost being covered by any type of free report.