When writing copy for websites there’s nothing like a good headline to grab the reader’s attention. The headline is the first thing the reader sees, and also acts as the title of your listing within the search results which, hopefully, will be on the first page of Google for relevant searches. So for maximum SEO impact you want a catchy headline, but you also want some keywords in it – this means that writing the perfect headline is tricky, especially when integrity gets in the way.

Luckily that wasn’t an issue for PC World * last week when they ran the headline: “Study: 60 Percent of Facebook Users Mulling to Quit”.

The headline suggested that 60% of Facebook’s users were thinking about quitting the social networking site. The article went on to explain how 60% of Facebook’s users were considering leaving Facebook over concerns about privacy, and the article was based on ‘research’ from Sophos – an IT security firm.

Now, 60% is an awful lot of people when you consider that Facebook has over 400 million users. 60% represents 240 million users – a sizable total indeed. So how many of Facebook’s users did Sophos speak to (more…)

According to new research, as many as 40% of teenage girls stated that Facebook played a major part in their lives and was more influential to them than magazines, TV and even their own siblings. This compares with just 6% of teenage boys who said that Facebook was a major part of their lives.

The research was conducted by National Family Week and included girls and boys aged between 8 and 15 years of age. While teenage girls expressed how important Facebook was to their lives, parents seemed wholly ignorant to just what a vital part the social networking website was playing in their children’s lives.

The survey also showed that Facebook played a bigger role in the lives of children whose parents were divorced and they were being brought up by one parent.

The survey was conducted in April this year and included 1000 children and 3000 parents in the UK. When teenage girls were asked what were the most important things in their lives, their friends, their family and Facebook topped the list – followed by MSN Messenger, a chat system used to keep in touch with friends over the Internet.

Boys were found to be more family orientated, with 73% of boys choosing family as the most important thing in their lives. Only 53% of girls said the same. Facebook isn’t as important to boys, with just 6% saying it was important enough to be in their top three. Boys seemed to prefer friends and money to social networking.

Perhaps surprising is the fact that girls believe (more…)