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According to a new study by Experian Marketing Services, niche social networks significantly increased their market share of all visits to social sites, with Instagram and Pinterest leading the pack. The following graph illustrates the global growth between July 2011 and July 2012, based on share of visits to all sites by country: Other niche social networks that have experienced significant gain include Stock Twits in the US, Redidt in Australia, and FanPop in the UK. According to Bill Tancer, head of Global Research at Experian Marketing Services, the growth of Instagram and Pinterest over the past year has been successful because they haven’t tried to be ‘another Facebook.’ Both networks are image based – something people love and relate to better than just words. For retail brands, sites like Pinterest present a great opportunity to promote products in a compelling and organized way to a wide group of people, globally. Deeper functionally, combined with a lower technical barrier to entry, will result in new leaders in social media being created, accepted and used within a matter of days – compared to the rate of adoption happening now over the course of weeks and months. Also included in the study for July 2011 to July 2012: What social networks do you use most frequently? Do the results of this study surprise you at all? Feel free to share your thoughts with our readers in the comments section below.

Experian Marketing Services is hosting its annual Digital Summit (today through Friday) at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. This premier digital marketing event, with the theme, “Customer Obsession: Empowering Meaningful Relationships,” features highly engaging and inspiring learning sessions, providing marketers with key insights and best practices for keeping their customers at the heart and center of everything they do. Attendees are learning from marketing experts about the latest trends in digital marketing across email, mobile, social, search and display. In addition, content from the event delves deep into understanding the new American consumer and the latest in cross-channel marketing. Here are a few highlights from today’s Digital Summit main stage and breakout sessions: And here are some of our favorite tweets:   Learn more about the 2012 Digital Summit and follow along on twitter #CMSummit and view photos on our Pinterest board.  View this blog tomorrow for updates.

Experian®, the leading global information services company, today announced that its Precise ID  platform has achieved Federal Identity Credential Access Management (FICAM) recognition at Assurance Level 3 for identity proofing. "Experian has become the leading identity proofing provider in the public sector," said Kerry Williams, group president, Experian Credit Services and Decision Analytics. "Our recent wins with large government agencies, our joint offering with Symantec and now our FICAM Recognition at Assurance Level 3 prove we are clearly moving ahead of the competition when it comes to granting online access to services while simultaneously protecting individual users' identities and therefore safeguarding agency and constituent data." Experian's Precise ID platform was recognized for identity proofing at Assurance Level 3, under the Kantara Initiative's Identity Assurance Framework, one of the FICAM's Trusted Framework providers. As part of the process, a Kantara-Accredited Assessor determined that Experian's Precise ID solution conformed to the Identity Assurance Framework's Service Assessment Criteria, which enable a relying party to trust the identity and security assurances from an identity or credential service provider. This level of service component approval meets the identity proofing requirements established by the U.S. federal government's General Services Administration (GSA) that were published by the Office of Management and Budget and requires agencies to establish certain security criteria for remote authentication. In addition to The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-63 guidelines that recommend the technical safeguards, the Drug Enforcement Administration mandated that doctors who issue prescriptions online (e-prescriptions) must conform to applicable NIST guidelines. The service component approval is also in line with the White House's identity-management initiative to make online transactions more trustworthy. This effort — known as the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace — is aimed at creating an Internet-identity ecosystem that uses interoperable technology standards and policies to authenticate not only consumers, but also organizations and IT infrastructure. "Experian is one of the leaders in identity proofing," said Deborah Gallagher, director, identity assurance and trusted access division, GSA. "We are encouraged to see the U.S. government's vision take shape through the private sector, as we advance our strategy to develop a trusted Internet framework that would better protect users through strong identity programs." Experian's Precise ID platform is being used by the Social Security Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and DrFirst. "We are pleased to work with Experian as a Kantara member and industry leader to build the verified Trust layer in Identity Services via a scalable component approach, which allows for innovation and industry partnerships that enable more trusted services, interoperability and efficiency for public and enterprise sector identity management solutions," said Joni Brennan, executive director, Kantara Initiative.