Apr
6
From February 2008 to 2009, Twitter experienced a “meteoric” year-over-year growth of 1,382%! According to Nielsen Online, Twitter went from 475,000 unique users to seven million and was the fastest growing member community site in February 2009. Also worth nothing, while many think Twitter is exclusive to teens and college students, recent data from Nielsen Online shows that 42% of its users are ages 35-49 with most “tweets” taking place from work. Nielsen says the consumer and corporate realms are viewing Twitter as an increasingly important branding tool and that a primary reason for the site’s success is that it
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Mar
30
In the last 60 days, the number of American Facebook users age 35+ has almost doubled according to InsideFacebook.com. Marketers would do well to address this exploding Facebook population. There are now more users in the 26-44 group than in the 18-25 group, with the biggest growth seen in those aged 35-44. Also noteworthy, the fastest growing segment on Facebook is women over 55. Source: InsideFacebook.com
Mar
23
While 84% of Gen-Yers notice ads on social networking sites, more than 70% rarely click on them. An interesting twist is that 62% of the same group visit brand or fan pages on social networking sites and almost 50% click-and-join. The top two reasons cited are: “getting news or product updates” and “having access to promotions.” Other reasons include video/music uploading (41%), opinions (36%) and talking to other consumers (33%). Some are still on the fence with regard to the marketing benefits of social networking, However in January 2009, Netpop Research LLC reported that a typical social network “addresses 110
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Mar
19
About 80% of marketers are using social media along with traditional communication methods. However, according to a 2008 MarketingSherpa survey, clients and their agencies seem to disagree on whether social media is being used with both online and offline tactics. Agency and consultant marketers are far more likely to integrate offline and online tactics while in-house marketers are less likely to do so because of “lack of knowledgeable staff.” Source: Marketing Sherpa
Mar
16
An interesting thing happened during the month of February. For the first time, Facebook outpaced Google and Yahoo in the percentage of time spent online by internet users. Compete.com says that 6% of all online time was spent at Facebook and that Google is on track to soon eclipse Yahoo. The corresponding chart shows Facebook, Google, Yahoo and MySpace data tracks from February 2007 to February 2009. Source: Compete.com
Feb
25
50% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from companies (online and office) if they receive email from them. According to an Epsilon survey conducted by ROI research, permission-based email campaigns greatly impact purchasing behavior and consumer loyalty. Furthermore, one-third of the respondents indicated they visit sites directly instead of clicking on an email link and 67% said they purchased products offline after receiving email from a retail company. Epsilon’s SVP, Strategic Services said that study findings, “demonstrate the importance of email marketing as part of a multi-channel communication strategy.” Source: Email increases likelihood to buy by 50%
Feb
23
Facebook and social networking may have started with the college set but it’s the older folks who are harnessing its full potential. According to this recent Time Magazine “Technoculture” column, Facebook now boasts over 150 million users and its largest growing segment is those age 30 and older. The article includes a humorous list of the top ten reasons why people of a more mature age are flocking to Facebook. Source: Time Magazine 2009
Feb
17
More Baby Boomers (ages 45-63) and those of the Silent (ages 64-72) and G.I. (ages 73+) generations are online now than ever before, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The biggest increase since 2005 is in the 70-75 age-group, where online usage has jumped from 25% to 45% in just three years. While email is the most popular activity with this age group, instant messaging, social networking and blogging are a growing trend. The report also indicates that older generations seek health-related information in numbers equal to those ages 18-32. Generation X (ages 33-44) are the biggest
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Oct
1
Captivating, Content, and Community are as important to interactive marketing as the three R’s are to education. The goal of interactive marketing is to captivate your current and potential customers. The best way to produce a captive customer is get them to want to be captive. The question is how do you get your customers to want to be held captive? In their recently published book, Get Content Get Customers, Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett explain providing content that makes a purchase decision easy enables a company to build a trusted relationship with current and future customers. This is accomplished
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Mar
7
In an interesting find today, Brian Woodward, a Senior Consultant with GCI Mannov (PR Firm in Denmark), pointed to Miller Electric’s social media efforts in a recent blog post titled “The Case for B2B Social Media”. Mr. Woodwards post is a brief introduction on the use case for social media in global B2B companies. The three example companies he used were Chevron, GE and Miller Electric.