93% Growth in Social Networking since 2006

A recent Netpop study found that social network engagement among broadband users has risen 93% since 2006. Almost 1/3 of Internet users are spending their time communicating over other forms of online entertainment, which has fallen from 29% to 19% over the same time period. It was not clear as to exactly what constitutes online entertainment. That brings the total of socially networking Americans to 105 million.

Other facts uncovered in the study:

Photos are the most common thing shared online, podcasts were the least.

Email is still the most popular form of online communication.

Blogs are shared with co-workers than other media.

Younger users are heavier users, split 50/50 in gender.

Over half of adult microbloggers (Twitterers) tweet once a day compared to almost three-quarters of under 18 microbloggers.

The study further points to what marketers need to consider concerning social media:

Websites need to designate more space to user generated content.

Marketers, Customer Service and Consumer Intelligence need to pool their knowledge.

Brands need to learn to engage in transparent and respectful dialogues with consumers.

Marketers need to learn more about the social network channels they are attempting to communicate through.

Read the full study here.

Hispanics not Keeping up with the Joneses

Online Hispanic audiences are on average 10% behind other ethnic groups. According to Scarborough Research, the percentage of Hispanic adults surfing the web if 54% compared to 69%, the total of all adults. While they are behind in broadband adoption 68% compared to the national 71%, the spend $762 million online compared to the national average of $861 million by the 62% of online Hispanics that make ecommerce purchases compared to 70% of all online adults. Hispanic audiences are big fans of downloads however:

42% of Hispanics report downloading content compared to 35% of all US adults.

17% downloaded “other video” – whatever that means

11% downloaded audio clips

9% downloaded movies

8% downloaded tv programs

6% downloaded video games

3% downloaded podcasts

As far as mobile phone usage goes:

55% of hispanics send text messages

28% send pictures

22% sent instant messages

15% downloaded a video game and used email

Mobile Consumption Doubles in 1 Year

Of the 63.2 million unique users who accessed news and information using a mobile device in January, 22.37 million did so on a daily basis. This 35% represents a 107% increase in the number of mobile users who access the mobile web on a daily basis from last year. These numbers from comScore show that not only are more mobile users accessing the Internet via mobile, a growing third of them are doing so on a regular, daily basis.

“The increase is driven, first, by widespread improvements and dissemination in technologies that have created better consumer experiences – 3G, smartphones – but also very capable high-end feature phones and, second, lots and lots of content and applications being provided by first-tier publishers and others,” said comcScore SVP of mobile, Mark Donovan.

Those who accessed the web using mobile devices on a weekly basis grew 87% from 10.31 million to 19.28 million, meaning that it’s not just a small group of early adopters. Monthly unique mobile web usage was up 71% from 36.87 million to 63.18 million since January of 2008.

What are mobile users doing?

Daily social network and blog traffic was up 427% from 1.76 million to 9.28 million.
Daily stock trading and financial account traffic was up 188% from 1.14 million to 3.27 million.
Daily access of movie info was up 185% from 1.08 million to 3.07 million.
Daily interest in business dirctories was up 161% from 939,000 to 2.45 million.
Access of entertainment news on a daily basis was up 160% from 2.1 million to 5.47 million.

While the popularity of iPhone apps and text searches and 22.3 million application downloads drives the increase in mobile Internet usage, 70% of this traffic is from regular phones rather than smartphones.

Get the full article here.

Brands That Do Not Adopt Web2.0/Social Media Strategy Don’t Burn Out, They Just Fade Away

Hopefully the discussion of whether or not the whole web2.0/social media thing is a fad is over. If not, I can’t help you!

Many brands are still struggling with whether or not they should implement web2.0 thinking. After all, is it worth the effort? What is the ROI? Can’t I just keep doing business as usual?

First of all, business ISN’T as usual. Don’t believe me? Second of all, I’d like to draw your attention to IWI: Irrelevance Without Investment. Brands that do not make a serious investment in thinking in so-called web2.0 terms are doomed. Even web companies that thought they were savvy but didn’t keep up with trends found themselves picking out headstones. Need numbers? Here are a couple of examples of well known brands or web products that are getting their butt kicked.

As you can see, the properties that sat on their laurels or decided to wait out web2.0 have either barely maintained their status or saw it decline. Even so, the upstarts that adopted new technology and adapted to new trends saw their engagement skyrocket. Even brands born online such as Yahoo, saw their social network sites decline against new comers (at the time) like Mypace, simply because they didn’t keep up with change.

Like the legions of species who have fallen into extinction, those that did not adapt to the new environment they existed in have become a thing of myth.

Charts above based on Pew Internet Research, Oct 5, 2006 “Riding The Waves of Web2.0″

iPhones represent 51% of U.S. Smartphone Traffic

AdMob released data recently showing that Apple iPhone make up roughly 51% of all smartphone traffic in the U.S. The iPod Touch is responsible for 40% of iPhone’s numbers. In the U.S., 19% of smartphone traffic is represented by Blackberry RIM, while 14% is represented by Microsoft Mobile. Android represents a mere 3%.

Apple makes up only 18% of global smartphone traffic, far behind Nokia’s 30.1%.

Usage of Paid VS Free iPhone Apps

Pinch Media put out a great presentation showing the behavior of those downloading iPhone apps. Their presentation is full of great info:

What Category In Your (Non-Agency) Company Does Your Job Fit?

I just posted this poll to Twitter in an effort to determine what different types of employees are Twittering. It is for in-house employees only, there is another poll aimed at agency-side staff.

If you work for an agency, which category does your job fit in?

I asked this question on Twitter, to get a sense of who is using it. Of course it will be limited to my Followers and Secondary Followers. Keeping this in mind, I expect that this will be a fairly popular poll among my Followers. You can vote here. The results are below.

It Costs More To Make Less: Sorry!

Money is tight for everyone right now, from companies to families to the government. I’m no economic expert so I won’t go into the stupidity that got us here, but I would like to bring a few facts to your attention that have a direct connection to advertising.

It’s obvious that an economic slump will mean consumers will be spending less. But consumers were spending less before the recession hit. Today’s family of 4 have less to spend than their parents did a generation ago. The following chart was created based on figures from Pew Internet Research and various government web site statistics. It’s easy to see how household income, even with the addition of a second income earner, have not kept pace with the necessary costs of living, cutting into the discretionary income left over.

The upshot of this is that consumers have far less to spend on goods and services. That means they are much more particular about those that they do choose to spend their money on. What does this mean for brands attempting conversion: you will need to be much more visible and much more engaged with consumers, in other words, be prepared to spend more money and more time.

New Mobile Statistics: Search & Local

The Kelsey Group released new research statistics centering on mobile, specifically local and online. Kelsey’s Mobile Local Media Forecast (2008-2013) shows a 130.5% growth rate for local mobile search and an 81.2% growth for overall mobile ad revenues.

Search and display revenues are projected to jump from $160 million in 2008 to $3.1 billion by 2013.

Local search advertising is expected to jump from $20 million to $1.28 billion over the same time frame.

The upshot of this information is that while mobile use is certainly growing, be it gaming, multimedia use, or banking, the largest growth is local. What does this mean for local business? They can’t keep phoning it in! Small and medium local businesses are far behind large businesses in their attention to online marketing. While 82% of consumers use search engines for local business information, those local businesses focus less than 10% of their marketing budget toward web strategies. It will be important for them to start thinking broader, if not bigger. There are a plethora of location based tools being launched on a weekly basis for mobile, specifically the iPhone that are starving for content. While businesses should be looking at mobile strategies, those development companies need to be approaching small and medium size businesses with localized offerings, not just going after the Walmarts of the world.

Mobile is in upheaval. Great growth is anticipated, yet even basic mobile sites aren’t available for most retailers. This is something that inspired a bit of a rant from me recently considering I couldn’t find one retailer with a mobile site but I have one!

Mike Boland’s “Going Mobile: The Mobile Local Media Opportunity” claims that searches for local information at 27.8% in 2008 is expected to grow to 35.1% by 2013. The revenue from these searches was already at 50.3% in 2008 and expected to continue to grow to 56.1% by 2013.

According to Boland,we can expect to see a growth from 54.5 million mobile webusers to 63.6-73 million just this year, with a growth of handsets from 266.4 million to 274.7 million. With only a quarter of mobile users accessing the web, you have to ask yourself, why such a low percentage? There are a few possibilities: confusing or expensive data rate plans, lack of knowledge, or lack of mobile presence. While lack of knowledge about mobile Internet access is rampant, only telecoms and businesses themselve are to blame for lack of presence and high prices.

While the nuymber of handsets will most likely plateau by 2013 as most experts expect a saturation point, phones will continue to improve as multi-tasking devices and more users will be accessing more features. Just this next year mobile ad revenues are expected to double to $330 million, $720 million in 2010, $1.54 billion in 2011, and $2.26 billion in 2012. U.S. mobile search ad revenues alone are expected to grow from $20 million in 2008 to $242 million in 2010, $564 million in 2011, and $905 million in 2012.

It’s a good time to be in the mobile industry. Are you?

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