Key social media usage highlights (% of respondents)

• 75% surveyed have a company page on a social networking site
• 61% use social media for identifying and attracting new customers
• 57% have built a network through a site like LinkedIn
• 45% expect social media to be profitable in the next twelve months

Dr. Alan Glazier, CEO and Founder of an eye and vision care center, said “… I was forced to consider alternative options to keep my business visible… with a very small investment in social media marketing, I was able to generate new business opportunities… (and) most importantly, my marketing budget has been reduced by more than 80%… ”

61% of the respondents use social media to identify new customers. The biggest expectation small business owners have from social media is expanding external marketing and engagement including identifying and attracting new customers, building brand awareness and staying engaged with customers.

50% of small business social media users say it takes more time than expected. While social media adoption has doubled in the last year, there are still some roadblocks to small businesses fully exploiting its potential. Another 17% feel that social media gives people a chance to criticize their business on the Internet. Related to this, only 6% feel that social media use has hurt the image of the business more than helped it.

Janet Wagner, director of the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland, says that “Social media levels the playing field for small businesses… ”

Other key findings from the December 2009 Small Business Success Index:

Small businesses experience positive effects from the economic downturn:

• 72% have found ways to operate more efficiently (up significantly from 66% in June)
• 47%have been led to find new products and services that benefit customers
• 43% have become better teams as hard times force people to work together

Building online presence continues to be key focus for small businesses:

• Company Web sites seem to be the top technology investment in the next two years, with small businesses either adding new features/functionality to their existing Web sites or building one from scratch
• The ability to showcase their products and services online to attract new customers is second in the hierarchy of technology investments
• Social media investments rank third in small business investments to be made in the next two years

Customer service the biggest strength of small business owners:

• Small businesses are highly successful at answering customer questions, ensuring customer satisfaction, showing empathy, providing consistent service, resolving problems and winning repeat business
• Four of the six customer service dimensions have gotten stronger compared to a year ago, and one of these, ensuring customer satisfaction, is significantly higher

Connie Steele, Director at Network Solutions, concludes that “… social media can be the best friend for small business owners who constantly seek new ways to maximize productivity while keeping costs low… ”

Source: Jack Loechner

Saturday's Chile earthquake was so powerful that it likely shifted an Earth axis and shortened the length of a day, NASA announced Monday.

stronger than never. However, we need your help this time for the little ones. That´s why, I kindly ask you, to help Chile, whether you are doing it through an organization or not.

I´m in Region del Bio-Bio right now, and my people is suffering. Specially the kids at our Child Care Facility, named CONIN CHILLAN. (www.conin.cl <http://www.conin.cl> )

We need lots of diapers, any kind of diapers, as much as you can. They don´t have a steady service or electricity or water, they have some tough areas and slums surrounding the child care facility, and they are running out of diapers for the kids.

You can ship that from the US, or everywhere, labeling your package for Chilean Customs as:

Humanitarian Help PRIVATE DONATION – NO COMMERCIAL VALUE
Chile Earthquake

Address:

José María Caro 565.
Pobl. Vicente Pérez Rosales
Tel: (+56-42) 423220
chillan@conin.cl
ZIP: 3780000

If you need some assistance in order of how to proceed, please don´t hesitate to contact me.

Francisco Campos-Lopez
Filmmaker
carteludo@gmail.com

Phone: +56 42 274559
Mobile: +56 9 7 423 0398

Photo source: National Geographic

Advertising is likely to form an increasing share of MLBS-related revenues over the next five years

The Mobile Location Based Services report found that while MLBS had experienced in number of false dawns over the 2000-2007 period, improvements in handset user interfaces – exemplified by the iPhone – together with easier consumer access to an array of app distribution channels had led to greater interest from service providers in providing MLBS applications. In addition, growth was being further facilitated by the deployment of high capacity network infrastructure and attendant increases in mobile Internet adoption, providing greater opportunities for browser-based services.

Furthermore, the Juniper report noted that advertising was likely to form an increasing share of MLBS-related revenues over the next five years. According to report co-author Dr Windsor Holden, “Location-based applications are extremely interesting for brands and retailers in that they allow those companies to direct consumers to outlets in their vicinity while simultaneously providing information about the products on offer. When these are allied to measures such as mobile coupons and vouchers, you have the combination of information and financial incentive which can be compelling for consumers.”

Other findings from the Mobile Location Based Services Research include:

• Improving the user experience of MLBS on feature phones will be key in driving usage beyond the core smartphone base
• Despite the confluence of factors driving growth, deployments may still be affected by constraints including privacy and information security
• While service usage will be highest in Far East & China over the next five years, greatest revenues will come from Western Europe

About this study

Juniper Research assesses the current and future status of mobile location-based services based on interviews, case studies and analysis from representatives of some of the leading organisations in this critical area of the mobile industry. Whitepaper and further details of the study ‘Mobile Location Based Services: Applications, Forecasts & Opportunities 2009-2014’ can be freely downloaded from http://www.juniperresearch.com.

Most of us, marketers, are trying to engage the Millennials or Gen Y. Also, most marketers are still leery of Gen Y marketing techniques. Therefore, we need to keep understanding who they are, what they do, what they like and what they dislike. Here is a brief overview of the Millennials or Gen Y.

Listen to them online 24/7 using Multicultural Market Intelligence Tools

• Gen Y believes in the power of WE and is all-inclusive.
• Gen Y is multicultural and 34% of Millennials are Hispanics.
• Gen Y believes that customized options help define personal style.
• Gen Y is hyper-connected.
• Gen Y is married to mass media and goes online more than any other generation.
• Gen Y uses cellphones as an extension of their own body.
• The average Gen Y’er spends an average of 33 hours on social networks, 31 hours on email, and sends over 700 texts, every month.
• Their status updates or messages to friends reach hundreds, and because of its instant repetition, they reach greater audiences almost instantly.
• Gen Y loves communication tools – especially instant messages.
• Gen Y is interested in social popularity or social status and most of them have not met many of their friends in person – ever.
• Gen Y is the first generation that can actually measure its popularity.

What can brands do?

• 

  Gen Y is hyper-connected

  Use their willingness to collaborate and include them in your efforts to build your brand. Once they are a part of it, they will help you share your message.

• Talk to the Millennials that work for your company and include them on your advertising and PR efforts – they will help you deliver your message for free using their extensive networks.
• Be mindful of their likes and dislikes when it comes to your brand because they can also share negative messages about it.
• Remember that online video offers them immediacy, emotion, and interaction.
• Listen to them online and engage them online 24/7 using Multicultural Market Intelligence Tools.
• Use these insights to create great products.
• Market to communities, but emphasize individuality.
• Generate Word of Mouth: Let them discover your brand.
• Be real and authentic to your audience in everything you do.

Now, the question becomes, are you truly listening to the Gen Y?

The study, “The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” was conducted by Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Research Chair of the Society for New Communications Research and Chancellor Professor of Marketing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Eric Mattson, CEO of Financial Insite Inc., a Seattle-based research firm.

Fortune 500 companies got into Twitter

The new report is the outcome of a statistically sound study of the Fortune 500. The study examined the 2009 Fortune 500 in an attempt to quantify their adoption of social media tools and technologies. This is the second year that Barnes and Mattson have tracked social media adoption among the Fortune 500, and theirs is the only statistically sound longitudinal study of its kind.

The 2009 study’s key findings include:

• 22% (108) of the primary corporations listed in the 2009 Fortune 500 have a public-facing corporate blog. This represents a six percent increase over the 2008 study.
• 86% of these blogs (93) link directly to a corporate twitter account, a 300% increase over the 2008 study. (Note: More Fortune 500 corporations have Twitter accounts, but do not link directly from their blogs.)
• 35% (173) of the Fortune 500 have active Twitter accounts (a post within the past thirty days); and nearly 50% of the top 100 companies (47) have a Twitter account.
• 80% — four of the top five corporations – Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and General Electric – consistently post on their Twitter accounts. The number one ranked company, Exxon Mobil, does not have a Twitter account.
• The insurance industry has the most Twitter accounts (13).
• 19% of the 2009 Fortune 500 is podcasting, a three percent increase over the 2008 study
• 31% are incorporating online video into their blog sites, a 10% increase over 2008

“The continued steady adoption of blogs and the explosive growth of Twitter among Fortune 500 companies demonstrate the growing importance of social media in the business world,” stated Barnes. “These large and leading companies drive the American economy, and to a large extent, the world economy. Surely a willingness to interact more transparently via these new technologies with their stakeholders is a positive step. Where this leads will be fascinating to watch!”

“As social media become more integrated with a variety of business functions both internally and externally at companies, we continue to see a steadily growing adoption of blogs, Twitter, online video, podcasts and other new communications channels,” added Mattson.

About this study

A full copy of the 17-page research report, “The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” can be downloaded at the link below.

Additionally, Barnes and Mattson will publish a paper based on the findings in an upcoming issue of the Society for New Communications Research’s Journal of New Communications Research and will present the findings via a web-based briefing and at the Society for New Communications Research’s annual research symposium.

About the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

To facilitate the economic development of the region by providing an affordable, high-quality economic alternative to meeting business needs for research, training, and consulting in any and all aspects of Marketing. The Center for Marketing Research is associated with and maintains a close relationship with the Chambers of Commerce within southeastern Massachusetts. This unique relationship provides the Center with an effective business networking capability. For more information, visit http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/.

About the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR)

The Society for New Communications Research is a global nonprofit 501(c)(3) research and education foundation and think tank focused on the advanced study of the latest developments in new media and communications, and their effect on traditional media and business models, communications, culture and society. For more information, visit http://sncr.org.

Most young Hispanics — 51 percent — don’t care which term is used to describe them, a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center found. Another 35 percent prefer to be called Hispanic, while 14 percent prefer to be identified as Latino.

But teens are not using Twitter in large numbers. While teens were bigger users of almost all other online applications, Twitter was an exception, the study found.

The number of 12 to 17-year-olds in the US who blog has halved to 14% since 2006, according to a survey for the Pew Internet and American Life Project. It suggests they prefer making short postings on social networking sites, and going online on mobile phones.

But the study also found a modest rise in blogging by those aged 30 and older. The increase from 7% in 2007 to 11% in 2009 is believed to be responsible for the prevalence of blogging within the overall adult internet population remaining steady at roughly 10%.

Micro-blogging

The study released on Wednesday found that blogging had steadily declined in popularity among both teens and young adults to 14%.

As the tools and technology embedded in social networking sites changed, and use of the sites continued to grow, young people appeared to be exchanging “macro-blogging” for “micro-blogging” with status updates, it concluded.

Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher for Pew and the lead author of the study, told the Associated Press that the ability to do status updates had “kind of sucked the life out of long-form blogging”.

More young people – 55% of 18-29 year-olds and 27% of 12-17 year-olds – were also accessing the internet from their mobile phones, increasing the need for brevity. One student said teenagers had lost interest in blogging because they needed to type quickly and “people don’t find reading that fun”.

But teens are not using Twitter in large numbers. While teens were bigger users of almost all other online applications, Twitter was an exception, the study found.

Ms Lenhart doubts that blogging will disappear. She believes those who blog for personal reasons will instead focus more often on important events such as a wedding, a trip or the birth of baby.

Source: BBC

The Nielsen survey of users’ habits found that 67% of all those going online were spending time at social network and blogging sites.

Facebook is grabbing more and more of web users' time.

Interest in the category is growing four times faster than the other top four sectors, said the report. In the UK one in every six minutes of the average web user is spent at a social site, it found.

“Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience,” said John Burbank, chief executive of Nielsen Online in a statement.

“Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large,” he said.

Nielsen measures interest in categories by the percentage of the web audience that regularly visit such sites. The latest statistics suggest that 65.1% of web users use web e-mail but 66.8% are turning up at social network sites.

This means, said Nielsen, that about one in every 11 minutes a web user is online is spent at one of the sites Nielsen counts in its “Member Communities” category which includes both blogs and social network sites.

Of these sites, Facebook has highest average time per user, found Nielsen.

The researchers also found that social networking sites are managing to reach a very broad swathe of web users. The fastest growing segment of users turning up and using social sites over the last year was among 35-49 year olds.

In particular, the report noted, almost a quarter of Facebook’s users were known to be over 50 years old.

More and more people want to get at their favourite social network site and update via mobile, found Nielsen. In the UK the numbers of Britons looking at a social site via their phone was up 249%.

Source: BBC