SocNet Viewing Most Increased Online Activity

US online adults were most likely to say they have increased their viewing of friends’ photos and information on social networks out of a wide variety of online activities during the past year, according to results of a new Harris Poll.

1/3 Have Increased SocNet Viewing

About one-third (34%) of online US adults say they have increased their viewing of friends’ photos and information on social networks either significantly or somewhat in the past year. This was the highest percentage combined response for increasing any of the eight activities presented to respondents (multiple answers were accepted).

Reading newspapers/current events followed at a distant second with a combined 26% saying they have increased this online activity either significantly or somewhat in the past year. However, somewhat mitigating this low rate of increased online activity is an often lower rate of decreased online activity.

For example, only a combined 8% of online adults say they have decreased their viewing of friends’ photos and information on social networks either significantly or somewhat in the past year. A full 23% say this activity is not applicable and 34% say it has not changed.
Results are similar for most other activities, with the not changed rate of many hovering above 50%. Shopping had the highest combined rate of decrease (17%).

Interestingly, a leading 55% of respondents say posting information on their own blogs is not applicable, and 43% say posting or commenting on friends’ blogs is not applicable, reflecting the shrinking popularity of blogs among US online users.

SocNet Users, Young, Educated More Likely to Increase Online Activity

Almost across the board, social media users, younger and better educated respondents are more likely to say they have increased an online activity in the past year. The difference between social media users and non-social media users is most pronounced in rates of viewing friends’ photos and information on social networks, posting and commenting information on friends’ or own blogs, and posting comments/reviews about brands, products or services.

Conversely, non-social media users were more likely than social media users to have increased reading newspapers/current events, the only online activity where they surpassed social media users.

Blogging, reading newspapers and review posting were the only areas where increase rates were not highest among 18-to-34-year-olds. Posting information on your own blog, reading newspapers and posting comments/reviews had the highest rates of increase among 35-to-44-year-olds, posting/commenting on friends’ blogs had the highest rate of increase among 45-to-54-year-olds.

While there was some variety among what age brackets were the second-most-likely to have increased an online activity, 55-plus respondents had the lowest response rate in any area except shopping, where their increase rate of 22% beat 45-to-54-year-olds (20%) and tied 35-to-44-year-olds.

Meanwhile, respondents with a high school education or less were the least likely to have increased all eight online activities. Those with a college degree or more had higher increase rates than those with some college in every activity except posting comments on friends’ blogs and posting reviews.

3 in 10 Use SocNets for Product Reviews

Only a combined 28% of online adults say they have used social media to rant or rave about a company, brand or product. However, a combined 80% of respondents agree strongly or somewhat they give up part of their privacy by participating in social media, and a combined 73% agree strongly or somewhat social media only reveals a snapshot, rather than a full portrait, of who they are.

6 in 10 SocNet Users Feel More Connected

Six in 10 (59%) of social network users say they feel more connected to people now than previously, according to another recent Harris Poll. That figure is highest among 18-to-34-year-olds (63%) and females (61%). Similar percentages (58% overall, 63% of 18-to-34-year-olds, 60% of females) say they keep in touch with friends more now than in the past.

Social network users say this even as majorities admit they recently have had less face-to-face contact with friends (55%) and know what’s going on with many of their friends and acquaintances, but don’t interact with them personally or individually (60%). Negative emotional impact of this loss of personal contact appears small, as only 32% of social network users feel lonelier now than previously.

Smartphone Popularity Increases

Smartphones showed an increasing presence in the US mobile device market in October 2010, according to the latest Millennial Media Mobile MIX report.

Smartphones are 7 of Top 10 Monthly Mobile Devices

Looking at October 2010 US marketshare figures for mobile devices, Millennial data shows smartphones occupying seven of the top 10 spots. This includes number one Apple iPhone (about 16% marketshare) and number two Blackberry Curve (about 8% marketshare).

In addition, smartphones constituted 20 of the top 30 mobile devices for the month. The list also included three connected devices (including number three Apple iPod Touch with about 7.5% marketshare). The highest-ranking feature phone out of the remaining seven devices on the list was number five Samsung Freedom (about 2%).

Smartphones Account for 6 in 10 Mobile Phone Impressions

Smartphone impression share increased 3% month-over-month and accounted for 61% of the mobile phone impression share in October. Millennial analysis indicates this increase demonstrates the continued rapid consumer adoption of smartphones.

Meanwhile, feature phone impression share increased 1% month-over-month and represented 28% of the smartphone, feature phone and connected device mix.

Android Ties iOS

Android is now tied with iOS as the largest smartphone OS on the Millennial network, with an 8% increase month-over-month and 37% impression share on the network.

For the first time, Symbian was featured in the Millennial smartphone OS mix and had a 2% impression share during October 2010.

Device Input Static, Carriers Diverse

The device input mix remained relatively static month-over-month, with touchscreen and Touch & QWERTY devices making up 75% of the total impressions. Meanwhile, the carrier mix continued to demonstrate a growth in diversity of the mobile web with no carrier having more than 19% of the total impressions on the Millennial network.

Other Findings

• Android requests grew 65% month-over-month. Since January 2010, Android has grown 2,182%.
• Apple requests increased 12% month-over-month. Since January 2010, Apple has grown 32%.
• RIM requests increased 43% month-over-month. Since January 2010, RIM has increased 243%.
• iPad requests grew 112% month-over-month.

iPhone, Android Most Under Consideration

Data from a new IHL Group/Retail Connections study indicates 49% of mobile phone users are considering an iPhone for their next phone. The only other mobile phone platform approaching the iPhone in popularity was Android (40%). Blackberry followed at 22%. Only 8% of respondents are considering a Windows smartphone, meaning it has the same popularity as a standard cell phone. A tiny fraction of respondents (1%) are considering an HP/Palm-based smartphone.

SocNet Marketing Spending to Reach $38B by 2015

Combined advertising and promotional spending will hit $38 billion by 2015, roughly 440% more than the $7 billion projected for 2010, according to a new white paper from Borrell Associates.

SocNet Promo Spending to Grow 380%

Breaking the combined social network marketing spending stream into advertising and promotional streams, “The Social Networking Explosion: Ad Revenue Outlook” projects that $5 billion of total $7 billion (about 71%) social network marketing spending in 2010 will consist of promotional expenditures.

From 2010 to 2015, social network promotional spending will grow about 380%. In 2011, it will grow 40% to $7 billion, and then slow down to about 14% growth in 2012, totaling $8 billion, However, social network promotional spending will then double to $16 billion in 2013, and continue rapid growth the next year, increasing 31% to $21 billion before slowing again with 12.5% growth to $24 billion in 2015.

SocNet Ad Spending to Grow 600%

Although Borrell data shows social network advertising spending will remain at lower levels than promotional spending through the next five years, the total growth rate will be an even higher 600%.

In 2011, social network ad spending will grow 200%, from $2 billion to $6 billion, putting it on close to an even keel with promotional spending. Ad spending will remain close to promotional spending in 2012, rising almost 17% to $7 billion.

However, in 2013, ad spending will once again lag behind promotional spending, growing a very healthy 43% to $10 billion. Growth will then continue at a still impressive 20% pace to $12 billion in 2014 and 17% pace to $14 billion in 2015.

Consumers Fuel SocNet Marketing Spending Growth

Borrell analysis indicates the rapidly growing marketing spend in social networking is fueled by wildly climbing consumer use of social networking services. The paper cites data from comScore which says Facebook alone had more than 100 million unique visitors in the US last December, out of 400 million registered users worldwide.

The average Facebook visitor came to the site 27 times during that month, almost once a day. As of the end of 2009, one hour in every nine spent online was spent on a social network site. More than two-thirds of the nation’s largest businesses recruit new employees through social networks, and 13% more plan to start this year.

Gartner: Email Trumps SocNets in Current Importance

Asked to rate various technology tools on a scale of 1 to 7 (7 meaning extremely important and 1 not important at all), the average respondent to a recent Gartner study rated social networking tools at slightly more than 4. Social networking only ranked ahead of four other tools, all of which have a social media aspect: wikis, social tagging/bookmarking, web feeds and blogs.

Email was clearly ranked as most important, with an average score near 7. The only other tool to receive an average score of more than 6 was group calendars/scheduling. The top five tools were rounded out by web conferencing, team workspaces, and simple end-user tools.

Web founder says Facebook a danger

The man credited with inventing the internet has lashed out at Facebook and other social networking sites saying they are moving the web away from its founding principles.

In an essay in Scientific American magazine, Tim Berners-Lee says social networking sites are tightly controlling the information put on there by users meaning the internet's being split into fragmented islands.

Berners-Lee said there is a chance Facebook could become so big that it could limit innovation.

Source: www.ninemsn.com.au

Why Social Media Is Top Priority for Search Marketers

Social will be at the center of SEO and PPC campaigns

Is 2011 set to be the “year of Facebook,” even among search marketers? Based on what US advertisers told search marketing agency Covario, it’s definitely the year of social.

Search marketers have discovered how social media marketing can help build their search engine optimization efforts, and respondents to the Covario survey said their No. 1 priority for SEO next year was integration with social media programs. According to the report, “leveraging social media for scalable link-building efforts is a major initiative for advertisers.”

Social media will also play an important part in paid search efforts next year. Search ad campaigns on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn were top of mind for nearly half of advertisers surveyed—far ahead of priorities like local search or dealing with recent changes to major search engines (for example, Google Instant and Yahoo!-Bing integration).

The report noted that major spending increases on Facebook search advertising are planned for 2011. Covario estimated many advertisers would be spending 10% to 20% of their pay-per-click budgets on Facebook next year, giving the social networking site a major share of that market. The report also indicated that rather than pulling dollars away from other paid search spending areas, these would be additions to the search budget coming from display or offline budgets instead.

Facebook to trademark the word "face"

Facebook has moved one step closer in its efforts to trademark the word "face", after receiving the green light from the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The Office has issued a notice of allowance to the social networking juggernaut, allowing the company to own the word after paying a fee, the NY Post reported.

The trademark will allow Facebook to challenge any of the 89,000 websites using the word "face" in their domain name.

The trademark would cover "telecommunication services, namely providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users in the field of general interest and concerning social and entertainment subject matter, none primarily featuring or relating to motoring or to cars".

A Facebook spokesperson would not reveal why an exemption was given to cars.

Several companies are considered to be in the sights of Facebook's legal department, including Apple over its video conferencing service Facetime and a pornography website called Faceporn.

Facebook has also sued websites Teachbook, Placebook and Lamebook in order to protect the social network's identity.

Facebook has already been successful in trademarking the words "Like" and "Wall".

Source: ninemsn.com.au

Leveraging Best Practices for Social Media

Achieving social media marketing goals, whatever your level of participation

Brands and marketers have different levels of participation in the social media space, but many have similar goals and strategies. The “2010 Social Media Benchmarking Study” from Ketchum and FedEx found when looking at 62 study participants from a variety of industries that 100% had some degree of social media presence.

But they demonstrated different engagement levels, including observers who are determining how to best use social media and leaders who push boundaries and innovate.

Yet objectives for social media were uniform across the industries and engagement levels. Some common goals were to generate word-of-mouth advocacy, develop brand loyalty and close relationships with customers, manage customer service issues, and educate the media and public about company-related issues. This supports data from SmartBrief and Summus, which found that 94% of brands hoped to increase awareness and interaction with consumers by using social media.

The Ketchum-FedEx study discussed how companies could still achieve their social media objectives, whatever their engagement levels, noting that it was not necessary to always be a leader in the social media space. Companies should look at their goals and figure out if being a close follower or even an observer for a bit would be better suited to help its business.

One element that helps achieve social media goals discussed by both studies is integration of social media strategy into an overall communications and marketing plan. Thanks to the transparency, interactivity and informality of social media, collaboration between communications, IT, legal and marketing is a necessity to make a holistic plan work and bear fruit.

For more information about social media’s place at the marketing table, stay tuned for the forthcoming eMarketer report, “Social Media in the Marketing Mix.”

Auto Thank You Messages & Twitter

Searching the web recently keeping up with the goings on with social media, I came across an article by a self proclaimed social media guru on the subject of auto thank you messages on Twitter.

These are messages that you can send out automatically to thank someone who decides to follow you. I’ve had them programmed on my Twitter accounts for ages now and what surprised me was this guru stating in his article that if he receives one of these auto thank you messages he automatically un-follows the company or person. He says it annoys him, oh really you poor dear, I think you’re forgetting that the whole concept of social media is being social.

In my mind, it is just a polite way of acknowledging the follow and as long as the message does not contain a blatant add or sales pitch, I have no problem with these messages at all.

This guru’s belief is that common courtesy rules, apparently don’t apply to social media marketing, well he’s wrong, because I think they do and I will continue to send out my messages to those that do decide to follow me, and by chance if this social media expert is offended by this, then goodbye.

Being social and communicating and connecting with your followers is the essence of social media and I won’t decide to follow or un-follow someone because they sent me an auto thank you message.

That’s just too ridiculous for words, and I wonder if this guy is consulting to companies on social media strategy, what he is advising his clients to do, I just hope he’s not working for you.

There are a lot of instant social media experts around today, and most of them don’t really have a clue.

Decide who you are going to follow by the quality of information they are providing, how interesting and unique it is and if it is informative and relevant.

Oh and if they happen to send you a thank you message for the follow, then that’s good manners.

Remember, Focus on being social not doing social.

Facebook unveils new messaging system

Swatting down recent rumors that it's launching an e-mail killer, Facebook today unveiled a new messaging system that will envelope e-mail, instant messages, Facebook messages and SMS.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg launched what he calls a "modern messaging system" to handle the convergence of different kinds of messages and bring them together under one social umbrella. The system, which has been in the works for about 15 months, is designed to save all messages for five years, meaning users will have a history of their communications.

Although people will now be able to have a facebook.com e-mail address, Andrew Bosworth, a software engineer at Facebook, noted that the new system will work with other e-mail systems, such as Gmail and Yahoo mail.

"People should share however they want to share," said Bosworth. "If you want to send me an e-mail and I want to get it in a text message, that should work."

At this point, the messaging system -- code-named Titan -- will not include voice chat. Zuckerberg said that should be coming down the road, but offered no timeline.

More than four billion messages are sent every day on Facebook, with the vast majority of the messages between two people, according to Zuckerberg. And about 350 million people use Facebook to message their friends and family members.

He said he started thinking about those numbers after talking with a group of high school students who told him that they rarely use e-mail. It's too slow, they told him. "I was kind of boggled by this," Zuckerberg said. "I remember having a similar conversation with my parents about why e-mail was good and regular mail was slow.... At Facebook, we're all so used to using e-mail. It's interesting to see that all kinds of folks don't see it that way."

So Facebook decided to create a new messaging system that would include e-mail, expand on the concept and tie in other means of communication as well. "It's not e-mail," said Zuckerberg. "It handles email, in addition to Facebook messages, and IM and SMS. People are going to be able to have facebook.com email addresses but this won't be the primary way people use this system."

For the last three or four days, the Internet has been abuzz with speculation that Facebook was getting ready to launch an e-mail killer. Zuckerberg kicked off today's news event by saying that's not the case.

"There was a lot of press leading up to this saying this is an e-mail killer," he added. "This is not an e-mail killer. It's a messaging system that has e-mail as one part of it. I don't expect people to wake up tomorrow and say, 'I'm going to shut down my Yahoo account or my Gmail account.' We expect that more people will IM and more people will message just because it's simpler and easier and it's more fun and valuable to use."

Twitter Video Streams Watched for 2 Mins

The average online video stream discovered on the Twitter social network is viewed for two minutes and seven seconds , according to a new study from TubeMogul, Brightcove, and DynamicLogic.

Twitter Beats Yahoo, Facebook

Comparing the average viewing time of 103,731,006 random video streams discovered on several leading social networks and search engines, “Online Video Best Practices” finds that the average video stream sourced via Twitter is viewed for two minutes and seven seconds. No other social network or search engine analyzed broke the two-minute mark.

Search engine Yahoo followed with an average viewing time of one minute and 54 seconds, closely trailed by social network Facebook with an average viewing time of one minute and 50 seconds. Search engines Google (1:27) and Bing (1:09) had significantly shorter average online video viewing times.

Online Videos Have Short Shelf Life

Analyzing the average 90-day viewing lifecycle of an online video, the study finds the average online video receives half its 90-day online view total in the first six days, and 75% in the first 20 days.

The shelf life of online videos has dropped dramatically since 2008, when it took the average online video took two weeks to get half its 90-day view total and 44 days to reach 75%.

Repurposed, Made-for-Web Ads Have Different Strengths

There is no one superior production format, it turns out; repurposed TV spots typically result in higher impact on awareness metrics, while made-for-web video content more ably persuades its viewers.

More specifically, repurposed TV ads are slightly better at raising brand awareness (affect 2% of viewers compared to 1.9%) and message association (2.2% compared to 2.1%), and affect a moderately higher percentage of viewers in terms of online ad awareness (4.7% compared to 4.3%).

Meanwhile, made-for-web ads outperform repurposed TV ads in brand favorability (1.6% compared to 1.2%) and purchase intent (1.4% compared to 0.8%).

Custom Content Boosts Purchase Intent Among 18-34-Yr-Olds

Comparing the affect of repurposed TV and made-for-web content on viewers of different ages, the study finds that purchase intent among 18-to-34-year-olds who view made-for-web content (2.8%) dwarfs purchase intent for either type of content among any age group. This percentage is more than double the next-highest purchase intent rate, 1.1% of 18-to-34-year-olds exposed to repurposed TV content.

This age group also has significantly higher online ad awareness from viewing made-for-web content (5.9%) than any other online ad awareness score, although nowhere near double the amount. The highest brand favorability score is among 35-to-49-year-olds who view made-for-web content (2%), while brand awareness is highest among 35-to-49-year-olds exposed to repurposed TV content (3.3%).

8 in 10 Marketers Using Online Video Seek Higher Engagement

Close to 80% of marketers using online video on their sites do so to increase visitor engagement, or time spent, according to other study results. This is by far the most popular reason. Another 60% use online video to strengthen their brand, and almost 60% use online video to increase overall visitors (more than one answer was permissable).

No other reason garnered as much as a 40% response rate. Approximately 30% of respondents said they use online video on their sites to increase available ad inventory.

Mobile App Development Grows Sharply

The number of mobile applications developed by advertisers/marketers in 2010 increased significantly year-over-year, according to a new report from Millennial Media.

Major Increase in Advertisers Developing 20-50 Apps

When asked the number of mobile applications they developed in 2010 compared to 2009, advertisers participating in “State of the Apps Industry 2010″ stated growth in every area. In particular, advertisers developing 20-50 apps stated an astounding jump 1,975% jump from four in 2009 to 83 in 2010.

Conversely, the number of advertisers who did not develop a single application decreased 42% year-over-year (from 19 in 2009 to 11 in 2010).

Entertainment Top App-building Vertical

In 2009, CPG, Retail, Auto, Entertainment and Financial companies were the top five verticals building apps. In 2010, however, Entertainment displaced CPG to claim the number one spot, followed by Technology, Media, and Retail.

CPG remained in the top five at number five, while retail fell from number two to number four. Auto and financial were displaced by media and technology (debuting strongly at number two in 2010).

Android, iPad Lead Growth in Advertiser App Development Platforms

From 2009 to 2010, Android (180%) and iPad (0 to 35, year-over-year growth percentage cannot be calculated) saw the most significant growth as the application platforms used by advertisers.

iPhone still leads the pack with 73 developers and about 18% growth, but RIM, Windows Mobile, and Symbian also saw increases, as advertisers continued to diversify their application platforms.

Android, iPad also Lead Publisher Growth

Among publishers, Android, iPad, Windows Mobile, and Symbian also grew year-over-year from 2009 to 2010. Again, Android (71%) and iPad (60%) saw rapid acceptance by publishers, and efforts were focused on developing applications for these players.

Meanwhile, iPhone (2% negative growth but still the leading platform, used by 46 publishers) and Palm (21%) were the two platforms that saw year-over-year decreases.

Reach Top Consideration for Choosing a Platform

Millenial Media ranks the top five considerations for choosing a mobile application development platform by both advertisers and publishers as follows:
1. Reach
2. Demo
3. Better Branding
4. Ease of Use
5. Higher Sales Potential

2 in 3 Mobile Users Text

In the three-month average ending September 2010, 67% of US mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, according to comScore, up 1.4 percentage points compared to the prior three-month period.

Meanwhile, browsers were used by 35.1% of US mobile subscribers (up 2.2 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 33.1% of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.5 percentage points. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.8 percentage points, representing 23.2% of mobile subscribers. Playing games represented 23.1% of the mobile audience (up 0.5 percentage points), while listening to music increased 0.8 percentage points, representing 15.2% of subscribers.

Advertisers Demand Proof of Online Video’s Efficacy

Finding evidence for video’s branding power

Online video advertising is growing at a fast pace in the US. eMarketer forecasts a spending increase of 48.1% to over $1.5 billion this year, followed by a further boost of about 43% for the next two years. But publishers and video ad networks have concerns about their effectiveness.

A survey of web publishers by online video ad service provider BrightRoll found that they considered standardization of formats across ad networks to be the greatest barrier to online video growth, followed by the interruption to the user experience.

Publishers also had concerns about working with ad networks, mainly about fill percentages and sales-channel conflicts.

But even more publishers—88%—said they thought advertisers would spend more if research proved the efficacy of online video advertising. An earlier BrightRoll survey that queried agencies found 52% said their clients would spend more under the same conditions.

“Today’s video metrics only partially answer the essential question marketers want to know: Did the ad convince the consumer to buy?” wrote David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst, in the October 2010 report “Measuring Video Ads: Metrics for Brand Marketers.” “Whether the metric data comes from servers (completion rates) or from surveys (awareness), it acts as only a proxy for answering that bottom-line question.”

Research from Dynamic Logic and TubeMogul in Q4 2009 showed online video performed better than rich media or simple flash in online ad awareness, brand favorability, and a variety of other branding metrics.

The Role of Customer Product Reviews

Customer product reviews are becoming a fixture on retail and consumer brand websites, with over 80% of retailers planning to feature them by the end of 2010. The accelerated adoption of customer reviews indicates a more enlightened approach to handling negative comments—that is, the acknowledgment that occasional negative reviews do not hurt sales.

“For many purchases, shoppers find the best advice comes not from family and close friends but from strangers who have similar interests or who embody a lifestyle the shopper aspires to achieve,” said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report “Customer Product Reviews: The Next Generation.”

Reading product reviews is a growing part of consumers’ prepurchase search ritual. Over the past few years, consumers have increased the number of reviews they read and the overall time they spend reading them. And nearly all internet users are influenced in some way by customer product reviews, according to ChannelAdvisor.

A 2010 study by the e-tailing group, sponsored by PowerReviews, revealed the deepening relationship shoppers have with customer reviews. Whereas 64% of shoppers read reviews always or most of the time before making a purchase decision, unchanged from a similar survey in 2007, they were more immersed in reading them now than they were three years ago:

• 64% of shoppers took 10 minutes or more to read reviews, vs. 50% in 2007.
• 33% took a half hour or more to read reviews, vs. 18% in 2007.
• 39% read eight or more reviews before buying, vs. 22% in 2007.
• 12% read 16 or more reviews before buying, vs. 5% in 2007.

The e-tailing group study qualified the role of customer reviews in purchase decision-making. Some 57% of shoppers trust customer reviews but place them in a supportive role to other information sources. Another 35% of respondents expressed mixed feelings by indicating that customer reviews are interesting but sometimes questionable in their authenticity.

“While customer reviews are important to shoppers, merchants should not overrely on them for marketing,” said Grau.

Intriguing potential exists in the possibilities of connecting customer reviews to social media, already explored by some pioneering companies.

Social Media Increases Small-Business Exposure

Many small firms still hold back from social media marketing efforts

According to the American Express OPEN fall 2010 “Small Business Monitor,” small-business owners have dramatically upped their usage of social media for marketing in the past year.

While just one in 10 business owners reported using social networking for marketing last year, 39% indicated they did in September 2010. The impetus is driving sales by connecting with consumers. Facebook was the clear leader among small-business owners, with 27% using the site to attract new customers, vs. 9% using LinkedIn, 8% using Twitter and 5% maintaining a blog.

American Express found that among businesses that use social media marketing, 39% said it increased the exposure of their business. But the second most common response, selected by 17%, was that social media tools had not helped them.

“For business owners, social media ultimately should be a two-way street. It’s about business owners connecting with customers and customers connecting with businesses,” said Susan Sobbott, president of American Express OPEN, in a statement. “More than 10% of consumers we surveyed reported posting a review of a small business through social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, and of these posts, two-thirds say the reviews have been positive.”

But many small businesses still feel social media marketing has nothing to offer them. More than three in five reported not using social media at all, and the biggest reason they gave was that it did not apply to their industry.

A September survey of small businesses that have advertising relationships with local newspapers by ITZ Belden and the American Press Institute (API) similarly found that 40% of respondents used social media marketing. Just 20% said it was a leading source of new business, compared with 77% who cited referrals from customers and 65% who selected referrals from friends and family.

Netbook Shoppers Consider Other Mobile Devices

Consumers researching online data about netbook computers for possible purchase are also considering other devices, according to analysis from Compete.

Aspire One Shoppers Research Handsets, Other Netbooks
Analyzing online research habits of consumers considering purchase of the popular Acer Aspire One netbook as part of a two-year AT&T data plan, Compete found that 13% also researched the Apple iPhone 4 mobile handset.

In addition, 6% researched the Palm Pixi Plus mobile device and 5% got information on the Apple iPhone 3GS handset. Consumers also viewed data on competing netbooks; for example 11% researched the HP Mini 110 and 8% looked up the Samsung GO.

HP Mini 110 Shoppers Also Consider Smartphones
Consumers considering purchasing an HP Mini 110 netbook as part of an AT&T two-year data plan demonstrated a slightly different cross-shopping pattern. Thirty-seven percent researched a competing netbook, the Samsung GO.

However, a still significant 15% looked up the Samsung Captivate mobile device and 11% researched the iPhone 4. The Samsung a777, a refurbished feature phone offered free with a two-year AT&T data plan, also proved popular with prospective Mini 110 buyers (13%).
In addition, 13% of potential HP Mini 110 shoppers researched the Pantech Ease mobile computing device.

Smartphones, Mobile Devices Pose Serious Netbook Threat
Compete notes that these results, collected in September 2010, reflect long-term trends rather than a one-month spike in smartphone and smaller mobile device interest among prospective netbook buyers. Considering that smartphones not only offer 3G mobile web browsing but also mobile entertainment and file storage in an interface that feels less like an inconveniently small computer and more like a conveniently powerful phone, and that tablet computers are rapidly growing in popularity, Compete advises that netbook sales may drop.

More Americans Own Mobile Phones than Computers
A higher percentage of US adults owns a mobile phone than owns a computer, according to new data from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Pew data indicates that 85% of Americans now own a cell phone. Cell phone ownership rates among young adults have reached 96% of 18-to-29 year olds. Meanwhile, three-quarters (76%) of Americans own either a desktop or laptop computer. Since 2006, laptop ownership has grown dramatically (from 30% to 52%) while desktop ownership has declined slightly.