Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #033 February 3, 2010

The tweets grow quieter--declining activity figures from Twitter.

According to a new study by RJMetrics, Twitter faces some disturbing activity declines. The number of new users per month has declined 20%, but what is worse, users don't seem to be doing as much with their Twitter accounts. The average Twitter user has just 27 followers, down from 42. Just 17% of Twitter users are actually actively using their accounts, and 80% of Twitter users have posted less than 10 times.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #032 January 27, 2010

Social media study shows brand "friendships" are about more than money.

A recent study by MarketingSherpa found that people who register as "friends" of brands on social media sites want to learn about special deals, but they also want more qualitative benefits. Especially among heavy social media users, there is a desire to learn more about a company and its products, and even to be entertained by brand content.

Baby boomers are catching up with TV/Internet convergence.

Internet usage rates among baby boomers, already over 70%, continue to grow. Meanwhile boomers are showing increasing interest in connecting their televisions to the Interent. The percentage of boomers expressing interest in doing that has crossed the 50% mark in recent years, and is catching up with the percentage of younger people expressing that interest.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #031 January 20, 2010

Continued growth of Google News presents more options and decisions for advertisers.

According to ComScore, there were 99,761,000 unique visitors to Google News in November of 2009. As Google News approaches the 100 million mark, the appeal to advertisers is obvious, but reaching a mass audience isn't the only option. As the number of regional and foreign language editions of Google News also continues to grow, advertisers are presented with new target marketing options.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #030 January 13, 2010

Final score: e-commerce holiday spending up 4%.

ComScore released final numbers for all of November and December, and the results were up 4% over 2008. This is a slightly lower increase than had been measured previously, and significantly where 2009 came up short was in the post-Christmas time frame. This may reflect the fact that retailers discounted so aggressively that shoppers did not find it necessary to wait for after-Christmas sales.

Google's browser moves past Apple's.

In the same week that Google launched its new Nexus One device to compete with the iPhone, Google passed Apple in browser popularity. Google's Chrome browser moved past Apple's Safari into the #3 slot, behind Internet Explorer and Firefox.

E-Marketer projects smartphones as leading the online future.

In 2009, smartphones pulled even with notebook PCs into second place for the number of newly-shipped internet-enabled devices, behind only 3G conventional cellphones. E-marketer projects smartphones to grow into the number one spot by 2012, with shipments of 491 million new units that year.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #029 January 6, 2010

Growth for social marketing predicted, but mobile advertising may steal the buzz.

According to eMarketer, spending on social network advertising should continue to grow in 2010, but the really explosive growth should be in mobile advertising. Social ad spending is expected to be up 7.1% in 2010, while mobile advertising is projected to grow by 42.5%. Even so, social advertising spending should still far outdistance mobile advertising spending, at $1.295 billion vs. $593 million for 2010.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #028 December 30, 2009

MySpace and Facebook Ad Revenues Heading in Opposite Directions

Facebook is expected to pass MySpace as the number one social media site in terms of earning ad revenue, a change that highlights the differing fortunes of the two sites. Facebook is enjoying strong growth, with revenues expected to increase by 39% in 2010. MySpace, on the other hand, is projected to suffer a 21% decline in ad revenue during 2010.

The Federal Trade Commission hears arguments against Google's acquisition of AdMob.

Consumer groups are petitioning the FTC to block Google's planned acquisition of mobile advertising firm AdMob. Besides the usual anti-monopoly concerns that often accompany acquisitions, there are also overtones of privacy concerns in this case, because of the information-gathering practices ofboth Google and AdMob.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #027 December 23, 2009

Privacy debate over Facebook changes becomes a legal matter.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center and nine other organizations have filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over changes Facebook recently made to user privacy settings. Those changes made previously private information generally available, unless the users acted to secure the information again.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #026 December 16, 2009

New Facebook policy stirs up privacy advocates.

Changes by Facebook made previously private information available to a wider audience recently, unless users adjusted their privacy settings. While users could still limit access to information, and Facebook was reacting to the stir created by the change, it should continue to remind people that Facebook does ultimately control any information they put on it, privately or not.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #025 December 9, 2009

Mobile Web volume increases in terms of both users and usage.

eMarketer estimates that 29.2% of mobile phone users log onto the Internet via their phones at least once a month, up from 22.3% in 2008. In addition, the average number of monthly mobile Internet sessions doubled from 10 in October of 2008 to 20 in October of 2009.

Business overwhelmingly embraces social media marketing.

Business usage of social media marketing has accelerated sharply in the past two years. According to the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 57% of businesses used social media marketing in 2007. This climbed to 77% in 2008, and 91% in 2009. Social networking is the most commonly-used form of social media, with 80% of companies participating.

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Internet Marketing Weekly News Update #024 December 2, 2009

Search and display: Microsoft goes after mobile clicks.

Microsoft has announced a mobile advertising initiative called "Microsoft Mobile Marketplaces." This combines elements of display advertising with search results in an attempt to generate higher click-through rates from mobile device users. In its soft-launch phase, the approach garnered click-through rates of 20%, which is five times the average for mobile search, though this may be partly due to early-stage curiosity.

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