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.

Sign of the times: Editor & Publisher Magazine shuts down.

The struggles of printed publications have been well documented, but perhaps the ultimate symbol of their declining fortunes is that a prominent magazine dedicated to print journalism, Editor & Publisher Magazine, is shutting its doors after 108 years.

Newspapers still well ahead of the Web for coupon usage.

Despite the general decline in newspaper readership, print still has a commanding lead over the Internet in one advertising category--coupons. According to a study by research firm Borrell Associates, Sunday newspaper circulars still account for 70 percent of coupon usage, vs. 6 percent for the Internet. Borrell Associates expects the Internet's share to grow to 9 percent next year, while newspapers' share drops to 68 percent.

Video ads via e-mail all but disappear.

Once seen as a hot trend in e-commerce advertising, the delivery of video messages via e-mail has faded away almost completely. Explanations include a focus on other forms of content for e-mail ads, and the relative ease of simply e-mailing a link to a Web site which may include video, instead of compressing the video into the e-mail itself.

Study shows Microsoft users more likely to click on ads.

A recent study shows that users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are more likely to click on ads than users of other browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. In addition, users of Microsoft's Bing are more likely to click on ads than users of other search engines.

Facebook adds to BMOC status.

Facebook not only held onto its status as the most popular web site among college students for the third consecutive year, but it added significantly to its lead in that category. Last year, Facebook ranked as favorite among 15.7 percent of college students. This year it was ranked as favorite by 27.4 percent of that population, according to Anderson Analytics. Google held onto the number #2 spot, but slipped significantly in percentage terms, from 13.9 to 6.3 percent.

Online ad spending looks poised to recover from rare slip in 2009.

According to eMarketer, online ad spending is on the verge of its first decline since 2002. Total online ad spending is projected to finish 2009 at $22.4 billion, down from $23.4 billion in 2008. However, eMarketer projects online ad spending to not only turn positive in 2010, but to surpass the 2008 total by rising to $23.6 billion.

E-mail and social media look to be big gainers in marketing spending for 2010.

According to StrongMail, 69 percent of business executives worldwide plan to increase e-mail marketing spending next year, making it the category most often targeted for budget growth. Social media marketing came in second, at 59 percent. Not surprisingly, a significant emerging trend is the use of tactics which attempt to combine e-mail and social media marketing.

Advertising forecasts highlight tough choices for marketers.

Forecasters Group M and ZenithOptimedia predict a decline for 2010 in North American advertising spending, while Magna predicts a slight increase, at 0.8 percent. All scenarios may force marketers to make any significant new allocations of spending at the expense of other channels, with Internet advertising projected to pick up budget share as a result.

More year-end accolades for Facebook, Google.

Facebook became the top-searched term in 2009 according to Hitwise, factoring into 0.67 percent of all searches. Google was the top visited site for the second year in a row, accounting for 6.7 percent of U.S. site visits. It seems unlikely that anyone will "unfriend" either site anytime soon.