Brands beware: Consumers don't trust their social media friends
Twitter has proven that people care about what other people are saying online, regardless of whether they know them in real life. That fact makes brands and advertisers especially interested in getting into the space. But companies should be wary about getting too focused on winning friends and influencing social media users. Because people don't seem to trust their online friends.
Razorfish has put out a new study that found only 33% of consumers surveyed trust their friends online.
NYTimes.com may soon cost $5 a month
The New York Times may be the most popular news source on the Internet, but that doesn't mean they have any more insight into monetizing the web than anyone else in the media. Right now it looks like they're considering putting their content behind a pay wall again.
A recent survey sent out to subscribers asked if they would be willing to pay a $5 or $2.50 monthly fee to access the paper's website. And while getting print subscribers to pay seems like a good way to beef up revenue, it also promises to cut into the paper's ad revenue and influence online.
Your credit score isn't high enough to see this ad
Want to buy a big ticket item like a house or a car? You need one of two things: cold hard cash or good credit.
But it's possible that your credit score may impact more than what you can buy. In the near future, your credit score could be used to dictate what ads you see when you're browsing the web.
Should the CEO do social media?
Should CEOs tweet, poke and generally 'get social' online? It's a good question.
One that Fortune 100 CEOs are apparently answering 'no' to. That's according to ÜBERCEO, which looked at how Fortune 100 CEOs are using social media. The result: they're not.
Teens, media and why you shouldn't believe the hype
True or false: today's teens are prolific multitaskers and you're more likely to find them texting away and social networking than you are to find them watching television or listening to the radio.
Chances are that if you've been paying attention to the media and analysts, you're answering 'true'. Unfortunately you'd be wrong according to a new report issued by Nielsen called 'How Teens Use Media'.
Price is important online. But not as important as reputation.
Getting the cheapest deal possible is made easier online, but it's not neccessarily what consumers are looking for. According to a new survey by Webcredible, reputation now counts more than price online.
The user experience consultancy found that 28% of the 1300 online shoppers polled are most likely to make a purchase based on the reputation of a website. That number was followed closely by price: 26% of consumers surveyed said that price was the most important factor when making a purchase.
But it proves that consumers are shopping with brands they trust online. And that leaves an opening for retailers to win new customers without simply cutting into their profit margins.
The myth of the 20-something founder
When you think of the word 'entrepreneur', who do you see? You might be inclined to think of a hungry 20-something who dropped out of college to follow his or her dream.
But according to a study (PDF) released by the Kauffman Foundation, it's not young people who are driving entrepreneurial activity in the United States. No, it's Baby Boomers.
Elderly and low-income homes drop phone and cable for broadband
In the midst of a severe recession, Americans are cutting their monthly bills to the bone. Landline phones and cable television are now nice-to-haves rather than must-have. But a broadband internet connection? Non-negotiable.
We've come a long way since the dial-up era, when usability best practices cautioned against using slow-to-load graphics on Web sites and in email. The Pew Internet & American Life project's Home Broadband Adoption 2009 report indicates home broadband penetration is holding steady at 54-57 percent of households, a healthy 63 percent of adult Americans. But adoption among senior citizens (65 and older) jumped from 19 percent last May to 30 percent in April of this year.
Relevance makes the difference for display ads: report
What's the most important factor in the success of a display ad? Size? Placement? Not surprisingly, it's relevance.
That's according to a study conducted by publisher Condé Nast and research firm McPheters & Company.
US ad spending drops 12% in Q1: report
Thanks to the 'Great Recession', few expected Q1 2009 to be a pretty quarter for ad spending in the world's most prolific advertising market, the United States.
Thanks to Nielsen (PDF), we now have some idea of the damage: a 12% year-over-decline. That amounts to a $3.8bn drop in the size of the total advertising pie.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
