The Multitasker

Twubs is a new initiative that revolves around hasthags. More precisely, it revolves around meta-hashtags. A meta-hashtag is a classification system whereby users can attach a purpose to any given tag. For example, the hashtag #rr refers to restaurants, the hashtag #re alludes to events and so forth. Such a solution lets anybody come across disparate social media content in the same spot and access it effortlessly. (more…)

Managing profiles and accounts across multiple social media platforms can be a daunting effort. How do fans, friends and others know where you share the most? Are you actually a blogging junkie, or perhaps you’re Twitter addicted? GeekChart is a pretty cool tool to discover the answer to these questions. It’s also a way to share the results with all of your friends and your network.
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Ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky, known for their award winning creative and strategic work are earning some major PR today with the announcement that they have launched an eBay auction for the services of their 40 interns. These interns, who have been working on client engagements ranging from “Guitar Hero” to Burger King will now be available to other brands and organizations through the auction. (more…)

The average iPhone app has an engagement of 9.6 minutes per session and is accessed 19.9 times over its life cycle. This results in an average total use time per user of three hours and 10 minutes, according to Greystripe’s Q109 Consumer Insights Report which released data about iPhone app usage among its users, as well as user response to ads placed within iPhone applications. (more…)

LinkedIn is a great tool and service, if you know how to properly use it.  It seems simple to find people from your email accounts, search for specific names and even those with specific skills.  But there is so much more to LinkedIn that can assist in getting the most out of it. Here are some best practices to ensure that you get the most out of LinkedIn, that others can find you and that you can help others. (more…)

According to a new study by iProspect, over half of internet users (52%) actively respond to display advertising on ad-supported websites. Among them, almost as many initially respond to an ad by conducting a search as those who click on the ad. Results from iProspect’s “Search Engine Marketing and Online Display Advertising Integration Study” suggest a closer relationship between search and online display than many marketers think, noting that internet users initially respond to online display advertising as follows: (more…)

People around the world do trust the media, but to varying degrees. According to TNS, the good news, for Internet content producers, is that people now trust the information they get from online news—roughly to the same degree as news from television and information from friends. On a global basis, the most trusted information source was friends, with 42% of those surveyed saying that they trusted word-of-mouth recommendations. About an equal number trusted TV news (41%), online news (40%) and newspapers (39%).
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Working for a major Canadian digital publisher, I have seen the ups and downs in the past months as advertisers and agencies scramble to decide what to do with their ever precious marketing dollars.  The nice thing, is that in most cases, I have seen the ups as digital spend, which still usually represents less than 10% of total marketing budgets has remained intact or often grown substantially.  The reality is that marketers worldwide are shifting more of their budgets into cheaper, more-measurable categories and that usually means online.
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This week Nielsen begins a controversial move to measure the online behavior of a small subset of its national TV ratings sample, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

Because the test uses a portion of the same accredited, national TV sample that it uses to generate TV ratings, some researchers are pointing out that it could potentially impact TV ratings results. Nielsen has responded that the impact of measuring both TV and online behavior in a small subset would be minimal, but that they will monitor the situation closely, says MediaPost. (more…)

ReportingOn.com is a simple way for journalists to update their peers on the stories they’re working on right now. Journalists can tag 140-character-or-less updates with the beat they are on, and find peers reporting on similar beats to make connections. This way they can introduce themselves to potential mentors, or discover an unsung heroes in their field. (more…)

Back in December I wrote a post about maintaining the status quo in a down economy. In that post I reference the auto industry and how some companies, like Hyundai had an incredible opportunity to increase share of voice and ultimately sales as a result of their competitors reducing ad spending.  Without doing so much as maintain status quo, there was tremendous opportunity to take market share away from the competition.  Apparently The New Yorker thinks the status quo is not even enough and goes as far as saying that ratcheting up spending during a downturn may be the best way for a company to make it through the recession. While that might sound counterintuitive, it’s the theme of several pieces of research that James Surowiecki highlights in this week’s column in The New Yorker. (more…)

With all the fuss over the growth of Twitter let us not forget that there is a little site called Facebook that in the US, has still been under-represented compared to other countries in terms of it’s importance.  In the US, visits to social networking websites increased 4% in February 2009 vs. February 2008 among a custom category of 55 of the top properties, while visits decreased 1% compared with January 2009 among those sites, according to data from Hitwise (via MarketingCharts). (more…)

Over one in ten (11%) online adults in the US say they have used Twitter or similar services to share updates about themselves or view updates about others. What’s more, those who use Twitter have a greater affinity for mobile devices, according to new research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (via MarketingCharts).

Wireless internet users also are more likely to be users of Twitter and other status updating services. 14% of users who access the internet wirelessly via a laptop, handheld or cell phone have used Twitter or the like, compared with 6% of users who go online but do not do so wirelessly. (more…)