Posted by Daniel Peden on April 3rd, 2008
Social Media
Just under half of all eight to 17-year olds with internet access have a profile on a social networking site, Britain’s telecoms watchdog has stated.
A report published this week by Ofcom found that 49 per cent of people in this age range had created their own account on a site such as Facebook or MySpace.
Meanwhile, the average adult social networker had 1.6 profiles across different sites, with 22 per cent of Britons over the age of 16 holding accounts on internet community spaces.
Active social networkers were split by Ofcom into five groups: attention seekers, alpha socialisers, faithfuls, followers and functionals.
Those who did not have social networking profiles cited a number of reasons for their decision to stay away from the expanding communications model.
Technical inexperience, the belief that such sites were a waste of time and security or safety concerns emerged as important deterrents.
In related news, American Airlines has developed a new Facebook widget, allowing users to compare travel tales and tips.
Posted by Daniel Peden on April 3rd, 2008
Natural search
Online retailers should be honest about the drawbacks of their products as well as the benefits, it has been advised.
Stoney de Geyter, blogger for Internet Search Engine Database, suggests that sites incorporate product comparison tools into their websites to help customers make purchase decisions.
"Be honest – if your product lacks what a competitor’s has, document that appropriately," Mr de Geyter states.
According to the expert, the key to selling online is removing obstacles from the research-to-buy-cycle.
So customers should be offered multiple payment options to ensure a wide range of needs are met, he suggests.
And consumers who prefer to discuss online transactions over the telephone or pay through a call centre should be given the opportunity to do so, Mr de Geyter adds.
Customer reviews are claimed to boost consumer trust, with bad reviews giving sites more credibility than their blatant removal would.
This advice may be of interest to small businesses, who have recently been advised by the British Computer Society’s Howard Gerlis to sustain interest in their websites after the initial launch period.
Posted by Daniel Peden on April 3rd, 2008
Natural search
About one in seven searches conducted on Google suggest its ‘UK only’ page results option, new figures reveal.
Robin Goads writes on his Hitwise blog that about 13.6 per cent of British searches on Google over four weeks during March represented UK pages only – about one in seven of all searches.
According to the web traffic monitoring service, if Google was to create a new search engine featuring online Google UK pages from the UK, it would be the third largest in Britain behind Google UK All The Web and Google’s main site.
"This ‘new’ search engine, consisting of Google searchers only looking at UK pages, would have a market share more than three times that of its nearest non-Google competitor, Yahoo! UK," Mr Goad notes.
Mr Goad observes that the number of people choosing this geographically restricted option appears to be declining, although claims further research is necessary in order to determine whether this is a long-term trend.
Hitwise’s recent video streaming statistics revealed that Google Video is the fifth most popular broadcasting site in the UK, behind YouTube, YouTube UK, the BBC’s iPlayer and MySpace TV.
Posted by David Wilding on April 2nd, 2008
Natural search
Lower-income groups are over-represented on controversial online site Miss Bimbo, new figures reveal.
Search traffic monitoring service Hitwise has released data revealing that families living on large council estates with low rates of owner occupation and on lower incomes comprise a significant portion of the site’s audience.
People living in close-knit inner city communities and manufacturing towns were also claimed to be over-represented on the site.
"Both of these groups are more likely than the average to have one or two dependent children," states Robin Goad on his Hitwise blog.
Playing Miss Bimbo involves engaging in activities such as breast enlargements, dieting, buying clothes and partying in a virtual environment.
Following controversy over its apparent endorsement of diet pills, the site removed this component of the game.
Bebo, the social network aimed at younger web surfers, was found to be the third most popular site sending traffic to the game.
UK women outnumber their male peers on the web for the first time ever, according to an eMarketer report released this week.
Posted by David Wilding on April 2nd, 2008
Paid Search
The online ad industry in the US grew by 18.9 per cent last year, new data reveals.
While down on the 2006 figure of 35 per cent, the sector’s advancement still outpaced all other industry sectors, according to Nielsen Company research.
Overall advertising grew by 0.6 per cent between 2006 and 2007, a slowdown said by some commentators to reflect the wider economic downturn in the US.
Newspaper ad revenues dropped by 7.7 per cent over the year, continuing their downward trend.
The magazine advertising sector experienced 7.6 per cent growth, with the corresponding figure for outdoor advertising standing at 7.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, a new Hitwise report shows that online video streaming grew by 178 per cent in 2007.
The 12-month period saw YouTube represent almost 70 per cent of all British visits to video broadcasting sites, while the BBC’s iPlayer was also a prominent industry presence.
Posted by Gavin Smith on April 1st, 2008
Natural search
UK online video traffic has increased by 178 per cent in the last 12 months, according to a new report.
On his Hitwise blog, Robin Goad has revealed that the sector expanded significantly last year, dominated by YouTube’s US and UK properties.
Together, these represented 69.31 of all web visits to video sites between February 2007 and the same month in 2008.
A strong brand image was cited by Hitwise as a key driver of the Google-owned video streaming site’s popularity.
The fourth and fifth most popular search terms in the UK in February were ‘youtube’ and ‘you tube’, data from the web traffic monitoring service showed.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s iPlayer was the third most popular video site, increasing its market share by 423 per cent since December 2007.
And MySpace TV, the fourth most prominent video site, was said by Mr Goad to indicate the link between video and social networking.
The news came after it emerged that ITV is relaunching its online video player to compete more effectively with the iPlayer.
Posted by David Wilding on April 1st, 2008
Paid Search
A new site has been launched by Yahoo! aimed at women between 25 and 34-years-old.
Entitled Shine, the new magazine features syndicated content from magazines like Glamour and Good Housekeeping as well as original copy from Yahoo!’s editorial team.
Adopting a blog-style format, topics to be covered include work, money, parenting, food, health, beauty and fashion, with users and experts collaborating to post information and insight.
The site has been launched as a new report from eMarketer asserts that for the first time, women outnumber men on the internet.
Between 2008 and 2012, the female web population is predicted by the research company to experience growth of 12.3 per cent.
Results published in December 2007 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that teenage girls are asserting their presence on the web through content creation rather than consumption, being more active than their male peers in blogging and photo-posting.
Posted by David Wilding on March 31st, 2008
Social Media
Users should be taxed by their internet service providers (ISPs) for unlimited access to online music, according to Warner Music Group (WMG).
A charge for the ability to download from a database of all available recorded music could be bundled into monthly payments to ISPs, the group asserts.
WMG has enlisted former Geffen digital chief Jim Griffin to develop a model for how such fees can be distributed to recording artists and copyright holders.
Speaking to Portfolio.com, Mr Griffin described the music industry as a "big tip jar" and noted that paying for tracks is now "purely voluntary".
He said: "We want to monetise the anarchy of the internet."
The publication claims that WMG’s employment of Griffin is evidence of the industry’s growing desperation in the face of dwindling CD sales.
With record labels including Elektra, Asylum, Roadrunner and Reprise, WMG in 2005 became the only stand-alone music group to be publicly traded in the US.
Posted by Daniel Peden on March 31st, 2008
Paid Search
Paid search can be a good way of countering negative press, suggests a new blog post.
According to E-consultancy, companies who utilise paid links to acknowledge customers searching for bad news about their brand could help transform negative publicity into a positive brand image.
The publication notes that a search for "Virgin airways complaint" brings up a paid link from the company at the top of the page.
While users looking for complaints may not be responsive to conventional marketing techniques, an ad that attempted to respond to the query, asking whether Virgin could do anything to help, could potentially help catch disgruntled customers before the problem escalates.
The article says: "But isn’t it possible that turning off broad match and actually serving an ad acknowledging the query and asking if there was anything you could do to help might turn negative PR into positive word of mouth?"
Meanwhile, American Airlines recently launched a new Facebook application in order to read consumer habits more effectively.
Posted by Gavin Smith on March 28th, 2008
Paid Search
A growing number of sectors are recognising the benefits that web marketing can offer, a new report claims.
New figures from comScore indicate that the automobile industry is investing a growing amount into internet advertising – a trend which the digital world analyst claims is set to be adopted in other major industries.
"Many traditional advertisers are beginning to understand that the internet enables them to efficiently build their brands by achieving their demographic reach and frequency goals while at the same time reaching the most attractive, behaviourally-defined target segments," says Alistair Sutcliffe, vice-president of comScore Advertising Solutions.
The report shows that General Motors – the top internet advertiser among car manufacturers – delivered just under 1.7 billion total display ad views in January in the US.
General Motors has announced that 50 per cent of its $3 billion (£1.5 billion) advertising budget is to be directed towards the internet.
According to Mr Sutcliffe, this move could act as a "bellwether" for other industries.
The figures are released after comScore revealed that two million car insurance policies were purchased online in 2007.
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