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West Coast More Media Savvy Than East Coast

posted on September 26, 2010

Business people on the West Coast are much more connected when it comes to Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin use than their counterparts on the other side of the country. NetProspex came to this conclusion when they studied a wide range of contacts for their Fall 2010 Social Business Report.

NetProspex has their own social index (NPSI) which is determined by how contacts rate in the following areas:

Social connectedness: The number of employees with at least one social media profile
Social friendliness and reach: The average number of connections per employee across major social networks
Social activity: The average number of tweets, number of followers, and number of users following

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Cup of Joe: Is Social Media Making Us Stupid?

posted on September 25, 2010

Stupid GuySo, about a month ago I started creating some content for a side project of mine. The plan was to do a very in-depth study on the major players in a niche industry and see how they are doing on the internet. The goal was to study each corporation’s branding, their SEO efforts, and traffic to their web properties. I took about four weeks to do case studies on each corporation.

After I collected my data I wrote up an analysis on each in each area. I then made corresponding charts that showed my findings in a clear and easy to understand format. After it was all finished I put it all together and sat back to marvel at my work! I thought, this piece of content is sure to go viral.

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Facebook Adds Browser for Fan Pages

posted on September 24, 2010

A few posts ago, I wrote a piece about how Facebook ads are more effective when they contain a picture. Facebook is taking this idea to heart with a newly released browser page that emphasizes photos over text for fan pages.

The browser is divided into categories such as Movies, TV, Sports, Politicians and Brands. When you click on a topic, you’re presented with a page of icons with a line of text underneath. Clicking the picture will set your phasers on “Like”, clicking the link will take you to the fan page for a look around.

The upside here is that photos are much more compelling than a long list of links. Categorizing works as a suggestive sell figuring if you like the TV show Bones, you’ll probably like Castle.

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Google’s Schmidt on bing, Apple, Net Neutrality and More

posted on September 24, 2010

I usually don’t like 20 minute videos but this one was interesting. Considering the recent outing with Stephen Colbert, I suspect that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt welcomed the straight business talk afforded by this WSJ interview (hat tip to Business Insider).

Sure it’s corporate speak but it’s interesting. Schmidt even calls bing Google’s biggest competitor. He also speaks politics and his opinion about that game as well.

Have a great weekend.

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Retailers Seeing Social Media Value

posted on September 24, 2010

Retailers have been using social media to their benefit. It seems, however, as if they took this path not because they could lure more people to them but because that’s where the people were already. Not exactly cutting edge thinking (since reacting to a situation rather than creating a need is less desirable) but it is what it is.

eMarketer reports on a study conducted by the Aberdeen Group that gives some insight into retailers and their use of social media. First, a look at why they are there in the first place.

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comScore Ranks Top 10 Gaining Site Categories

posted on September 24, 2010

Back-to-school and the approaching football season helped books, sports and apparel gain a foothold in August says comScore Media Metrics. The new report takes a look at US web activity in the month leading to a list of the top 50 web properties and the top ten categories.

Retail book sites were the biggest winners in August with an 11% percent increase of July as folks left the beaches and went back-to-school. While Barnes & Noble continues to close brick and mortar stores, their online site was the most visited in this category. 8.3 million people stopped by, up 13% from July.

Staples.com rose 5% which they attribute to school supply shopping. Office Depot rose 20% and OfficeMax rose 32% but is still well behind in total shoppers.

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Consumerist Nominates Worst Commercials in America

posted on September 23, 2010

What would you say is the Worst Commercial in America? Consumerist.com asked their readers that very question and, after receiving responses that numbered higher than their credit score from FreeCreditReport.com, they put together a ballot for a vote.

Bad spokespeople and annoying icons filled out most of the list and the insurance industry took the hardest hit with seven nominations. Thankfully, my favorite Gecko escaped unharmed but that deliriously cheerful woman from the Progressive commercials made it into the top five overall worst commercials on TV.