Marketing Pilgrim

Google gets a lot of heat from a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Some of it is very warranted while some of it is simply grousing. The feelings for Google as a company run the gamut from anti-competitive (ask Yelp for their thoughts on this one) to simply being better than the rest (check out this post from Mike Grehan for his take on Google and competition). In all of business there are few companies that elicit such strong reactions for perceptions ranging from very good to very bad.

While all of this business perspective on Google’s reputation is interesting, especially from a negative standpoint, it’s most important to consider the opinions that count more than we like to give credit: the consumers. Findings from the latest Corporate Social Responsibility Index conducted the the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and the Reputation Institute, Google is doing just fine as far as their reputation goes. Here is a look at where Google falls on the Top 50 for 2011.

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The overwhelming majority of people on the internet got there by using a computer. But in the US, 6.8% of them got there using an alternate device. The majority of those people did it with their mobile phone, but an increasing number are using tablets and that percentage is rising fast.

comScore has just released a new whitepaper called “Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits.” It’s a long name for a data-loaded report that should interest anyone in mobile marketing (which should be anyone reading this post.)

Take a look at this chart:In just a few short months, tablet usage jump up from 22.5% to 28.1%, and they did it by eating into both the mobile and “other device” categories.

Not sure there is much else to really say here. Most would give this a snarky “It’s about f’in time!” so I’ll leave that to those folks.

It does seem odd that this has taken so long to happen but stranger things have happened in the tech space. I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that it offers the stuff that Facebook does but optimized for the iPad. Was that safe enough? If you would like to see what Facebook has to tell you about the app then check out their blog post.

Many of you have been asking about Facebook for iPad. Today, it’s finally here. With the iPad app, you get the full Facebook experience, right at your fingertips. It’s a fun way to keep up with friends, share photos, chat and more.

A new study from Dynamic Logic and blip.tv, shows that viewers are watching more online video and less TV — but not by much.

The numbers show a 9% decrease in cable TV watching vs a 26% rise in viewing via PC. The real trend is in mobile, with a modest rise of 19%, but you can expect that number to keep climbing as more tablets make it into homes across the US.

The study also found that online viewing habits were starting to mimic those of regular TV viewers. Both capture the majority of their audience during the primetime hours of 8pm to 11pm, with 6pm to 8pm, coming in second for web shows.

84% of moms are using Facebook, but few are using the social network to shop. That’s one of the findings from the new report from The Direct Marketing Association and Mom365.

When asked about seeing offers on Facebook, the moms complained that they were inundated with too many offers, often from the same sender (42%). On the other hand, 72% of moms say they have liked a brand on Facebook and they did it in order to get better offers. That’s kind of like buying the weekly paper then complaining about too many papers, right?

The entire report is filled with contradictory information which I’m sure is right on target. What it proves is that we’ve yet to figure out how to effectively use Facebook to contact our customers.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is one of those guys that lives a high profile business existence. He’s the CEO and chief promoter of Netflix, he is on the board of Facebok and more. You would think it might be lonely at the top like you hear. What he has experienced recently shows, however, is that there is plenty of room at the top these days for people to push and shove to try to knock someone down a few notches. Hastings knows.

The great “Price Change Debacle” of the past few months has tarnished the once stellar reputation of the content distribution player and today is the final mea culpa of a person that, at one time, seemed to be able to do no wrong with his business.