Where do Americans begin their online day? According to a study released today by ExactTarget, 58 percent check their e-mail, while 20 percent go first to a search engine or portal site and 11 percent start with Facebook. A conscientious (or worried) 3 percent make their company’s site or intranet their first online destination of the day. Five percent go first to a news site and 3 percent go to some other destination. Read more at www.adweek.com

What does the worldwide, technologically enabled drive for conversations mean for marketers? It means you’re no longer marketing products or services — you’re marketing conversations. It means marketing-communication planning should be driven by a conversation strategy.

The right conversation strategy answers two big questions: What meaningful content will attract sufficient conversations with the right people? And, how will you jump-start conversations and keep them alive?

When people are starved for time and already engaged in many conversations, jump-starting new and meaningful conversations is the big challenge of marketing today. Just building a website, writing a blog or posting videos on YouTube doesn’t mean sufficient numbers to impact ROI will find them organically, much less take the time and energy to converse with you. By definition a conversation requires others to be present and participate — otherwise you’re talking to yourself. Perhaps therapeutic, but no way to make a living.

Even if people know there’s an opportunity to have a conversation with you — on Twitter or your blog, for instance — you can’t expect them to engage given all the other demands on their time. You’ll need a strategy that both gets them to know you exist and care so much that you exist, they’ll become intrigued about conversing with you. This requires a strategy that integrates search optimization, media, message and contributions of content from consumers.

A multimedia mix framed to spark conversations requires a compelling message concept that can work across a multimedia platform. Its foundation has to be far more than a one-time promotion or product attribute; it must be a message strategy that connects brand meaning with search habits and accommodates ongoing contributions that can range from casual conversations to consumer-generated content. Read more at adage.com

A post made last week to The Video Commerce Consortium focused on how eCommerce retailers have been slow to adopt online video as a component of their marketing mix. Many valid reasons were presented, including a lack of online video stewardship within retailers.

Video and eCommerce is a natural fit. There is perhaps no better way to present products than through the lens of a video camera. Not to mention that many retailers already create video content for other purposes.

eCommerce marketers view email and keyword campaigns as efforts separate from web video marketing. In its essence, web video marketing is “a form of direct marketing which uses audiovisual content as a means of communicating commercial or marketing messages to an audience over the Internet.”Read more at blog.flimp.net

viewers are twice as likely to ignore TV ads as online ads, and are 28% more likely to pay attention to online advertising, according to the report.

Online video already accounts for nearly 32% of all time spent online by video viewers, while approximately 70% of respondents report watching online videos at both home and work.

“Unlike television consumption, which mostly happens during the primetime hours of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., people across all demographics are watching online videos consistently throughout the day and night, with the exception of dinnertime,” said Jason Kramer, chief strategy officer at Interpret. “This fundamental shift in consumer behavior opens up opportunities for publishers, advertisers, agencies and marketers.” Read more at www.mediapost.com

Americans are spending more time online, on both a daily and weekly basis. At-home access far outstripped at-work access time in 2008, according to Harris Interactive. Expect both trends to continue in 2009, as a hefty percentage of unemployed people use the Internet to find jobs or additional training or education, and adults who are worried about the economic and international news check in more frequently.

See more at www.emarketer.com