Fewer Women Online Spending More Time

In Most Regions, Women Spend More Time Online The average 15-plus female spends 8% more time online than her male counterpart. In April, the global average was 24.8 hours per month for women, compared to 22.9 hours for men. Read more at www.marketingcharts.com

Women Do More Social Networking

More Women Visit Social Networks, Spend More Time “How Women Are Shaping the Internet” indicates 75.8% of all women online visited a social networking site in May 2010, compared to 69.7% of men. Globally, women demonstrate higher levels of engagement with social networking sites than men. Although women account for 47.9% of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consume 57% of pages and account for nearly 57% of total minutes spent on these sites.

Latin America, North America Display Strongest Social Networking Reach Among Women Across each global region researched by comScore, social networking reached a higher percentage of women online than men. Social networking’s reach among women is highest in Latin America where it reached 94.1 percent of females online (and the highest reach among males online, 91.9%), and in North America where it reached 91% of females (and the second-highest reach among males, 87.5%).

Gays, Lesbians Active SocNet Users In addition to gender gap, there also appears to be a gap between homosexuals and heterosexuals in social networking, at least in the US, according to a recent Harris Interactive survey. Read more at www.marketingcharts.com

The economy may have come back from the brink, but demand for digital coupons appears to be picking up steam, according to new data released by Coupons.com. The company said savings from coupons printed out or loaded to a loyalty card from its online properties doubled to more than $1 billion from $529 million a year ago. The value of savings in June alone hit $110 million, the highest total to date for any single month via Coupons.com. That increase has come despite traffic to the site actually dropping in the last year from 18.2 million monthly visitors to 14.5 million. Read more at www.mediapost.com

Apparently, in-text advertisements, those seemingly annoying little ads that pop up when someone moves a cursor over a hot-linked piece of text in an article, can create impactful campaigns. According to a comScore study, Kontera’s in-text targeted ads delivered five times greater brand awareness than traditional display ads, and twice as much lift in brand purchase intent.

The study suggests 34% of consumers strongly felt Kontera in-text ads “clutter the page,” compared with 61% for interstitials, 52% for video ads, 45% for rectangle ads, and 36% for banners.

Twenty-one percent of consumers strongly agreed the in-text ads are “related to content,” compared with 14% for rectangle ads, 14% for interstitials, 10% for video, 15% for Google text ads, and 11% for banners.

Thirty three percent say in-text ads a less intrusive ad format, compared with 40% for rectangle ads, 53% for video ads, 63% for interstitial ads, and 29% for banners. Read more at www.mediapost.com

According to the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the Internet by Princeton Survey Research Associates International for the Pew American Internet and American Life Project, six-in-ten American adults are now wireless internet users, and mobile data applications have grown more popular over the last year.

The definition of a wireless internet user includes the following activities:

Going online with a laptop using a wi-fi connection or mobile broadband card. Roughly half of all adults (47%) go online in this way, up from the 39% who did so at a similar point in 2009.

Use of the internet, email or instant messaging on a cell phone. Two-in-five adults (40%) do at least one of these using a mobile device, an increase from the 32% of adults who did so in 2009.

Taken together, 59% of American adults now go online wirelessly using either a laptop or cell phone, an increase over the 51% of Americans who did so at a similar point in 2009. Read more at www.mediapost.com

Gays and lesbians are heavier users of social networks than the population at large, according to a new national survey from Harris Interactive, which also found they are more likely to read blogs than their heterosexual counterparts. These findings aren’t particularly surprising, basically confirming earlier studies showing that — like young adults and ethnic minorities — gays and lesbians tend to index higher in social network use. But in the case of gays and lesbians there is an interesting issue of correlation versus causation (at least, I find it interesting). According to the June survey of 2,412 U.S adults — including 271 identifying as gay or lesbian — 73% of the gay and lesbian respondents reported having a Facebook profile, compared to 65% of heterosexuals. Meanwhile 32% of gays and lesbians said they were members of MySpace, versus 22% of the heterosexual respondents (the proportion of both groups is declining). In the professional arena, 22% of gays and lesbians said they are members of LinkedIn, versus 16% of heterosexuals. 29% of gays and lesbians are on Twitter, versus 15% of heterosexuals. Read more at www.mediapost.com

According to the findings of the 2010 Digital Influence Index, by Fleishman-Hillard International Communications with Harris Interactive, when it comes to driving consumer decisions about a range of products and services, the Internet is by far the most influential media channel, but marketers have yet to capitalize on that influence.

Of the seven nations the study addressed, four reported the Internet to be the most important source of information. China ranked the web highest in importance, followed by Germany, Japan, and the U.K., placing it above advice from friends, family or coworkers, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, postal mail and e?mail. And though respondents spend a significant amount of time on the web, they still reported peer advice as an important information source. The Internet and peer advice tied in importance among Americans.

Net Importance Of The Internet Compared To Other Media (Net % of Respondents Considering Selected Media to Be Absolutely Essential or Extremely Important)     TV Radio Newspapers Magazines  Internet (not e?mail)  E?mail  China 3% ?18% 35% 6% 84% 68%  U.S. ?28% ?53% ?34% ?68% 1% ?4%  Japan 9% ?30% 8% ?22% 36% 16%  Germany 17% 9% 18% ?14% 52% 30%  U.K. ?26% ?54% ?54% ?66% 15% ?14%  France ?39% ?32% ?22% ?24% 10% ?18%  Canada ?36% ?43% ?26% ?62% 3% ?16% Source: Fleishman-Hillard International, June 2010; Net Importance calculated by subtracting Bottom 2 importance scores (not at all/somewhat) from top?three importance scores (Essential, Extremely, Very)   Detailed findings of consumer behavior in an average week: In the U.S., 42% of online consumers do not read magazines and 40% do not read a printed newspaper. In Canada, 42% of online consumers do not read magazines and 28% do not read a printed newspaper.  In the U.K., 36% of online consumers do not read magazines and 33% do not read a printed newspaper.  In France, 31% of online consumers do not read magazines and 28% do not read a printed newspaper.  In Japan, 29% of online consumers do not read magazines and 24% do not read a printed newspaper.  In Germany, 28% of online consumers do not read magazines and 26% do not read a printed newspaper.  In China, 5% of online consumers do not read magazines and 6% do not read a printed newspaper.     Read more at www.mediapost.com

More than one-third — 39% — of women 18-34 are now self-proclaimed Facebook addicts, Lightspeed found after surveying a nationally representative sample of 1,605 U.S. adults who use social media.

Indeed, 57% now report talking to people online more than face-to-face, while 34% say checking Facebook is the first thing they do in the morning — even before brushing their teeth or using the bathroom. Read more at www.mediapost.com

The Nielsen Company reported in June that, on average, the global consumer spends about 1 in every 4.5 minutes online on blogs or social networking sites. According to a report by market researcher Morpace, among US Facebook users time on Facebook rises to 1 in 3 minutes spent online.

Unsurprisingly, despite Facebook’s growing appeal to older users, 18- to 34-year-olds spend the most time on the site per week, at 8.5 hours out of 22.4 spent online. Weekly Facebook time drops to 4.6 hours among users ages 55 and older, representing a lower proportion of that group’s average of 21.5 hours per week on the internet.

Broken down by race and ethnicity, Morpace found Facebook usage heaviest by Asians. Not only did that group spend the most hours per week on the site, but they also devoted the greatest percentage of their weekly internet time to Facebook (39.6%, compared with 35.1% among blacks, the second-highest group). Hispanics spent the fewest hours on Facebook, and even compared with their low average time online came in last.

See more at www.emarketer.com

CHART OF THE DAY: Here’s What People Are Actually Doing With Their Cellphones

Some 34% of cellphone owners polled this year send and receive email on their mobile devices, up about one-third from 25% last year. Some 38% “access the Internet,” also up from about 25% last year.

See more at www.businessinsider.com

See more at www.smrb.com

See more at www.smrb.com

See more at www.smrb.com

See more at www.smrb.com

See more at www.smrb.com

Many social media marketers are eager to tie a hard number to the value of their efforts. To that end, firms have attempted to analyze the worth of fans and followers on social networking sites like Facebook.

Digital consulting firm Syncapse and research company Hotspex have come up with an empirical formula that puts an average value of $136.38 on the Facebook fans of the site’s 20 biggest corporate brands. Most of that value comes from how much the fans will spend on the brand’s products, with additional dollars coming from customer loyalty, recommendations and earned media.

The study found that people spent significantly more on products they were fans of, compared with consumers who were not fans. In the case of many of Facebook’s most popular food and beverage marketers, fan spending was more than double that of non-fans.

The pattern of increased fan spending held across all of the top 20 brands on Facebook, with differences ranging from 51% for Oreo fans to 168% for fans of Nokia. Read more at www.emarketer.com

See more at www.marketingcharts.com

According to the results of the 2010 Mom Social Influencer segmentation study by BabyCenter, five unique segments of social moms are broken down into two categories, the Influencers, Field Experts, Lifecasters and Pros, and the Influenced, labeled in the report as Butterflies and the Audience.  The Influencers make up only 18% of social moms, but they wield 78% of the influence.

Tina Sharkey, Chairman and Global President, BabyCenter says “Since 2006, the number of moms using social media has skyrocketed more than 500%… marketers (can) shift their mindset from social media to social marketing by gaining a better understanding of who the mom influencers are… “

Share of Influence by Social Medium    Share of Influence (% of Respondents in Social Category)   Blogs Twitter Facebook BabyCenter Influencer    Field Experts 0 1 18 44    Lifecasters 2 29 47 32    Pros 89% 68 5 2 Influenced    Butterflies 6 5 15 3    Audience 1 3 15 17 Source: BabyCenter 2010 Mom Social Influencer Study, June 2010 (percentages approximate rounded) Read more at www.mediapost.com

A full 95% plan to go online, according to new research from rich-media solutions provider Unicast. And what do they plan on doing when they get there?

What are women planning to do this summer? A full 95% plan to go online, according to new research from rich-media solutions provider Unicast. And what do they plan on doing when they get there? Over three in four — 76% — plan to connect with friends and family, Unicast found after polling 516 adult women. Meanwhile, 67% plan to keep up with news; 64% plan to shop for sales/compare prices; 59% intend to entertain themselves (play games, listen to music or watch TV/movies); and 48% will research travel/vacations. Among the ads that women will encounter online, this summer, the most likely to resonate include those related to sale and discount codes. Indeed, a full 46% of women respondents said they would be keeping an eye out for such ads. Just under a third — 31% — said ads that involve creating/submitting an entry to win a prize would get their attention; 24% noted those ads that provide customized local information; and 22% said they’d likely respond well to ads that offer interactive surveys/quizzes. Read more at www.mediapost.com