Posts Tagged ‘facebook’
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 Facebook-led social media are redefining communication, Bing is gaining ground in search, brand dollars are shifting to online, the video boom, and rise of the smartphone and tablet markets are among the trends examined in digital measurement firm comScore’s new 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report.
“2012 promises to be an exciting year for the digital media industry as the explosion of available content and proliferation of web-enabled devices drive the evolution of the digital consumer, creating new opportunities and challenges for the entire digital ecosystem,” said Linda Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of Global Product Development.
“In order to be successful in this new paradigm, digital marketers must understand the key trends shaping the current marketplace and what that means for the future of their businesses.”
Key insights from the 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus include:
Facebook-Led Social Media Market is Redefining Communication in the Digital and Physical Worlds
- Social Networking accounted for 16.6 percent of all online minutes at the end of 2011 and is on track to surpass Portals as the most engaging online activity in 2012. Facebook continues to lead as the driving force behind this shift in consumer behavior, accounting for the largest share of online minutes across the entire web in 2011.
Bing Gains Ground in Search
 Although Google maintains a strong lead in the U.S. search market, one of the most notable stories in search in 2011 was Bing’s positive growth trajectory. Bing closed out the year by surpassing Yahoo! for the #2 position among core search engines for the first time in its history, bolstered in part by its social search partnership with Facebook implemented in early 2011.
Online Video Boom Signals Sea Change in Video Ecosystem
 Online video viewing witnessed impressive gains across a variety of measures in 2011, signaling a behavioral shift in how Americans are consuming video content. More than 100 million Americans watched online video content on an average day to close out 2011, representing a 43-percent increase versus year ago.
Digital Advertising Enters Era of Increased Accountability as Brand Dollars Continue to Shift Online
- A staggering 4.8 trillion display ad impressions were delivered across the U.S. web in 2011 as brand advertisers continued to shift dollars to the digital medium. This shift in ad dollars has magnified the need for greater transparency and accountability in ad delivery across the digital advertising ecosystem.
Smartphone and Tablets Fuel the Rise of the Digital Omnivore
 The rise of smartphones and tablets has drastically altered consumers’ digital media consumption. In 2011, the majority of all mobile phone owners consumed mobile media on their device, marking an important milestone in the evolution of mobile from primarily a communication device to also a content consumption tool. At the end of the year, more than 8 percent of all digital traffic was consumed beyond the ‘classic web’ via devices such as smartphones and tablets.
E-Commerce is Back and Better Than Ever
- Despite the backdrop of continued economic uncertainty, 2011 was a strong year for retail e-commerce. Throughout the year, growth rates versus the prior year remained in double-digits to significantly outpace growth at brick-and-mortar retail. Total U.S. retail and travel-related e-commerce reached $256 billion in 2011, up 12 percent from 2010.
To download a complimentary copy of 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, please visit:http://www.comscore.com/2012USDigitalFutureinFocus
Tags: 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus, Bing gaings, comScore, e-commerce, facebook, online video, smartphones, tablets
Posted in Hardware, Internet/New Media, IT, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, video | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
 Mark Zuckerberg is going to be extremely rich after a Facebook IPO (not that he isn't now!) Initial public offerings of stock by innovative social Internet firms are making a major impact on the markets, these days.
Below is round-up of CEOs who have all watched their companies grow from small start-ups to publicly traded juggernauts. Each CEO is ranked based on their PeekScore, or digital footprint, from around the Web.
PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news
1 Mark Zuckerberg Facebook / 2012 10.00 / 10.00
2 Larry Page Google / 2004 9.50 / 10.00
3 Andrew Mason Groupon / 2011 8.25 / 10.00
4 Mark Pincus Zynga / 2011 8.19 / 10.00
5 Tim Westergren Pandora / 2011 7.96 / 10.00
6 Jeff Clarke Orbitz / 2007 7.85 / 10.00
7 Arkady Volozh Yandex / 2011 7.09 / 10.00
8 Chen Tianqiao Shanda Games/ 2009 7.03 / 10.00
9 Shi Yuzhu Giant Interactive / 2007 7.03 / 10
10 Jeff Weiner LinkedIn / 2011 7.02 / 10
Tags: Andrew Mason, Arkady Volozh, Chen Tianquiao, facebook, Giant Interactive, Google, Groupon, Jeff Clarke, Jeff Weiner, Larry Page, LinkedIn, Mark Pincus, Mark Zuckerberg, Orbitz, Pandora, Shanda Games, Shi Yuzhu, Tim Westergren, Yandex, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet/New Media, IPOs, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, TechLife | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
 Last month saw malware attacks targeting a wide range of potential victims, including gamers looking for a Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 game crack, small business owners concerned about the reputation of their business, and government organizations receiving spoofed messages from the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).
“Anyone who goes on the internet is a potential target for cybercriminals looking to infect systems and scam users,” said Chris Boyd, senior threat researcher at GFI Software.
“Malware writers and phishers do not discriminate. They purposefully cast a wide net when picking their methods of attack in order to reach as many targets as possible. Whether you are a young gamer, a successful business owner or a government employee, you need to be wary when clicking on links that appear to pertain to your interests, especially when asked to submit personal information online.”
Gamers targeted
In addition to malware writers installing rootkits on the systems of gamers who were looking for a pirated release of Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, developed by Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc., scammers also latched onto the buzz surrounding the upcoming fourth installment of the Halo video game series, developed by 343 Industries, by offering bogus beta invites in return for filling out surveys and recommending links on Facebook and Google+.
These attacks leverage the popularity of these titles among the gaming community and are meant to take advantage of the mistakes some users might make when acting out of excitement about a favorite game franchise.
January also brought phishing emails posing as notices from the Better Business Bureau, claiming that a customer had filed a complaint against the recipient.
The messages contained links to malware created using the Blackhole exploit kit. Government body US-CERT served as another disguise for cybercriminals attempting to bait unwitting victims into opening a file that contained a variant of the Zeus/Zbot Trojan.
Meanwhile, Tumblr users were baited with “free Southwest Airlines tickets” in exchange for taking surveys and submitting personal information by a phony “Tumblr Staff Blog.”
Malware writers and internet scammers also sought to attack a wider cross-section of the population when opportunities presented themselves to creatively piggyback on hot news topics and highly trafficked websites.
This past month, the shutdown of popular file hosting website Megaupload led to a domain typo scam targeting both the regular users of the website as well as visitors who were interested in seeing the FBI notice posted on the site. Once the victims reached the misspelled URL, they were redirected to various sites promising fake prizes and asking for personal information.
“While cybercriminals may not be picky about their choice of victims, their choice of tactics is anything but haphazard,” continued Boyd. “Cybercrime campaigns are designed to cripple systems and steal personal information, but first they have to reach the victim. Once they know the profile of the group they want to attack, they will do anything they can to increase their chances of success and fool users into playing along.”
Top 10 Threat Detections for January
GFI’s top 10 threat detection list is compiled from collected scan data of tens of thousands of GFI VIPRE Antivirus customers who are part of GFI’s ThreatNet automated threat tracking system. ThreatNet statistics revealed that Trojans continue to be the most pervasive threat, taking half of the top spots for January.
| Detection |
|
Type |
|
Percent |
| Trojan.Win32.Generic |
|
Trojan |
|
35.1 |
| Yontoo (v) |
|
Adware |
|
2.23 |
| FraudTool.Win32.FakeRean |
|
Rogue Security Program |
|
1.62 |
| INF.Autorun (v) |
|
Trojan |
|
1.28 |
| Trojan.Win32.FakeAV.mqa (v) |
|
Trojan |
|
1.21 |
| Trojan.Win32.Ramnit.c (v) |
|
Trojan |
|
0.94 |
| Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v) |
|
Exploit |
|
0.86 |
| GameVance (fs) |
|
Adware |
|
0.82 |
| Pinball Corporation. (v) |
|
Adware |
|
0.79 |
| Trojan.Win32.Jpgiframe (v) |
|
Trojan |
|
0.77 |
Tags: 343 industries, facebook, free Southwest airline tickets, GFI, Google, Halo, Konami Digital entertainment, Megaupload, top ten january cyber threats, Tumblr, Tumblr Staff blog
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Security, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Monday, February 6th, 2012
 Online privacy is often more of a concern to Internet users than Internet services seem to realize. Facebook has banged up against that fact trying to make sharing a default setting, and Google stirred up blogger buzz when it announced its new policy of sharing information among its services, last week.
Frugal Dad created this infographic to look at the privacy issues the Internet community is dealing with and offer users some sound advice on how to manage their cyberspace privacy:
Tags: digital privacy, facebook, Google, online security, privacy issues
Posted in Facebook, Google, infographic, Internet/New Media, Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
 Ben Horowitz Andreessen-Horowitz, which backed Groupon, Skype, Zynga and Facebook, has raised $1.5 billion for its third fund, bringing its total amount under management to $2.7 billion.
Facebook is widely expected to file for an intial offering of public stock this week – in what is likely to be the biggest IPO event of the entire year.
Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen-Horowitz said in a statement that, “We’re remaking the modern venture capital firm and entrepreneurs are responding to our unique approach.”
Horowitz also wrote about why the firm has raised $2.7 billion in two years in a blog post, where he clearly identifies that different approach.
“We set out to design a venture capital firm that would enable founders to run their own companies,” he explains. That meant the firm’s general partners had to “be an effective mentor for a founder striving to be a CEO. This is why so many of our General Partners are former founders or CEOs or both, and they are all highly focused on helping founders become outstanding CEOs.”
The firm also backs well-known startups Foursquare, Fab, AirBnB, and Pinterest, which has been rapidly growing its footprint and gaining increasing attention in recent months and weeks.
Tags: Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz, Fab, facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Pinterest, third fund, venture capital firms, Zynga
Posted in Internet/New Media, IPOs, Money | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 30th, 2012
 Businesses still complaining about having to adopt yet another social network better listen up – the way Google displays organic search results has forever changed and will now incorporate Google+ social data in the top few organic spots in search results.
6S Marketing has created an infographic (see below text) to illustrate how Google is dominating the social search market and why Google+ is growing as rapidly as it is, comparing its growth to Facebook and Twitter.
The change, called Search Your World, will have a major impact on businesses that rely on sales through their website and displays social data from Google+ members above the regular search results returned when someone performs a search query.
This change will ultimately make it harder for people to find the information they are looking for, and for businesses, it will mean a decrease in their organic search engine traffic and sales.
Creating Google+ Business page essential
So what can businesses do to minimize the impact of Search Your World on their bottom line? For starters creating a Google+ business page is now an essential part of a search engine optimization strategy as the targeted keyphrases used within posts on the page will help to increase the number of social mentions that are displayed above the regular search results.
Along with the incorporation of social data from Google+ into the search results, the exponential growth of the social network is also another reason why businesses need to take notice and start integrating Google+ into their search engine strategy.
Currently growing at a rate of 625,000 subscribers per day, it took just 16 days for Google+ to obtain 10 million users; a subscriber base that took both Twitter and Facebook over 700 days to reach.
This growth pattern has set Google+ on the path to be the most widely used social network of all, even more so than Twitter and Facebook. Here at the TechJournal, we’re still not sure Google+ is going to overtake Facebook, which seems to us more oriented to personal friends, relatives, and old school mates more so than business for most users. Twitter, too, has unique uses quite apart from Facebook and Google+.
We think all three are to some extent different critters, but we agree that the change in Google’s search displays suggests businesses need to pay attention to Google+.
Tags: 6S Marketing, best practices, facebook, Google+ business pages, Search Your World, social search market, twitter
Posted in Facebook, Google, infographic, Marketing, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Twitter | No Comments »
Friday, January 27th, 2012
Is social media a waste of time? If it is, we’re wasting a lot of it. Nielsen reports that Americans spend more time on Facebook than on any other site, Twitter has sparked and nurtured global revolutions, and Google+ is forging ahead.
Schools.com, though, says social media is not a waste of time and created this infographic to show why:
Courtesy of: Schools.com
Tags: AOL, F, facebook, LinkedIn, MSN, schools.com, twitter, Yahoo, YouTube
Posted in Facebook, games, Google, infographic, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, Mafia Wars, social media, Twitter, video | Comments Off
Thursday, January 26th, 2012
 A modified Acura Many of the most useful automotive websites share a common thread—they consistently integrate access to social media platforms throughout their pages, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2012 Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study(SM) (MWES)—Wave 1 released today.
The semiannual study, now in its 13th year, measures the usefulness of automotive manufacturer websites during the new-vehicle shopping process by examining four key measures: speed, appearance, navigation and information/content.
Wide variation in use of social media
All automotive brand websites provide users with the ability to access various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to connect with the brand’s social media presence or share information about a brand or model under consideration.
However, there is wide variation among websites in the pervasiveness of social media access—for example, whether it’s available from only the site’s home page, or from a variety of pages.
Most useful use social media throughout site
The study finds websites that are the most useful tend to provide users with social media access from a variety of pages, including the home page, model pages, configurator tool and photo gallery. Brands that do not perform well in usefulness tend to have limited social media availability throughout their sites, such as access only from the home page and model pages.
“The widespread usage of social media has created an expectation of constant availability,” said Arianne Walker, senior director of media and marketing solutions at J.D. Power and Associates.
“By integrating links to social media platforms throughout several site features, automotive brand websites enhance convenience for users and also increase the possibility that website users will promote the brand within their social networks.”
Overall satisfaction with the usefulness of automotive brand websites has decreased significantly to an average of 772 on a 1,000-point scale in Wave 1 of the 2012 study from 784 in Wave 2 of the 2011 study, which was released in August 2011. Much of this decline is due to decreased satisfaction with navigation and information/content. These declines may be attributable to the challenges that automotive brand websites are facing in designing sites that are usable on both tablets and desktop computers.
Sites need to accomodate tablets
While only 20 percent of new-vehicle shoppers say they own a tablet, among those who do, 47 percent say they have used their tablet to access automotive information. Tablet ownership is expected to increase during the next several years, which makes it particularly important for brand websites to be able to accommodate both tablets and desktop computers without sacrificing usability on either type of device.
“As automotive brand websites attempt to accommodate the dimensions, resolution and layout best suited for tablet use, some have changed their design in ways that inhibit usage on desktop computers,” said Walker. “For example, pages that require scrolling to view all of the content on a particular page may be preferred by tablet users, but they are quite frustrating for desktop computer users, who are used to clicking to access content directly, rather than finding it on the page by scrolling.”
In addition to differing levels of tolerance for scrolling, following are two key differences in navigation conventions between tablets and desktop computers:
- For tablet devices, big button links are preferable to text links, while text links work well for website navigation on desktop computers.
- Users of tablet devices often utilize finger swiping to access website content, while desktop computer users click and drag their mouse cursors. Effective websites should allow for navigation both ways.
Acura’s website ranks highest with a score of 808 on a 1,000-point scale, and performs particularly well in the navigation and speed measures. Rounding out the five highest-performing automotive websites are Honda (806), Hyundai (803) and Infiniti and Lincoln, in a tie (802 each).
The 2012 Manufacturer Website Evaluation Study—Wave 1 is based on evaluations from more than 9,400 new-vehicle shoppers who indicate they will be in the market for a new vehicle within the next 24 months. The study was fielded inNovember 2011.
| Manufacturer Website Ranking |
| (Based on a 1,000-point scale) |
| Acura |
808 |
| Honda |
806 |
| Hyundai |
803 |
| Infiniti |
802 |
| Lincoln |
802 |
| Kia |
796 |
| Jeep |
792 |
| Lexus |
790 |
| Porsche |
787 |
| Toyota |
787 |
| MINI |
785 |
| Buick |
784 |
| Mazda |
784 |
| Cadillac |
783 |
| Subaru |
776 |
| Volkswagen |
775 |
| Nissan |
774 |
| Suzuki |
774 |
| Audi |
773 |
| Industry Average |
772 |
| Mitsubishi |
771 |
| BMW |
770 |
| Mercedes-Benz |
768 |
| Ford |
763 |
| Land Rover |
763 |
| GMC |
762 |
| Jaguar |
760 |
| Volvo |
759 |
| smart |
756 |
| Chrysler |
755 |
| Dodge |
752 |
| Ram |
752 |
| Chevrolet |
750 |
| Fiat |
729 |
| SAAB |
721 |
| Scion |
691 |
Tags: Acura, Audi, automotive web sites, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Chevy, Deep, Dodge, facebook, Ford, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, J.D. Power, Jaquar, Jeep, Kia, LandRover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Ram, SAAB, SCion, Suzuki, tablets, Toyota, twitter, YouTube
Posted in best practices, Facebook, Internet/New Media, Marketing, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Twitter | Comments Off
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
 Usage of the term “big data” has exploded online, according a Cutsomer Relationships Metrics study, but despite the buzz, a lack of workers with the skills needed analyze big data, it’s tough turning it into business action that drives results.
The study was conducted by analysts at Customer Relationship Metrics using Nielsen McKinsey’s NM Incite technology, which collects user-generated content from over 180 million sites worldwide, including blogs, message boards, usenet groups, Twitter, Facebook and Video/Image sites (e.g., Youtube, Flickr).
“Ironically, use of the term big data grew significantly in mid-2011 when McKinsey & Co. issued its seminal research report Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. The report warned of a growing shortage of talent to leverage big data and make decisions based on data trends.”
Virtually unheard of at the beginning of 2010, big data has quickly become one of the hottest buzzwords in IT circles. In the past three months, big data was the topic of discussion over 20,000 times per month in the press, blogs, and social networks, as measured by NM Incite. See accompanying chart.
Big Data? Big Problems!
But here’s the rub: even world-class enterprises are struggling with getting real value from big data, solely because knowledgeable workers are in short supply: those with the skills necessary to analyze and understand what the data is saying; translate the data into real business action that drives bottom-line results; and communicate recommendations to senior executives.
Dr. Jodie Monger, founder and president of Customer Relationship Metrics, said, “Right now, big data is nothing more than a buzzword. Everyone in IT knows that the enterprise cannot afford to overlook the massive data sets they create. They know that these data sets contain a plethora of information that can help them better serve their customers. But nobody knows how to actually reach this Holy Grail.”
Dr. Monger continued, “Ironically, use of the term big data grew significantly in mid-2011 when McKinsey & Co. issued its seminal research report Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. The report warned of a growing shortage of talent to leverage big data and make decisions based on data trends.”
Big Problems? Big Solution!
So enterprises are caught in a jam: they need to analyze and act on data trends, but don’t have people who can do the job. Increasingly, these enterprises are outsourcing the job to Customer Relationship Metrics.
Dr. Monger continued, “Customer Relationship Metrics serves many of the most recognizable consumer brands on the planet. We help these companies dig deep into their data, spotting trends that emerge from daily interactions with customers through call centers, email dialogues, chat functions, and social media interactions.”
By focusing on data embedded within real customer interactions, companies can easily identify those service issues which lead to the most customer dissatisfaction. Once these problems are fixed, reputation grows and customer satisfaction increases organically.
Dr. Monger added, “Analyzing big data can be overwhelming. But we make it simple for customers by pointing our solutions at the most meaningful data sets that can deliver the most significant customer service results in the quickest timeframe possible. We eliminate blind alleys and avoid time and resource vampires, while making big data solutions easy to implement.”
Big Data as a Managed Service
Customer Relationship Metrics is a SaaS-based end-to-end big data solution. It includes data integration, software, and analytics that can be up and running within 60 days.
Dr. Monger concluded, “Deployment is where big-data-based BI solutions break down most frequently. Custom solutions and complex software development timelines mean delays, cost overruns, and intense frustration across the chain of command. By structuring our solution as a managed service, we deliver real value from big data and business intelligence in an abbreviated timeframe, with no significant capital costs. That’s a win/win for all involved.”
Tags: big data big problem, big data is the new buzzword, blogs, Customer Relationships Metrics, facebook, Flickr, Jodie Monger, message boards, twitter, workers needed to understand big data, YouTube
Posted in Facebook, Internet/New Media, IT, LinkedIn, Studies, surveys, reports, Twitter, video | Comments Off
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
 Print and email beat Twitter and Facebook for consumers seeking great holiday deals, according to the latest JustAsk! survey from audience research and measurement company Crowd Science. The study measured the Shopitudes of consumers during the 2011 holiday season between the weeks of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Top retailers, however, benefited strongly from a Facebook presence, according to comScore.
Holiday Shopitudes. The holidays are NOT a favorite time to venture into the stores for almost one-half of study participants: 47% disagreed with the statement
“The holidays are my favorite time to shop in person”, while only 15% agreed. The negative sentiment was more pronounced as time progressed, with disagreement climbing from 45% before Thanksgiving to 49% as the holidays approached.
One-third did it all online
Almost one-quarter preferred conducting all of their holiday shopping online. But despite the relative ubiquity in ecommerce, one-in-five worry about security when buying online.
The concern over online safety was more pronounced among lighter Internet users (less than 24 hours per week) versus their more experienced counterparts. Those aged 24 years or younger were less inclined to prefer online shopping for the holidays, as compared with older shoppers.
Whether they shop in person or online, 17% of respondents admitted to doing nearly all of their holiday shopping at the last minute. Among those who denied being last-minute shoppers, women were more prominent, at 51% versus 38% of men.
Where The Deal Hunters … Hunt. When searching for the best holiday deals, 25% of those surveyed chose “visiting companies’ websites” as their favorite method, followed by print/hardcopy at 15%. Email newsletters & notifications (13%) and talking with friends and family (9%) each beat out social media channels like Facebook (3%) and Twitter (1%). One-quarter had no preferred method for finding deals.
Holiday Spending Trends. 4-in-10 anticipated spending about the same amount during the holidays as they had the year before. Those who indicated they would spend less traced more to lower income households. More interestingly, as the holiday season progressed, the study found a five-point increase in those anticipating spending more. The week ofThanksgiving, 17% said they would spend more, rising to 22% as the Christmas holiday drew closer.
“Our Shopitudes study indicates social media like Facebook and Twitter have a ways to go when it comes to influencing holiday shoppers,” says Crowd Science VP of Research Sandra Marshall.
“Another fascinating finding is the significant change that can occur in consumer shopping behaviors and sentiment over time. As the holidays approach, we saw a shift in consumers’ spending plans, away from sticking to last year’s holiday shopping budget, and more toward increased holiday spending.”
The study was performed in two waves over the extended holiday season from November 16th through December 29th, 2011. The research was conducted across the Crowd Science network with a sample of 5,301 respondents.
Tags: email, facebook, online holiday sales, online shopping trends, print, security concerns, twitter
Posted in infographic, Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
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