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It’s been another busy week in the fast-changing social networking world. Here are a few updates from The GH Spin’s “In case you missed it” file. - Time Magazine’s Person of the Year: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was named 2010 Person of the Year by Time Magazine. Time credits Zuckerberg with wiring together a “twelfth of humanity into a single network.” It is clear that Zuckerberg has made an enormous impact on the way we communicate, and Facebook’s popularity is not expected to wane soon – more than 250 million people (or half of Facebook’s members) use the social networking site daily.
- Mobile phone use increases: While this may come as no surprise due to the increasing popularity of smartphones, a recent eMarketer survey found that people spend as much time on their mobile phones as they do reading a newspaper and a magazine combined. The average user spends 50 minutes a day using his or her mobile phone, 30 minutes reading a newspaper, and 20 minutes reading a magazine.
- Myspace integrates with Facebook: Myspace is now letting users log into their Facebook accounts through their Myspace pages. Myspace will import users’ likes and interests listed on their Facebook walls and stream entertainment content based on these interests. According to Myspace, this move will deliver an “even richer entertainment experience” to its users. Learn more here.
Some of us may remember the first time we saw a Web browser and started our journey down the information superhighway. The Internet and its impact on our lives have since exploded, and we’ve reached a “digital tipping point.” Americans now spend as much time online as they do watching TV, according to a recent Forrester study. The average U.S. household watches an average of 13 hours of TV per week, equaling the amount of time spent on the Internet. While people ages 18 to 30 have watched TV and surfed the Web equally for a few years, this is the first time Gen Xers (those ages 31 to 44) have joined the trend. It’s not that we are collectively watching less TV; it’s that Internet use has gone up 121% since 2005. With more people making the Internet a growing part of their daily lives, it’s even more important for anyone who needs to reach customers and other audiences to have a strong digital strategy to complement traditional communications. Those who integrated blogs, social media, and other new channels into their existing communications early on may not be surprised by this information. Others who are waiting to see if the Internet “trend” will sustain itself need to accept this new reality. The digital Pandora’s Box is not going to close anytime soon. Faster networks, smarter phones, and more access to the Web regardless of where you are will expand Internet use and data consumption. What will never change is the need to have a smart plan in place that connects all of this to goals that matter to your company or organization.
A recent PEW Research Center survey shows that Americans are spending less time reading newspapers, but more time consuming news (an average of 70 minutes per day). It’s no surprise that the growing number of digital news options caused the change. The GH Spin wants to find out how you get the news. Please take our survey below: 
A common excuse for not integrating social media into a company’s communications is that Facebook skews too young. The assumption is that kids text and tweet, but people 50 and older would rather talk and meet than update their status. But things have changed. The power of Facebook has now reached into another demographic segment. According to a recent survey conducted by the PEW Research Center, social networking use among adults 50 and older has doubled over the past year. Nearly half (47%) of Internet users ages 50-64 and more than a quarter (26%) of users age 65 and older use social networking sites, growth rates of 88% and 100% respectively. The survey also shows that social networking sites have become a large part of older adults’ daily Internet habits – 20% of adults ages 50-64 and 13% of adults age 65 and older log on to social networking sites on a typical day. PEW researchers believe that older adults are attracted to social media because it bridges generational gaps and provides a connection to family and friends who live far away. Social networking sites have also become popular places for professional networking, continuing education, and political participation. It is also a resource for sharing information about health issues, much like people would do via traditional conversations. Social networking sites have rapidly become one of the easiest and most beneficial ways for a business to create and maintain relationships with its key audiences. The new research builds on the already high level of use among people in their 30s and 40s. As these users age, they continue their connection to Facebook and social media. For businesses and others who need to reach people 50 and over, it’s time to make sure you have a social media component within your overall communication strategy. If you need help navigating this premier communications platform, let us know.
The Library of Congress dived into the electronic diaries of millions of Americans this month when it acquired Twitter’s entire archive of public tweets. Storing tweets ranging from the horribly mundane to the historically significant, the archive serves as a window into the common person’s reactions to cultural and political movements. The Twitter archive is a 21st century version of the Gallup Poll. For more than 75 years, historians, sociologists, and other researchers have used Gallup Poll results to analyze public opinion about presidents, religion, foreign policy, and more. These statistics have been instrumental in understanding the 1960s counterculture and public reaction to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The Twitter archive will broaden the scope of the Gallup Poll, increasing the opportunities for future historians to analyze American culture. Just think about the mountains of research that could be done about our obsession with celebrities (Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett’s deaths) or our fast food eating habits. While weeding through the more-than 50 million tweets posted each day poses a Herculean task for any researcher, the trending topics will be extremely important to future researchers trying to figure out what the Justin Bieber phenomenon was all about.
This morning I learned about the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Pawlenty’s unallotments not through a traditional news source but through Twitter. The past two weekends, I avidly followed the DFL and GOP conventions through Twitter. Even though I didn’t attend either convention, I knew the instant endorsements were made thanks to my fellow tweeters. Twitter has rapidly evolved into the fastest way to disseminate information. In fact, some researchers recently heralded the site as the future of news. According to the study, timely topics make up more than 80% of discussions on Twitter, and 54% of tweets are “headline news.” Twitter has become the best way to break news and share important information. In fact, many reporters get story ideas and information through Twitter. But, because tweets are limited to only 140 characters, links to more in-depth articles are essential. Traditional news agencies and reporters are not going to go extinct because of Twitter. Instead, they are adapting to the rigorous pace of digital reporting. So, even though “flashing on the screen” might replace “hot off the presses” as the breaking news cliché, newsrooms will still be buzzing.
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press just released a new study that tests Americans’ reactions to words and phrases that are used frequently in political conversations: “capitalism,” “civil liberties,” “civil rights,” “family values,” “libertarian,” “militia,” “progressive,” “socialism,” and “states’ rights.” Here are the results, so look away now if you want to rank the words yourself from most positive to least positive impression. 1. Family Values: 89% positive/9% negative
2. Civil rights: 87%/10%
3. Civil liberties: 76%/14%
4. States rights: 77%/15%
5. Progressive: 68%/23%
6. Capitalism: 52%/37%
7. Libertarian: 38%/37%
8. Socialism: 29%/59%
9. Militia: 21%/65% As expected, Democrats and Republicans differed in their reactions. Democrats were more favorable than Republicans to “civil liberties,” “civil rights,” “libertarian,” “progressive,” and “socialism.” Republicans responded more positively than Democrats to “capitalism,” “family values,” “militia,” and “states’ rights.” But one word is conspicuously absent from the survey. It is perhaps the most used – or overused – word in politics: “change.” It was spoken so frequently during the last Presidential election that it became part of an Obama speech drinking game. The word “change” also illustrates well that people’s reactions differ depending on who you ask and when you ask. “Change” generally has more positive connotations with younger people than older people, according to a February 2010 Pew study. During the 2008 elections, most voters would have probably said that change in American politics primarily meant a break from political leaders of the past. Those same voters today might instead associate political change with transforming Wall Street and corporate leadership. Before the politicians of 2010 become overly fond of using any particular words, I hope they consider that words and connotations are ever-changing. If there is a politician out there who wants to talk semantics strategy, I’m all ears.
Advertising is an industry based primarily on statistics. But with more advertisers placing ads in non-traditional locations, it’s becoming harder to measure how successful these ads are. The Nielsen Company recently developed a way to measure the reach of what they called “fourth screen” advertisements. (“Fourth screen” refers to video ads in places other than television, computer, and mobile devices). The results are surprising. According to its inaugural report, an advertisement in a non-traditional location reached 61.7 million adults, while its counterpart on primetime broadcast TV reached only three million adults, meaning it would take 20 primetime ads to reach the same audience as a month-long non-traditional advertising campaign. These new advertising mediums are shoving more content at an already over-saturated public because we watch less TV, listen to less traditional radio, and read fewer magazines and newspapers. While this situation might annoy us, it also complicates the equation for advertisers trying to decide the best venues to place their ads. To read more, click here.
The GH Spin spends a lot of time thinking about Facebook. Besides checking out updates from our friends, there is another good reason. Facebook isn’t just for college students anymore. The largest and fastest-growing social media service is a way of life for the more than 400 million people who actively use it. By harnessing the energy and ideas of its millions of users, the site creates an environment where people can easily share information and connect with others. (Goff & Howard has its own page, and we also create and monitor Facebook pages for our clients.)  What’s the big fuss about Facebook? The site has the largest number of users of any social networking site. Half a million people join the site each day, and the fastest-growing demographic of users is people over the age of 30. But, what is even more significant is how often users visit the site to create and consume wall posts, videos and links (otherwise known as content). More than 200 million people visit the site daily, and the average user spends 55 minutes per day and views 661.8 pages each month (twice as many page views as its closest rival, Hi5). So, what does this mean for you? Facebook has rapidly become one of the easiest and most beneficial ways for a business to create and maintain relationships with its key audiences. If you need help navigating this premier communications platform, let us know.
Some of my Republican friends have been unhappy with me lately because I’ve cautioned that this could become not so much an anti-Democratic year, but an anti-incumbent and anti-establishment one. Pollster Scott Rasmussen’s latest Rasmussen Reports survey of public attitudes about Congress illustrates what is brewing. While Americans have been giving Congress historically low approval ratings for the past two and a half years – typically in the low teens – Rasmussen has found in recent months that a supermajority of Americans give Congress a “poor” rating – 71% in February and 64% in a new survey released this week. Of course, Americans love to bash the stupidities of Congress. From Mark Twain and H. L. Mencken to late-night comedians, political satire has been a staple of our popular culture. But voters’ attitudes seem to be moving from bemused (or fatalistic) resignation to something edgier. The most fascinating finding in the Rasmussen survey is this: while a supermajority of Americans overall think Congress is performing “poorly,” 53% of Rasmussen’s group of voters described as the “political class” segment think Congress is doing a “good” or “excellent” job! These are voters who typically trust elites and the intentions and efficacy of government. (They also represent, according to a January 2010 Rasmussen survey, something like only one in ten voters.) “Political class” voters are likely to work in the media or in the public sector (largely shielded by the convulsions in the private economy), or are active in party politics. They hold a much more sanguine view of the state of current affairs than do perhaps 90% of their fellow citizens. When cultural elites and their fellow travelers hold widely divergent (and far more optimistic) views from the rest of society in a time of economic crisis, incendiary things can happen.
The only bright spot in the PEW Research Center’s dismal report on the state of American journalism is the resurgence of cable news networks. Prime-time viewership for FOX, CNN and MSNBC grew 7%, while daytime viewership rose 16% over the past year. Additionally, overall cable news revenues rose an estimated 5% due to subscription fees and audience growth. While this is positive news for the industry as a whole, it is important to recognize that cable news shows became noticeably more ideological in 2009. The strongest ratings growth and overall ratings were among partisan talk shows – FOX’s Glenn Beck program was up 96% while The O’Reilly Factor was up 16%. If cable talk shows are the future of television news, viewers will need to watch critically.
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