Media

Older social media users have grown more likely to follow brands on social media sites as they’ve gained more experience interacting on them, but younger adults still outnumber them in this activity. Millennials’ enthusiasm for making friends with brands, though, may not be too far above average.

Paying for mentions in social media, or social media sponsorships, has become a more popular marketing tactic. By late 2009, it had attracted the attention of the US Federal Trade Commission, which released regulations requiring bloggers and certain other online publishers to disclose when they receive cash, free products or other compensation for a product or brand mention. But marketers are still interested in this form of outreach.

Bizo unveiled the results of an online survey of leading in-house and agency marketers. The results from more than 520 strategic marketers reveal that they are getting ready for the busiest season of the year and while they are betting big on new initiatives in social, some are also doubling down on old favorites like display. View interactive presentation

The US mobile web population will be up almost 25% this year as 97.3 million mobile owners log on to the internet from their device at least monthly, eMarketer estimates.

The study presents the results of the first nationwide performance study of residential wireline broadband service in the United States. The study examined service offerings from 13 of the largest wireline broadband providers using automated, direct measurements of broadband performance delivered to the homes of thousands of volunteers during March 2011. DOWNLOAD Report Here.

The Los AngelesTimes recently released guidelines for the use of Latino vs. Hispanic stating that the term Latino was the preferred term. By Monica Talan – Univision Insights Blog

Acculturation has always played a central role in Hispanic marketing. In the early days, it helped marketers understand the basics of how Latinos were different from mainstream consumers. This led to the development of targeted initiatives that made great strides at penetrating this growing market. Today, acculturation continues to be the ‘segmentation of choice’ for most advertisers, and is helping them understand the diversity within the segment, especially as it relates to the use of the Spanish language and media. By David Burgos / Miller-Brown

The number of Facebook users in the US will increase 13.4% this year, eMarketer estimates, after 38.6% growth in 2010 and a whopping 90.3% rise the year before. The rate of adult Twitter user adoption has similarly begun to plateau, dropping from 293.1% growth in 2009 to 26.3% this year and still slowing. In many developing countries, these and other networks are seeing their audience growth taper off as most new users come from other countries such as the BRIC nations and Indonesia.

Play, work, learning and consumption have converged in the spaces and practices of new social and mobile technologies. Millennials, Gen-Xs and Boomers—seemingly everyone has a Facebook presence. The more adventurous (or geeky) have also taken up Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare or Screener, with over 500 million active users on Facebook1 engaged in gathering an unimaginable number of friends. Smartphones and tablets are nearly ubiquitous. Friends, information, contacts, products and opportunities are but a few keystrokes away. Smart mobile technologies, now pervasive, are quite visible actors in all facets of social life, bringing new practices and experiences to consumers’ shopping, cooking and dining activities. If social media and smart technologies are seemly everywhere, why do companies and marketers so often miss the mark in building successful consumer relationships via these widely adopted tools and practices? DOWNLOAD Report Here.