Posted by Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing
A new study indicates there’s a dramatic shift to “smartphone culture,” where people are using social networks and downloading media such as games on their phones, according to Magid Media Futures: Mobile 2011. Among the findings, smartphone users spend more on virtual goods in games than social networking users do.
Here is the article which highlights the key findings from the study. It seems like we all need to understand the changes that smartphones are bringing with them. I will share more on this topic as articles circulate online. Please let me know if you see anything that we should share: valerie @ jenningssocialmedia.com.
Smartphone ownership grew 35 percent from 2010 and the installed base is expected to reach half of the U.S. population in a few years.
About 45 percent of smartphone users play games on their phones. Smartphone owners are three to five times more likely to play games, use social networks, and access the internet from their phones, in comparison to traditional feature phone owners.
Magid found that among those who play games on their phones, the majority use the phone as their primary gaming device. Of those who do not play smartphone games, 55 percent said they may start playing in the next 12 months. One third of smartphone gamers who have not spent money on smartphone games say they may start in the next 12 months.
In 2010, only 10 percent of respondents said they were interested in buying in-game virtual goods on smartphones. This year, the number is 46 percent. Smartphone users spend more money on games and they spend more money, in comparison to social networking games. About 13 percent of smartphone gamers have bought virtual goods on their phones, spending an average of $67 last year. By comparison, social networking users spend $25 a year. About 8 out of 10 social network gamers have not spent any money over the past year in social games.
The survey was conducted online and included 2,482 people, of whom 2,051 were between the ages of 18 and 64. Data were collected from April 15 to April 20.
According to mashable.com article, Why Do People Follow Brands? “On Twitter, Facebook, and dozens of other social sites, normal consumers often choose to keep tabs on the brands they love.”
“In fact, many brands have highly optimized their marketing and PR strategies to accommodate that behavior, even going to far as to do one-to-one CRM (that’s customer or consumer relationship management) through avenues such as Facebook and Twitter.”
“As social CRM specialists Get Satisfaction found, many consumers who follow brands online are only in it for the perks. Around 40% of Facebook, MySpace and Twitter users in a recent study said they followed brands to get access to discounts and special deals.”
I want to share an article from Mashable.com written by Geoff Livingston about Twitter’s Hope 140 application to raise awareness for non-profit organizations. Last week, #EndMalaria Campaign users participated by retweeting and donating $10 for World Malaria Day, through Hope 140 and TwitPay. Twitter chooses what non-profit organization will be able to use Hope 140. Organizations such as Room to Read and Partners in Health will be launching its Hope 140 through retweets, public announcements and donations.
Last month saw the latest Twitter (Twitter) foray into social good efforts with the launch of the new Hope140 initiative. Its #EndMalaria campaign over the past week featured the TwitPay platform for donations, creating a new call to action for Hope140. Twitter users participated in World Malaria Day by retweeting and donating $10. The Case Foundation matched donations with a $25,000 grant.
#EndMalaria demonstrated that Twitter can be more than an awareness mechanism for non-profits. Further, Twitter is using its Promoted Tweets feature as public service vehicle, launching with two charities; Room to Read, which is campaigning to promote the building of their 10,000th library, and Partners in Health. Now Twitter’s non-profit offering provides comprehensive capabilities, from click-throughs and retweets to bona fide donations and public service announcements.
As expected, Twitter has rolled out a new tool that lets you embed a tweet on a website. The feature –- which we confirmed was on its way on Monday –- replaces the need to take a screenshot and crop tweets, like we often do in blog posts when we want to quote someone via Twitter.
Using “Blackbird pie,” you can create an embeddable tweet by first entering the URL for the chosen message in the form that Twitter has created (that URL can be found using the timestamp on a tweet – i.e. –- where it says “3 hours ago”).
From there, click “Bake It,” and Blackbird will generate the code needed to embed the tweet on your website. Twitter notes when “you paste it into your site, the tweet will pick up some of your styling, e.g. the font-family you use on your p tags. That’s intentional!” Here’s what the end result looks like:
I want to share an article written by Julie O’Dell from Mashable.com about Matt Mullenwegm, founder of blogging software WordPress. The nonprofit WordPress Foundation plans to compete with Tumblr by offering free services such as PollDaddy, Akisment and buddyPress since the collapse of Ning.
At WordCamp SF yesterday, we got to talk to WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg. He’s the man behind the Automattic empire, a collection of blogging software and complementary services, such as PollDaddy and the spam filtration system Akisment.
Mullenweg chatted with us about the demise of Ning and how buddyPress, his solution for communities, can help those folks who are left wondering about free alternatives. He also talked about how WordPress (WordPress) plans to compete with Tumblr (Tumblr), the status of the nonprofit WordPress Foundation, acquisition plans in 2010, WordPress’ focus on themes and even his favorite non-WordPress blogs.
I would like to share an article by Ben Parr from mashable.com regarding the new following feature of LinkedIn. Users now can get automatic promotional and hiring updates from companies they follow, and they can also set up the frequencies as well as the types of information they would like to receive. Companies are expected to take the advantage of LinkedIn follow button to promote their profiles and seeking potential employees.
LinkedIn has made it easier for users to connect with their favorites companies with the launch of “Follow Company,” a new feature that allows users to get notifications about activity happening from the companies they follow.
The new feature, which rolled out overnight, clearly takes cues from Facebook and Twitter — you can think of Follow Company as LinkedIn’s version of the Facebook Fan Page. However, instead of receiving status updates from the companies you follow, you will instead get information such as recent hires and promotions, new job opportunities and company profile updates.
I would like to share an article written by Adam Ostrow from mashable.com regarding AP Stylebook recent modifications, such as changing “website” to “website,” and “e-mail” to “email.” Check out the new online version Here: AP Stylebook
This might not mean much if you’re not writing or editing a tech blog, but news that the AP – whose stylebook is still the standard for all things grammar and punctuation in the news world — is officially changing “website” to “website” was met with a warm reception in our newsroom (and likely quite a few others) this afternoon.
We’d actually gone rogue on the issue ourselves several months ago, thinking that “website” was a rather antiquated way for describing “a computer connected to the internet that maintains a series of web pages on the World Wide Web.”
I would like to share an article written by David Twiddy featuring KC Next as the leading technology community. Jennings Social Media Marketing is one of the founding partners of KC Next, which is committed to supporting the technology industry in the greater Kansas City Region.When KC Next had its social networking event on April 1, 2010, it only had one clear goal: to help build the local industry.
Building on recent efforts to showcase Kansas City’s bioscience and animal health industries, a group of business leaders is rolling out a program to spotlight the area’s information technology community.
KC Next had its debut at an April 1 networking event for the tech sector. Organizers plan similar events in coming months with no set goals or timetables other than to build up the local industry.
I would like to share an interesting article by Jennifer Van Grove, Associate Editor for Mashable.com, about Twitter’s newly launched @Anywhere Platform.
@Anywhere supports auto-linkification of usernames, hovercards (similar to ones we see on Twitter.com), follow buttons, tweet boxes and user login/signup options (a.k.a. Twitter Connect). All of these tools are meant to keep visitors Twitter-happy while on third party sites.
I would like to share a recent article written by Jennifer Van Grove, Associate Editor for Mashable.com, about Google’s newest Twitter application, Google Follow Finder. This brand new app makes it easier for users to find others they might like to follow.
If you’ve already had your fill of Twitter news today — too bad — Google is out with yet another Twitter-related feature, this time releasing Google Follow Finder to help you discover new people to follow.
The new Google Twitter app is a product of the just released @anywhere developer tools and is a Google Labs (Google Labs) experiment with a singular purpose — to recommend Twitter users.
I want to share a unique story written by Ben Parr, Co-Editor of Mashable.com, about the Chirp Conference in San Francisco where Twitter’s CEO and COO announced how Twitter plans to generate income.
Twitter CEO Evan Williams and Twitter COO Dick Costolo have once again taken the stage at the Chirp Conference in San Francisco to speak about one of the biggest questions plaguing investors and pundits: How will Twitter make money?
Jennings Social Media Marketing wanted to do something a little different for our April 2010 research and analysis e-newsletter. Valerie Jennings, CEO of Jennings Social Media Marketing, interviewed Entrepreneur Andy Willoughby, owner of the 3 Step Plan home business system.
Willoughby is a friend and client of Jennings, so she felt comfortable featuring Willoughby because of his insights regarding building home businesses and addressing the need to live debt free. In the interview, Willoughby discusses what it takes to achieve financial success even in times of a recession, how to build a business, where to begin and why being an entrepreneur is the best financial route to success and freedom.
The newsletter is only available via email. You can sign up through jenningssocialmedia.com on the homepage.
Jennings Social Media Marketing in Kansas City, Mo. recently released its second case study video within a series of social media videos focused on measurable results. The second video, with 180° Urban Design & Architecture in Kansas City, features the evolution of 180°’s blog into an online news community.
Posted By: Valerie Jennings
We’ve seen professional athletes, high-profile celebrities, and the average Joe all open up to the world of Twitter and social media. According to the following blog from Mashable, the CEO of Google has joined the Twitter fold as well.
Google’s CEO Joins Twitter and Follows … Heidi Montag? At this point, not many new high- profile sign-ups to Twitter are worth reporting, sans perhaps the guy that invented the Internet and Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Twitter nemesis Facebook. But according to reports, another Twitter rival’s CEO — Eric Schmidt of Google — has joined the service. (Read More)
I wanted to share a search engine article from Mashable regarding Google’s deal with Twitter. Now, tweets will begin showing up in search engine results – a new way for marketers to obtain placements on Google! I will be available to answer search engine optimization tactics via social media marketing through our blog.
Twitter has been virtually taken over this weekend by a great cause: #BeatCancer gets brands to donate 1 cent for every tweet containing that hashtag. It’s been a huge success so far, with 200,000+ tweets being posted since the launch yesterday.
The campaign aims to break a Guinness World Record for the most social mentions, although it’s unclear where that record currently stands.
Spurred by new short-form, shoot-from-the-hip content, Web measurement tools race to embrace real-time events
Story by Rich Karpinski, Business to Business Magazine
Adobe Systems’ $1.8 billion purchase of Web analytics vendor Omniture Inc., which received regulatory approval last week, is the latest proof of the mainstreaming of online measurement.
While some market-watchers wonder how well the two companies actually fit together, the combination “has the potential to embed measurement technologies into the landscape of interactive media,” Forrester Research analyst John Lovet said. It also could signal more consolidation as well, as other competitors—most notably, Microsoft Corp.—look to acquire or partner with the remaining independent Web analytics firms. (more…)
We were pitched this story idea by Susan Bardack, chief marketing officer at Izoca,and wanted to share it with you.
Technology company reveals updated platform with a focus on social scheduling and communication
(Albany, NY) — iZoca.com, a technology company focused on efficient scheduling and communication announces a national campaign to educate groups and organizations across the country about how they can utilize iZoca to stay connected. iZoca provides a simple way for groups, organizations and individuals to share information and plan events and activities. It features tools which provide groups the ability to effectively communicate and organize both publicly and privately.
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results.
![WordPress WordPress Founder Talks About the Platforms Future [Video]](http://www.jenningssocialmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/WordPress.png "WordPress")
which provide groups the ability to effectively communicate and organize both publicly and privately.
