A breakdown of the time audiences spend consuming major media, showing trends from 2009-2012. Chart courtesy of eMarketer.com.
 

Are people still tuning in to radio and TV in big numbers?  How much is mobile and online usage really growing?

Every year, the CJRW team puts together a “State of the Media” report for our clients in order to provide an overview of current trends in the media industry and educated predictions for the future.  Our staff of media experts constantly analyze articles and reports from across the industry to ensure that we continue to invest client budgets in the most effective and cost-efficient media channels possible, and to ensure the best possible results from marketing plans.

This year, as with the past few, the data show a changing landscape, but one in which television and other “traditional” media still wield powerful influence.

This year’s findings reveal that:

• Media technology and consumer consumption patterns have changed considerably over not only the last decade but also the last few years.
• Seventy-nine percent of adults now use the Internet as opposed to 46 percent in 2000.
• In 2004, Facebook and Twitter did not exist.  They now have over one billion and 500 million active users, respectively.
• In 2006, 89 percent of television content was viewed live.  That figure has decreased to 85 percent in 2012.
• Digital Video Recorder (DVR) usage has increased from just under two percent of TV viewing time to eight percent in the last five years.
• Twenty-three percent of consumers wanted to be able to download their books, magazines, and newspapers to a digital device in 2007.  Now 36 percent express interest in this digital option.
• In 2009, only 28 percent of Americans reported streaming a movie.  That has increased to 42 percent in 2012.
• Fourteen percent of people now consider streaming a movie to their computer or television as their favorite way of watching a movie compared to four percent in 2009.
• Thirty-seven percent of consumers use GPS for directions in 2012 compared to 22 percent in 2009.
• Smartphone penetration is now between 48 and 50 percent.  Penetration was 30 percent in late 2010.

This year, members of CJRW’s public policy team attended both the Republican National Convention in Tampa and the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. Trips such as these allow CJRW to stay on top of the latest public policy issues, strategies, and communications tactics.

The “Crazy Season” comes to an end today. Across our state and the country, people are lining up at the polls (at least those “traditionalists” who didn’t vote early), and experts are getting geared up to discuss and debate the results on TV, radio, and the Web.

In fact, CJRW’s own Gabe Holmstrom and Jordan Johnson will be taking to the airwaves today to analyze the action and respond to questions about the national and local elections. Catch Gabe on a live video feed at arkansasmatters.com from 7-9 p.m. and 9-midnight on KARZ and KARK TV. Jordan Johnson will be live on KTHV TV from 6 to 8 p.m.

Jordan Johnson

Gabe Holmstrom

Like 2008, digital and social media has played a strong role in this election cycle, from Twitter response and discussion of televised debates, to more targeted political advertising online and through social networks. In fact, CJRW staff noticed that tech and social media companies were very prominent at the party conventions and bloggers are now an accepted part of the media pools covering such political events.

So, will social media actually live up to the hype and play a strong role in today’s results? Will the online and offline worlds eventually converge with online voting in future national elections? Today’s election will likely tell us a lot about where things are headed. So, tune in tonight to see how it all plays out and to hear what Gabe and Jordan think it all means.

In the meantime, what better way to conclude this series than with something visual to grab your attention?  Let’s start with video …

To further sum up our BlogWorld education, we thought we’d share some of the best presentation slides and advice via photos …

The business focus of many sessions on social media was perhaps best captured in this slide from Dave Fleet, who points out that social media marketers need to focus on business goals and objectives and do better planning and measurement. Oh, and behave like a human, not a marketing robot.

Dave Griner reiterated the importance of conducting adequate research before jumping into new media (specifically, “know your audience”).

 
Griner also pointed out the importance of turning short-term excitement into long-term relationships.

BlogWorld’s multiple mobile presentations provided mounds of interesting data.  Local business owners should take note of how popular accessing local information is on mobile devices.

What’s the trend in broadcast?  Pairing TV spots with online campaigns and online video.

Check out our complete series of BlogWorld posts here.

Two words popped up in formal presentations and casual conversations throughout BlogWorld New Media Expo earlier this month: Social business.  It is the “buzz term” of the moment in the social media world, but, unlike some of other sillier social media jargon out there (“Tweeps,” anyone?  Or this kind of stuff), this term actually means something.

Though the exact definition is still being debated, the general idea, as BlogWorld presenter Dave Fleet put it, is that social marketing/branding is about external audiences and is really only “half the puzzle.”  Social business, on the other hand, is internal – company business processes, training, collaborative work, organizational models, policies and guidelines, and company culture – and is the driver that supports all of the ongoing branding activity.  In order for a business or brand to truly succeed in social media (and marketing in general), then social concepts, technology, and ideals need to be woven throughout the business or brand’s culture and, as in social media, openness, sharing, and collaboration must be encouraged.

In other words, business leaders should ask themselves: If we aren’t succeeding at engaging with and igniting passion in our own employees, can we really expect to succeed at engaging with and igniting passion in our target audiences via social media?

As we discussed in an earlier post, the focus of many BlogWorld & New Media Expo presentations was on bringing more of a business focus to social media.  Several others, meanwhile, discussed specific aspects of the “social business” concept.  For instance, a presentation by Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant, authors of the new book,  “Humanize: How People-centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World”, addressed the importance of changing the internal culture of companies in order to better engage, connect, and encourage employees and “humanize” brands from the inside out.  To support their points, they cited some interesting data from recent research:

• 30% of employees are actively disengaged
• 24% of team members say they don’t see their managers enough
• 46% of new hires leave their jobs within the first year
• 41% of millennials say social media is important to them in the workplace
• Employees with the most extensive digital networks are 7% more productive than their colleagues (MIT)
• 39% of 18-to-24-year-olds would consider leaving (a job) if they were not allowed to access applications like Facebook and YouTube

Check out more of these interesting research findings here. To check out our previous BlogWorld posts, go here.

Math goes social.*

If you’re in business, you’re probably quite familiar with the concept of Return on Investment, or ROI (if you’re not, well … you may be in some trouble).  For those who work in the realm of social media, ROI has been a bit of a boogieman for the past several years.  The great stumbling block for social media communicators, consultants, and advocates has been the question of how you measure its value for businesses.  In short, if a business chooses to invest time and effort in establishing and maintaining a presence in social media, just how do they know it’s worthwhile?  An even briefer, more direct summary: How can it make money for your business?

One of the most exciting things to come out of the 2012 Blogworld and New Media Expo was a renewed (or some might say entirely “new”) focus on the hard business of social media.  Slowly but surely, it seems, communications professionals are moving beyond fans and followers (or “made-up” metrics like “Return on Engagement”) as measures of success and establishing a more business-oriented approach.  Several speakers gave engaging and informative presentations on the topic of ROI, but there were several standouts, including Clay Hebert and Dave Fleet.  Both of them addressed this simple, but oh-so-important acronym:

SMART – Specific Measurable Actionable Realistic Timebound

It may be corny, but it’s true:  Any social media marketing effort must be SMART.  It should have a specific, well-defined business objective; it should be something engaging that drives a specific action or activity; and, more importantly it should be achievable – nothing too pie-in-the-sky.  It should also take place over a defined period of time.

Being SMART will help businesses get and measure results.

To sum up this point and explain exactly what a business should consider before jumping into the teeming social media pond, we turned to noted blogger, author and consultant Jay Baer …

* Slide is from Clay Hebert’s presentation about measuring social media success. The full presentation is available on SlideShare here.

Exactly how do you view your mobile device (or, if you prefer, “cell phone,” though they are usually much more than phones these days)?  Is it a way to keep in touch with friends?  A tool for doing business?  A glorified Web browser?

New data released last week during Blogworld & New Media Expo reveals that you may answer this question differently depending upon your gender.  According to a recent general U.S. population survey by IncSlingers and Qualtrics, women see their mobile devices as an “enabler for social interactions,” while men view it as a “practical tool.”

Other interesting study findings:

• 58% of men use their mobile device in bed.
• 71% of men use their mobile device while watching TV.
• 53% of men use their mobile device while eating.
• 55% of women use their mobile device in bed.
• 64% of women use their mobile device while watching TV.
• Men are more easily influenced by brands to download apps than women, who are more influenced by friends.
• Men are very likely to make a purchase via mobile based on ads they see on TV or on their mobile device, while women are less likely to do so.
• In general, women use mobile devices to create and share social content and they are less influenced by brands than men.

Simon Salt, author and CEO of IncSlingers, delivered this new data during his BlogWorld presentation, and we caught up with him later to get his thoughts on how companies should approach mobile marketing and what the future holds for incorporating social media and mobile elements into “traditional” TV advertising.  Check out his advice (and note the importance of mobile and mobile-optimized websites):

Trying to see the future of social media…

Is the “Shiny New Toys” era of social media coming to an end?  Has the marketing community finally come to an agreement on how to measure success in social media?  Just how important is mobile marketing anyway?

These are just a few of the questions raised at BlogWorld New Media Expo in New York City, a major conference and tradeshow for bloggers, podcasters, and social media leaders.  We spent much of last week at BlogWorld and a grand old time was had by all, but, more importantly, we came away with some fantastic information on the latest in digital communications technology, marketing trends, consumer data, and much more.

We’ll be posting about what we learned at Blogworld all week, but we’ll start with some basics: the latest data on social media use in America.

On the opening day of BlogWorld, Tom Webster of Edison Research presented a new report on social media use titled “The Social Habit 2012: How Americans Real Use Social Media.”  Some of the best tidbits from Webster’s research were:

• More than half of social networkers are between the ages of 12-34, but the greatest growth is being seen in the 45+ age group.
• 54% of Americans 12+ have a profile on Facebook (80% of all 12-17-year-olds have a Facebook profile)
• 13% of Americans have a LinkedIn profile
• 10% of Americans are on Twitter (an estimated 26 million people)
• 71% of LinkedIn users have four-year college degree
• 22% use a social networking site several times a day (around 58 million people)
• 4 in 10 Twitter users use it nearly every day or more frequently.
• 76% of Twitter users are posting updates, up from 47% in 2010
• 43% of Americans say they hear Twitter mentioned “almost every day.”
• The majority of social networkers own smart phones.

Tomorrow we’ll expand on some of this data and provide some new research on mobile marketing.  We’ll also post our interview with mobile marketing expert and author, Simon Salt.

In the meantime, check out this word cloud based on the notes we took throughout the conference.  This should give you an idea of the conference’s most-discussed topics and ideas (Looks like “social” and “content” were pretty important, no?):

At the center of the media firestorm over Petrino was University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long, who has been praised far and wide for his handling of the situation. Both before and after Long’s news conference to announce the decision regarding Petrino’s future with the U of A, several media outlets contacted us to discuss crisis communications and how well Long had performed under such tremendous pressure.

(Full disclosure: we’ve worked with Long and his team on a handful of projects the past few years, including the highly successful ‘Answer the Call’ initiative, the RSVP football seat licensing program.)

Our own Jordan Johnson appeared on Little Rock CBS affiliate KTHV to discuss exactly why Long earned the praise and what others can learn from him about crisis communications:

As Jordan pointed out in the interview, one key to Long’s success was that he understood today’s 24/7 media cycle and the need to get out ahead of speculation and rumors by taking the lead in communicating about the incident.  It is also worth noting that the University of Arkansas Athletic Department followed his lead by addressing the situation in a direct and timely fashion through social media:

It is important for any organization, whether public or private, to consider the role of social media during a crisis (there are many possible uses) and how they can work it into their existing crisis communications plan, if they haven’t already.  If you work for an organization that is still developing a plan, then social media should certainly have a prominent spot within it.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why social media should have a prominent place in crisis communications plan, just take a look at recent research that shows social media is now one of the top sources for news, ahead of radio and now neck-in-neck with newspapers.

Brian Kratkiewicz, our (now famous) media director, was featured in a recent Arkansas Business article about billboard advertising and its viability in today’s economic and advertising climate.

As Brian points out in the piece, outdoor is definitely not “out” in this digital day and age.  In fact, he explained that national outdoor ad spending is at about $6.8 billion and likely to grow.  He added that billboard advertising is one of the most – if not the most – cost-efficient media out there.

You can read the full article here , but there’s more to the story.  Brian says the entire “out-of-home” ad medium is growing at a healthy clip.  For those who don’t speak media buyer-ese, “out-of-home” includes all kinds of signage – from billboards to digital signs like you find in airports, hotels and bars, as well as subway and train posters and bus stop posters.

Indeed, according to Brian’s research, total out-of-home ad revenue is projected to grow from $6.8 billion in 2012 to $7.6 billion by 2015, an 11.8% increase.  The 2011 Magnaglobal Advertising Forecast Report states that the most important factor in out-of-home ad growth is that digital out-of-home will nearly double in size, from $2.6 billion in 2011 to $5.2 billion in 2016.  Cinema advertising will also aid the increase in out-of-home ad spending, increasing from $2.9 billion in ad revenue to $4.4 billion over the same time period.  These increases will far exceed the steady increase that will be seen by billboards and posters – 6.8 percent growth each year through 2016.

So, there you have it, marketers.  Outdoor isn’t going anywhere.  If you’d like to check out some of our outdoor work, just go here.

While many companies are pouring time and money into chasing big numbers of followers or trying to reach “influencers” (those with large numbers of social media followers who supposedly hold great sway over others), it may be more effective to concentrate on cultivating smaller, tighter-knit communities centered around particular topics of interest – a place where friends can share with each other and, in turn, share with other, smaller audiences until critical mass is achieved.  As this recent AdAge piece points out, real content sharing happens friend-to-friend, not through “influencers.”

NOW we're engaging...

At CJRW, we’ve found that targeting content or calls-to-action to well-defined groups can be extremely effective when it comes to engagement and spreading of specific messages. For instance, we worked with the Stamp Out Smoking campaign to target the older youth audience in Arkansas through the launch and growth of a unique, content-focused competition called “The Big Pitch” Film Festival.  Begun in 2003, the contest has grown steadily through the years with the incorporation of more social and interactive elements designed to both engage the target audience and encourage sharing.  For the 2011 version of The Big Pitch, middle, junior and high school students across Arkansas were challenged to write, film, star in and produce their own 27-second TV commercials that communicated why their parents should quit using tobacco, why their peers should never start and the dangerous effects of smokeless tobacco.  The results in 2011?  An 80 percent increase in the number of entries over 2010 and a large increase in traffic for Stamp Out Smoking’s website.

The addition of the interactive, voting element (Engagement!) to the contest has been critical in this traffic growth. Prior to voting being open for The Big Pitch Film Festival, stampoutsmoking.com received a monthly average of 1,514 visits and 3,567 page views in fiscal year 2011.  Thus, the month of March saw a 165.8 percent increase in visits and a 99.7 percent increase in page views.  In April, there was a 97.6 percent increase in visits and a 38.4 percent increase in page views.

We’ll be posting more on this subject in the very near future, as well as a closely related topic – content strategy. In the meantime, you can find plenty more on this topic around the web. You can also check out examples of our work with Stamp Out Smoking here or share your thoughts with us.