Message From Michael 
September 20, 2010
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
STILL NOT GETTING IT
THE FAME OF FLAME
WEB AWARDS – BOY SCOUTS AND SYMPHONIES
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS: One out of every four Internet users in the WORLD (26.5%) is a Facebook subscriber. More than half of all the Internet users in North America (56%) and in the region of Oceania/
Now, for the rest of the story… or at least a little perspective. Yahoo, which seems to hardly get any mention in the new media mashups and musings, claims 622 Million unique visitors each month and revenues of $6.5 Billion. So, if you do the math – as in 622M is more than Facebook’s 500 M – Yahoo has one out of every three Internet users worldwide (31.5%), which certainly justifies its claim as “the world’s most visited home page.” On top of that, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reports that Yahoo’s ‘chief product officer, Blake Irving, has set a goal of One Billion unique visitors and $10 Billion in revenue. But (isn’t there always a ‘but’), the numbers, despite sounding like hard facts, are always subject to some interpretation, and different sources cite different numbers. For example, according to Google’s Double Click Ad Planner, which tracks the top 1,000 websites, Facebook has 540 Million unique visitors (and a reach of 34.8%) while YouTube has 490 Million (and a reach of 31.4%) and Yahoo has 450 Million (and 28.8%). Meanwhile Google CEO Eric Schmidt has announced plans for the launch of Google Me, a social networking site that they say is not a social networking site. Which, in a way, it isn’t. Several media observers, including Arrington, Chris Crum of WebProNews, and Nick O’Neil at AllFacebook, say Google is going to build on all of its products to produce an ‘activity stream’ that links it all together under the semi-recently launched Google Buzz. Just list out the Google products and you can see what that means – YouTube, of course; plus Picassa, Blogger, AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, Android, Chrome, Google TV (recently announced – and a whole story in itself.) To say nothing of its cloud of apps, including documents, calendar, and the list goes on and on.
STILL NOT GETTING IT: The Pew Research Center report on news consumption still has me baffled. Not the report, but the reaction that some how it’s good news. When you look at the charts (Yes, I actually look at the charts), “time spent with the news” is actually flat or down since 2004 across all age groups. That’s important because 2004 was when Online news use was first added to the Pew’s People and the Press reports. There was a significant increase in news uses from 2002 to 2004, presumably because of the addition of the Online news measurement, from an additional seven minutes for those aged 18 to 29, 13 minutes for those 30 to 39, 17 minutes for those in the 40 to 49 group and 11 minutes for those 50 to 64. Even those 65-plus added another seven minutes. But since then, from 2004 to 2010, it has been flat or down. A flat 45 minutes from 2004 to 2010 for 18 to 29 year olds; Down from 70 to 68 for 30 to 39; Up a minute from 73 to 74 for the 40 to 49 year olds; Down a minute for 50 to 64 year olds and down five minutes for the 65-plus crowd. Print newspapers take the biggest whack during that time – down seven minutes – the same time that Online news (including newspaper websites) was up. And the bottomline – from 2004 to 2010, “time spent with the news yesterday” is down two minutes from 72 minutes to 70 minutes. So, explain to me how that’s good news. In the end, it still raises the question (in my mind, at least) as to whether news is Integral or Incidental to the American people.
THE FLAME OF FAME: When Lady Gaga proclaimed two years ago in her debut album, Fame, that she was “in it for the fame,” not even she could have predicted how famous she would become. Website FameCount declared her the most famous musician, and most famous everything, worldwide, based on social networking reports. She has more than 18.2 Million Facebook fans, more than 6.3 Million Twitter followers and nearly 350 Thousand YouTube subscribers. But taking a lyric from Fame, the Musical, pop star and musical icon Michael Jackson has proved that you can “live forever” if you get enough fame. He actually has more Facebook fans (20.1 Million) and more YouTube subscribers (550 Thousand) than Lady Gaga. Where she beats him is in Twitter followers – not surprisingly since he’s dead. Actually it’s surprising he has any followers, but he does – 226 Thousand to be exact. The second most popular musician, and social network star, worldwide? Who else? Justin Bieber, with 11.6 Million Facebook fans, 6.3 Million Twitter followers and nearly 770 Thousand YouTube subscribers.
Next in line in terms of musicians is Taylor Swift (10.4 Million Facebook fans, 4.2 Million Twitter followers and 474 Thousand YouTube Subscribers.) After that it’s Michael Jackson at #4, followed by Britney Spears at #5, with 4.5 Million Facebook fans, nearly 6 Million Twitter followers and 212 Thousand YouTube subscribers. Then, it’s Katy Perry, Eminem, Shakira, Ashley Tisdale, and rounding out the top ten,
Next in line in terms of social network stars in general (after Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber) is President Barack Obama with 13.6 Million Facebook fans, 5.4 Million Twitter followers and 195 Thousand YouTube subscribers. But the big winner in terms of Facebook fans, and number four worldwide, is Texas Hold’em Poker with nearly 24 Million fans, but ‘only’ 152 Thousand Twitter followers and only One Thousand YouTube subscribers. After that, it’s back to Taylor Swift, Michael Jackson, and Britney Spears, with Ashton Kutcher coming in at #8 (5.4 Million fans, 5.8 Million followers and 10 Thousand subscribers); Selena Gomez at #9 and Facebook itself as number ten.
COCKTAIL CHATTER – WEB AWARDS. I hate these kind of lead lines, but I’m going to use it anyway – what do Catholic Boy Scouts in Connecticut and the Royal Albert Hall in London have in common? They are both winners in the Web Marketing Association’s 2010 WebAwards. Boy Scout Troop 175 of Simsbury won in the advocacy category while the Royal Albert Hall won in the arts category. They are just some of the many, and I do mean many, websites to be cited. There were at least four, and often more, levels of winners in 100 categories, and although the sheer number of winners would seem to be worthy of sarcasm, I will refrain, because they are still interesting. Some highlights – The National Geographic Channel won for Best TV Website; the Mendoza School of Business at Notre Dame won for Best University website (although there were 15 winners altogether in this category); This I Believe won in the radio category, which is doubly impressive because it was the only winner in that category; PRNewswire won for Best PR Website; the USANetwork won for Best Broadcasting site; Pictela which is a ‘brand content platform’ won for Best Media Website; and the Cincinnati Enquirer won for Best Newspaper website. Anyway, you get the picture. Visit the site (webaward.org)for yourself. And when I get a few hours to kill (yeah, right), I’ll go through and list some interesting sites in my next Message for you to visit.
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