Message From Michael 
April 6, 2011
A SEXTUPLE INCREASE
LOVING IT
EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF INTERNET USE
TWITTER ME THIS
EQUAL TIME
FACTOID(S) OF THE WEEK – TV VIEWING
WORTH NOTING –
A SEXTUPLE INCREASE. Okay, sure, I could have used ‘six fold increase’ but haven’t we always been told that ‘sex sells’ even if the ‘sex’ in this case refers to six. Anyway, that is the increase in the percentage of Americans using Facebook in just the past three years – from a mere 8% in 2008 to a munificent 51% now, according to The Infinite Dial report by Arbitron and Edison Research. As amazing as that increase is, equally amazing is the increase in the percentage of Americans using SmartPhones. That percentage more than doubled in only one year from one in seven (14%) of those 12 and older having a SmartPhone last year to one in three (31%) this year. At 51%, the percentage of Americans using Facebook constitutes a ‘majority’ for the first time. Even more interesting, the report notes that the greatest growth has been in the 35 to 54 demographic, so that Facebook “is on a trajectory to become a mainstream media platform.” Another majority threshold crossed this year is the percentage of American households (also 51%) having two or more computers at home. Between the computers, radio and television, Americans are spending more time than ever each day with media, with ‘self-reported daily usage’ at 8 hours and 11 minutes. That’s up 20% over the last decade (from 6 hours and 51 minutes in 2001). The point is new media usage doesn’t necessarily have to displace old media usage.
LOVING IT. And we’re not talking about McDonald’s. No, we’re talking iPhones and iPads, satellite radio and Pandora. When it comes to devices, two thirds (66%) of Americans say they “love” their iPhones; more than half (53%) “love” their iPads. The Android SmartPhones weren’t far behind (49%), nor were regular SmartPhones (48%), or DVR’s (also 48%). When it comes to media platforms, more than two thirds (39%) “love” satellite radio and an almost equal amount (32%) “love” the Pandora music service. Not that far behind were Facebook (27%), Television (26%) and YouTube (24%). The analysts then calculated the percentage of people who “love” a device or medium against the percentage of the
EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF INTERNET USE. The question is – does faster Internet speed mean more time spent online. According to a study of nine countries by Nielsen, the answer is a tentative yes. Those with the slowest speeds tended to spend the least time and those with the fastest speeds spent the most time, but the differences were not that great. For example, in the U.S., those with the fastest speeds (8 Mbps or more) spent 25 hours, 48 minutes and 11 seconds online, while those with the slowest speeds (512 Kbps or less) spent 25 hours, 33 minutes and 4 seconds online. The countries with the greatest differences were
TWITTER ME THIS. Just because you have a lot of followers on Twitter doesn’t mean you have a lot of influence, according to a study by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Yes, that is a real honest-to-goodness association. The study says it is true, and obvious, that the most followed users were public figures, celebrities and major news sources. Refer back to my previous Messages – the one about Lady Gaga being the top Twitterer with more than 9 Million followers or the one about Charlie Sheen garnering more than 3 Million followers in a short time. In fact, out of the millions of Twitter users worldwide, the report says there are only 233 of what it called “all time influentials” meaning they have broad impact. The report also identified ‘topical influentials’ individuals who become major influencers when the topic they focus on becomes the topic of strong news coverage. The report makes the point that influencers become influencers through “concerted effort (and) great personal involvement (and by) posting creative and interesting tweets.” As a side note, the Infinite Dial report noted that while 92% of Americans are familiar with Twitter, only eight percent use it. And as a foot note, to give credit where credit is due, this report was first brought to my attention by the Journalist’s Resource of the
EQUAL TIME. The FCC doesn’t mandate equal time provisions in my message, but in the interests of balance, and because many analysts believe the future of media is going to be a battle between Google and Facebook, let me make some points about Google. First and foremost, and proof, that the search giant is getting ready to take on Facebook, according to many analysts, is that Google has launched its own version of the Facebook “like” button called “+1” – Plus One. It adds a ‘social layer’ to the search, although the question is what is the social network added, besides the various Google services like Gmail, Talk, Buzz and Reader. Website SEOchat.com says it is still debatable whether Facebook should be worried. Google is also getting into the custom publishing business with the launch of its new online magazine, Think. And although Google still faces an uphill legal battle in its effort to create a worldwide digital library, it has successfully launched its worldwide art project. And it is ‘way cool.’ Go to googleartproject.com to tour some of the greatest museums in the world and see some of the greatest paintings in the world. As I say, ‘way cool.’
BTW X 2: The Google Plus One service is not yet generally available, but if you want to test it out, go here -- http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html. Also, an interesting factoid about Facebook. According to a report by The Daily Telegraph of
FACTOID(S) OF THE WEEK. According to a release by NielsenWire, the average American watches five hours and 11 minutes of Television a day with African Americans watching more (7 hours and 12 minutes) and Asians watching less (3 hours and 14 minutes). Whites watch an average of five hours and two minutes while Hispanics average four hours and 35 minutes. African Americans play video games more (16 minutes a day versus a
WORTH NOTING: The announcement of the winners of the Peabody Awards has already been covered extensively, but I would be remiss if I did not send out a congratulatory note to the local television stations that won awards for their news reports. Three of the station winners probably wouldn’t surprise most broadcast journalists – WTHR/
ALSO NOTEWORTHY: Especially since it hasn’t been getting that much coverage, is the ‘new approach to television advertising and buying’ by CBS. In their new model, the standard using demographics of age and sex is thrown out as “essentially invalid,” according to chief CBS Research officer David Poltrack. Instead they segment the consumers according to viewing habits. Poltrack says the data shows there is “no link, none” between advertising campaigns targeting specific age and sex groups, and the actual sales generated by such campaigns. Admittedly, this does not seem like the kind of story normally in the Message, but this is such a radical departure from past practice that it is worth noting. Now the question is – will the network be able to ‘sell’ their new approach in the face of the long-standing, built-in bias toward demographic data.
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