Online video viewing has became a mainstream activity for the majority of us as nearly three-quarters of the U.S. online population watched an online video in March.
The big two video destination sites are YouTube and MySpace. Nearly 85 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube (50.4 videos per viewer), while over 47 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace (8.4 videos per viewer). Including YouTube, Google sites served an average of 50.9 videos per viewer.

Recently released research from Ipsos-Insight found that 12% of all US video viewers only download content, as compared with 37% who only stream content. The majority of respondents do both, but did not detail how much of their online video viewing was streamed vs. how much was downloaded.

What is interesting about this chart us is the consistency in video use across all age groups. From ages 12-54 between 50% and 66% of all Internet users are watching video, either via download or streamed. For the over 55 crowd, just over a third of them watch video. Watching video online has became a habit now for the majority of U.S. internet users, and the demand for quality video is only going to get stronger. I think this will become the next phase of online video, where more and more high-quality video is made just for viewing online.

They also reduced their projections going forward. Their crystal ball projects that 2012 social networks ad spending to be $2.6 billion down from $2.7 billion.

The reason for the downgrade is the state of the economy. Or as eMarketer puts it:“Today’s economy, combined with the fact that social networks are still trying to come up with successful ad models, has led to lowered ad spending projections for the next few years.”

eMarketer projects that US online social network ad spending will grow 55% this year, down from 163% growth in 2007. The good news is that spending growth at online social networks will be more than double the 23% growth that eMarketer projects for the total US online ad market. Social networks are among the most popular sites on the Internet—particularly for the hard-to-reach youth audience—and marketers will continue to look for ways to reach consumers at those sites.

MySpace will account for 53% of total US online social network ad spending this year, but it has had monetization difficulties. Revenues at Fox Interactive Media, the News Corp. unit that is dominated by MySpace, fell to $210 million in the March quarter from $233 million in the previous quarter, News Corp. reported in its earnings conference call last week. News Corp.’s fiscal year ends June 30.

As a result, eMarketer has lowered its forecast for 2008 US ad spending on MySpace to $755 million, from the previous estimate of $850 million.
eMarketer also lowered its 2008 forecast for Facebook ad spending to $265 million, from the previous estimate of $305 million. In addition to issues related to the economy, Facebook may also see a short-term revenue dip if marketers use ad budgets to create applications for its platform instead of purchasing advertising. Facebook does not receive any direct ad revenue when marketers launch applications on the site.

After many hours on the phone with BlueHost (who were great) I was finally able to configure Wordpress so that the site was back. But to make matters worse I could not log in!

After help from the Wordpress Support group I was able to finally log in tonight. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will have finished adding the theme and plugins and we can go back to talking about social media marketing.

Some of the early mobile social numbers are pretty impressive. MySpace recorded over 7 million unique visitors to MySpace Mobile in the US in the six months since launch. “It wasn’t until we rolled out m.myspace.com that we got a sense of how powerful demand was for MySpace on cell phones,” Brandon Lucas, senior director of mobile business development for MySpace, told eMarketer.

Facebook claimed 4 million unique registrations. Mobile-only social networking players such as airG, Mocospace, myGamma and itsmy.com all reported several million users soon after launch.

“Along with the rapidly growing audience, marketers are drawn to mobile social networking because it creates a unique context in which to promote their goods and services,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and co-author of the report. “It goes beyond simply linking people with digital content by adding the immediacy of sharing with friends—a very powerful marketing proposition.”

“Even if only a tiny percentage of the 3 billion worldwide mobile phone users take up mobile social networking,” said Ms. Williamson, “the potential advertising inventory reaches mind-boggling levels.”

The mobile internet has been a long time in coming, but with the roll-out of the new iPhone this summer I see more and more people using their phone to browse and connect online. If you are marketing via the social networks, you should be thinking about how to incorporate mobile into your marketing plans.

US teen girls take a much more active role within social networks than boys according to a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing conducted from September to November 2007.

eMarketer estimates that 17.7 million US teens will use social networks in 2011, up from 13.6 million in 2007.

While eMarket focuses on the growth of U.S teens using social networks by 2011, the number that jumps out at me here is the adult participation. That 85% of U.S. adults will be using social networks is a number that will make any marketer sit up and take notice.

A couple of interesting things I have come across recently.

For those of you who have ever wondered if social media will ever work in your ‘boring” industry then you need to read 97th Floor blog. Every Friday Chris and Mat take a traditional industry and illustrate hwo you can use viral marketing in that space. Some of there posts include virial marketing ideas for a Dry Cleaner, Appliances Company, and Preschool.

Lee Odden has a piece on 5 Twitter Tools You Should Know. I love the “Who Should I Follow Tool” that looks at who’s following you that you’re not following back and has sliders for filtering by popularity and physical location.

Glen Allsopp has put out an Online Reputation Management eBook. This is something that Glen has been working on for the last several months and I am sure that his ebbok is full of great tips and advice.

We have also put together a case study PDF on our social media marketing efforts with Soccer Tickets Online . The case study is downloadable here.

Some of the other social media additions to the site are:

• Mashups: Three versions of each strip.
• Punch line: Fans can rewrite the final frame of a daily strip. Adams creates the setup, the audience provides the punch lines.
• My Dilbert (coming in May): Fans will be able to rewrite the entire strip.
• Group Mash (coming in May): Fans will be able to rewrite one panel with the opportunity to share with other users and have them write the rest.

Adams will participate by authoring random frames with his audience and looking to see whether strips can be developed successfully by groups.

• Animated Strips: Short-form animated versions of existing strips released every weekday via Dilbert.com with a future rollout to iTunes Podcast, YouTube, Comcast and more. The animation is produced and distributed by RingTales — producers of the New Yorker Animated Cartoons.
• Completely new Web site: Free access to the entire Dilbert strip library since 2001. (Coming this summer: access to the entire library since inception.) All strips are in color, and fans have the opportunity to search, rank, comment on, print, save and e-mail strips, as well as create and share multiple favorites lists.
• Widgets: Multiple versions enabling Dilbert to reach personal pages (iGoogle, Netvibes), Social Networks (Facebook, MySpace), Desktops (Vista, Yahoo!), and Blogs (Blogger, TypePad).

I believe that this Dilbert is the first comic strip to offer these social media capabilities. If Adams is successful, look other comic strips to take a similar approach..

On the positive side traffic year on year to Twitter is up 8 fold. In the past three months, visits have more than doubled and traffic continues to climb, up 60% in the past month.

As the following chart from Hitwise illustrates, the growth has been slow and steady with an acceleration in the past few weeks.

Now the bad news. Even with the impressive jump in traffic in the last three months, Twitter is still ranked #439 among Social Networks and Forums last week and #4309 among All Categories of websites according to Hitwise.

Yes Twitter is building a loyal user base, but it has a long, long way to go to even crack the top 50 social networking sites. I personally don’t think that Twitter has mainstream potential like MySpace, Facebook or Bebo. Without either mainstream acceptance or rapid growth in the teen/college market I don’t personally see Twitter becoming anything more than a small niche service.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with me?

It is quite apparent that Wikiepdia is the destination of choice for people looking for more information about people in the news as Eliot Spitzer demonstrates. Spitzer’s Wikiepedia page saw a 5316% increase in views after news of his scandal broke.

Most popular articles on Wikipedia during February 2008.

• Barack Obama - 553,364 Views
• John McCain - 266,661
• Miley Cyrus - 186,851
• Wikipedia - 167,925
• Naruto - 163,817
• Chinese New Year - 134,950
• No Child Left Behind - 132,270
• Hillary Clinton - 123,609
• Valentine’s Day - 119,302
• Heath Ledger - 115,058

Most popular articles on Wikipedia during March 2008.

• Barack Obama - 279,568 Views
• Easter - 233,967
• Eliot Spitzer - 207,095
• Naruto -  157,027
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl - 152,957
• Miley Cryus -  149,262
• Sex - 137,721
• John McCain - 136,448
• Kim Kardashian - 134,448
• Saint Patrick’s Day - 132,912

What surprised me the most from the data was how many people use Wikipedia for current events searches like Easter, Saint Patrick’s Day and Chinese New Year. Wikipedia’s Easter page for example was its second most viewed page in March, trailing only the page on Barack Obama.

Wikipedia is a preferred destination for people who want to learn more about a person or subject. For companies whose business model is built around proving that type of information, the growing power of Wikipedia has to be threatening.

Before you start shooting your first video here are a couple of optimization types to keep in mind from WebVideoUniverse.com.

1. Using the right keywords to describe your video is crucial, and you should use “long tail” keywords instead of general terms. If you’re selling a product or service, use localized keywords. “People who search with generalities are tire-kickers and aren’t buyers,” says Traffic Geyser co-founder Michael Koenigs. When they’re ready to buy, they search with specific terms to find something in their area.

2. When writing a description of your video, don’t sell to the customers and don’t bully them. Instead, speak like a friend. Establish yourself as an authority and talk on a personal level.

3. Your description should start with your Web link, and that includes the “http://” since YouTube turns full URLs into links. Start with the URL so that a clickable link always shows beside your videos.

4. Every video should have a banner across the bottom third of the screen from beginning to end, said Koenigs, which shows where you want people to click next. “If you make it clear what you want people to do, they’ll do it,” Koenigs added.

5. If you want customers to get in touch with you, don’t forget to give them your phone number. “Don’t underestimate the power of a phone number,” Koenigs said.

Good tips and insights from Michael.