When did feed reading become such a burden? I recently thought back to when RSS and syndication were brand new buzz words. When feed syndication was first introduced, supporters raved that RSS would save you time, right? Instead of navigating to 20 different websites to keep current on important news, RSS enabled important news to be syndicated directly to us.
And yes, subscribing to feeds increased my productivity - back when I only had 15 - 20 feed subscriptions. Now I have 87.
How many do you currently subscribe to? 50? 100? 200? Most people don’t have time to keep current with many more than that, right?
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Chris Winfield posted a great list of content types that repeatedly get voted to the top of Digg.
He links to examples of successful Digg submissions that used each content type (or format). The trend indicates that information presented in these formats is more effective at holding the attention of Diggers. These content formats may also enable the content to be understood more easily ‘at a glance’ - by people skimming 1000s of Digg headlines.
Here’s the condensed list of successful formats for content submitted to Digg:
- Lists
- Videos
- Images
- Tools
- Tips
- APIs
Check out his post for the details.
A reported 258,000 people have donated money to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. This number is greater than the combined total of people who have donated to either Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain, according to the Washington Post.
Senator Obama has utilized social networking and social media as part of his fundraising strategy. More than $10 million of Obama’s second-quarter contributions were made online, and 90% of these donations were only $100 or less.
What is significant about so many financial contributors donating $100 or less?
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As we all know, Viacom ordered YouTube to stop playing Viacom-copyrighted videos (from Comedy Central & MTV) in February. Apparently this was done in an attempt to monetize the video content on Viacom-owned web properties.
However, Viacom’s controlling action has since backfired and as a result, Viacom brands has been negatively impacted instead of realizing increased profits. It turns out that ComedyCentral.com and mtv.com have lost significant traffic since the videos were pulled from YouTube.
The result?
- Viacom has yet to effectively monetize the video clips pulled from YouTube, and
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eConsultancy mostly caters to the UK market, but they actively release white papers on topics such as search marketing, online community building, affiliate marketing, ecommerce, mobile, analytics, and a slew of other best practices which are highly relevant to the internet industry of the US and other countries also.
Their recent release of internet statistics covers the following subjects:
1. Usage and Demographics
2. E-commerce
3. Online Marketing
4. Multi-Channel Marketing / Commerce
5. Site Performance and User Technology
6. Mobile – UK Market
7. Interactive TV – UK Market
It’s available for download on their site (non-members can still download a section of the report for free) They also offer a huge collection of free reports on the internet industry regardless of site membership status.
In all fairness this research was only performed in the Canadian market, but it seems logical that universal findings would prove similar.
Frequent online shoppers are people who are comfortable navigating the internet. Since social media and social networking tools are engaging, interactive elements of the web, people who use social media and other web 2.0 technologies probably spend more time online than those who simply visit static websites.
More time online… more online shopping?
The study also examines the direct effect that social networking has on online purchase decision-making:
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Great post on e-consultancy with additional contributions through user comments.
New Booz Allen Hamilton study about online consumer behavior in the Middle East verifies what US companies should already know about social media & Web 2.0 in the US marketspace, but reveals its rising importance in the Middle East and globally.
Key findings of the study shouldn’t surprise anyone already wrapped up in the business logic needed to adapt to social media and the world of user-generated content, but should provide a wake-up call to businesses in the Middle East and other regions of the world that further behind the adoption curve.
Original Booz Allen study
