Internet Marketing Blog

Hispanics/Latinos Online

I've written before about the importance of identifying your audience and conducting market research to determine their attitudes and behavior before implementing any Internet marketing effort. Here's an example of what you can pull together with data that's freely available online:

Hispanic/Latino Americans Online Profile Summary

Hispanic Americans are increasingly going online; one third of them are 35 years of age or younger.  More than three-fourths of English speaking American Hispanics are online while only a third of Spanish-dominated Hispanic adults use the Internet. Only 43% of Hispanics born outside the US go online. Most US Hispanic Internet users are using a broadband connection. When they go online, they spend more time there than the general population.

While Hispanic Americans prefer Web sites in Spanish, it is essential for only a quarter of them. While most American Hispanic youth would like to see more Hispanics represented in the media, they are more likely to prefer English language media messages that are targeted at them than messages in Spanish.

Most US Hispanic Internet users believe the Internet is a great source for researching commercial products and services. A majority of US Hispanic video game enthusiasts (presumably preponderantly male) use the Internet for e-mail, instant messaging, and blogging. Yet US Hispanics in are less likely than the general population to use email.

American Hispanics' favorite Spanish-language portals are, in order, Yahoo Telemundo, MSN Latino, and AOL Latino. American Hispanics are more likely than the general population to visit music-related sites and more likely to watch online video. Most Hispanic Americans use Instant Messaging, share photos online, and read or post to blogs; more than a third use social networking sites and use a phone that is connected to the Internet.

Online Hispanic Americans are far more likely to own a mobile phone, a digital camera, or a video game console than the population in general. Online US Hispanics love to use their phones as communication devices beyond simple telephone calls. A majority of English-speaking American Hispanics use text-messaging and take photos on their phone. American Hispanics in general are far more likely than the general population to use text messaging and to take photos with their phone. They are three times more likely than non-Hispanic white to own a phone with a two-way "walkie talkie" feature.

Hispanic/Latino Americans Online - Size & Demographics

There were 16.7 million Hispanic Internet users in the United States in 2006, according to Department of Commerce 2003 projections. The number of users is expected to reach 20.9 million in 2010, approaching the number of African Americans online. An estimated 43 percent of the Hispanic population three years and older have access to the Internet in 2007. These data include both English and Spanish speakers. About one-third of American Hispanic Internet users are younger than 35 years old. People 24 and under represent 35% of all Hispanic online users, according to eMarketer's Hispanic Youth Online report.

According to a January 2006 comScore Media Metrix study, in 2005, there were 2.5 million Hispanic American Internet users between the ages of three and 17; there were three million Hispanic American Internet users between 18 and 24; and there were 3.6 million Hispanic American Internet users between 25 and 34 years of age.

According to a 2006 study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, among English-dominant Hispanics, 78% use the Internet. Among bilingual Hispanics, 76% use the Internet. Fewer than a third (32%) of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults are Internet users. Among adult US Hispanic Internet users:

• 67% are 18-29 years old
• 61% are 30-41 years old
• 59% are 42-51 years old
• 42% are 52-60 years old
• 27% are 61-70 years old
• 17% are 71 years old or older

The Pew study shows that US Hispanics who are born outside the 50 states are less likely to go online. 76% of US Hispanics use the Internet compared with 43% of those who were born outside the US. Foreign-born Hispanics tend to be Spanish-dominant, bolstering the idea that language is a factor in Internet use.

Less than a third of anyone who did not graduate from high school use the Internet, regardless of ethnicity. Among Hispanics, 41% have not completed high school, according to the study. Hispanics from South America are most likely to be online (70%), while only 52% of Hispanics of Mexican descent use the Internet.

Among offline US Hispanics, the leading reasons for not using the Internet were:

• 53% did not have access
• 18% were not interested in Internet access
• 10% found going online too difficult or frustrating
• 6% said it was too expensive
• 5% said they were too busy or didn't have the time to go online

The "The AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy" conducted by Synovate in September 2006 found that there are more than 16 million Hispanic Americans online, 55% of the total US Hispanic population. Of those online, 77% have broadband access.

According to Millie Carrasquillo of Telemundo, 80% of online Hispanics use broadband.

According to the "Chronicle" report by Mercanti Group, US Hispanic consumers have some of the largest disposable incomes of any minority group. Hispanic American buying power will grow to a projected $1.3 trillion in 2011, up from $838 billion in 2006.

Hispanic/Latino Americans' Consumer Attitudes & Media Consumption

According to a 2005 New American Dimensions survey on the attitudes of Hispanic American youths (14-29) toward the use of Spanish vs. English in media and marketing:

• 77% said that commercials needn't be in Spanish to address them as Hispanics
• 75% would like to see more Hispanic actors on English TV and in movies
• 69% would like to see more English-language television that is geared toward Hispanics
• 67% appreciate marketing that speaks to them as a bicultural Hispanic
• 63% would like more English-language commercials targeted at Hispanics
• 48% want more Spanish-language programming
• 40% want more Spanish-language commercials

According to the September 2006 "The AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy" conducted by Synovate:

• 68% of Hispanic Internet users believe the Internet is the best source to make final purchase decisions on brands and products.
• 77% of Hispanic Internet users use the Internet to learn about brands and products.
• 72% use the Internet to compare product prices.

According to a July 2006 Roper Public Affairs study commissioned by AOL, US Hispanic Internet users believe the Internet is the best source of information for the following shopping activities:

• 74% think the Internet is the best source for finding out where the product they want to buy is available
• 69% think the Internet is the best source for learning about a product/service's available features and benefits
• 70% think the Internet is the best source for comparing prices
• 64% think the Internet is the best source for learning about available brands
• 63% think the Internet is the best source for advice on brands to buy

Hispanic Americans are more likely than Americans in general to say radio is the “most essential” media--24% vs. 17%''--according to recent research from Edison Media Research and Arbitron. They are also more likely than the general population to consider newspapers the least essential among major media, 40% vs. 30%. Hispanic Americans are more likely to consider the Internet the “most cool and exciting” medium--41% for Hispanics compared to 34% for the general population.

Hispanics are slightly more likely to tune in to radio for breaking news (14% vs. 10%) than the general population and they are more likely to listen to the radio while working: 52% vs. 44%.

Hispanic/Latino Americans' Lifestyle

According to BIGresearch's biannual survey, SIMM VII (Simultaneous Media Survey), of December 2005, among Hispanic Americans who chose video games as a leisure time activity they said they spend their free time in the following ways:

• 72.2% - Go to movies
• 72.9% - Listen to music
• 55.5% - Go shopping
• 52.4% - E-mail/instant messaging/blogging
• 42.1% - Play video games
• 41.5% - Go to amusement parks
• 25.7% - Camp/Fish/Hike/Hunt
• 35.1% - Exercise/jogging, etc.
• 32.3% - Go to bar/nightclub

Hispanic/Latino Americans' Technology Use

According to a November/December, 2006 study by Yahoo! Telemundo and Experian Simmons, online Hispanic Americans are far more likely to own a mobile phone, a digital camera, or a video game console than the population in general:

• 90% own a mobile phone compared to 79% among the general population
• 79% own a digital camera compared to 53% of the general population
• 66% own a video game console compared to 52% of the general population

According to a Telephia survey conducted in the first quarter of 2006, Hispanics made up only 10% of total wireless subscribers but 23% of mobile TV subscribers.

According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project April 2006 survey:

• 54% of English-speaking Hispanics send and receive text messages
• 56% of English-speaking Hispanics take pictures with their phone
• 40% of English-speaking Hispanics play games on their phone
• 29% of English-speaking Hispanics use the Internet on their phone
• 16% of English-speaking Hispanics play music on their phone

Hispanic Americans are are significantly more likely to own an iPod--24% vs. 18%--than Americans in general, according to research from Edison Media Research and Arbitron.

Hispanic/Latino Americans' Online Behavior

Half of Hispanic adults said that they are online at least monthly, up from 45% 2006, according to Forrester Research's "When to Build a Spanish-Language Web Site" report. A comScore Media Metrix study showed that Hispanics spent an average of 88.1 minutes online per day, while the general online population spent 81.7 minutes per day during December 2006.

According to a November/December, 2006 study by Yahoo! Telemundo and Experian Simmons, online Hispanic Americans are far more likely to take photos with their mobile phone and use text messaging than the population in general:

• 61% take photos with their mobile phone compared to 28% of the general population
• 66% use text messaging compared to 38% of the general population

A March 2006 comScore Media Metrix study found that the top growing category during the past year among Hispanics was Classifieds, which experienced a 51-percent jump in traffic to 3.1 million visitors. U.S. Hispanics also increased their visitation to categories related to the immigration issue. Traffic to online radio sites--many of which feature related news reports--saw a 40 percent increase to 3.5 million visitors in March. The Politics category also saw a traffic surge, reaching 460,000 visitors (up 33 percent). U.S. Hispanics showed greater interest in travel-related web content--perhaps as they planned to travel to immigration protests and rallies. Traffic to Hotels/Resorts sites jumped 32 percent to 2.5 million visitors, while Map sites increased by the same percentage to 5.6 million visitors.

Top Growing Categories Among U.S. Hispanics - March 2006 vs. March 2005:

• Classifieds - 54% growth
• Multimedia - 44% growth
• Radio - 40% growth
• Religion - 39% growth
• Online Trading - 36% growth
• Politics - 33% growth
• Hotels/Resorts - 32% growth
• Maps - 32% growth
• Pharmacy - 31% growth
• Sports - 31% growth

According to a May/June 2005 study by Solutions Research Group, 28% of Hispanic Americans have downloaded a ringtone to their phone; 52% of Hispanic Americans have sent or received a text message in the past month.

According to a July 2005 Yankelovich Monitor study, 16% of Hispanic Americans 16 or older own a cell phone with Internet access while 15% said they planned to buy one in the next 12 months. Sprint is the most popular service provider among Hispanic mobile phone subscribers, possibly due to the popularity of Nextel's "walkie-talkie" two-way radios among Hispanics. According to Yankelovich data from September 2005, Hispanic phone buyers are three-times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to own a two-way, and more than three times more likely to intend to purchase one. Sprint acquired Nextel in early 2005.

According to a Compete Inc. study, Hispanic shoppers are more likely to look online for music-enabled phones than other shoppers and Hispanic mobile phone users are more likely to purchase downloadable content for their phones, like ring- and ring-back and graphics.

BIGresearch's December 2005 Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM VII) reported that Yahoo (telemundo.yahoo.com) has greatest percentage of Hispanic users with 13.8 percent, followed by MSN (latino.msn.com) with 8.8 percent and AOL (latino.aol.com) with 7.8 percent.

A December 2005 Forrester Research study found that Hispanic Americans are twice as likely (41%) as the rest of the population (18%) to visit online music sites. Hispanic American adults are also more likely to watch video online (23%) than the general population (17%).

But the Forrester study also found that Hispanic Americans are less likely to use e-mail, with just 61% sending and receiving messages, compared with 97% of other Americans.

A slim majority of online Hispanic-Americans prefer to be offered Spanish-language Web sites, according to Forrester Research's "When to Build a Spanish-Language Web Site" report. A quarter of online Hispanic-Americans said that Web sites they visit must be in Spanish.

A September 2005 Yankelovich Monitor study found:

• 39% of Hispanic Americans research products online before buying, compared to 39% of African Americans who do and 48% of non-Hispanic whites who do.
• 29% of Hispanic Americans purchase products or services online, compared to 32% of African Americans who do and 40% of non-Hispanic whites who do.
• 26% of Hispanic Americans purchase airline tickets online, compared to 27% of African Americans who do and 33% of non-Hispanic whites who do.
• 20% of Hispanic Americans bid on items at auction sites like eBay, compared to 18% of African Americans who do and 24% of non-Hispanic whites who do.
• 9% of Hispanic Americans sell items at auction sites like eBay, compared to 12% of African Americans who do and 10% of non-Hispanic whites who do.

According to a September 2005 Feedback Research study, 54% of US Spanish-speaking Internet users had purchased something online, while 45% said that their use of the Internet for shopping and/or purchasing products or services would increase over the next year. American Spanish-speaking online shoppers more likely to use portals (53% compared to 35%) and 69% favored Spanish language sites when shopping online; 49% said they were more likely to buy a product from a Spanish language site.

According to the September 2006 "The AOL Latino 2006 Hispanic Cyberstudy" conducted by Synovate 48% of online Hispanic Americans visit news sites (music, weather, health and travel Web sites are also popular). Additionally:

• 68% of online Hispanic Americans use instant messaging
• 63% of online Hispanic Americans share photos online
• 52% of online Hispanic Americans read or post to blogs
• 43% of online Hispanic Americans visit social networking sites
• 40% of online Hispanic Americans talk on a phone using the Internet

Know Your Audience - Online Market Research

Before beginning any Internet marketing project or campaign it is crucial that define your audiences.

Whether you're building a web site, creating an email newsletter, setting up shop on a social network, or conducting online PR, your efforts are far more likely to fail if you haven't identified and defined who will be the recipient of your message(s).

Your first step, then, for any Internet marketing effort will be identifying the audience(s) you want to target and your second step will be researching those audiences.

You'll want to create a profile of who those audiences are; not just their demographics, but what technology they use, how they consume information, what is their online behavior? The results of your research should be applied to your Internet marketing efforts.

Let's say, for instance, that your audience are heavy users of instant messaging; you'd want to make it easy for them to share your content with their buddies list. If your audience loves to watch online video, then you should set up shop on YouTube and the other video sharing sites. You get the idea.

There are plenty of market research firms you can hire to help you define your targeted audiences and you can buy market research reports online. But if you haven't got much of a budget for market research, fortunately there are a lot of free sources of research online that you can tap for your own research.

Here's a list to help get you started:

• KnowThis - An excellent marketing research portal.
• Pew Internet & American Life Project - They conduct frequent and detailed surveys that are especially helpful in determining online behavior and technology use.
• BurstMedia's Online Insights archive - PDFs of their online behavior research.
• HitWise Datacenter - Great data and great bloggers.
• BIGresearch - Their News section includes press releases with data highlights of their studies.
• Marketing Charts - Marketing data in chart form.
• comScore  - Their Press Center section includes press releases with data highlights of their studies.

Valentine's Day Text Messaging

The top five online dating sites ranked by visitors, according to a February 2007 comScore World Metrix report, are 1) Yahoo Personals, 2) Match.com sites, 3) True.com, 4) Spark Networks, and 5) SinglesNet.com.

According to a February 2007 International Communications Research survey of US adult cell phone users, 33 percent of the respondents said that they have communicated with their date or mate via text messaging in 2007, an increase of 6 percent over last year. Twenty eight percent of users say that they use text messaging to flirt. Some more interesting stats:

• 17% say a cell phone has saved them from an uncomfortable date
• 12% have used text messaging news as a conversation starter with a date or mate
• 8% have ended a relationship over rude or offensive cell behavior (driving, perhaps?)
• 5% have called someone else they were interested in from a cell phone while on a date, and 7% reported that their date had done so
• 6% have judged a prospective date by the phone they use

Study: Small Bloggers

Figures. As I was buried deep in writing my Online Political Advertising post yesterday, which discussed the important role of bloggers in diseminating political ideas, The Pew Internet & American Life Project released the results of a survey of bloggers that reinforces some of the points yesterday's post. It also is the first study to take a look at long-tail bloggers whose audience is only a handful of family and friends.

The New York Times quoted the director of the project, Lee Rainie, in today's paper:

“This is a decent portrait of the long tail of the blogosphere. These are the average, everyday folks who blog. They are different from the A-list bloggers who get so much media attention. This is the first attempt or one of the first attempts at a representative sample of bloggers.”

Also from that story:

Among the report’s findings was that while many well-known blogs are political in nature, 37 percent of bloggers use them as personal journals. Among other popular topics were politics and government (11 percent), entertainment (7 percent), sports (6 percent) and general news and current events (5 percent). Only 34 percent of bloggers considered blogging a form of journalism, and most were heavy Internet users.

Finally, the survey also interestingly found that bloggers are less white than the general Internet population. Sixty percent of bloggers are are white compared to 74 percent of the Internet; 11 percent are African-American, 19 percent are Hispanics who speak English, and 10 percent are members of another race.

Broadband Adoption Driving Online Video

Neilsen//NetRatings reports [PDF] that 68% of American Internet users are getting online through a broadband connection from their home. That's up from 33% in February, 2003. They're spending five more hours of time online per month; In February, 2003, they stayed online for 25.5 hours a month while last month that number was up to 30.5 hours a month.

Broadband adoption helps explain the growing popularity of online video.

MSN Video had 9.3 million unique visitors last month, a 44% increase from the previous year. YouTube had 9 million unique visitors last month and Google Video had 6.2 million. While both IFILM (4.3 million) and Yahoo Video (3.7 million) each had significantly fewer visitors, they both experienced explosive growth from the year before: IFILM had 102% growth and Yahoo Video had 148% growth.

Technorati tags: online video | broadband | broadband adoption | neilsen netratings | us internet use | msn video | youtube | google video | ifilm | yahoo video

Online Research, Offline Purchase

The results of an iProspect survey of online consumers [PDF] during the 2005 holiday season released last month show that 47% of respondents who researched a product online then bought that product offline. This a strong argument for bricks and mortor merchants to include a store-finding feature on their web site.

Conversely, 53% of respondents who researched a product online did not follow through by buying online. It would've been nice to know why.

These results obviously  suggest that merchants should think of ways they can track feet on the floor to determine ROI on their online marketing efforts. It's a tricky problem because there are no elegant solutions to address it.

The study also found that price comparison sites such as Froogle have yet to really take off. The web sites American Internet users used for researching products they bought, online or off, were:

• The merchant's site, 63%
• A search engine, 62%
• The manufacturer's site, 30%
• A shopping search engine or comparison site, 26%
• Other, 14%

This data makes clear that it is crucial that a merchant's web site have high visibility in the general search engines through either online advertising or through natural search engine marketing so consumers can find the merchant site for their research needs.

Technorati tags: online product research | internet product research | search engine marketing |  sem | search engine advertising | online advertising | froogle | price comparison engine

Valentine's Day Consumer Attitudes

Gender Differences On Valentine's Day

Yeah, I know, Valentine's Day is over, get on with it, already! Indulge me one last time and file this away for next year's Valentine's Day sales season.

The comparison shopping engine Shopzilla released the results of a survey conducted on their behalf by Bizrate Research of 981 online buyers that shows, not surprisingly, that lonely women get more depressed than married women on Valentine's Day. Big surprise, huh?  The only thing here is that I don't believe anyone every tried to measure it before.

Thirty-five precent of widowed women get depressed on Valentine's Day; 25% of single women and 25% of divorced or separated women do; and only 13% of married women get depressed on Valentine's Day.

The survey explains that Valentine's Day depresses many women because they consider themselves more romantic than men (73% versus 64%), and that the holiday is more important to them (85%) than it is to men (73%). Nealry all women (90%) think that romance is at least moderately important on Valentine's Day and 71% say that their expectations have been let down on the holiday. Twenty-five percent of  women have been dissatisfied with their significant other's Valentine's Day gift.

Seventy-eight percent of women would feel comfortable buying themselves a Valentine's Day gift if there were single compared to only 57% of men who would do so; forty percent of women say they have bought themselves a Valentine's Day gift while only 12% of men have.

Purchasing Behavior & Gift Preferences

A Discovery Card Valentine's Day Shopping Survey finds that men will outspend (averaging $127) women (averaging $74) on Valentine's Day gifts. Women's lower spending is partly explained by the fact that 40% said that coupons/rebates would play a role in their Valentine's Day shopping decisions, compared to only 35% of men who would take bargains into consideration.

Most men (71%) planned on giving their significant other a night out on Valentine's Day while 66% planned to give flowers. Conversely, most women (53%) planned on buying entertainment products for their men.

Sixty-two percent of both men and women hoped to receive a night out on the town from their significant other. That's where they part ways in preferred gifts. Men want entertainment products (45%) and candy (26%) while women want flowers (55%) and jewelry (44%).

The Discovery Card survey also found:

• Most people (65%) will make their purchase a week in advance of Valentine's Day but one in ten men will wait until February 14.
• More than a third of women (39%) planned on spending nothing on their significant others for the holiday.
• 22% of men and 15% of women planned to buy their Valentine's Day gift online.
• 53% of both men and women said they'd use a debit or credit card to buy their Valentine's Day gifts.

Technorati tags: valentine's day | valentine | gifts | ecommerce | consumer behavior | consumer insights | surveys

College Students Shopping Online

Late last month, Experience, Inc., a career services provider, released the results of a survey of college-educated 18 to 34 year-olds' online shopping behavior. Experience claims that 18 to 34 year-olds are responsible for $175 billion in annual consumer spending.

The survey found that 98% of college students have bought a product or service online.

They conduct online research before buying:

• Less than one hour of research: 27%
• 1-2 hours of research: 53%
• 3-5 hours of research: 17%
• Six or more hours of research: 3%

The report states that "Because college students spend a significant amount of time online researching products and services before purchasing, when they do purchase, they do it online."

Perhaps. It would be interesting to know what they were buying online. I'd be wiling to bet that college students are primarily small ticket buyers online: Books, music, web site subscriptions, etc., and that might explain why most spend little time doing online research. It doesn't take a lot of research to determine if you want to buy a book or some music.

I'd also be willing to bet that there's a strong correlation between the amount of time spent researching a product online and the price of the product. That is, people will conduct much more thorough and extensive research for a big-ticket item such as a car or an HDTV and that the larger the price, the less likely they will be to buy the item online.

The report also states that 18 to 34 year-olds respond to online advertising. More than 50% said they have bought a product or service based on an online ad and 34% said Internet ads were the most influential way to motivate them to learn more about a product or service.

What types of online ads will most appeal to this group?

1. Sponsored link related to the content they are reading, 41%
2. A contest or promotion offering value, 34%
3. Personalization based on their pofile or online behavior, 17%

Technorati tags: college students | online advertising | internet advertising | online shopping | ecommerce | online sales | online research | online behavior

Valentine's Day Sales

Constant Contact's survey of business owners, "2006 Small Business Valentine's Day Outlook," shows that most respondents feeling rosy about the Valentine's Day sales season:  55%  expected strong sales  leading up to February 14th, while 71% were expecting healthy online sales. Fifty-one percent said that Valentine's Day was an important holiday for their business.

Seventy percent planned on promoting Valentine's Day offers through the following methods:

1. Email markeing, 76%
2. Online marketing, 49%
3. Direct mail, 25%
4. Flyers, 25%
5. Advertising (TV/Radio/Newspaper), 16%

Thirty-two percent of small business owners expected customers to spend less than $25 on Valentine's Day gifts; 35% expected them to spend between $25 and $50; 14% expected customers to spend between $50 and $75; 9% expected them to spend between $75 and $100; and 10% expected customers to spend more than $100.

Small business owners believed that flowers would be by far the most popular gift bought by their customers:

1. Flowers, 59%
2. Jewelry, 21%
3. Chocolates, 16%
4. Clothing, 4%

Online Dating & Valentine Searches

Seasonal Marketing To The Lovelorn

The 15 most popular Valentine's Day-related search terms today (after filtering out the sex-related terms) are:

1. valentines day - 19th overall
2. hearts - 21st
3. flowers - 26th
4. valentines - 29th
5. valentine - 32nd
6. valentine cards - 36th
7. lingerie - 47th
8. love - 53rd
9. heart - 69th
10. love poems - 73rd
11. valentine's day - 94th
12. poems - 103rd
13. valentine poems - 187th
14. love quotes - 217th
15. cupid - 263rd

Over at Yahoo! Buzz, they provide their Top 20 Valentine Searches and a summary of their Valentine gift-related searches. They note that Valentine-related searches have doubled over the past week and that well over half of those searches are performed by those under 24 years of age. Thirty to fifty-four year-olds only account for 30% of their Valentine search traffic.

Online Dating

If you're looking to target desperately seeking singles, there are some things you should know.

According to February 2005 data from Jupiter Research, revenue growth for online dating sites, while robust in 2002 (73%) and 2003 (77%), has shrunk siginificantly in 2004 (19%) and 2005 (9%). Fees for such sites range from $10 to $50 per month.

According to a January 2006 report from Media Metrix, the top five online dating sites measured by unique at-home, at-work and university visitors for December 2005 were:

1. Yahoo! Personals, 24,041 visitors
2. Match.com sites, 3,604 visitors
3. Spark Networks, 2,832 visitors
4. True.com, 1,956 visitors
5. Mate1.com, 1,782

Online dating sites such as those mentioned above could be threatened by the rising popularity of free social networking sites. While not specifically online dating sites, places like MySpace.com and Friendster offer online dating as one of their social networking features. January 2006 data from Media Metrix ranks the most popular social networking sites measured by unique at-home, at-work and university visitors for December 2005:

1. MySpace.com, 32,309 visitors
2. Facebook.com, 12,414 visitors
3. Xanga.com, 8,716 visitors
4. Hi5.com, 3,073 visitors
5. Myyearbook.com, 2,422 visitors

Valentine's Day Online Consumer Behavior

A comScore report released today shows that "total online spending in the Flowers & Gifts, Health & Beauty and Jewelry & Watches categories rose 22 percent year-to-date, through February 9, 2006 versus the corresponding period in 2005." The Health & Beauty and Jewelry & Watches categories individually each rose 24% compared to the same period last year. Online sales in the Flowers and the Greetings & Gifts categories each rose 17% versus last year.

Online spending in the Personals & Dating category rose 29% in 2005, totalling $351.9 million last year. The comScore study also found that 39% of visitors to Personals and Dating sites had visited more than one such site during the month and that 10% of new Personals site registrants, signed up for more than one site during the month. Among active registrants, 30% were registered users of more than one Personals site; 37% of active registrants were going to their Personals sites while at work.

In January, 2005, " more than 29 million Americans visited sites in the Flowers, Gifts & Greetings category." According to comScore, the top sites in this category last year were:

1. AmericanGreetings, 8.6 million visitors in January 2005
2. Hallmark, 6.6 million visitors
3. FTD.com, 1.9 million visitors
4. 1-800-FLOWERS.com, 1.7 million visitors
5. Martha Stewart sites, 1.5 million visitors
6. WeddingChannel.com, 1.4 million visitors
7. ProFlowers.com, 1.3 million visitors
8. LillianVernon.com, 1.2 million visitors
9. RedEnvelope.com, 1.1 million visitors
10. Celebrate Express, Inc., 970,000 visitors

Super Bowl Searches

While advertisers seem to have finally figured out that it makes eminent sense to put your television ads--especially your Super Bowl commercials--online, reprisemedia is making the case that many Super Bowl advertisers did not fully leverage their TV spots by extending their ad campaigns online. Their 2005 Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard [PDF] is a fascinating look at how some Super Bowl advertisers capitalized on Super Bowl related searches to extend their ad campaigns online.

Reprisemedia reports which Super Bowl advertisers bought what search keyword ads and sponsorships on the three major search engines, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.com. Considering that they only address paid search advertising and not the natural search results, I don't know how fair it is for them to label "winners" and "losers", but it's interesting nonetheless.

For example, people often search using well-known brand names. If someone looking for the Pepsi Super Bowl ad searches using the word "Pepsi," they'll find a link in the natural results to Pepsi.com and when they go to the site, there is a link on the front page for TV commercials. But Pepsi hasn't bought any search engine advertising for the keyword "Pepsi"--nor should they have--so is that considered poor search marketing? I say not at all; that's smart.

Relatedly, Yahoo!'s Buzz Index provides fascinating insight into search behavior in the wake of a singularly unique popular culture touchstone event. On the Saturday before the Super Bowl, Buzz Index posted a review of pre-Super Bowl searches and yesterday they posted a review of food-related searches performed on Super Bowl weekend. Take a look at today's top searches in Yahoo! Buzz to see overall Super Bowl related searches; then go to the TV searches and NFL searches to see the leaders and movers in those categories.

Finally, Search Engine Watch has posted an article detailing some of the spikes in Super Bowl related search traffic.

Ecommerce Web Site Design

A new study by web development firm Questus using their online survey service BigLook, finds that web site design and usability are critical factors that influence online transactions. Though the findings are based on an Internet survey of a puny sample size of 425 employed American adults, the results corroborate an October 2002 Consumer Reports WebWatch survey of 2600 Americans. Because of that, I believe the Questus study has validity.

The Questus study found that good design leads to better sales. Specifically, though price was the most influential factor when making a decision to buy a product on a web site (68% said it was), other factors such as shipping options (44%), product descriptions (38%), site navigation (37%), and the checkout process (32%) were critical factors as well.

Fifty-one percent of the respondents said that they had purchased something from a web site this holiday season from whom they had never purchased before.

Sixty-eight percent of the respondents said that they would distrust a web site that did not have a professional appearance, compared to the 8% who said they'd trust a web site that did not look professional and the 24% who said it didn't matter either way.

A clean, easy-to-use site is important in closing the online sale. Jeff Rosenblum, co-founder and research and strategy director of Questus, says that customers want an uncluttered, obvious site design that doesn't overwhelm them with choices. Surfers were more likely to complain of a site having too many links rather than too few.

The study found that 29% left a site without buying something because they did not want to register with the site; 22% felt it too difficult to find products on the site; and 17% did not believe the site was trustworthy or secure.

The Questus survey is in line with the comprehensive 2002 WebWatch report, How do people evaluate a web site's credibility?

The WebWatch report found that "nearly half of all consumers (or 46.1%) in the study assessed the credibility of sites based in part on the appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size and color schemes."

Further, "consumer credibility-related comments about visual design issues occurred with more frequency with finance (54.6%), search engines (52.6%), travel (50.5%), and e-commerce sites (46.2%), and with less frequency when assessing health (41.8%), news (39.6%), and nonprofit (39.4%) sites."

Viral Marketing

I rarely forward humorous emails or Flash animations or movies because humor is so subjective and if a person doesn't find what you've sent them funny, then all you've done is waste their time. I'm the exception.

On the other hand, I have a friend who regularly forwards funny stuff to me and a bunch of other people. I always open his emails because I know him and I trust his judgment since everything he sends me is funny. He's the rule.

And now we have stats to back it up.

A survey commissioned for Sharpe Partners conducted in September 2005 and released late last month show that the vast majority (89%) of adult Americans share content with others by email.

Frequency

Twenty-five percent of the respondents shared content daily; 23% did it several times a week; 15% about once a week; 11% several times a month; 15% several times a year; and 11% had never shared content via email.

Friends Lists

Most people email content to more than one person. Forty-one percent shared content with one to three people; 34% shared it with four to six people; 13% shared it with seven to nine people; 9% shared with 10 to 20 people; and 3% emailed more than 20 people content.

Hot Topics

Humorous content is by far the most popular type of content shared, with 88% of respondents saying they forward jokes or cartoons. Fifty-six percent said they forward news; 32% shared health care or medical information; 30% shared religious or inspirational content; 25% shared games; 24% emailed business or personal finance related information; 24% shared sports or hobby-related content; and 12% emailed sexually provocative material.

Branded Content

The fact that content is overtly branded does not seem to affect the likelihood that someone will email it to others. Only 5% said they would not share content that was branded, Thirty-five percent said they'd be slightly less likely to send branded content and 17% said they would be less likely; but 12% said they would be more likely to send branded content and 31% said they would be slightly more likely to send branded content.

Demographics Of Sharers

The most likely people to share content are southern or midwestern women in their late 30s to early 40s.  Blacks and whites (63%) are more likely to share content via email than Hispanics (56%) or Asian-Americans (46%). Education level doesn't seem to matter much: Sixty-four percent of people without a college degree shared content weekly versus the 61% who had a college degree.

Make Sharing Easy

This survey makes clear that, even if you aren't conducting a explicit viral marketing campaign, you should make your content as easy as possible to share. That means giving the consumers of your content all the tools they need to share. That's why you'll find my "Save to My Web" and "Furl This Page" and "Post to del.iciou.us" and "Email this Page" links on sidebar of this blog. That's why you can bookmark or instant message individual posts on this blog. If you have an email newsletter, be sure to include a "forward this to a friend" function.

PayPal Market Share

Last week, eMarketer reported that survey results released in December 2005 by SG Cowen & Co. found that a whopping 91% of online Americans owne a PayPal account and another 4% planned to open one during the next year. Only 1% of the study's respondents said they didn't know what a PayPal account was; how's that for brand awareness?!?

But PayPal itself admits that of their 96.2 million accounts opened by the last quarter of 2005, they considered only 28.1 million active.

Americans are significantly more likely to use a credit card for their online transactions than they would use a PayPal account. An ACNeilson study from October 2005 showed that most online Americans (64%) used a credit card to buy stuff online, while 31% have used a debit card. By comparison, 26% have used PayPal.

What Is Spam?

Yesterday, I discussed the fact that 70% of email is considered spam and, serendipitously enough, today AOL won a $5 million judgment against our own homegrown spammer, Prior Lake, Minnesota's own Christopher William Smith.

While Smith's spam ran afoul of the Can-Spam Act, as I discussed yesterday, most consumers have a much looser definition of what is and is not spam.

A recent survey by Return Path sheds some more light on the topic and flags some issues you should be aware of in your email marketing efforts.

The Return Path survey found that 34% of online North Americans reported the sender of what they believed to be spam email to their ISP; sixty-eight percent just deleted emails they considered spam; and 30% unsubscribed from what they considered spam.

Perhaps the surge in the volume of email received during the holiday season increases the perception that people are getting more spam. Seventeen percent found the surge in email volume overwhelming; 26% believed they just got more spam; and 24% said they got much more email but it was manageable.

The survey also confirmed the "known sender" phenomenon: That people are more likely to trust opening an email from a known source. More than 60% of online North Americans said that knowing or trusting the sender was a key factor in deciding whether to open that email. Forty-eight percent said they opened email from companies that had sent them prior valuable emails.

70% Of Email Considered Spam

Doubleclick's "Sixth Annual Consumer Email Study," [PDF] released last month, found that people consider that 70% of their email is spam, regardless of whether or nor it actually is spam. People often forget that they've subscribed to an email newsletter, and so if they've forgotten they actually subscribed, they will naturally consider it unsolicited, and therefore, spam.

That's a perception problem inherent in email marketing. On a positive note, the study does find that consumers no longer consider spam scary, but merely a nuisance that they've learned to deal with.

The study includes some other interesting statistics:

The vast majority of us (90%), send or recieve email several times a day; while 44% of us (myself included) use email constantly--getting and receiving email every 15 minutes or so, in my case.

There's a lot of clutter: The average consumer gets 361 emails a week, an increase of 17% from 2004.

Most (51%) consumers would like to see email replace telemarketing, 44% would like to see it replace face-to-face sales calls; 41% would like it to eliminate direct mail, a thrid would like to see it replace retail offers and coupons, and 31% would like to use it for ebills and electronic statements.

Email should be a critical part of your ecommerce system.

94% of consumers expect confirmation of orders via email and 90% expect shipping confirmations to appear in their inbox.

74% of email users would find information on a merchant's return policy useful to get in their marketing emails; 59% would like special offers for products they purchase regularly; 49% would like information about membership rewards programs; 48% would like store locations; 39% would like special offers for related products from the same vendor; 37% would like to recieve sweepstakes or drawing offers; only 19% wanted special offers for related products from partner companies; and only 9% wanted offers to subcribe to other companies' email programs.

E-Mail Marketing

In November of last year, the e-mail marketing service provider EmailLabs released interesting survey results on an often overlooked aspect of email usage: The "preview pane."

The preview pane is that portion of many email programs such as Microsoft's Outlook that shows a "preview" of the full message, i.e. the first lines of the text of the email message.

The EmailLabs survey revealed that 90% of business-to-business e-mail newsletter subscribers have the preview pane function available to them and that 70% frequently or always use it. Half of these respondents read just the first few lines in the preview pane to determine whether they should read the rest of the email; a third read all of the contents of the preview pane even if they have to scroll or expand the preview pane to do so; and 15% will read as much as the preview pane allows but won't scroll to read the rest, if necessary.

Further, 45% rarely or never allow images to be downloaded into the preview pane portion of their email messages. Lastly, only 31% of B2B e-mail newsletter subscribers add those addresses to their "safe senders" list.

All of these statistics point to the importance of creating compelling content specifically for recipients to read in the preview pane of their email programs.

Political Blogging

I originally wrote this for January 9 issue of Politics In Minnesota: The Weekly Report:

A March 2005 Harris Interactive survey found that two-fifths (44%) of online American adults have read a political blog and more than a quarter (27%) read them once a month or more. The survey also found that the more educated you are the more likely you were to read political blogs; that most (53%) political blog readers spend less than 15 minutes during a typical reading session; that men (48%) are more likely to read political blogs than women (40%); that liberals (52%) are more likely to read political blogs than their conservative (48%) or moderate (46%) counterparts; and that liberals (13%) are significantly more likely to post comments at political blogs than are conservatives (7%) or moderates (7%).

A recent AOL survey of bloggers reveals that political bloggers are a small subset of the blogosphere by dicing up the motivation of bloggers: Almost 50% of bloggers blog as self-therapy while only 16% do it because they're interested in journalism, 12% to stay ahead in news and gossip, and a mere 8% to expose political information.

The AOL survey also found that while most bloggers read other blogs for entertainment (53.3%), a significant percentage (43.9%) read other blogs to get a "different, fresh perspective on the news," and 22.1% did so because "it's the easiest way to get the latest news." These findings may help explain the viral effect blogs sometimes have on news stories the mainstream media may not consider significant but percolate up through the blogosphere due to bloggers reading others' blogs and then giving their own take on the same story on their blog.

In January last year, Pew did a State of Blogging survey which found that though eight million American adults have created blogs, that blog readership stands at 27% of Internet users, and 5% of Internet users use blog aggregators or feed readers to get information online, 62% of Internet users do not know what a blog is.

Online Politics

A recent USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future survey found that more people believe that the Internet can be used to gain political power. The survey found that in 2005, 39.8% of Internet users agree that going online can give people more political power, that's up from 27.3% in the previous study. Additionally, 61.7% of respondents, regardless of Internet access, agree that going online has become important to political campaigns.

In this year's study, 41.1% of Internet users went online for information about the presidential campaign and 87.2% were satisfied with the information about the presidential election they found. Of those people, 91.1% sought information about issues or candidates they supported and 77.4% sought information about issues and candidates about which they were undecided.

People are becoming more skeptical about online information, according to the study: "In 2005, 48.8% of users say that most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate, a decline from the peak of 58% in 2001."  People are far more likely to trust the reliability of established media organizations (78.5%) or government (78.2%) web sites than they are information posted by individuals (11.5%) but that's up slightly from the previous study (8.6%).

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 63 million Americans turned to the Internet for political news and information in 2004, up from 34.5 million in 2000 and just 7 million in 1996.