May 2010

With more than 400 million Facebook users worldwide, the site has quickly become one of the most popular marketing tools among businesses. Social media marketing campaigns may become even more popular during the next four years - a new study conducted by eMarketer indicates that 65.8 percent of American internet users will be using social media sites.

While social media sites are popular with teens and young adults, a large percentage of the new social media audience will be older, says eMarketer. As of 2010, 60 percent of the internet users in the 35 to 44 age group use social media. By 2014, more than 70 percent will visit social media sites.

"Teens and young adults are old news," said Deborah Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer. "Women, especially moms, are still driving much of the growth."

Many companies have seen tremendous results using social media marketing campaigns, both in terms of generating new leads and brand exposure. For example, Nature Valley recently ran a campaign in which it donated money to charities for every new Facebook follower. In a 24-hour period, the granola bar maker gained more than 70,000 fans.

With Facebook coming under fire for its new privacy policies, many consumers are beginning to distrust social media networks.

This sentiment was echoed in a recent survey conducted by Vision Critical, says AdWeek. According to the survey, only 16 percent of the respondents viewed social networks as very or completely probably don't need quotations trustworthy, while 49 percent thought they were not trustworthy.

In addition to that, privacy is a big issue for many social network users. Many users worry that social network sites are selling their information to advertisers and a majority are concerned with the confidentiality of their personal information.

Despite that, many consumers still feel social networks are good places for brands to reach out to consumers. Among the 18- to 34-year-old respondents, 28 percent said they purchased products because of something they saw on a social network site.

Similar results were found in a recent survey from the Rasmussen Reports. According to the survey, 69 percent of adults were concerned about their privacy on Facebook, of which 31 percent were very concerned.

According to a recent survey conducted by ABI Research, mobile users are increasingly being engaged by mobile ads.

In 2008, only 21 percent of mobile users clicked on a banner ad or text link while accessing the mobile internet. This number is now up to 27 percent in 2010, according to the report. In addition, mobile internet use is also up significantly, with 28 percent of mobile users accessing the internet at least once a day from their phones.

"More people are accessing websites through their mobile phones today than 14 months ago, and clicking on ads is becoming more commonplace," said Neil Storther, ABI Research's practice director for mobile marketing strategies.

Despite this, mobile users are also more cautious about making purchases on mobile phones. According to the survey, 76 percent of respondents are more security-conscious, up 5 percent from the previous survey.

Browsing the web from mobile phones is about to get a whole lot easier - Adobe will be launching Flash Player 10.1 soon, which will allow users to view the full internet, including Flash video.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved Google's purchase of mobileadvertising company AdMob, reports the New York Times.

Earlier this month, competitors said that Google's acquisition of AdMob would give it an unfair advantage in the mobile advertising space. The FTC approved the deal unanimously, though, in a five-to-zero vote. According the New York Times, the FTC said the transaction was "unlikely to harm competition in the emerging market for mobile advertising networks."

Apple's acquisition of AdMob competitor Quattro and the recent release of the iAd platform ensured there would be healthy competition in the mobile marketing space, said the FTC.

Google made several public statements that, if the FTC had vetoed the acquisition, it would take the decision to court. Several developers would have backed the search giant, reports the Times.

It appeared as if the FTC would file an antitrust suit against Google earlier this month, anonymous sources within the FTC told Bloomberg. Together, Google and AdMob would account for 20 percent of the mobile advertising space.