More than half of U.S. consumers with Internet access use social networking services (SNS), such as Facebook and MySpace, and penetration will continue to grow. According to a new study from IDC, consumers are also spending ever-greater amounts of time on SNS, a fact that has advertisers drooling over the opportunity represented by SNS.
IDC found that consumers who use SNS also tend to visit the services often and spend a lot of time per visit. More than three quarters of SNS users visit at least once a week, and no less than 57% visit at least once a day. During each session, 61% of SNS users spend at least 30 minutes on the respective site or stay logged in permanently, and 38% spend at least one full hour per session (or stay logged in).
There are four major reasons why consumers use SNS: to connect and communicate; in response to peer-pressure; for entertainment; and for work-related purposes. Advertising does not factor into consumer motivations. In fact, users are less tolerant of SNA advertising than the best tolerated forms of online advertising. Ads on SNS have lower click-through rates than traditional online ads (on the Web at large, 79% of all users clicked on at least one ad in the past year, whereas only 57% of SNS users did), and they also lead to fewer purchases (Web: 23%; SNS 11%).
“The thinking has been that the popularity of SNS will attract a big audience and generate a lot of traffic, which in turn will produce enormous amounts of user-generated content (UGC) and therefore advertising inventory – without any expenses for editorial staff or content distribution deals,” said Karsten Weide, program director, Digital Marketplace: Media and Advertising. “All of the above has proven true – except that almost invariably, SNS have had a hard time selling this inventory.”
One of the potential benefits of SNS that the advertising industry has discussed is whether peoples’ connections (i.e., whom a user knows or is linked to) could be used for advertising. For instance, publishers could show a car manufacturer’s ads to a user’s contacts because that user’s online behavior has indicated that she is interested in a particular brand of cars. Anecdotally, there has been some indication that this “social advertising” might be more effective than behavioral targeting. However, that idea is stillborn. Of all U.S. Internet users, only 3% would allow publishers to use contact information for advertising.
IDC expects that lower-than-average ad effectiveness on SNS will continue to contribute to slow ad sales unless publishers get users to do something beyond just communicating with others. If the major services succeed in doing so, they will become more like portals, such as Yahoo! or MSN, and they will come closer to the audience reach of the top services. If that happened, publishers would be better able to monetize their SNS.
via: IDC
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Darla Nettles Edwards has been promoted to Sr. Technical Manager. Edwards provides project management services for PDES, Inc., a member-supported consortium accelerating the development and implementation of standards to support model-based engineering, manufacturing and sustainment. She oversees the Systems Integration Board and participates in the development of standards and technical specifications. For the Next Generation Manufacturing Initiative, she provides risk management. Ms. Edwards has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Fine Arts from the College of Charleston and is a Certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute.
Jena Garrett has been promoted to Financial Performance Manager. Garrett manages the development of the ISG annual budget, three-year forecast, monthly financial results, and expenditures throughout the budgetary period. She analyzes financial data and reports and defines relevant information; interprets data for determining past financial performance and to project financial probability. She provides oversight of program revenues/expenditures and measures against program baselines to provide an assessment of program financial health. Garrett has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Winthrop University and is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute.
Becky Imhoff has been promoted to Program Administrator. Imhoff provides a variety of program support services that enable the planning, tracking, analysis and reporting of several ISG projects. Her primary responsibility is managing program budgets and deliverables for the Air Force-funded COMET, IDEV, and RANGER programs, and the Next Generation Manufacturing Technologies Initiative. She provides a variety of other support services as necessary in order to meet the Institute’s objectives. She is a graduate of the College of Charleston with a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business.
Buddy McAlister has been promoted to Senior Director of Systems Engineering. McAlister provides support to various clients in areas of systems engineering, systems architecture design, agile software development and technical project management. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Resource Management from Webster University and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Texas Lutheran University. He is also a Certified Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute and is a Certified Scrum Master by the Scrum Alliance.
Liz Qualls has been promoted to Sr. Program Assistant. Qualls is responsible for ISG’s Government Property management program. She ensures the program complies with Federal Acquisition Regulation requirements and proper control, use, preservation, and maintenance is performed on government property supporting all institute programs. She also performs market research for software and material requirements in support of ISG proposals and programs, and maintains Maintenance License Agreements on a variety of software products used by ISG. She also provides simplified acquisition purchasing support. Ms. Qualls is a Certified Professional Property Administrator with the National Property Management Association.
Jim Radley has been promoted to the position of Senior Program Manager, Systems Engineering. Radley is the SCRA Program Manager for Project SeaHawk, the national model for port security. He has a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Charles Sharp has been promoted to the position of Program Manager. Sharp is the program manager for Next Generation Management Technology Initiative, which accelerates the development and implementation of breakthrough manufacturing technologies. He also manages COMET, a United States Air Force-funded program works to integrate cost models into design manufacturing tools and systems. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business from Virginia Military Institute.
POWER-N.O.T.E., a newly formed membership group with the goal of helping local small business owners grow and strengthen their business has set the date for their first meeting in Greenville.
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