The User Demographics And Usage Patterns Of Twitter

According to the findings of a recent study conducted by the prestigious Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, only 8% of American adults that are online are now using Twitter. This statistic was widely reported last week by many mainstream media outlets and technology blogs when the study's results were first released, but a deeper analysis of the research reveals some additional..and truly surprising...insights.

Interestingly enough, in the 10-year lifespan of the Pew Internet Project, this is the first time the organization has surveyed users about a single, company-specific online application or activity because the Project's mission is to look generally at online usage patterns rather than at specific brands or technologies.

First, let's take a look at Twitter's current demographics:

As this chart shows, groups notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use are:

~ Young adults: Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
~ African-Americans and Latinos: Minority Internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white Internet users.
~ Urbanites: Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
~ Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.

Secondly, how are all these groups ACTUALLY utilizing Twitter? Check out this great chart which compares the frequency of different activities. The service is primarily used for posting personal updates, although 62% post work updates and just over 50% of all Twitter users share news stories and communicate directly with others users via direct message:

So what does all this mean? Even with all the hype and buzz surrounding Twitter as a micro-blogging platform, and its willingness to be embraced by techies, politicos, professional athletes, recording artists, film and TV actors, and many other individuals, the service has much room for improvement in attracting an ethnically-diverse range of users and compelling them to utilize Twitter in a broader spectrum of ways.

Given the success of and reception to this study, I'm sure we will see follow-up surveys from Pew which will attempt to update these findings. Stay tuned...particularly as Twitter's usage and popularity continue to evolve.

The History Of Social Media: A Stunning Visual Timeline

Now here's something you don't see every day, and is definitely worth a look. We, here at CMAC, love this, and we especially love well-designed images like this.

According to Barry Ritholtz on his blog, The Big Picture, we all know social media has become an integral part of modern society. It's as common nowadays as, well, breathing and blinking. Currently, there are popular social networks with user bases larger than the populations of most countries. In addition, there are niche sites for virually every special interest in existence. And there are countless sites to share photos, videos, and status updates, as well as online destinations for new people and connecting with family members and old friends. In the final analysis, there are social solutions for just about every communication need in the world.

So, at this point, now is as good a time as any to take a look at the history of social media...rendered in the following amazing and informative infographic with a comprehensive global history of the medium. You can click on the image for a larger, more detailed view:

Repurposing Good Content: 5 Non-PR Uses For Press Releases

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. For both corporate and agency PR practitioners, Kennedy offers some excellent and timely advice on how to maximize the utility and reach of the most common deliverable found in PR campaigns: the press release.

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It may seem like a bit of an oxymoron, but press releases don’t just have to be for public relations (PR) anymore. There are, in fact, several uses for that great little story you just wrote besides sending it out to endless news desks and tired reporters. Try these five suggestions out before you resort to using your press release to wrap fish!

1. Turn it Into a Blog Post
The press release is already practically in a blog format, why not go ahead and throw it up on the company blog? If you don’t have one set up, use it as your first blog post! Readers of your press release expect you know what you’re talking about, considering it’s your business; use that same expertise in relating that info to the endless flow of readers on the Internet!

Alternatively, split the press release into multiple blog posts for extra mileage. Find five solid pieces of information you can expound on and turn them into their own individual posts.

If the tone of the press release isn’t quite conversational enough for your blog, do a quick rewrite to bring it up to speed. Also, make sure to update it to include up to date information if you happened to write it a few days or weeks prior – things might have changed in the interim. Of course, you also can’t forget to…

2. Use It As SEO Bait
Reconfigure your blog post to incorporate keywords to bring your website up in its Google ranking. This is called search engine optimization, and should be done to get people to read your blog and, more importantly, visit your website and buy all your products!

Find some other blogs and websites that cover some of the same ground as your blog does and link to them. Eventually you can strike up a relationship and they will help you with your SEO efforts by linking back to your website.

3. Integrate It Into Your Sales Kit
You wrote the press release as a sort of pitch for readers to come to your business, so why not incorporate it into your sales kit? Bringing in new clients and new customers works roughly the same way; convince them that you’re a company worth dealing with and your products or services are something to spend money on. Reconstruct your press release to be more of a direct sales pitch as the original incarnation was (presumably) more neutral. You might even change your sales kit to reflect information in the press release.

4. Start A Social Media Program
Tear that press release apart and find info you can use for a Twitter and Facebook series. Were you using it to announce the specifics of your new product? Spread your posts about all the juicy details across a series of social media posts to create a sense of excitement with your customers. Ask your followers and friends questions about what they would like your product to feature and what they might like to see in future releases. You might be surprised when they state some of the new features you’ve already implemented! And then, of course, you can focus on them for the release, pleasing your customers and making them feel heard all in one fell swoop!

5. Write Your Own Feature Story
Forget submitting the release to news agencies; just write your own feature story with your press release! Use your own writing expertise or hire a writer to take the info in your release to craft a story fit for newspapers or magazines and query them to publishers yourself. This way, you skip the whole process of relying on a tired, grumpy journalist to notice your press release among the huge pile in their inbox.

Send your story out to several possible places for printing – don’t just send it to your local newspaper, also consider trade magazines that deal in the same topics your business does. (Of course, be careful not to anger editors who frown on simultaneous submission.) If your business is releasing a new brand of pet food, send it out to the animal and pet magazines of the world and see what happens!

Make sure, however, that there is no conflict of interest with the story you’re submitting. Does your magazine have a deal to advertise in one pet magazine? Then it probably isn’t the best idea to submit it to their competitors.

© 1998-2010 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

Ventura County Star Features Editorial Written By CMAC President and CEO Keith R. Pillow

The Ventura County Star, in its Sunday, November 14 print edition, published a lengthy editorial written by CMAC President and CEO Keith R. Pillow about the city of Oxnard's misguided rebranding campaign, and the REAL issues behind the municipality's efforts to overhaul its tarnished image. Check out the coverage below:

Tiger Woods Joins Twitter...Finally...In Effort To Boost Image

As widely reported today in this story by the Associated Press, this item in SportsNewser, and countless other mainstream consumer, sports, and golf media outlets today, former world No. 1 golfer and internationally-disgraced superstar Tiger Woods has officially begun using Twitter under his own handle, @TigerWoods. The account, as of this afternoon, already has well over 150,000 followers.

According to AP golf writer Doug Ferguson, who has a long-standing relationship with the star, Woods has been using his Twitter account since June of 2009, although the handle was secured and set up approximately one year prior, and the only tweets, before today, were to announce his Twitter stream, Facebook page, and redesign of his Website. You can see Woods' brief tweet history below:

Ironically, Woods is just launching this effort now, almost one year after news first broke of the now-infamous, Thanksgiving Day car crash in the driveway of his Isleworth home and his unbelievable series of infidelities with as many as a dozen women, even though he has long eschewed mainstream media in favor of making announcements exclusively through his cutting-edge Website. In the wake of his recently-finalized painful divorce, and his first season without a victory since turning professional in 1996, Woods is using Twitter and other media platforms to slowly begin rebuilding his damaged reputation. The key question related to all of this: will it work?

In addition to posting his first tweet, Newsweek posted an op-ed piece by Woods today titled, “How I’ve Redefined Victory,” and he is scheduled to be a guest for two segments on Thursday, November 17 on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning.” And Woods may make one or more television appearances in the next several weeks, according to his agent, Mark Steinberg, leading up to the golfer's annual invitation-only, end-of-season tournament, the Chevron World Challenge.

In the final analysis, it will take far more than a few tweets, op-eds, and media appearances to overhaul Woods' image as a liar and philanderer. However, based on fan and media reception at tournaments this year in which he's participated, it's readily apparent the tide is turning in Woods' favor, although he still has many skeptics and detractors. Above all, the most important ingredient in this equation is time; it takes time for people to forget about the past, and to recognize positive behaviors in the present which definitively prove that he has changed...as a golfer, as a husband, as a parent, and as one of the world's most recognizable athletes. There is no reason to believe that, if he stays on this path of growth and development, most people will eventually forget about the past. That's human nature, and it's a pattern we've seen repeated over and over with sports and entertainment personalities who've stumbled along the way and disappointed their fans and colleagues. Kobe Bryant...Pete Rose...Britney Spears...Bill Clinton...the list goes on and on of celebs who've redeemen themselves.

Regardless of what happens to Woods and his reputation, it will be interesting to see precisely how long, and through what tactics and channels, it will take for all of this damage to be repaired. Stay tuned...

Crowded House: How Marketers Can Use Crowdsourcing For Maximum Impact

Outside of social media and viral marketing, crowdsourcing has arguably become one of THE hottest communications techniques in recent years to be used by marketers for greater engagement of, and interaction with, target audiences of all varieties. But for the uninitiated, what is crowdsourcing, and how is it being used today by businesses? Let's explore further...

Crowdsourcing: Origin and Definition
For starters, the term "crowdsourcing" was first coined by Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, in his seminal feature story, "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," in the June, 2006 issue of the publication. It is a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing." Howe still writes for the magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects. He also continues to cover the phenomenon on his blog, Crowdsourcing.com, and he wrote a book, Crowdsourcing: Why The Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, on the subject which was released in September, 2008. According to Howe, crowdsourcing is defined as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee; it could also be an external third party, such as a PR firm or advertising agency), and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. In his article, Howe explains that because technological advances have allowed for cheap consumer electronics, the gap between professionals and amateurs has been diminished. As a result, brands are now able to take advantage of the talent and real-time input of the public for all sorts of different marketing and product development programs.

How Does Crowdsourcing Work?
Essentially, crowdsourcing acts as a distributed problem-solving and production technique. In a typical crowdsourcing scenario, an issue is broadcast to a known or unknown group of people requesting solutions and/or input on the topic. Individuals, also known as the crowd, then form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions to the requesting company. Going one step further, the crowd can also potentially sort through all the proposed solutions, and pinpoint the most appropriate ones. In the end, these best solutions are owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place — the crowdsourcer — and the winning individuals in the crowd are usually, but not always, rewarded with prizes or some other form of recognition.


The Four Main Crowdsourcing Strategies
According to Howe, there are four primary crowdsourcing strategies:

• Crowdfunding: An open call to raise funds for a specific business, individual, cause, or non-profit organization.
• Crowdcreation: An open call requesting individuals to join a crowd interested in the requester's mission, products, or services.
• Crowdvoting: An open call for the crowd to vote for a specific choice.
• Crowd Wisdom: An open call to solicit the collective opinion of a crowd, rather than a single expert, to answer a question.

The Benefits of Crowdsourcing
As explained by Howe in his book, and as reinforced by many to today's top marketing experts and social media strategist, crowdsourcing offers the following benefits:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
• Payments are based on results, or not offered at all.
• The organization can tap a wide range of talent than might not be present in its own organization.
• By listening to the crowd, organizations obtain direct insight into their customers' desires.
• The community may feel a direct connection with the brand of the crowdsourcer, the result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

Real-World Examples from Today's Marketers
With the advent and global popularity of social networks, much of today's crowdsourcing is orchestrated through major social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, many companies also request input from their respective crowds through their corporate Websites, e-mail newsletters, direct mail pieces, print and online advertisements, and other forms of marketing communication — or in many cases, most or all of the above, to obtain the absolute widest range of feedback from all possible sources. From the marketer's perspective, the more feedback from a brand's multiple target audiences, the better. Marketers can then analyze all of the input and solutions from the crowd, and strategically use that information to best solve the problem.

As mentioned at the beginning, in addition to tapping into the talents and expertise of the crowd, crowdsourcing has become a very popular, low-risk communication channel for directly interacting with and engaging target audiences, and convincing customers that their feedback is both useful and highly valued. Years ago, this high level of engagement was very difficult to create and maintain, but through the aforementioned technology-based vehicles, it is easy and natural in society today.

In terms of real-world examples, here are some excellent recent instances of crowdsourcing at work:

• Gap: Last month, when Gap introduced its new brand identity without consumer input, there was so much negative pushback from long-time Gap shoppers about the visual presence that the company ultimately pulled it down and went back to its original design.
• Procter & Gamble: The company employs more than 9,000 scientists and researchers in corporate R&D, but still have many problems they cannot solve. Employees now post these issues on a dedicated crowdsourcing Website called InnoCentive, and offer large cash rewards to more than 90,000 “solvers” who make up this network of backyard scientists.
• TopCoder: A software development house for outsourced projects. What separates TopCoder from its competitors is that the work is crowdsourced to a community of over 180,000 members from over 200 countries in a competition format.
• Wikipedia: Technically, the globally-popular online encyclopedia is a crowdsourcing-driven initiative.

In many instances, the crowdsourcing initiative is not as extensive or comprehensive as these examples. It could be as simple as a restaurant chain such as Denny's, Red Robin, or California Pizza Kitchen asking its respective crowds to submit ideas for a brand-new healthy menu item. Or a consumer brand, such as Johnson & Johnson or Kraft, asking for the crowd's input on a list of potential names for a new product to be introduced next year. Or a technology company, such as HP or Apple, requesting opinions from its consumer base on choices for a new celebrity spokesperson. And the list goes on and on. Anything that marketers can think of, where consumer or user input would be valuable, is fair game for crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing isn't going away any time soon. In fact, it will become far more prevalent as additional companies realize how extensively they can leverage the collective minds and expertise of their respective customers. So, the next time your business needs some form of creative or strategic direction, ask the crowd. You'll be pleasantly surprised at both the quality and quantity of the input.