Library of Congress Acquires Entire Twitter Archive

The Library of Congress announced today, via their Twitter feed, that every public tweet, ever, since Twitter’s inception in March 2006, will be archived digitally at the Library of Congress. Twitter processes more than 50 million tweets every day, with the total numbering in the billions.

Read more on the Library of Congress blog.

Americans Using TV and Internet Together 35% More Than A Year Ago

Americans increased their overall media usage and media multitasking according to The Nielsen Company’s latest Three Screen Report, which tracks consumption across TV, Internet and mobile phones.

In the last quarter of 2009, simultaneous use of the Internet while watching TV reached three and a half hours a month, up 35% from the previous quarter. Nearly 60% of TV viewers now use the Internet once a month while also watching TV.

“The rise in simultaneous use of the web and TV gives the viewer a unique on-screen and off-screen relationship with TV programming,” said Nielsen Company media product leader Matt O’Grady. “The initial fear was that Internet and mobile video and entertainment would slowly cannibalize traditional TV viewing, but the steady trend of increased TV viewership alongside expanded simultaneous usage argues something quite different.” Read more at Nielsen Wire

More Than 239 Million Listen to Radio Every Week

Radio reaches more than 239 million persons ages 12 and older during a typical week, or 93.1% of listeners 12+, according to the RADAR 104 National Radio Listening Report which is due out March 22. These listeners tune to the more than 7,200 RADAR Network affiliated stations, up from 212 million listeners one year ago.

Since the December, 2007 RADAR 95 report, national radio listening estimates and network radio audience reports have been based on PPM data from within commercialized PPM markets and on diary respondents from the balance of the U.S. The combination of PPM and diary respondents have shown more listeners to radio over the course of a week versus the 2007 RADAR listening reports which were based on diary respondents alone.

Read more at Radio-Online.com

Social Media Differences Between Teens, Boomers and Moms: New Study Findings

Relationship building via social media marketing is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Moms, teens and Baby Boomers are three big social media subgroups that are unique.

Social Media Examiner looks at what current studies reveal about how these three groups use social media tools.

Read the article at Social Media Examiner here.

2010 Indies Choice Book Awards Finalists Announced

On Monday, March 1, the American Booksellers Association announced the finalists for the 2010 Indies Choice Book Awards. Booksellers at ABA member stores will cast ballots to choose the winners in eight categories -- Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Adult Debut, Young Adult, Middle Reader, New Picture Book, Most Engaging Author, and Picture Book Hall of Fame.

The winners, to be announced in April, will be honored at BookExpo America 2010 in New York City.

See all the finalists here!

Tenth Annual Weblog Awards!

The Bloggies, the Web's largest blog awards, were announced on Twitter last night! This was the 10^th annual Weblog Awards, which included categories such as Best Food Weblog, Best Weblog about Music, Best Entertainment Weblog, and more! Check out all the winners here!

Any Way It’s Sliced, Appeal of Social Media Grows

You’ve heard of Meetup, the online social networking portal? A couple of consumer marketers are bringing out campaigns that could be called “meatups.” The brands, Land O’Frost and Sara Lee Deli, both sell lunch meats, cold cuts and other sliced-meat products. Coincidentally, they are both introducing campaigns that are centered on the social media.

Or, more likely, it is no coincidence. More advertisers of prosaic household staples are adding social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to the tactics they use to reach current and potential customers.

For Land O’Frost, the campaign represents the company’s initial foray into the social media. There is a community called Land O’Moms, housed on a Web site, where consumers can exchange recipes and parenting advice, download coupons, read articles from women’s magazines and communicate with popular mommy bloggers. Land O’Frost and the campaign also have presences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“It’s a whole revolution,” David Van Eekeren, president at Land O’Frost in Lansing, Ill., says of the social media. “We need to be part of it, obviously.”

“This brand is recognizing what a lot of other brands are recognizing,” says Kathleen Henson, president and chief executive at Henson Consulting. “It’s important to reach moms online because that’s where moms are right now.”

Read more at NYTimes.com

Forget ROI, Let’s Focus on Social Media Optimization

As more companies embrace social media, the chatter about return on investment, or ROI, has amplified as executives attempt to determine whether the money they’re spending is worth it. In theory, it’s a good exercise but given it is still early days for social media, it is a challenge to accurately quantity its impact right now. Rather than focus on ROI, companies should be looking long and hard at SMO – social media optimization.

So, what is SMO? One way to define is that SMO is a focus on making sure that a company’s social media activities are as efficient and effective as possible. It means creating content – be it blog posts, tweets, videos or Facebook updates – that can be easily used and leveraged across multiple social media platforms.

It means making sure a company’s social media person or team is highly productive so that their day-day-day activities are focused and productive as opposed to having a scattered shot-gun approach that consumes too many cycles.

Read more at Sysomos.com

Big Honcho receives Best Award from top mom blog 3KidsandUs.com

Big Honcho Media receives recognition as Best in Public Relations Representation by top mom blog 3KidsandUs.com. Read more here

Deloitte “State of The Media Democracy” Survey: Recession Intensifies America’s Love for TV

In a year dramatically impacted by the economic recession, consumers have returned to in-home entertainment, showing increased interest in watching television over other types of entertainment. Released today, Deloitte’s 2009 “State of the Media Democracy” survey reveals a 26 percent increase in the number of Americans choosing the TV as their favorite type of media as compared to the previous year.

Deloitte's fourth edition State of the Media Democracy survey assesses media consumption preferences of 2,046 consumers, ages 14 to 75 in the United States, revealing significant trends including a surge in television viewing, the ascension of the game console as a stand-alone media platform, the mobile phone’s rapid decoupling of the Internet from the desktop and the rise of tribal marketing.

More than 70 percent of survey respondents rank watching TV in their top three favorite media activities. And, when ranked alongside activities such as surfing the Web, listening to music or reading, 34 percent of consumers place it at the top of the list. This is a substantial increase from last year and more than double the percent selecting the number two choice, the Internet, which came in at 14 percent. Read more at Deloitte

TV Remains Strong as DVR and Online Video Show Most Growth

Nielsen’s latest A2/M2™ Three Screen Report – a quarterly analysis from our Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement™ initiative – shows considerable year over year growth in terms of time spent for DVR (up 21.1%) and online video (up 34.9%) in Q3 2009. Given the consistent spike in usage among the three screens of television, Internet and mobile, consumers are clearly adding video platforms to their schedule, rather than replacing them.

“Americans today have an insatiable appetite for not only content, but also choice,” says Nic Covey, director of cross-platform insights at Nielsen. “Across all age groups, we see consumers adding the Internet and mobile devices to their media diet — consuming media anytime and anywhere possible.”

For the first time this quarter, Nielsen reports how much time the average American spends in a typical week with TV, Internet and mobile devices. Without a doubt, consumers of all ages spend the majority of their video time (nearly 99%) in front of the television, while DVR and online video are becoming more widely used. Read more at Nielsen Wire

Nielsen Study Finds 77% of Adults Listen to Radio

A Nielsen study of media use, conducted by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE), found that 77% of adults are reached by broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. The study, in which consumers were physically observed consuming media throughout the day, found that Web/Internet (excluding e-mail) reached 64%, newspaper 35% and magazines 27%. Read more at Radio-Online.com

For Boomers, Integrated Media Strategies Are Necessary

Earlier this year, Forrester Research released its five year advertising forecast which found that marketers were shifting substantial advertising dollars out of traditional media and into interactive channels such as mobile marketing, display ads, search, social media and email.

Yet, marketers who rely too heavily on interactive channels, at the expense of traditional channels, risk losing out on the lucrative Boomer segment that are avid multi-media consumers. In fact, unlike other age groups, Boomers consume a daily, balanced diet of media from multiple traditional and interactive sources with traditional media -- television, radio, and newspapers -- providing their daily "squares."

Consider these statistics:

Television

• Boomers spend, on average, 9.5 hours a day on "screen" time activities -- e.g., television, computer, mobile phones, video games -- with the largest percentage of time spent on television.

• 77% of Boomer's daily viewing occurs between 7:30 pm and 11 pm, when they are most likely to watch The Discovery Channel, A&E, the Food Network, ESPN and Fox News.

Radio

• 76% listen to the radio -- more than any other demographic -- with half listening during morning drive-time and their programming preferences vary from oldies to country to talk shows.

Read more at MediaPost.com

In Teen Book Publishing, A Stronger Focus On Reader Interactivity, With Internet Marketing Ascendant

Big Honcho Media Partner, Dina Vathis quoted in Youth Markets Alert article.

View the article by clicking here

Managing Partner Dan Beck on the future of Michael Jackson's music

Dan Beck, Managing Partner of Big Honcho Media discusses the future of Michael Jackson's music on Fox Business.

Motherhood and Social Media Go Together

Mommies are flocking to social networks, according to new research from BabyCenter LLC, which runs several parenting Web and community sites. The number of moms using social media regularly has grown from 11% in 2006 to 63% today, an increase of 462% in three years.

Social media are not equal in online mommies’ eyes, however. Most say they use mass-reach networks such as Facebook for socializing and entertainment, but turn to specialized content sites for information and counsel from fellow parents.

And while parenting may not define who these people are, it has a strong impact on what they buy. Eighty-five percent of respondents said having a baby changed their purchasing habits in some way, while 62% said it specifically led them to change the brands they usually bought.

And 73% said it changed the very criteria they use for selecting items to buy. For example, before having a first child, women reported quality, features and design as top considerations in their shopping choices; after childbirth, those priorities switched to safety, quality and price.

“To reach today’s mom successfully you need to understand fully how she lives her life,” BabyCenter chairman and global president Tina Sharkey said in a release. “The 21st Century mom has many faces and the more you know about her, the easier it will be to build a relationship that lasts a lifetime.” Read full article at PromoMagazine.com

Dan Beck on Fox Business discussing Michael Jackson's legacy

Big Honcho Media Managing Partner, Dan Beck, discusses Michael Jackson's legacy on Fox Business - June 29, 2009.

Wall Street Journal Blog quotes Dan Beck on Michael Jackson

“I always felt he would never be an old man.”—Dan Beck, managing partner, Big Honcho Media

Jackson was not only the first African-American music superstar, he was, Dan Beck points out, “the guy who met the beginning of the ultimate media explosion.” Beck, now managing partner of Big Honcho Media, worked with Michael from 1988 to 1996, as senior vice president of marketing and sales at Epic, “when he still had the big career, but there were starting to be cracks in it. The plastic surgery. The charges of child molesting. He was very smart, very competitive, but there were big blind spots.

“He was always about the Big Dream,” says Beck, who came up with the idea for Jackson’s 1995 ‘HIStory, “the Fantasy of it all. I remember Michael walking into a meeting for ‘HIStory’ and saying, ‘I see this album selling 100 million copies.’ The room stopped. It was like, ‘He’s out of his mind.’ But he just looked at us and said, ‘No one ever thought I could sell 44 million. Why can’t we imagine 100 million?”

Read entire WSJ.com Blog post

Dan Beck, Managing Partner of Big Honcho Media, reflects on working with Michael Jackson on Fox Business

Dan Beck, Managing Partner of Big Honcho Media, was on Fox Business on Friday, June 26, discusses his time working with Michael Jackson.










Dan is on at 3:27