Who is on Facebook?

Facebook is a keeper for most of the US. 56% of all Americans have a Facebook page. 3 in 10 use it everyday with younger users visiting more often.

Those who don’t have a page, 35% say they have no interest or they have better things to do with their time. 22% stay away because they think it’s bad or not right for their age group.

Advertising:

• About 8 in 10 Facebook users surveyed say they hardly ever (26%) or never (57%) click on online advertising or sponsored content when using the site.
• Most (54%) say they would not feel safe purchasing goods and services on Facebook. Among the site’s most frequent users, half say they would not feel safe making purchases through the site.

Trust:

• 59% of Facebook users do not trust the site with their personal information and have little or no faith in the company to protect their privacy. A slight minority (13%) trust the company completely or a lot.
• Just 18% of Americans have deep confidence in Zuckerberg’s ability to run a large publicly traded company like Facebook, another 40% say they are “somewhat confident.”
• About a third of the public (36%) has a favorable impression of the Facebook founder, while 14 percent hold an unfavorable opinion and 20 percent say they’ve never heard of him or don’t know how they feel.
• The Social Network filmgoers have a more favorable impression of Zuckerberg than others (51% favorable compared to 31% among those who have not seen it).

Facebook vs The World

Facebook as a whole scores a net positive favorability rating, with 51% holding favorable impressions of the company compared to 23% who have an unfavorable impression.

• 27% of those surveyed have a favorable impression of Twitter. 4% said they never heard of it.
• 71% favor Google
• 17% of those polled have a neutral opinion of Facebook

And my favorite stat:

• 2% have never heard of Facebook.

Need more information? CNBC has put together a whole Facebook-lolapalooza site with everything you ever wanted to know about the social media giant, its founder and its prospects for the future. Let’s just say that as of right now, everything’s coming up dollar signs for Zuckerberg and the gang.

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I only follow 126 people and I get a new tweet every minute. What about the people who follow 300 accounts? Keeping up is impossible.

(Cue the trumpeters) Announcing the new Twitter Email Digest!

The digest is broken into two parts. The top features the most Tweeted stories from your followers. Below that are the hottest Tweets according to your followers. Meaning, you may not follow the Tweetee but someone on your list does.

The good news here is that an email like this is easier to take in at a glance. If it works right, you’ll be up on the hottest stories flying around Twitter.

The bad news is that it’s more of a “discovery” digest than a summary digest. It feels like it’s designed to link you to new people instead of keeping you up on the top Tweets in your group. I haven’t seen one of the digests personalized with my Tweets yet, so it’s hard to gauge the usefulness.

If you want to try the new Twitter digest, just go to the Notifications tab in Settings and check the box. Oh, wait. Twitter already checked it for me. How nice of them.

Has Twitter delivered a new digest to your email box? I’d like to know what you thought of it. Is the content relevant or not worth your time?

I come from the sales side of the ISP and SEO industry as part of my interactive background. In my time, I did OK. In that time I also saw MANY who did not do OK and wondered what they said in an interview to get hired. That’s the way it is with most sales positions which is why turnover is so high and ‘opportunities’ are more than most other job segments.

Part of the trouble is the learning curve for sales folks especially in a space that changes as rapidly as Internet marketing does. It’s very different than those who are actually delivering the services being sold. Sales people usually have a 30,000 foot knowledge of what they are selling. Many know just enough to close a deal. Once again this is normal although I won’t go so far as to say it is good. In fact, I would bet that many service delivery folks are ready to jump through the screen right now. Sorry.

Apparently the folks at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) have seen trouble in the area of digital media sales that has gotten so bad that they have introduced a certification program for this important group in the overall mechanism of Internet marketing. The IAB’s press release states

“The certification program will help raise the level of professionalism in the digital field by allowing salespeople to demonstrate their knowledge of the complex interactive environment,” said Michael Theodore, Vice President, Member Services, IAB. “Much like examinations in other fields, this test will give current job holders and job seekers a ‘score card’ to prove their understanding of the most important concepts, guidelines, and best practices in digital advertising. Businesses also benefit by ensuring that they have the most competent sales teams possible.”

Let’s just say this is a long time coming. I would venture that most of the trouble that the industry experiences from customers and clients who have been burned by a provider of any kind are, at the very least, the indirect result of sales incompetence. I am very comfortable saying that because I have been guilty of displaying that incompetence (which was rooted more in ignorance rather than me being a sales scumbag) in the past.

Selling in the interactive space is a difficult thing to do especially since everyone is an ‘expert’ (Now that is where TRUE certification needs exist as well. If we could develop a client certification process that would solve all the problems in the interactive world). This certification concept is a good idea so at least a baseline of competence can be established thus creating a more professional sales force.

So who is behind this along with the IAB? Well to name a few there is CNN Money, Conde Nast Media Group, Disney Interactive Media Group and many more. Let’s just say it’s not a fly by night effort to extract money from people (I hope at least!).

So what will be covered?

• Differentiating the benefits of digital versus traditional media
• Describing digital advertising formats
• Defining key digital advertising tools and technologies
• Calculating media mathematics
• Adhering to compliance standards/policies
• Understanding differences in digital ad formats
• Prospecting for new clients
• Aligning digital advertising products with client objectives
• Comprehending internal and third-party research
• Analyzing, launching, and monitoring digital advertising campaigns and data
• Reviewing opportunities to renew or upsell digital advertising campaigns

To be sure it’s not exactly an Ivy League load of work for qualification. The press release describes it further

There is no formal coursework required for the “IAB Digital Media Sales Certification” examination. Designed for salespeople with 2-5 years of experience in the digital industry, it is recommended that candidates have a strong command of current industry issues, players, and operations, as well as a broad understanding of every major digital platform. The test costs $350 for IAB members and $450 for non-members.

While certifications can be obtained anywhere and sometimes the concept rings hollow the main thing this program has going for it is that it comes from the IAB. If Joe’s School of Digital Media Sales were doing this, it would be a non-story. But this is the IAB and they have seen enough evidence to put together this program to try and clean up whatever it is that prompted this course of action.

What do you think about this kind of program? Should there be more like this for sales and delivery folks alike? Do you think it really helps? Will it add value? Will it build confidence?

Let us know in the comments.

Hey, who can blame BIA/Kelsey for jumping on the train that is the Facebook IPO Express? Here is the picture version of this predicted US social media spend through 2016.

Let’s consider the whole Facebook IPO thingy in light of these numbers. In 2011, Facebook did somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion in revenue. That revenue is in total, not just in the US. What percentage of revenue is international I don’t know. Right now US users number somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million which would be about 17% of Facebook’s total user base.

It is likely that the US market spends more than most, however, and it is fair to think that the US proportion of revenue contribution is higher than that 17% of total users. With the US numbers for ad spend which are projected here, one wonders where all the revenue will come from in the future to support the reported valuation Facebook will receive this Friday.

Let’s compare this to Google whose market cap sits just below $200B but did just under $38B in revenue last year and is tracking to go well north of $40B this year. Does anyone else see a disconnect with valuing Facebook at 50% of Google’s market cap while only currently generating less than 8% of Google’s total revenue? Marry that with the Kelsey numbers that caps the social media advertising spend potential at $10B annual in TOTAL for the US (remember all that spend won’t be just for Facebook) 4 years from now and you have to scratch your head just a little.

Facebook will need to do something other than advertising especially if that facet of their business is being called out by some as ineffective.

The other side of the Kelsey data shows that Facebook’s idea that their advertising value is best for big brands could be right on point as much of the ad spend will be on a national level.

But wait. If national big brands will be the bulk of ad spend in social media in the next four years (according to this study only mind you) but Facebook is being outed as being ineffective by some big brands (which could be turned around to also read that said big brands and their agencies are clueless as to what they are doing in social media advertising) then where is all the revenue for Facebook going to come from to support what is supposed to be an earth shattering IPO?

One assumes that it would have to be the international market that Facebook is banking on but with a shaky world economy and very different approaches to media and advertising in different areas of the world (as well as China currently being a walled garden of sorts) how reliable will that be for Facebook?

I am not a financial analyst. I have not done any type of in depth analysis here. I am just looking at some numbers that are being thrown around and wondering if Facebook math is creating a “1 + 1 = 3 or more” scenario.

I have no skin in this game and I, like the rest of us, would figure out a way to carry on in this world if Facebook were to do a MySpace. I’m not saying that will happen at all but anyone who can add 1 + 1 and get the correct answer should have a few questions here, don’t ya think? I would also be just fine if Facebook hit a grand slam and killed this thing. It will be what it will be.

So what do you think it will be?

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Every Tom, Dick and pundit is putting in their heavily discounted two cents (it’s like there was a Groupon for pre-IPO Facebook hype and speculation and everyone appears to have bought it) and it is getting pretty silly.

The latest chicken little concern is the pulling of Facebook ads, to the tune of $10 million, by General Motors. Here is the tweet from the Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman that set all of this in motion.

In the world of “no good tweet goes unpublished” we head out to the article in the venerable Wall Street Journal that cries

General Motors Co. plans to stop advertising with Facebook Inc. after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers’ car purchases, according to a GM official.

GM will continue to promote its products on Facebook, but without paying the social-media company, the GM official and other people familiar with the matter said.

We are talking $10 million out of $3 billion in total advertising that Facebook collected last year (that’s .003% of the total ad revenue for Facebook. Not exactly the churn rate of a dying company) . All Things D’s (another WSJ property) Peter Kafka put together a list of reasons he gathered from various sources giving some insight and context for this pre Facebook IPO advertising revelation / revolution

Obviously there’s a back story here. If GM didn’t want to keep advertising on Facebook, it didn’t have to announce that two days before an IPO.

Big Fuel, GM’s social media ad agency, didn’t do a good job. That’s why GM fired them in December. For the record, here’s a quote from a Big Fuel rep: “GM never seemed persuaded of the value of social media in general and Facebook likes in particular. In a sales-driven culture, it is very hard to wrap your head around putting money in places where you don’t see immediate results in an uptick in sales.”

Starcom, GM’s media buying agency, didn’t do a good job. That’s why GM fired them in January.

How the heck did GM spend $3 on Facebook “content management” for every $1 it spent on Facebook ads, as the WSJ reports? That’s a sure sign that someone was doing something wrong.

Ford loves Facebook.

GM is pulling $10 million out of Facebook. Facebook did more than $3 billion in ads last year.

Pretty interesting stuff that leaves plenty of room for possible explanations of why this happened, not the least of which is the hint of over-selling by an agency or two which should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to this space over the past several years.

So what does this all mean? Well, if the IPO goes as it seems it will on Friday (which is to say that the rich will partake and get much richer) then it will mean nothing. Why? Because everyone will be crowing about how well the IPO went, they will then basically forget about this “news” regarding GM and get back to the business of over-selling marketing options like Facebook. It will be business as usual with a few naysayers trying to pop Facebook’s balloon.

If the IPO goes south (which seems pretty unlikely because this is about making money for those in the know, it’s not truly about the state of affairs in social media or business in general as we like to promote and glamorize) then Facebook will go on, limping a bit and licking its wounds, but still having the VAST majority of its 900 million plus users updating their friends and families as if the IPO didn’t even occur.

Is this to say that Facebook is impervious to being taken down? Not at all but the pulling of ads by one company is not a trend, it is an event. Very different indeed.

But wait a minute you say, what about these headlines?

Ahead of IPO; GM Drops Facebook Ads; Forrester Warns Other Companies May Follow – Marketing Land

Confirms GM story and gives quote from Forrester citing uncertainty amongst various companies about the effectiveness of Facebook ads.

DATA: Google Totally Blows Away Facebook On Ad Performance – Business Insider

Well, it’s the Business Insider, They write headlines. That’s what they do.

Ahead of IPO GM To Stop Advertising on Facebook – New York Times

Eye grabbing headline for sure but this quote about social media savvy Ford Motor Co. (thank you Scott Monty) tells a different story ” One company that disagreed with G.M.’s decision was its Detroit rival, Ford. In a statement, the company said, “We’ve found Facebook ads to be very effective when strategically combined with engagement, great content and innovative ways of storytelling, rather than treating them as a straight media buy.” That’s just a way for them to say that they actually understand social media while Government General Motors isn’t smart enough to get it. Nice dig.

There are more headlines and stories like these and there will be more for sure. In the end, though, this is a great time to be grabbing free press and headlines by using the Facebook IPO as the catch all, ‘too big to be ignored’ event. In the process, the press, social media and all of of us involved at varying levels are being sucked into a game that will likely be forgotten come next week.

Why you ask? In the end, it’s safe to say this (IMO, of course) -

• Facebook is a force to be reckoned with for at least the foreseeable future.

• It is a developing ad platform and if we didn’t know that before this “news” then we are asleep at the wheel for sure.

• People will get rich on Friday in ways most of us cannot imagine and that will have zero impact on our daily use of the site.

• Most of the 900 million or so users of Facebook don’t know what an IPO is.

• Regardless of its performance on Friday Facebook will be the target of many advertisers budgets because of the sheer volume of people there and it beats many other more “tried and true” advertising options even if it is in its nascent stage of development.

• Facebook will flood the market with success stories immediately following the IPO because it will no longer be required to “be quiet” so they will bury the negativity.

So how about this. Let’s just act for the rest of the week like Facebook isn’t doing its IPO thing on Friday. Let’s act like we have to do business today and that business may actually involve marketing vehicles other than Facebook. Let’s keep the perspective that even if Facebook blew up like a big ol’ balloon in the next 30 / 60 / 90 days that we would have to somehow. some way carry on in a seemingly dreary Facebook-less world. You get the picture.

So what say you about Facebook and its advertising potential? Is it as close to the edge of destruction as headlines would imply? Is it a good place to be? Will the IPO impact your use of Facebook in either direction? Are you in a holding pattern to see if another 1/3 of 1 percent of Facebook advertisers fold up their tent and go home?

Let’s hear you in our Facebook powered comments section. Oh the irony.

Poor Google+, he tries and tries but in the end, they always leave him.

RJMetrics has detailed Google+’s relationship troubles and it’s bleaker than bleak. Check out this over the rainbow scenario.

Each line represents the average person posting over and over on Google+ until they stopped. The blue line is the oldest, red next, then green, then pink. As you can see, every couple of months, the average user posted less and less over time. Those who do post regularly have an average of 12 days between them.

And how about this:

30% of users who make a public post never make a second one. Even after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again.

Oh Google+, why do people run from you? Is it your geeky personality? Is it that you don’t hang with the popular crowd? Is it your general appearance? What? And for those who do stick around, it’s as if they don’t want anyone to know because the average post has “less one +1, less than one reply, and less than one re-share.” It’s like they’re embarrassed to be seen with you.

I’m not sure what’s causing the problem, but I have a solution. We get ABC to run a reality show called The Lonely Social Network. Then we invite 10,000 people to compete for your affection. You can “hangout” with your favorites and +1 the keepers. At the end of each episode, those without a +1 are sent packing on the little Facebook bus. After 13 episodes, you’ll have a band of loyal users who are proud to wear you button.

It could work because everyone loves an underdog, so in that sense, Google+ has got it made.

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iYogi just released a new study and infographic all about the power of the Freemium model. Their results show that 100% of the people they surveyed have tried a Freemium product and 42% have gone on to pay for it.

Certain categories fared better than others as you can see from this slice of the full infographic:

Online security and movie services such as Netflix and Hulu were voted most likely to succeed. Music services, not so much. Only 26% said they were willing to fork out money for games after trying them. I think those people are kidding themselves.

There’s a lot of competition out there. With mobile devices in hand, folks can now choose from a nearly unlimited list of products and services that entertain, inform, or help them do what they need to do faster and better. If you truly believe your product is the best one, then you should have no qualms about giving away a limited day trial or a partial access trial.

iYogi says it best with this line from their report: “If it can’t ‘sell’ for free, can it ever sell at all?” The freemium model doesn’t just benefit the customer, it’s a built-in focus group that will help you make your product the best it can be.

Well, not to sound blunt (although it will), that’s stupid.

If you need more evidence that email is indeed alive and well you should consider what HubSpot (a Marketing Pilgrim sponsor of our inbound marketing channel) has added to their suite of, you guessed it, e-mail. OK, so if a company that has managed to get over $65 million in VC backing (included in that is Google Ventures) and currently boasts just shy of 7,000 users of their inbound marketing tools decides to incorporate email into its offerings can it be that dead?

The Boston Globe reports

When Cambridge [MA] marketing software firm HubSpot Inc. launched in 2006, e-mail pitching was considered old-fashioned and spam-riddled. Consumers struggling with e-mail overload were often not receptive to more electronic clutter. HubSpot didn’t even build e-mail marketing products.

That changes on Tuesday, when HubSpot will at last offer its own tools to manage, create, and track e-mail marketing campaigns in its standard menu of services. It’s a mark of how much life the company thinks is left in the old Internet standby.

“A lot of people think that e-mail marketing is dead,’’ said HubSpot marketing manager Jessica Meher, “but we think it still has a lot of power if it’s done right.”

Ok, so to say that HubSpot has its pulse on everything that is correct is a bit presumptuous. I get that. But why would a company that has already grown at a dizzying rate with a new concept (inbound marketing) and momentum in the marketplace use resources to build something into its platform that is failing?

Email marketing is not what it used to be and that’s why it is more effective than ever. I personally have undervalued email marketing and I am kicking myself for it. It can be dangerous to buy into conventional (or crowd) wisdom about things. With everyone barking that spam and phishing had ruined email it almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The difference with email marketing today is that now that there is SO much noise in the online space, it is actually a way to step away from that fray (which I liken to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange where everyone is screaming at the top of their lungs but somehow business still gets done) and be set apart from the craziness that is social media.

HubSpot had their epiphany of sorts pretty recently

HubSpot’s Meher said the company began to seriously consider adding e-mail marketing services last year after it purchased Cambridge start-up Performable, which had been developing analytical tools to measure the effectiveness of online campaigns. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Performable’s 18-person team moved over to HubSpot.

One of the team’s first projects, according to Meher, was to develop an e-mail marketing platform that was tightly integrated with the rest of HubSpot’s offerings. “We weren’t interested in e-mail marketing as a silo,’’ Meher said.

It’s this tight integration with other areas of a company’s marketing efforts that is the key. Email, just like any other single marketing technique or tactic, is not the only thing that will win the day. In fact, what may be happening is that rather than the “buy a list and hope someone responds” days we are simply looking at a more mature approach to email marketing. That maturity shows itself in more direct campaigns with very specific goals that go to only the right people for the right reasons. In the process it can promote all the other marketing activities (blogs, social and more) that a company is engaged in to reach their target market where they are rather than where the marketer thinks they should be.

Where are you on email marketing? We are seeing more and more talk about its effectiveness in light of the social and mobile Internet age. Are you? Are you using it strategically? Are you finding how it dovetails with the rest of your marketing campaigns and thus becomes truly effective?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Also, would you like to see email from us here at Marketing Pilgrim?

We’re running it because A) it’s pretty funny B) we trust that Matt Cutts has a good sense of humor and C) it’s pretty funny.

Enjoy and don’t take a single “Um” seriously.

“O” is the 1 in 3 who blog Online

“T” is for 14% on Twitter.

“H” is the Half that buy their toys online.

“E” is the half of all bloggers with kids under Eighteen

“R” is for her massive social Reach

Put them all together they spell MOTHER, a word that means the world to you and me (and social media marketers, everywhere!)

Now here’s a Nielsen infographic that explains the rest:

Greenlight set out to discover the answer through their “Search & Social Survey (2011-2012).” Before we see the answer, you should know that they only surveyed 500 people. I’m not sure that’s enough to get a true picture, but it certainly is enough to get an indication of the way a group is moving.

When asked if they would use a Facebook search engine (meaning a full search like Google’s, not just an internal engine), 48% said “No” or “Probably Not.”

That means that the most Facebook could hope to capture would be 22% of searchers if they gobbled up all the “Definitelys,” “Probablys,” and half the “Don’t Knows.” That’s not so good, is it?

As for Google search, we already know of its awesome power but the Greenlight survey found that 23% of searchers have been clicking the Google+ button in the search results. That’s a data bonanza for Google.  One thing, though, 28% of those surveyed said they didn’t know what +1 meant.

Greenlight’s Andreas Pouros comes to this conclusion:

“Brands and e-retailers need to be encouraging +1′s in Google, as it isn’t something that might be important in the future – it already is! It affects natural search rankings and will have an increasing impact over time across every Google product they utilise – AdWords, price comparison, Shopping, YouTube, etc., and Facebook could be a major search engine overnight. As such a brand’s performance on Facebook today (likes, visits, etc.) will likely have a decisive impact on how well exposed it is on that new search engine.”

In other words, don’t count Facebook or Google+ out just yet.

If you’re really into search, Greenlight has a nifty, free magazine you can download. This month they’re talking about foreign language searches and Facebook advertising. It’s a good read.

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We are getting deep enough into the Internet era to now see what is effective, what is real and to hopefully sniff out what is BS. Oh sure, there are plenty of shiny objects for marketers to chase and we will. That’s the human nature part of this whole thing. But what we are seeing now is that there is something that, while not sexy, simply works in the digital world. That thing is e-mail.

Take a look at the findings of research by Chief Marketer as reported by eMarketer.

The chart has a lot of other very interesting techniques that marketers use and it can be argued that they are all critical. In fact, if you are a strong marketer in the digital age you recognize that there is no silver bullet technique that will win the day. It is the right combination of marketing options that you put together to attract, convince, support, inform and nurture your target market that wins the day. As for the right combination for you? Well, let’s just say that’s your problem to solve.

What e-mail seems to offer marketers is the ability to measure (with a relative degree of confidence) just what is accomplished through that particular channel. Open rates and more give marketers a decent feel for what is happening with their message.

More importantly, it seems as if the pendulum may have swung back in the other direction with e-mail. What do I mean by that? Well, the supposed death knell for e-mail was spam. While email spam is still a problem, email providers have done a much better job of filtering out that spam which now makes email something that cuts through the clutter rather than adding to it. I personally make sure that anything I feel I HAVE to read or attempt to know must arrive in my email inbox. It’s my way of separating that message from all the other increasingly annoying noise that is today’s social media.

As with any good thing it’s not perfect but guess what, neither are the rest of your marketing options.

How do you view email in light of these findings? How do you use it? Is it something that you rely on differently than other channels both as a marketer and a consumer?

We always love to hear our readers opinions because it’s these comments that often uncover the real information our other readers can use. How about joining the fray today ?

They just need to stop listening to everyone and everything, they need to determine what it is they actually do, state it clearly then do it with a laser focus. Laser focus has not been the company’s forte in recent years. Want to see what I mean? Let’s review.

Jerry Yang replaced by Carol Bartz – This was billed as the move for Yahoo to get serious. The removal of Jerry Yang to make room for a tough veteran c-level executive with a penchant for swearing like a longshoreman was supposed to put Yahoo on track. To sum up, we are now a couple years removed from the original hiring and high hopes around Bartz. Let;s just say her era at the helm will be felt for some time to come. Oh and, by the way, those effects have not been close to positive.

Carol Bartz replaced by Scott Thompson – Once Bartz’s act grew old enough to get her fired by e-mail (or so the legend goes) we were introduced to the Scott Thompson era. An executive from PayPal with no experience dealing in a company that does what Yahoo does (whatever that is today), Thompson came in and started throwing away everything regardless if there was bath water, a baby or even a tub. Much of that collateral damage was more employees losing their jobs. Now the number of ex-Yahooers might actually outnumber the ranks of the current?

Shareholder gets a bee in his bonnet and Thompson exposed as liar- If only Scott Thompson’s exposure had been him being a flasher in the park this would have all been easier to make sense of. Instead, one of Yahoo’s largest shareholders, Daniel Loeb of Third Point, LLC wanted to run Thompson out of town. There were board of directors seats in question and things got testy.

Loeb must have gone into this with his ace-in-the-hole being that he knew that Scott Thompson’s resume was, well let’s just say embellished a bit. You probably know about that matter of Thompson claiming to have a degree from a college that didn’t offer that degree program until years after he graduated? Those kinds of things can bring integrity into the fray. A no-no for sure.

Thompson goes silent – In what can only be explained as a “WTF do we do now!?!?!?” reaction, Thompson and Yahoo played some bizarre dance of going silent, half apologizing then pointing fingers at the recruiting firm it hired to do such a stellar job of finding such a great CEO like Thompson. In the process that recruiting firm, Heidrick & Struggles, showed that there is sometimes more to a company name than meets the eye, as they struggled to not go down with this listing ship. In the end, Thompson’s and Yahoo’s handling of this is yet just another in a long list of reasons why Yahoo has become great business school case study fodder for what not to do in virtually every business situation.

Thompson is fired resigns – Thompson has now been fired resigned and has been replaced. I won’t even bother giving you the name of the person because it may have changed from the time I finished this post and hit the publish button. (Actually it’s the head of global media at the company, Ross Levinsohn, who is now in charge and a new chairman of the board, Fred Amoroso, is in place as well).

Thompson reveals he has cancer – The Wall Street Journal reports that late last week Thompspn revealed to the board that he has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and that is part of the reason why he is stepping down. I feel for the man because cancer sucks. It’s just so odd that this is being used as an element of this whole plot. It simply adds to the bizarre nature of the whole situation.

Yahoo to decide if it pays Thompson on way out – Depending on how this whole thing is interpreted it appears that Thompson may miss out on some big money as a result of how this all came down. We’ll let the lawyers figure that out over time.

In the end, there stands Yahoo. Living off the fact that a lot of people have apparently developed a Yahoo habit of coming to the site for years for email or whatever without really thinking about what Yahoo was doing to keep pace with the rest of the online world (which has not been much). It’s bruised, battered and looks nothing like it used to. Apparently the remaining staffers are quite demoralized and who wouldn’t be?

I wish this would all just go away and Yahoo would just get down to business ….. or least what’s left of it.

Your thoughts?

The answer is Amazon.com! Those combined numbers landed them in the number one slot on Campalyst’s Top 250 Internet Retailers on Social Media index.

The index is proof that not all social media is created equal and that’s a good lesson for everyone. Amazon is rocking Facebook, but there are more than 50 companies on the list that beat them on YouTube. As for Pinterest, no one is pulling astronomical numbers but several companies are created a nice little fanbase there.

The infographic Campalyst created to go with the index shows that nearly all 250 companies use Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube (90%). 67% are using Google+, which isn’t bad, but I have to wonder if they’re keeping them up or if they’re doing them any good. 61% are already on Pinterest and that’s kind of an elbow to the eye of Google+.

Facebook has the strongest social media pages thanks to their age (by social media standards, they’re the grandfather of the bunch) and their associated advertising options. Here’s another slice from the Campalyst infographic.

Overall, the Top 250 list is populated with companies you’d expect like Amazon, Staples, Walmart and Dell. But the list also has a few lesser known quantities that are making strides, like iHerb with 329 Pinterest followers (more than Kohl’s) and ThinkGeek with more than 44,000 YouTube subscribers.

If you’re a small business owner, don’t let these numbers get you down. These top companies have plenty of help when it comes to running to their social media channels. If you’re a company of ten or less, concentrate on building up Facebook and a second channel that speaks to your audience. There’s no sense driving yourself crazy trying to update Pinterest or YouTube if your customers don’t hang out there.

You can see the full Top 250 Internet Retailers on Social Media index and infographic when you visit Campalyst online.

*Data is based on numbers on the day the index was created and have changed since then.

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So what’s the verdict? Well, if you like Experian’s Hitwise, Bing has hit the magic number with a combined 30.1% market share for April 2012 while Google gave up ground.

But stop the presses! comScore says “just wait a hot minute!”. They are recording that Yahoo has slipped in share for the eighth consecutive month while Google is holding steady. Ouch!

These numbers show a combined share number of 28.9%. In the end, it’s all of a 1 percentage point difference but perception is reality, right? I have always felt that when Bing hits 40% of the market then we really have something to talk about. In the meantime, we are left with these monthly search non-events.

What is your take here? At what point does Google really need to be concerned? Is it now or at some point in the future or not at all?

74% of smartphone owners said “yes” to that question, up from 55% just a year ago. Seems like the tool that gave many people the willies at the start, is now becoming part of their everyday routine. Need directions? Want to find the bank branch closest to you or find the most popular coffee house in a new city? You can do it all, as long as you say yes.

Now don’t confuse the use of location-based services with location check-in services like Foursquare. A new report from Pew shows that only 18% of smartphone users participate in geosocial activities. That’s up from 12% last year, but it’s hardly a boom.

The Pew report breaks down the users by demographics and right off the bat there’s an interesting fact. Though men are notorious for refusing driving directions from humans, they don’t mind getting them from their phone. The use of location-services was almost equal between men and women and only slightly higher in the 18-39 group. Usage rose with income and education but even there the difference was negligible.

Of course, the results of this study were already skewed by the smartphone demographic. The person who plunks down cash for a smartphone is a person who is interested in all it has to offer, right? Why buy a smartphone if all you’re going to do is make calls?

What’s amazing is that 41% of all adults are using location-based service. That’s not smartphone owners, that ALL adults in the US. Smartphone ownership has risen to 46%. A year from now, we should easily crack the 50% mark. And while half isn’t good if someone offers you a dollar bill, it’s great for anyone in the mobile biz.

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It’s about maps. Maps and the ability to get around while out and about are one of the most critical functions of any mobile device. Until now the backend of Apple’s maps function was Google Maps. With the introduction of iOS 6 in the near future that will end. According to 9 to 5 Mac

According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.

It’s the last line of that description that rings of the Apple way, ‘cleaner, faster and more reliable.’ In addition, there will be a 3D side that is supposed to be Apple-tastic, as well. Of course, that reads well but until it is seen that is purely an opinion. This will be an interesting test to see just what level of quality is deemed acceptable in the new Job-less era of Apple.

There is little doubt that Apple could produce something that is, even if they stubbed their toe, very good. The have made three company acquisitions in the mapping space and they are using that talent to create a complete mapping database. Add that to the fact that they, at times, have had more cash on hand than the US government and you have to feel confident they will produce.

What was not discussed, however, is what really lies at the heart of strong mapping offer in today’s world. Sure, Apple might be able to make a cleaner, faster more reliable map but the data that goes on top of it (i.e. Google Place Pages and other information) is what rounds out a map experience. As we have seen with Google, creating the infrastructure to build and manage the additional information that enhances a map experience is the catch. Notice I didn’t say support because Google doesn’t support much of anything in their maps ecosystem unless you are a super user or the squeakiest wheel.

So what will be on top of this incredible map offering? Will it be more than the name, address, phone number and simple directions? What other services will enhance the maps offering? When I am traveling by car to a strange place the Layers function in the Android Maps offering is great to look for restaurants, gas stations etc etc. Google Offers is now being offered in a Groupon Now like delivery. Will Apple’s maps now bring Apple into areas that are not their core competency?

Let’s face it. Apple can do whatever it wants because it can buy whatever it wants. What will it do to truly out pace Google Maps? Any ideas? If you could ask for anything what would you like a maps service do on an iOS device?

If you have been watching Facebook as of late, they are acting like a person who is entertaining a large group of people at their house and realized that it needed some serious clean-up work to be truly presentable. The latest effort to tidy up for money lenders is the introduction of the new ‘Terms and Policies Hub‘. In a nutshell, it’s the place where the myriad terms and conditions, privacy policies and the like reside. Mashable reports

Facebook, infamous for its changing policies and confusion among users about what they’re getting themselves into when they use the world’s largest social network, has finally aggregated all its terms and policies under the same roof.

That roof — Facebook.com/policies — contains, in the words of Facebook, “Everything you need to know, all in one place.” The Facebook Terms and Policies Hub, as it’s called, is clear and easy to navigate, with headlined links and sub-headlines. However, all of these links actually lead to a lot of information.

Infamous is a fair word to use when it comes to Facebook and policies, wouldn’t you say?

Facebook could have done something like this years ago to look more transparent to their all-important users but they didn’t. Why? I can only speculate but when I do I go to a dark place. They worked very hard over the past 8 years to put together the user base that would net them the payday they are about to get. ‘They’ can be read as Mark Zuckerberg in this case.

To get people to ‘buy in’ Facebook put up the front on many occasions that the were concerned about their users’ privacy but let’s face it, they’re not. They never have been and, in the process, we have all learned to accept it as ‘just the way it is’.

I am not begrudging Facebook their ‘success’. There will be many millionaires minted on the actual IPO date (and a few billionaires as well) and that was the goal all along. Facebook’s team has accomplished that. Along the way, though, they have established a new level of ‘do whatever it takes’ thinking that has made online business a seedier place than it used to be (and that’s saying something).

Look at what the latest app darling, Socialcam is doing to get numbers that will attract a buyer with deep pockets. They are positioned as a service that helps share user generated content through the app. Well, that takes some time for people to actually do that so rather than wait they are simply stealing taking YouTube videos that are obviously not new and passing them off as something Socialcam helped create. In other words, they are lying. Why are they doing it? To get traction so they can get bought and make money. How are they doing it? On the backs of growing hordes of unsuspecting accomplices in their video spamming empire. And for what? The money, not the improvement of the web experience. They are simply following Facebook’s lead and it will probably end in a big payday for a select few.

Facebook has created a business environment that says it’s OK to push the limits far beyond that of decency and good taste. Why? Because it is rewarded with power and lots of money.

Eight years of playing loose with people’s privacy is now neatly summed up and prettied up for the people visiting with large sums of money. Kind of convenient, isn’t it? But it’s all in the interest of the user, right? C’mon, we can’t be that gullible now, can we?

It’s weird, everyday I hear people talking about the bad economy and how it’s killing businesses but here’s online retail showing double-digit growth for the sixth consecutive quarter.

Scan this chart and feel good about yourself:

Now, if I was a glass half empty person (hush, you), I could say that it’s a nice rise since 2007 but not phenomenal. But when you look at the slump in 2008 – 2009, then the rise after that, it’s very uplifting. Don’t you think?

comScore’s Gian Fulgoni agrees with me;

“While the economic recovery continues to be painfully slow, the channel shift to e-commerce appears to be accelerating. This presents opportunities but also challenges for brick-and-mortar retailers if they can’t hold onto their offline market share in the digital world. E-commerce has reached critical mass in several product categories, and it will be important to monitor these sales trends by category in order to correctly gauge the impact e-commerce is having on overall retailer performance.”

Critical mass, huh? Winners this past quarter include Digital Content & Subscriptions, Computer Software, Consumer Electronics, Jewelry & Watches and Event Tickets. They all shot up at least 17% over last year. Honing in on the last two, we can see America returning to her old ways spending money on entertainment and luxury items.

comScore says that 48.8% of the transactions in the first quarter of 2012 included free shipping. This is the largest they’ve seen for a non-holiday period. We know that shipping costs is one of the things that trips up online buyers so finding away to make shipping free is bound to swing more sales your way.

Then we come to my favorite portion of the show – the tablet! 38% of tablet owners used it to buy online in the past month. You’ll never guess which category took the prize for top sales. Apparel!

So here’s to all the folks that sell things online, from handmade iPod cozies to macaroni and cheese by the case, it’s time to rejoice. Treat yourself to a break and a treat, then get back to work. Those numbers won’t keep climbing without help from you and yours.

While men rule the game controller at home, it’s always been women who led the charge online. And it’s been a heck of a charge, 81 million people play a social game once a day and total social gaming revenue for the year is expected to top 1,323 million.

The new numbers from Magid show a drop in the female demographic:

• Females age 12-17 down from 54% in 2011
• Females 25-44 down from 40% in 2011

Those are roller coaster-sized drops and though there’s been an increase in social gaming with seniors, their rise doesn’t make up for the loss.

• Males age 45-54 up 15% from 2011
• Males age 55-64 up 9% from 2011
• Females age 45-54 up 9% from 2011
• Females age 55-64 up 10% from 2011

Even if the seniors can replace the younger, bored players, it’s the dollars that count and that’s going down, too. The report states that 34% of gamers will be spending less this year with the average per person dropping from $78 to $51.

So what happened? There are more social game choices than ever before and that seems to have had the reverse affect on gaming. Has the novelty worn off? I don’t play much, but even I’ve noticed that every new game is basically a re-themed version of a game I’ve played before. Maybe we’re all waiting for the next big thing or maybe it’s simply time for the pendulum to swing back.

We came to social gaming from the console and now console spending is on the rise. Of course, the distinction between the two isn’t so clear anymore. Magid says that two-thirds of home gamers go online with their consoles several times a week. Downloadable Content for consoles is driving the dollars in this area with 45% of players saying they plan to spend more this year. Add that to the expected 10% growth in console players and that’s where the money is.

Console, mobile or Facebook, gaming is still one of the more popular forms of entertainment and why not. Thanks to gaming you can spend your afternoon racing in the Indy 500, fighting zombies or building your own kingdom without ever breaking a sweat. Why exercise when a machine can do it for you?