From the category archives:

Trends

Of all the social media platforms, Twitter is the one that puzzles marketers the most. The typical observation is that they don’t get it and can’t figure out why it’s important.

EMarketer shared some research recently from ExactTarget that provides an easy answer: Twitter gives you a way to reach people who have loud and active voices online. Once you’ve gotten their attention around your message, you’ve got a good chance that they will redistribute that message somewhere on the web.

How’s that work? ExactTarget shows that the 26 million monthly users of Twitter are three to five times more likely to comment on blogs, post to forums, participate in view sites and blog themselves than the average Internet user.


“Consumers active on Twitter are clearly the most influential online,” said Morgan Stewart, principal at ExactTarget’s research and education group, in a statement. “What happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter. While the number of active Twitter users is less than Facebook or email, the concentration of highly engaged and influential content creators is unrivaled—it’s become the gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every other corner of the internet.”

The conclusions suggest that the time spent investing in an audience on Twitter is likely to have an exponential impact. This is the crux of social media marketing, and provides a simple justification for using a service that at first seems fragmented and chaotic.

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While the housing market overall feels choppy, looking at trends over the past couple of years shows that trends in home values and income are turning positive, after a tough two-year stretch.

Nielsen presents an interesting analysis of trends in these metrics at the county level, which helps to capture the real performance of local markets. Overall, 69% of U.S. counties reported an increase in home value in January 2010 versus 2009, compared to just 46% the prior year.

This local trend in home values is supported by increases in media household income, suggesting local employment markets have strengthened.

The macro trends are being influenced by a significant population shift.

The analysis also revealed that population decreased in 43% of U.S. counties between 2009 and 2010. These levels of county population change are similar to changes seen with recent demographic releases. Wayne County, Michigan topped the list of population losers, which is consistent with the economic downturn and job losses seen in the Detroit area.

Posted via email from Dan McCarthy’s Stream

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Who writes ViralHousingFix?

July 6, 2010

I do.
The first time I got this question, I was surprised and took a second to answer.
Of course I write it, I thought. My name is on it.
When I asked people why they asked, they said that they loved the blog, but figured that I had other people writing under my direction. I [...]

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An analysis of my 11-day content drought

May 21, 2010

In the 455 posts since I launched ViralHousingFix on January 4, 2009, there hasn’t been a longer gap than the one between Post 454 and this post, number 455:  11 days.
The workbook I use for my professional notes is chock full from the past two weeks, and the program I store interesting snippets in has [...]

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The post-digital revolution

May 10, 2010

Sometimes it’s worth taking the long view: we can see just how far we’ve come in a relatively short period of time.
The first decade of the 21st Century marks a pivotal point in the modern technology revolution: digital information become portable, storable and easy to get. A world that had been defined by [...]

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Facebook, Google & the Negative Option

May 10, 2010

Every marketer knows that the negative option is your friend: it increases response, renewals and profits.
As a result, the negative option can turn into a hiding place for the unscrupulous marketer. The technique can be deployed in a technically correct way, but can be so cynical about the energy and intelligence of the average [...]

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A glimpse of how things are looking up for realtors

May 9, 2010

Harvard professor Mark Perry has been one observer who has consistently chronicled the silver lining in the recovery, sharing discrete pieces of data that show the economic engine gearing smartly back up.
Last Friday, he shared another in a series of posts that have looked at the recovery in local real estate markets. The subject [...]

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