A recent story on emarketer.com points to some interesting information about how people are using media. In particular it looks like radio needs to figure out how it’s going to play into the media mix in the future. The story is titled, “Will Internet Kill the Radio Star?.”
I think this just verifies what I’ve been preaching and that is that consumers of all kinds have more choices today and you need to really make sure you’re using a mix of media to reach them. It doesn’t mean that radio isn’t a viable medium for an advertiser but it does mean that there are choices and apparently marketers are using them.
“. . . data from a number of researchers indicates that traditional radio is losing its significance in people’s lives. US adults are spending more time each day on the Internet and watching TV than listening to the radio.”
If you’re going to blog then get ready for comment spam.
Comment spam wasn’t something I knew much about until about a year ago when AgWired, my main agricultural communications blog started to get hit hard. That’s when we made a decision to install Akismet on all our sites and all of our client’s sites as well. In fact, Akismet is a standard feature of any site we build today.
As a total of all the sites Akismet is being used on they’ve captured 2,412,431,831 spam comments. In that same time frame they allowed 178,927,948 total hams. This was as of early July btw.
Going on 3 billion. That’s ridiculous. Just think about the fact that Akismet is only one of the options you have to capture and manage comment spam!
So many of our clients are involved in agribusiness that this was very interesting news. This report from USDA should send a wake up call to any agricultural marketers who still hesitate to place their focus and invest dollars into internet delivered communication strategies targeting farmers.
The latest Farm Computer Usage and Ownership report from USDA’s NASS was posted with very little fanfare but we’re not ignoring it! Here’s a summary of the data from the report with my highlights.
High-speed Internet access methods, such as DSL, cable, satellite, and wireless, have become much more available to Internet users in the farm sector since 2005. The proportion of operators using DSL doubled in 2007, at 27 percent, compared with the 2005 level of 13 percent. Cable, satellite, and wireless were each reported as the primary access methods on 7 percent of those U.S. farms with Internet access; with satellite and wireless methods both at virtually double their 2005 levels. Dialup was again the most common method of accessing the Internet, with nearly half (47 percent) of U.S. farms still using it, down from 69 percent in 2005.
A total of 55 percent of U.S. farms now have Internet access, compared with 51 percent in 2005. Sixty-three percent of farms have access to a computer in 2007, compared with the 2005 level of 59 percent. The proportion of U.S. farms owning or leasing a computer in 2007, at 59 percent, is up slightly from 55 percent in 2005. Farms using computers for their farm business increased 3 percentage points from 2005 to 35 percent in 2007.
In 2007, 80 percent of U.S. farms with sales and government payments of $250,000 or more have access to a computer, 78 percent own or lease a computer, 66 percent are using a computer for their farm business, and 75 percent have Internet access. For farms with sales and government payments between $100,000 and $249,999, the figures are: 70 percent have access to a computer, 66 percent own or lease a computer, 51 percent are using a computer for their farm business, and 61 percent have Internet access. For farms with sales and government payments between $10,000 and $99,999, 62 percent reported having computer access, 57 percent own or lease a computer, 36 percent use a computer for their farm business, and 53 percent have Internet access.
For crop farms, 64 percent have computer access and 37 percent use a computer for their farm business in 2007, up 4 and 3 percentage points from 2005, respectively. Internet access for crop farms has increased to 56 percent in 2007, compared to 52 percent in 2005. For livestock farms, 62 percent have computer access and 55 percent have Internet access. The use of a computer for farm business has increased to 33 percent for livestock farms, up 3 points from 2005.
Membership is now open in the Association for Downloadable Media and I’m joined. I’ll also join the Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers when it gets ready. I’m hoping to meet some of the people involved in these startup groups out at the Podcast and New Media Expo.
So why join and especially since they haven’t done anything yet? Because it’s a chance to get in at the beginning and have a voice and hopefully access to information that will help us and our clients. One of the things I can already sense is the need in this ADM to address niche topic/audience producers. When I joined they asked me to check a range of how many downloads my podcast gets in a month. The first choice was 1 - 50,000 and then they went higher! I don’t know about you but I don’t see this medium as a mass medium necessarily. In fact, if all they’re going to focus on is podcasting or other downloadable media content that’s just out to see how many downloads they can get then I think they’ll not only be making a mistake but missing out on what most of us are doing.
I produce podcasts for niche audiences. If my program is targeted to 40 people and I’ve got 40 downloads then I might be reaching my total audience. I don’t care about having thousands of downloads. It’s not just the total number of downloads but who those downloads represent.
So, it’s going to be interesting to see how this evolves. The traditional media buyers and agencies are so metric driven that they tend to overlook the quality of the audience. When you’re used to measuring CPM but now have a buy option that is only going to reach the target audience with no waste the numbers get a lot smaller but the message is making a much bigger impact and the cost is probably a lot lower. Of course then you have to ask, “How do I make a living on small buying fees/commissions?” Good question.