New Media Morsels Published June - July 2007 A selection of new media snippets from around the globe highlighting the trends, challenges and opportunities for web savvy marketers. Women outnumber men online Females now constitute an undeniable majority of the US Internet population. eMarketer estimates that there will be an estimated 97.2 million female Internet users ages 3 and older in 2007, or 51.7% of the total online population. In 2011, 109.7 million US females will go online, amounting to 51.9% of the total online population. Estimates from other research sources concur that females represent the majority of US Internet users, ranging from 53% (Arbitron and Edison Media Research, for Internet users ages 12 and older) down to 50.6% (comScore Media Metrix, for Internet users ages 2 and older).   (Source: EMarketer, April 9, 2007 ) Technorati Changes Do you use Technorati? If so you might have noticed quite a few changes over the past weeks. The key change is that they are now focusing on not just blogs but podcasts, videos, games and more. To read more about the changes visit the Technorati blog http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/05/356.html where Dave Sifry gives you the lowdown. Consumer Generated Content Study Reveals Opportunities for Travel Marketers Compete, Inc.announced findings from its latest study, “Consumer Generated Content in Travel”, which finds that a majority of consumers support a brand responding to consumer generated reviews. Travellers are increasingly turning to their peers as a valued research source and encourage travel marketers to join them in this dialogue.  Compete examined consumer generated initiatives from Sheraton Hotels, TripAdvisor and Southwest Airlines to help travel marketers understand how to balance creating exposure with maintaining control of the conversation.  Compete estimates that consumer generated content (CGC) influences over $10 billion a year in online travel.  With consumers finding CGC more credible than they do professional reviews or information from travel companies, CGC has emerged as a critical source of travel information.  Networks to become more exclusive CarbonNYC is an exclusive social network targeted at Manhattan's highly successful, thirty-something, male community. To join, you not only have to be invited, but must pass an approval process for membership that ranks "success" as its primary criterion. Success is not defined strictly by the size of your bank account.  Its membership does, for example, include a school principal—but the average annual income of a Carbon member is approximately $1 million. Carbon describes its membership as "founders and CEOs of public companies, entrepreneurs, leading actors, entertainment and media executives, renowned doctors and restaurateurs." The next wave in social networking may be empowered access to micro-communities formed around more individualised personality traits. In fact, the rise of the hyper-specific social networks has already begun with more focused networks like igougo.com, bulkd.com, urbanbaby.com, fanlete.com, dogster.com, and inkd.com launching daily.  (Source: Brand Channel May 2007) Social Network Ad Spend The recent EMarketer report says membership and monetisation are the key issues for social networking sites. "In order for a social networking site to be successful, it must attain a critical mass, and competition is fierce to attract new members," says Jill Meyers of In-Stat.   "So far, sites have focused their attention on a younger demographic, which is finite, fickle and limited in expendable income." Ms. Meyers says Baby Boomers are frequently overlooked when it comes to social networks.   (Source: Emarketer A

PR Influences: Written by Sydney based Network PR. Network PR specialises in b2b, technology pr, business pr and integrated online pr. With an emphasis on social media including blogger relations and social networks.