This Week's Digital Download

Nokia Losing Hold On Teens

In a recent report of the Global Habbo Youth Survey 2008, Nokia has lost some of its popularity among teens to Samsung and Sony Ericsson since 2006 when Habbo conducted its last youth survey. The statistics also show 71% of teens are using their mobile phone as a portal mp3 player, 88% regularly communicate via SMS, 70% are using them to take photos and short videos, 64% play games and over a quarter surf the web on their mobile phones.

Your Mom Uses Myspace

Contrary to what most marketers have been saying about Myspace and the social network’s future and significance in the social space, the April 2008 comScore reports had some surprising results. 60% of the Facebook audience visits Myspace, 58% of YouTube and 39% of LinkedIn follow suit. An interesting fact found is while 60% of Facebook users visit Myspace, only 30% of the MySpace audience visits Facebook. Other findings show MySpace reaches 36% of all Moms 25+up online and they spend an average of 3.2 hours on the site and visit about 18 times each month.

Flickr Video Is Here!

Flickr Video officially launched April 8 and currently only Pro members can upload videos but everyone can view them. Flickr will only allow 150MB or smaller individual files (roughly 90 secs worth of video). You have the option to upload longer videos, but Flickr will only play it until the 90 sec mark before going back to the start. Pro users can upload as many as they like and now there’s an advanced search that lets you select which type of content you want.

Social Media Is a Customer Service Channel

Last week, the Society for New Communications Research released a new study on “Exploring the Link Between Customer Care and Brand Reputation in the Age of Social Media”. More than 300 consumers surveyed agreed that search engines are the most valuable online tools for this research. 81% believe that blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums can give consumers a greater voice regarding customer care and 59.1% of respondents use social media to “vent” about a customer care experience among other other findings. Dell and Amazon were cited as the top companies to utilize the online social spaces for customer care. One remarkable observation is the “growing group of highly desirable consumers using social media to research companies: 25- to 55-years old, college-educated, earning $100,000+ – a very powerful group in terms of buying behavior,” said Dr. Ganim Nora Barnes, senior fellow, Society for New Communications Research. “This research should serve as a wake-up call to companies: listen, respond, and improve.”