Each month, Nielsen tracks U.S. internet usage as well as the top U.S. web brands. Taking a look at the results of the Nielsen analysis and comparing January 2011 data to December 2011 data, there are a couple of things that stand out. First, internet usage continues to grow. Second, the top online brands are sitting pretty in their leadership places with little threat to their web dominance.

Let’s take a closer look.

First, in January 2011 and December 2011, the top 6 U.S. web brands stayed the same. Of the bottom four U.S. web brands that made up the top 10 list in January 2011 and December 2011, only one brand dropped off the list and was replaced. The others simply shuffled positions. Both top 10 lists are shown below with the number of unique U.S. people who visited each site and the average time per person (hh:mm:ss) spent on each site.

January 2011

1. Google = 153.6 million (1:21:00)
2. Facebook = 135.6 million (7:24:12)
3. Yahoo! = 130.9 (2:20:10)
4. MSN/Windows Live/Bing = 121.0 million (1:26:39)
5. YouTube = 103.9 million (1:21:54)
6. Microsoft = 90.2 million (0:41:53)
7. AOL Media Network = 76.2 million (1:58:31)
8. Wikipedia = 65.7 million (1:15:31)
9. Ask Search Network = 65.5 million (0:10:40
10. Apple = 63.3 million (1:18:48)

December 2011

1. Google = 173.3 million (1:36:42)
2. Facebook = 153.4 (6:51:09)
3. Yahoo! 144.2 million (2:17:14)
4. MSN/Windows Live/Bing = 128.8 million (1:28:20)
5. YouTube = 128.1 (1:37:51)
6. Microsoft = 99.7 million (0:44:43)
7. Amazon = 87.9 million (0:42:10)
8. AOL Media Network = 84.0 million (2:51:19)
9. Apple = 79.1 million (1:08:28)
10. Wikipedia = 74.4 million (0:17:36)

In December 2011, Amazon rose up the charts in dramatic fashion while Ask Search Network dropped out of the top 10 list. It’s important to point out that Amazon naturally sees a lift in traffic in December thanks to the holiday shopping season, so the brand’s dramatic leap to 87.9 million in December 2011 is inflated for those holiday-related visitors. More interesting in these results is the fact that every brand saw an increase in traffic during 2011, but that’s not the case for the amount of time individuals spent on each site.

Every brand on the list saw an increase in time individuals spent on their sites between January 2011 and December 2011 except Facebook, which experienced a decrease in time spent on the site of approximately 33 minutes per person. Of course, Facebook does blow every other site on this list away in terms of the amount of time people spend on the site with nearly twice as much time or more spent on Facebook than any other site in the top 10. Clearly, Facebook is succeeding in keeping visitors engaged, but a 33 minute decrease in time spent on the site is a trend that should be raising some concerns at Facebook.

These ten brands dominated the web among the U.S. internet audience in 2011 with nearly every brand enjoying steady growth in unique visitors and time on each site. That’s not surprising given the steady growth in online internet usage overall in 2011. Take a look at the January 2011 and December 2011 metrics below to see what happened.

• Sessions/Visits per Person: January 2011 = 59; December 2011 = 62
• Domains Visited per Person: January 2011 = 99; December 2011 = 94
• Web Page Views per Person: January 2011 = 2,750; December 2011 = 2,803
• Duration of a Web Page Viewed: January 2011 = 0:00:58; December 2011 = 0:01:00
• Number of People Who Actively Went Online: January 2011 = 197.8 million; December 2011 = 211.9 million
• Number of People Who Had Internet Access: January 2011 = 243.0 million; December 2011 = 273.3 million

According to the numbers above, the number of people who had internet access grew by 12.5% between January 2011 and December 2011, but the number of people who actively went online during that time period only grew by 7.1%. The number of sessions per person went up by 5.1% in 2011. However, the number of web pages viewed per person only increased by 1.9% and the number of domains visited per person actually dropped by 1.9%.

What do you think about the future of the top ten U.S. web brands and the continued growth of internet usage? Is there any chance for other brands to topple Google or Facebook? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: stock.xchng

Despite what might be happening in the lead-up to the 2012 U.S. Presidential election, there is one thing Americans agree on regardless of age, race, gender, or political party. They think 15-seconds is the acceptable amount of time to be required to view an online ad before they can access free content.

According to a poll of a representative sample of Americans, Poll Position found that 54% of Americans think 15-seconds is the sweet spot for online advertisers and publishers to deliver ads without losing content views. Specifically, survey participants were asked, “When you go online to view free content, what do you think is the acceptable duration of an online advertisement you must view before seeing free content?” The breakdown of results is as follows:

• 54% believe 15 seconds is acceptable
• 12% believe 30 seconds is acceptable
• 4% believe 45 seconds is acceptable
• 3% believe 60 seconds is acceptable
• 27% have no opinion

Poll Position cross-tabulated the results by age, gender, race, and political party, and 15 seconds came out on top for every segment of the survey respondent audience (you can see the poll cross-tabs here).

It’s important to point out that 15-seconds was the shortest duration offered as a response to this poll. It’s safe to assume that had 10-seconds, 5-seconds, and 0-seconds been included, the results would be more interesting. However, for authoritative content publishers, the results of this study are important. If you want people to see your content but also want to put a monetization barrier in front of that content, make sure that barrier is one that visitors are willing to accept and wait through.

How many times have you been on a major media site, found a link to a video that looks interesting, clicked on that link, and been presented with a 30-second or 1-minute ad? It happens to me all the time, and you better believe I need to be extraordinarily interested in the video behind that monetization barrier or there is very little chance that I’m going to stick around. The publisher might make some money, but they’ve lost the chance to keep me on the site, further engage me, and improve long-term results.

Of course, major media sites need to make money, and smaller publishers do, too. The trick is finding the right balance between monetization and continued visitor engagement. What’s the opportunity cost of showing that 30-second ad before the clip of the cute kitten playing piano? Would a 15-second commercial deliver better all-around results? These are the questions publishers should be asking.

With that said, the problem falls back on advertisers who prefer to keep costs low and simply repurpose ads from other media. Until advertisers realize that they’ll get a better return on their investment by changing their ad content to match the online audience behaviors related to pre-roll video ads and other barriers to free content, publishers that need to make money from ads will still display those 30-second ads.

What do you think? How long are you willing to watch an online ad before accessing content that you’re lightly interested in? How about content you’re heavily interested in?

Here’s my answer — if I can Google the topic and get the information faster that way than watching a 30-second ad, you better believe I’m not going to watch that ad just to see the content behind it. 5-seconds, I’ll definitely watch it. 10-seconds, I’ll probably watch it. 15-seconds, I might or might not watch it. 30-seconds, I’ll very rarely watch it. More than 30-seconds, forget it.

Image: Flickr

Forget the Nook, Amazon’s Kindle Fire has already blown that tablet device away with 335% growth in Google search interest during the last quarter of 2011 compared to the Nook’s 150% search interest growth. Fueling growth for both brands was the holiday season, but there is no doubt that the Kindle Fire’s low price tag attracted a lot of buzz and a lot of sales after it debuted.

The Nook isn’t the only tablet feeling pressure from the Kindle Fire. Apple’s dominance won’t be challenged in the near future, and the iPad will stay the market leader. However, it will continually lose market share to new competitors and lower-priced tablet devices. Emarketer estimates that iPad market share will drop from 83% in 2011 to 68% in 2014.

In 2011, 3.9 million Kindle Fire devices were sold compared to 18.6 million iPads. The total tablet market in 2011 reached 65 million units, but market research firm IHS iSuppli expects that number will grow to 287 million units by 2015.

If the Kindle Fire’s early success is any indication, there are plenty of opportunities for non-Apple tablet devices to steal additional market share from the leader. For example, Barclay’s Capital estimates that in 2011, 5.5 million Kindle Fire units were sold (higher than the IHS iSuppli data) and expects that number to increase to 27.8 million in 2014.

With rumored launches of a Kindle Fire device with a larger screen and a Google tablet coming in 2012, the tablet market is wide open to new competition. And with all of that competition comes better products and better prices for consumers.

While tablet device sales continue to skyrocket, advertisers see growing opportunities to leverage the content consumers view on those devices. In fact, Barclay’s estimates that Amazon Kindle Fire content revenues reached $38.5 million in 2011 and could grow to nearly $1 billion in 2012 and over $5 billion by 2014.

It’s a changing world for content publishing, content consumption, and content monetization. To date, it appears that consumers have benefited greatly with better access to the information they want and need anytime they want or need it. The next step in this evolution will undoubtedly include a battle between content publishers and device manufacturers as each party tries to get its fair share of the ROI potential that content consumption via tablets offers. Who do you think will win? Leave a comment and share your prediction.

Image: Brian Sawyer

This week, Nielsen released its 2011 State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report which offers insights into consumer usage trends across television, mobile, online, and social media. None of the trends that can be determined from this study are shocking. At this point, everyone knows that mobile content and social media are the “it” media these days, but televisions are far from dead yet. Following are some highlights from the report to put some numbers to the state of the media in 2011.

Mobile and Online Consumers

It’s actually amusing to look at the data from the Nielsen study and compare it to how media market share was broken down 10 years ago. The stats from the Nielsen report follow:

• 232 million Americans age 13 and over use mobile phones.
• 211 million Americans are online.
• 192 million Americans use personal computers and laptops at home or work.
• 116 million Americans age 13 and over access the mobile web.

Video Consumption

Video viewing habits have also changed significantly over the past decade. Nielsen reported the following statistics from its study:

• 288 million Americans age 2 and up watch traditional television.
• 143 million Americans age 2 and up watch video on the Internet.
• 111 million Americans age 2 and up watch timeshifted television via DVRs and similar devices.
• 30 million Americans age 2 and up watch video via mobile phones.

 Social Media Access

Computers still reign supreme when it comes to accessing social media sites. The Nielsen study revealed the following breakdown:

• 97% access social media via computers.
• 37% access social media via mobile phones.
• 3% access social media via gaming consoles.
• 3% access social media via iPads.

Nielsen also reports that in 2011, nearly four out of 5 active Internet users visited social networks and blogs.

Smartphone Operating System Market Share

57% of mobile phone owners have standard feature phones while 43% have smartphones. When it comes to buying a smartphone, Android devices are preferred over any other operating system. The Nielsen report provides the following stats:

• Android = 43%
• iPhone = 28%
• RIM BlackBerry = 18%
• Windows Mobile = 7%
• Other = 4%

Mobile Activities

Nielsen broke down the time spent each month on activities by owners of Android devices and reported the following results:

• Texting = 14%
• Browser = 10%
• Dialer = 6%
• Social Networking = 5%
• Email/Instant Messaging = 5%
• Maps/Location = 4%
• Music/Video = 2%
• Camera = 1%
• All Other Apps = 53% (including Facebook, Twitter, eBay Mobile, Barcode Scanner, and all other apps downloaded and used by study respondents)

Another interesting statistic revealed in the report is the number of apps people download to their smartphones. According to the study, app downloaders have an average of 33 apps on their phones.

You can read the complete Nielsen report here. It’s filled with statistics about mobile, online, television, and social media that can help you build your content strategy for 2012.

Image: exacq

Last month, Juniper Research released a report about the rise of geosocial networking and the growth of smartphone adoption. These trends spell big business for mobile content and mobile social media to the tune of 1.3 billion mobile social users by 2016 (up from 650 million in 2011).

The biggest driving force behind the mobile social media growth prediction is the integration of social, local, and mobile experiences. With these trends shaping the way people consume content in the near future, content publishers and brands need to develop strategies for content distribution through varied mobile devices.

As Surajit Agaarwal describes on Technorati, publishers and content distributors need to consider not only the many devices and platforms that end-users can consume content on in the mobile environment but also the context of that content consumption. He mentions the following types of context that can affect the content consumption and mobile social media experiences:

1. Device

People can consume content an a wide variety of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and so on, and that content could be viewed on a small screen or a large screen. Device options are only going to get more diverse in the future.

2. Location

Mobile social media activities and content consumption can happen from just about anywhere you can imagine. That’s why mobile marketing and geo-targeting are high priorities for businesses these days. It should be important to content publishers, too.

3. Time

People consume content via mobile devices at all hours of the day and night. The trick for publishers and businesses is to publish relevant content targeted to audiences that are online at any given moment.

4. Social Relevance

Mobile social media will be even more heavily affected by what users’ social circles are consuming, liking, sharing, and talking about at any moment in time. Social relevance also includes geo-social influence from people who may or may not be in a user’s social circle but are within the local vicinity of that individual at a given point in time.

5. Personalization

One of the hottest topics for social media and content marketing as we begin 2012 is content personalization. The goal is to deliver content that individuals are most likely to be interested in at a specific moment via their mobile devices using behavioral research and analytics tracking.

6. Attention Spans

People’s attention spans on mobile devices are lower than most other media — including online. For example, in his article on Technorati, Surajit cites a study from the University of Colorado that found college students typically consume less than three paragraphs of text, less than 30 seconds of audio, and less than one minute of video on mobile devices before moving on to different content. That means your content needs to be relevant, personalized, interesting, and device-compatible, or you’ll have almost no chance of getting your complete message across to people.

Keep these trends and insights in mind as you develop and implement your content publishing and marketing strategies in 2012. And if your plan doesn’t already include a mobile social media strategy, develop one now, because 2016 will be here before you know it.

Image: Steve Paine

The 2011 B2B Content Marketing report from MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute shows that content marketing is on the rise for businesses of all sizes. Budgets are increasing, the amount of time spent on content marketing is increasing, and the amount of content published is increasing. As a result, companies are finding better ways to leverage the power of content to grow.

The 2012 study highlights a number of significant findings related to how business-to-business companies are using content marketing and how they’re tracking their success against their goals.

90% of survey respondents indicated that they’re using content marketing, which is the same percentage found in last year’s survey. B2B companies are using an average of eight content marketing tactics to reach their goals. The top eight most commonly used tactics are:

1. Articles = 79%
2. Social Media (other than blogs) = 74%
3. Blogs = 65%
4. eNewsletters = 63%
5. Case Studies = 58%
6. In-Person Events = 56%
7. Videos = 52%
8. White Papers = 51%

The biggest increases were reported in the use of blogs (up 27% from 2011), videos (up 27%), and white papers (up 19%).

In terms of content distribution, all social media channels are seeing increases from B2B marketers. The biggest increases in 2012 were seen in distribution on YouTube (47% increase), LinkedIn (39% increase), Twitter (35% increase), and Facebook (30% increase). The most effective content marketers, use all of the social media sites included in the survey to distribute content. The most popular distribution channels among surveyed B2B marketers in 2011 are:

1. Twitter = 74%
2. LinkedIn = 71%
3. Facebook = 70%
4. YouTube = 56%
5. Slideshare = 20%
6. Google+ = 13%
7. Flickr = 10%
8. None = 9%

The majority of survey respondents indicated that their companies focused on using content marketing to achieve goals related to brand awareness (69%), customer acquisition (68%), lead generation (67%), and customer retention/loyalty (62%). The most frequently used metric to track content marketing success is web traffic (58%) followed by sales lead quality (49%).

In 2011, 26% of B2B marketing budgets were dedicated to content marketing, which is the same as the prior year. However, smaller companies are starting to allocate larger budget percentages to content marketing initiatives than larger companies. 60% of respondents plan to spend more on content marketing in 2012.

Interestingly, 62% of B2B marketers surveyed are outsourcing content creation and other content marketing efforts, which is up from 55% in 2011. With the top challenge reported as producing the type of content that customers and prospects find engaging, it makes sense that marketers are tapping professional writers and niche experts to help with various content marketing functions.

The B2B Content Marketing study also provides examples of best practices that the most effective B2B marketers are using in their content marketing initiatives:

• They allocate a larger percentage of their budgets to content marketing (31% of the budget vs. 18% of the budget).
• They are more likely to consider the “stage in the buying cycle” when they develop content (50% more likely).
• They have greater executive buy-in (92% vs. 83%).

Content marketing is a powerful way to grow a brand and a business and the results of the 2011 B2B Content Marketing study put its importance into perspective. B2B marketers who aren’t using content marketing are in the minority and need to catch up before it’s too late.

Image: stock.xchng

A new research report from LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell tells us that lawyers are creating social media accounts but most of those accounts are practically abandoned after they’re created. In other words, law firms are protecting their names and creating social media presences, but they’re missing the opportunity that social media offers to build relationships and attract new clients.

Of the 110 law firms from around the world who participated in the research study, 85 had created LinkedIn Company Pages. However, a significant number of those firms had created LinkedIn Company Pages and never updated them again. LinkedIn was reported as the most popular social media site for law firms, so the statistics continue to decline as you look at other sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The full breakdown of the number of law firms using social media channels of the 110 firms that responded to the research survey follow:

1. LinkedIn = 85 law firms (77%)
2. Twitter = 35 law firms (32%)
3. Facebook = 32 law firms (29%)
4. YouTube = 12 law firms (11%)
5. Blogging = 9 law firms (8%)
6. Social Media Integration = 8 law firms (7%)

You can see the full infographic below (click and click again to view the image in a larger size) or view the full report here.

It’s important to understand that the law firms that participated in the survey were primarily international firms. It’s highly likely that smaller law firms and independent lawyers are doing a much better job of leveraging the tools of the social web to build their businesses.

The social web offers a place where businesses (including law firms) can establish trust with people and offer helpful and meaningful content. For the legal industry, it would seem that those are areas law firms would want to build. There is a perception of the legal industry as untrustworthy. The social web is the perfect place for a law firm to stand out from a crowded field of similar providers.

Bottom-line, simply creating social media profiles and then never touching them again isn’t going to help law firms. In fact, it could do just the opposite and actually drive people away. By surrounding consumers with useful and meaningful content that they can discuss and share with their own audiences as well as directly with the lawyer who published it, law firms can massage consumer perceptions and build relationships that turn into word-of-mouth marketing and ultimately to sales. Law firms that figure this out and start publishing great content and conversing in two-way conversations across the social web will find themselves far ahead of their competitors in the very near future.

This week, eMarketer released new predictions for the future of the tablet market that tell us by 2014, 1 in 3 online consumers will own a tablet device.

In fact, by the end of 2011, eMarketer predicts that 33.7 million Americans will use a table device at least monthly, which is 158.6% higher than 2010 when the iPad was first released.

By 2014, 35.6% of Internet users and 27.7% of the total U.S. population (that’s 90 million people) will have tablet devices. You can get the details in the chart below.

During that time, the tablet user audience will change too. Today, eMarketer reports that women make up less than half of the total tablet user base, but the gap will continue to close each year. In terms of age, eMarketer predicts that the tablet user audience will start to skew younger as we get closer to 2014. This might be a result of prices dropping as more competition enters the market.

Speaking of competition, the iPad will retain its position as the pioneer brand with the greatest market share, but new market entrants will start to steal market share from the leader. The number of iPad owners is expected to double between now and 2014 to 60.8 million users, but the iPad will have just 68% market share in 2014 — down from 88% in 2010.

Frankly, I’m excited to see what competitors release to take on the iPad in coming years. There is certainly plenty of room in this market. What do you think?

Image: Flickr

A new infographic from the Pew Research Project for Excellence in Journalism puts the shift in news consumption to tablet devices in quantifiable perspective. According to the report used to create the infographic, 11% of Americans report owning a tablet device, and 77% of those people use their tablets every day. Furthermore, tablet users spend an average of 1 hour and 35 minutes on their tablets each day.

Getting news via their devices is a popular activity for tablet owners. 53% of study participants claimed to get news on their tablets every day. Other popular daily activities for tablet owners include getting email (54%), using social networks (39%), playing games (30%), reading books (17%), and watching videos (13%).

A trend has already started — people are using their tablets as a replacement for getting news via other sources. 79% claim to get news on their tablets instead of their desktop computers or laptops. 59% have replaced print newspapers and magazines with their tablets for news consumption, and 57% have replaced television with their tablets.

Tablet users show no signs of going back to their old consumption habits and news sources. Approximately 1 out of 2 tablet owners surveyed in this study prefer to access both headlines and longer news articles via their tablet devices than their desktop computers, laptops, smartphones, or print.

Click the image below to view the full-size infographic.

Interestingly, news apps are just starting to grow in popularity. Most tablet users still access news via their browsers, but of those who do use apps to get news, they are typically power tablet users and are very satisfied with their tablet news experiences.

Tablet users also tend to be more interested in news, better educated, and have higher incomes than the general public. More tablet users are employed full-time than members of the general public. When it comes to age, the differences between tablet owners and the general public might surprise you:

• 18-29 years old: 22% of both tablet users and the general public
• 30-49 years old: 46% of tablet owners vs. 35% of the general public
• 50+ years old: 32% of tablet owners vs. 43% of the general public

Tablet sales are predicted by Forrester Research to double in 2012, and there are likely to be more significant shifts in how consumers use their tablet devices and consume news and information through them for years to come. In fact, it would be extremely interesting to compare the data from this Pew Research study to a similar study a year from now. It’s safe to bet that these numbers will look quite different with even more people turning to their tablets for news consumption and more.

Image: Pew Research

Technorati has released its annual  report that analyzes the world of blogging with the 2011 State of the Blogosphere (click to  see 2010 and 2009 results), and the results show some distinct differences between hobby bloggers and professional and corporate bloggers.

First, hobby bloggers update their blogs less frequently and blog primarily for personal satisfaction. Professional and corporate bloggers blog for a variety of reasons such as making money, establishing credibility, and sharing expertise. It’s this side of the blogosphere that Authoritative Content publishers are typically a part of.

There are a few demographic characteristics that set professional and corporate bloggers apart from hobbyists. First, they’re older than hobby bloggers and have higher incomes than the general population. It makes sense that these professional and corporate bloggers would be at a point in their careers where they can share their expertise and experience via the blogosphere.

Of particular interest in the 2011 State of the Blogosphere report are the statistics related to bloggers vs. traditional media. Almost one out of three bloggers who responded to the Technorati survey indicated that they have worked for a traditional media organization. Nearly one in four respondents currently work for a traditional media organization and write their own blogs separate from those jobs.

Authoritative content bloggers are also seeing traditional media outlets taking them more seriously as sources of information (76%) as shown in the chart above. On the flip side, consumers are trusting blogs as trusted sources of information and reviews more than ever — even more so than Facebook and Twitter content publishers.

Similarly, Authoritative Content publishers are gaining visibility in their industries through blogging. For example, 36% of all bloggers have been quoted in traditional media for something they published on their blogs. More than 50% of professional bloggers have had the same.

Another important finding from the 2011 State of the Blogosphere study shows that bloggers are diversifying their online presence with Twitter taking the top spot followed by Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Bloggers are using these separate social media profiles to share their own content, share content from others, and publish original content.

You can follow the link to read the complete 2011 State of the Blogosphere report to get all the details, including tons of predictions and insights from social media experts and survey respondents.

Image: Technorati