Fleishman-Hillard’s DC office provided us with the following trends worth tracking:
MediaPost reports that women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information (64%), advice and recommendations (43%), and opinion-sharing (55%), while they are 50% more likely to use social networks to keep in touch with friends and family (75%), according to results from the 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners. The research found that while women who use social media platforms share a strong desire to connect with each other and to entertain themselves, their motivations for using various tools differ. The study also found that women are turning in even greater numbers than they did last year to blogs (55%), social networks (75%) and online status updating (20%) as primary sources of community interaction, entertainment and information. Increased online activity also means that women are spending less time engaging in traditional media activities such as watching TV (30%), listening to the radio (31%), and reading magazines (36%) or newspapers (39%).
BrandWeek reports that General Mills enlisted 900 bloggers to participate in a new online network that provides them with access to free product giveaways, product sampling and coupons, and news of upcoming ad campaigns. The consumer-goods company says that the platform—entitled MyBlogSpark —will enable the brand to promote positive coverage of its large product portfolio on blogs reaching 8 million monthly visitors, absent of traditional media costs. The company already has put the network into use for a couple of brands, resulting in five million total impressions and more than 8,000 comments. However, General Mills is facing questions regarding the transparency of some aspects of its program. The MyBlogSpark team requires that bloggers contact them before posting any negative content regarding products. Additionally, participating bloggers are encouraged, though not required, to inform their readers that they receive products from the company for review.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Ford is giving 100 young drivers the opportunity to test-drive its new Fiesta model for six months and post their impressions on social networking sites such as YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter. The participants—who were chosen from more than 4,000 video submissions for their online "social vibrancy," creativity, video skills, and ability to capture viewers attention—will be given a free car, auto insurance, and gas, in return for their postings during that period. Ford, which will have no control over the postings, hopes the participants will offer positive reviews of the Fiesta and generate a grass-roots following in anticipation of its 2010 release. "The interest in the Web [campaign] had far exceeded my expectations," said Jim Farley, Ford’s global vice president for sales and marketing, who was initially skeptical of the plan. "My hunch was pretty traditional."