It’s clear that in 2011, the digital revolution entered a new era as the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism points out in their annual State of the News Media 2012:

The age of mobile, in which people are connected to the web wherever they are, arrived in earnest. More than four in ten American adults now own a smartphone. One in five owns a tablet. New cars are manufactured with internet built in. With more mobility comes deeper immersion into social networking.

For news, the new era brings mixed blessings.

New research released in this report finds that mobile devices are adding to people’s news consumption, strengthening the lure of traditional news brands and providing a boost to long-form journalism. Eight in ten who get news on smartphones or tablets, for instance, get news on conventional computers as well. People are taking advantage, in other words, of having easier access to news throughout the day – in their pocket, on their desks and in their laps.

At the same time, a more fundamental challenge that we identified in this report last year has intensified — the extent to which technology intermediaries now control the future of news.

This year’s study contains surveys examining how news consumers use social media and how mobile devices could change the news business and an update on the rapid changes in community news.

The Role of Mobile Devices & Social Media in News Consumption

In early 2012, the digital revolution entered a new era. The age of mobile, in which people are connected to the web wherever they are, arrived in earnest. A new survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults conducted in January 2012 by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism finds that people are taking advantage of having access to news in their pockets, on their laps and at their desks: mobile devices appear to be adding to the news experience. Eight in ten who get news on smartphones or tablets, for instance, get news on conventional computers as well.

Mobile Device Ownership

Much of the growing mobile ownership is occurring among computer owners who are adding mobile devices to their digital collection. About half (52%) of desktop/laptops owners now also own a smartphone and roughly a quarter (23%) owns a tablet computer. Tablet ownership alone has increased by more than 50% since summer 2011.

• 23% of U.S. adults get their news on at least two digital devices.
• 77% of U.S. adults own a desktop/laptop computer.
• 44% of U.S. adults own a smartphone.
• 18% of U.S. adults own a tablet.

Digital Devices & the News

Getting news is a popular activity on these devices. Further research finds people use mobile devices for news more often and for longer sessions – while still getting news in other ways.

Devices Used For News

• 70% of device owners get their news from a desktop/laptop
• 51% of device owners get their news from a smartphone
• 56% of device owners get their news from a tablet

No Single Place For News

• 34% of desktop/laptop users also get their news on a smartphone
• 27% of smartphone users also get news on a tablet
• 17% of desktop/laptop users also get news on a tablet
• 5% of U.S. adults get news on all three devices

Who are Mobile News Users?

A 2011 survey conducted by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism in collaboration with The Economist Group found early tablet news users to be more middle-aged, higher earners and more highly educated than the population overall. That has largely remained unchanged with the introduction of lower-priced tablet options.

The Path to News

One pressing question facing the industry is how people find and access news stories. The survey reveals going to the news organization directly is a primary method on every device, with a particular appeal on the tablet computer.

The Role of Facebook and Twitter

Americans are far more likely to get digital news by going directly to a news organization’s website or app than by following social media links. Just 9% of digital news consumers follow Facebook or Twitter news links very often on at least one device. Even so, social media are an increasingly important part of the news process. The two biggest newtworks, Facebook and Twitter, have each established roles distinct from the other.

Close the sale with calls to action

Google Adwords Small Business Center states that “ads work better when you tell the reader what they can expect to do (or what you want them to do) when they reach your site. Phrases like “Buy Now,” “Save More,” “Sign Up Today,” or “Learn More” are called “call to action” terms, because they tell the reader plainly what you want them to do next.”

Rich media ads have been around for several years, and have provided a powerful canvas for creative expression, driving greater interaction and response. Until now, rich media ads were small portion of total display ad impressions, but last year they grew by 66%. And now, HTML5 ads bring the same interactivity to people who browse the web from mobile devices such as iOS and Android devices. By 2015, we expect that 50% of all display ads will be rich media ads.

The answer is dynamic advertising.

A dynamic ad is a single ad that runs everywhere but each impression is customized to the viewer. It displays the best combination of visuals for each viewer, including the best headline, copy, images, featured products, shopping locales to buy from, and more. Our data show, dynamic ads get twice the clicks and triple the ROI.

Imagine you own a popular coffee chain in Denver that you want to promote. On Monday afternoon, it’s warm and 80 degrees in the city. You run a display ad campaign online that offers Denverites a discount coupon for an iced cold latte, with a searchable map embedded in the ad to show local branches, and a real-time feed from people who have tweeted publicly about your newest flavor. That evening, a cold front rolls over the Rockies. Your ad automatically and dynamically adjusts to present a photo of a hot, steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of a warm fireplace, together with a home delivery number and an offer for free marshmallows.

Display advertising really is at the heart of what we’re doing at Google these days. 99 percent of our top 1,000 clients are now running campaigns on the Google Display Network and YouTube. And last year, they increased their spending on display advertising by over 75 percent. Over 66% of ads on the Ad Exchange are now bought in real-time. On the mobile front, AdMob network now receives more than 2 billion ad requests per day, having quadrupled over the last 12 months. As you know by now, we’re investing significantly to make this better for users, advertisers and publishers

These innovations are happening in 2 major areas:

1. Media solutions: websites, videos or mobile, no matter where your consumers are, you can build a comprehensive plan to reach them with Google.

2. Platform solutions: Agencies and enterprise class buyers can build a comprehensive display ads operation with our exchange, demand side platform and ad serving solutions.

Once you click through to Google’s landing page on creating more engaging dynamic ads, the stats from Dynamic logic prove it’s place in advertising budgets for a long time to come. With the largest global network on the planet, Google reaches 80 percent of Internet users worldwide. Google claims that, “there’s a perfect ad for everyone.” I’m interested in hearing your comments on how you currently are or plan to leverage Google’s display advertising offerings to target and optimize your marketing message.

Internet commerce changed how we do business, and now the rapid expansion of mobile is morphing the retail environment again.

Thanks to their mobile phones, consumers can get information to help with purchase decisions at the touch of a button, whether they’re shopping online or in-store. Here’s what you need to know to reach these new shoppers and those joining their ranks every day.

Ways to Shop:

• Scan a tag (or qr code)
• Call a friend
• View a website
• Use an app

Methods to gather information:

• Discuss on a social network
• Read a review
• Make shopping lists
• Compare different products
• Collect loyalty points
• Read more info
• Join an online chat
• View store location using maps
• Look up location specific coupons
• Benefit with others using group deals

Forms of Payment

• Pay using phone number
• Buy in store
• Pay using card on phone
• Pay online

Mobile Shopping Breakdown

• 10% don’t have a mobile phone
• 40% don’t shop using a mobile
• 40% are light mobile shoppers – have a narrow outlook towards mobile with regards to shopping and see their phone primarily as a mini computer.
• 10% are heavy mobile shoppers – love their phone & are really into mobile shopping. They do everything on their phones: share photos, check news, download music & shop.

Shopping Habits Changing:

• World eCommerce sales in 2009 = $210 billion online; $1.2 billion via mobile.
• Predicted 2015 world eCommerce sales = $14 trillion online, $119 billion via mobile.

Addressing the problem of when someone is searching for a message from a friend, a link to a video, blog post, or a digital invitation to a party, Greplin can find that content whether it is in their Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter account.

As TechCrunch points out: There are some really nice touches to the product. Search results are shown before you hit enter, much like Google’s instant search product, and you can also filter by a variety of message types and sources (by people, for example, or Facebook).

• Gmail (not gTalk Chats)
• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Facebook (your profile, events, notes, messages, friends, news feed and wall posts)
• Twitter (your tweets, timeline and direct messages)
• Dropbox (titles and filenames only)
• LinkedIn (your status updates, contacts)
• Evernote*
• Google Apps Mail*
• Google Apps Calendar*
• Google Apps Docs*
• Yammer*

With Google recently releasing Social Search, Search Engine Journal points out that:

Google has thrown its hat into the social networks ring. With social networks growing and expanding wildly, Google has decided to get its share of the action. It all started with the launch of Google’s Social Search as a beta for English speaking users. Social Search was previously in the Google Labs section. It displays its results at the bottom of the search window, and searches based on your list of contacts in Google, for relevant information to the topic you are currently researching.

It then posts whatever photos, posts, blogs or links the people in your social network have posted on your topic. An added feature allows your friends photos that relate to your topic to be published.

In a major update, Google has almost completely overhauled the Social Search network. The company has added Twitter, Flickr, and Quora to its servers, integrating all the information available on all those websites into one place. Now Social Search results will appear anywhere in the listing according to search relevance. Annotations will let you know when someone from your social circle has posted any kind of information relevant to your search, and on which website it was posted.

Mashable weighs in on Google’s Social Search by adding:

The first major change is that Google Social Search results will no longer appear only at the bottom of the page, but will instead be “blended” throughout the page. This is done through an annotation system that lets you know when a friend has shared a specific link or search result. If your friend writes a blog about how to create honey, that result will have an annotation that your friend has “shared this,” either via Google or through one of Google’s three major social integrations.

If you want to give Greplin a try I have 5 invites to give to the first five people who leave a comment.

As an internet marketing consultant I find it more and more difficult to disconnect from the constantly connected lifestyle I have chosen. Soren Gordhamer the organizer of the Wisdom 2.0 Conference brings up an important question to ask yourself: Are you going to be constantly overwhelmed by “Stress 2.0,” or can you successfully translate this lifestyle into “Wisdom 2.0?”

The challenge is finding a balance, and living a healthy and rich life both online and off.

A post this morning by Mitch Joel points out that: Life balance is a three-legged stool.

Just like a stool, if you remove one of the legs or when one is shorter than another, everything comes crashing down. Figure out ways to find true balance without sacrificing where you’re at, where you’re looking to go and your plans to get there. Make sure that your goals (short-term and long-term) include tactics around personal, business and community.

Make rules.

If you don’t have rules about your life balance, all is (and will be) lost. Don’t have guidelines. Make rules… and don’t break them. Here are just some of my life balance rules (in no particular order):

1. Family first. Period. No exceptions. Friends next. Everything else after that.
2. Go to bed when I’m tired.
3. Wake up without an alarm.
4. Don’t stress over sleep. My body will sleep when it needs to.
5. Constantly be reading.
6. Creativity and great ideas do not keep office hours. Write as much as possible – especially when the mood hits.
7. I manage my technology. I do not let technology manage me. An example of this? I check email when I want to – not when it comes in. I turn off all email notifications (both online and mobile).
8. Don’t focus on the money. Focus on building wealth and what I’ll do to change the world once I get there (or along the way).
9. Never eat alone.

My rules look more like this:

• Take time to disconnect
• Breathe
• Eat healthy when you can
• Exercise

My Conclusion:

• Focus more on these Social Networking Time Management Tips and
• Learn to surf – “You cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”

What are your tips for dealing with the stresses of social media and being constantly connected?

Building off their immense success of  2010′s Social Media Success Summit – Guy Kawasaki Keynote and 2009′s Gary Vaynerchuck’s Keynote, SocialMediaExaminer.com presents The Facebook Success Summit 2010: The Web’s Largest Online Facebook Marketing Conference, where marketers can discover how to use Facebook to attract and engage quality customers, and quickly grow your business.

Brian is the author of Engage: The Complete Guide to Building, Cultivating and Measuring Success in the Social Web. He is globally recognized as a leading thought leader in new media. Brian is also principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning new media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and web 2.0 startups.

TOPIC: The Case for Facebook and What Your Biz Needs to Know

By this time next year, more businesses will be vested into Facebook than any other social network (yes even more than Twitter). With more than 500 million active users, Facebook has become the world’s largest social gathering spot. In this session, Brian Solis, author of the book Engage! will show you why Facebook is so essential to businesses of all sizes and what you need to do to benefit from the Facebook explosion.

Tonight’s keynote by Solis: “By This Time Next Year…” was engaging on many levels. Here are some of my favorite tweets from the stream during the call, I tried to keep them in chronological order. If you attended I would love to her your thoughts on the presentation.

If you are new to social media marketing, make sure to follow the rest of this conference hashtag here: http://wthashtag.com/FBSS10

Some of the additions that have been made to the guide are a glossary to define terms that are mentioned throughout the guide. They offer more example images including more clear wording to help people understand and digest the content provided.

One of the sections I found most useful are the additions of mobile browsing and how to optimize your site for mobile devices.

Overall this guide gives people what they need to understand when building a website for the first time, it also re-introduces us to the Googlebot.

The event is a one-day, citywide social media challenge. Contestants will follow clues to check-in points and complete tasks ranging from simple to absurd, all while interacting with each other and friends on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Foursquare and other sites.

I caught up with Scott Hepburn, creator of the event, to get the story:

RM: First things first: Why would anyone want to play in The Panthers Purrsuit?

For starters, we’ve got some sweet prizes. Grand prize is a trip for two – including tickets, airfare and lodging – to see the Panthers take on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. There’s tons of Panthers gear, gift cards, and other cool prizes, too.

The Purrsuit is a one-of-a-kind event, and that’s a draw, too. No other city or NFL team has done anything like this. Scavenger hunts have been done, but nothing on this scale. The challenges are truly interactive, the sponsors are diving in from a social perspective, and contestants will have a chance to use over a dozen social and mobile apps. We’re shooting for a new type of social media experience.

RM: Where’d the idea for the Panthers Purrsuit come from?

Growing up, I was a fan of road rallies. Teams would navigate from point to point and visit historic landmarks, local businesses or locations to “check in” with race officials. The Purrsuit takes that concept and updates it with today’s social media angle. It’s a truly interactive event – a community event.

RM: How did the Panthers and Allen Tate get involved?

I’ve known Mike Mahoney of the Panthers for years via  – yeah, you guessed it – Twitter. Mike and I were catching up over coffee and I told him about this harebrained idea I was considering. He loved it. He asked me to pitch it to the Panthers, and it was a perfect fit.

Allen Tate is a Panthers corporate partner. They loved the idea, too. Their agents are passionate about social media and how they can use it to help home buyers and sellers. The entire organization has gotten involve in The Panthers Purrsuit, and their social media coordinator Genevieve Jooste has been a huge champion of the event.

RM: Any hints about the check-in spots or challenges.

30 LEGO kits. A giant chicken suit. Two superheroes stuck in a car wash. A rap battle. That’s all I’m gonna say.

RM: Seriously?

Chicken suit, Roy. Giant chicken suit.

RM: Okay…where do I sign up?

Register at http://bit.ly/purrsuit. The Panthers Purrsuit is a two-person team competition, so find a partner. The more team spirit, enthusiasm, and rockstar fandom you display, the better. Good luck!

The growth that Facebook has achieved in under 7 years has been incredible and to think that there are now more than half a billion users, is impressive to say the least. When we think of Facebook we typically think of users based in the United States (narcissistic, I know), but the growth of this top social networking site has been a global phenomenon.

Facebook’s current user base is more than 1.6 times the size of the entire US population. You’ve all heard by now that “If Facebook were a country, it’d be second only to China and India” but when you take a look at the Facebook economy, today’s valuation of the social network is over $10 billion dollars.

Top 10 Countries on Facebook

From Pingdom:

Since we don’t have actual user numbers and demographics from Facebook itself (only Facebook has those), we looked at per-country traffic estimates to Facebook.com. The result is quite interesting. (We used data from Google Ad Planner, which provides traffic stats for a large number of sites.)

Facebook’s international expansion is well under way, and it’s arguably the largest and most wide-spread social network that ever existed. As Facebook grows on a global level, the current US dominance of the social network will gradually diminish and become more similar to the general distribution of Internet users.

• The United States alone accounts for almost 24% of Facebook’s users.
• The United States has 4.6 times as many Facebook users as the second-largest country on Facebook, the United Kingdom.
• The top 10 countries on Facebook account for almost 58% of its users.

One of the off-marketing topics that I am often asked is: how can I make my network more secure? Many times this conversation will lead into mobile device security. I predict 2010 will be the year networking engineers take internet security on mobile devices and the social web seriously.

Do you really know what is on the other side of that twitter link?

Mobile Security

With malware news results at an all time high and One in 63 Smartphones Infected by Mobile Spyware and Malware, it’s time to take security risks seriously with your mobile device. Self-propagating worms and Trojan horses in mobile telephones are the main concern. Safety in mobile is only going to get worse with the proliferation of smart devices and applications expanding the attack surface. This year threats to the systems of the iPhone and Android are tested and taken seriously.

Smartphone Spyware

One of the biggest threats are malicious phone attacks, where mobile device malware can delete or steal confidential information, send mass SMS and MMS messages from infected phones. Other attacks may dial premium rate numbers without your knowledge and/or transfer malicious code to a PC once a connection is established.

So how can you protect your smartphone?

My preferred internet and mobile security company I recommend is Kaspersky. (affiliate link)

Seriously though – who better then Jackie Chan to take cyber-security to the next level?

I would love to hear if you have even thought of or talked about mobile security yet?