In a very serious way, according to this this release from comScore.

Here are the vital stats globally:

MySpace
Total UVs June 06: 66,401
June 07: 114,147
for a 72% increase

Facebook
Total UVs June 06: 14,083
June 07: 52,167
For a 270% increase

And Facebook has actually outstripped MySpace in North America, with 68.4% of the total unique visits to MySpace’s 62.1%

You will recall that on May 24th, 2007, Facebook opened their APIs – it will be interesting to see some numbers that show the impact of that strategy shift over the longer term.

This should come as no surprise to anyone save those who have drunk too deeply of the Kool-AID. According to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 62% of those who view video online prefer that which is “professionally produced”.

Why would we expect anything less? As online video matures into a viable source of entertainment, viewer expectations will rise to that of other media – it better look and sound good, or they’ll go elsewhere. You heard it here first, content producers – especially within the enterprise – the honeymoon will not last. You’d better get professional, and fast.

Also of interest:

And, once again – the obligatory chart:

The full report is available here.

This time from Ipsos-Reid. Still no consensus on how many Canadians have actually read a blog (they say 34% of Cdn Internet users have visited one, while other studies have different results).

Some nice context for marketers thinking about using blogs in particular as part of their marketing mix:

When asked what impact positive comments regarding a product or service in a blog would have on the likelihood of purchasing it, one-in-ten adult Canadian Internet users said it would make them much more likely to purchase (10%) the product and half said it would make them somewhat more likely to purchase (51%). The effect of negative comments in a blog is a little stronger, with one in eight saying that negative comments about a product or service would make them much less likely to purchase (12%) and just over half saying it would make them somewhat less likely to purchase (54%).

Press release available here.

Welcome EPS21 Social Media Today, the official podcast of the Social Media Collective. In today’s episode, we speak to Debbie Weil about the flurry of discussion surrounding her blog post and email soliciting comments for a client project: the GlaxoSmithKline Alli Connect blog.

Click to listen:

Do subscribe to our feed – we’ll be interviewing a new member of the Social Media Collective each week, the podcast is published fresh every Wednesday. You can even leave us audio comments right here using the handy tool below.

Show Notes:

This week Debbie Weil found herself uncomfortably embroiled in a flurry of discussion around both the ethics and seemliness of soliciting comments from the public at large and her colleagues in private for a client’s blog – the GSK-funded Alli Connect blog. In today’s episode she explains why she thinks there’s nothing wrong with encouraging people to visit and participate in a project you’re working on, expresses regret for the wording of her email to colleagues and points out that David Murray‘s posting of that private correspondence raises some ethical issues of its own. Debbie and I speak frankly about what her client thinks about all of this, the success of the Alli blog and whether she’d do it all over again.

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A link to this arrived in my inbox not too long ago. Of course Factiva is in the business of selling reputation management/social & other media measurement services, so it’s in their best interest to explain how important these services are to every company. As it happens, however, I think they’re right – and I’m not alone. Here’s a snippet of research from the The Hill & Knowlton “Reputation Watch”:

More than 90 percent of analysts agree that if a company fails to look after reputational aspects of its performance,it will ultimately suffer financially too:98 percent of surveyed analysts say this contributes to their assessment,while 93 percent cite transparent disclosure and consistent communications with key stakeholders as key contributors.According to the survey report,“This clearly demonstrates the absolute central importance of stakeholder management and communications to the modern company. It shows without equivocation that good communications add value and poor communications destroy value.”

Here’s a link to the pdf of the full Factiva document, titled Best Practices in Media Measurement: Technology’s Emerging Role. Enjoy!

I had the absolute pleasure of being a guest on Paul Gillin and David Strom‘s Tech PR War Stories Podcast this past week. Our topic? “The Ins and Outs of Social Media Marketing“. Have a listen!

According to a report released today by Ipsos Insights, downloading music files (which was sparked by Napster and similar peer-to-peer file sharing sites like Limewire.) showed millions of users that the Internet was not just a cool idea, but actually useful.

Then there was the great Dark Time (or the Great Correction, depending on your perspective). The Web 1.0 bubble popped and startups went under by the score. However, behind the scenes broadband kept up it’s slow creep across the continent, almost unnoticed, as service providers upgraded their networks. Before we knew it (and before most of us even needed it) we had affordable, high-speed Internet.

Fast forward to 2007, when (according to recent stats from Ipsos)

well over one-third of recent Internet users (36%) have watched a TV show or other video stream online (3/4 of those had done so in the last 30 days, indicating a possible big jump in numbers next time they’re surveyed)

13% have downloaded a TV show

Ditto for feature-length movies

Some of the most interesting numbers show that streaming music dropped a point between 2005 and 2006, as did downloading music. Copying a CD remained static at 41%. I’m not sure if the music industry should be happy or concerned at the slight downturn in activity (based on the first stat – possibly interest).

One caveat – this study, called The Face of the Web 2006, surveyed 6,553 adults in 12 global markets between November and December 2006. So while it’s interesting to know what people were doing online six months ago, extrapolating these numbers to today is impossible. Things tend to happen in crazy, unexpected, leaps and bounds online. Look at Twitter.

Social networking is, not surprisingly, on the rise, with 24% of American adults having visited one of these sites. Internationally, it’s massive in some parts of Asia – with almost 50% of all the adults in Korea having visited a social networking site at one point. Success is attributed in part to Cywold, which is one of the oldest social networking sites in the world.

Here’s a nice bit of analysis from Brian Cruikshank, Executive Vice President & Managing Director of Ipsos Insight’s Technology & Communications practice,

The frequency of visitation to social networking websites globally implies that many Internet users are no longer simply ‘trying out’ these sites, but rather adopting social-networking as a significant part in their evolving digital lifestyle. What will be interesting to monitor is the affect social networking will have on other online and offline entertainment behaviors that ultimately compete for a share of the consumer’s disposable time. We have already seen some effects of social networking cannibalizing other online activities in some markets.

And, finally, the requisite chart. I was surprised to see that Canada lagged so far behind the U.S.