It’s no secret that smartphone users index higher for just about every key mobile activity than those with feature phones. But the growth in social networking usage among smartphone users has been truly eye-popping. According to a recent study from Nielsen, the number of smartphone users engaging in social networking activities shot up 187% from July 2008 to July 2009, nearly tripling from 6.4 to 18.3 million users in total.

What’s even more interesting is that mobile users have begun to display similar
frequency and time spent patterns as those accessing the leading social networks
from their PCs. As I discussed in my “Mobile Users and Usage: It’s Personal” report, marketers, publishers and advertisers alike can get a sense of what tomorrow’s mobile media consumption landscape will look like from today’s smartphone users, and mobile social networkers in particular are on the leading edge.

Ford’s social media chief Scott Monty uses yesterday’s eMarketer article (“Hopes and Fears of Social Media Marketing”) as a jumping-off point to list his “5 Stages of Social Media Grief.” Here’s stage 1:

Denial – first stage of social media grief in which the marketer refuses to acknowledge the existence of social media. This was the case early on in the industry’s development. Luckily, I don’t think there are many companies left that think like this.
Common phrases: “It’s just a kid’s thing,” or “It’s just a fad.”
Common behaviors: avoiding the Internet, putting hands over ears and singing “I can’t heeeeeaaaarr yoooouuuuu. La la laaaaa.”

I think companies are finally moving away from the next stages — anger and bargaining — and toward acceptance. But there’s that pesky “depression” phase to watch out for in between. Where are you in the stages of social media grief?

Does this New York Times story imply even slower growth for online display advertising which is already down from $4.8 billion in 2008 to $4.6 billion in 2009, according to eMarketer estimates?

About two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements, according to a new survey from professors at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California-Berkeley. … The topic may be technical, but it has become a hot political issue. Privacy advocates are telling Congress and the Federal Trade Commission that tracking of online activities by Web sites and advertisers has gone too far, and the lawmakers seemto be listening. … Marketers are arguing that advertising supports free online content. Major advertising trade groups proposed in July some measures that they hoped would fend off regulation, like a clear notice to consumers when they were being tracked.

As Congress and the FTC weigh in on behavioral targeting, the implications for online display advertising are not great. Increasingly, marketers are turning to Facebook and other forms of social media,  behavioral targeting technologies and ad network tools to track consumers’ online behavior–their shopping, reading and browsing habits–to deliver the right kinds of messages to them with the appropriate frequency. These tools are par for the course as online advertising on the backend grows more sophisticated.

Will lawmakers place restrictions on what advertisers can and cannot do? Will they require advertisers or portals to issue disclosure statements? Whatever happens could have a significant impact on online ad growth.

Interesting from Business Week:

On Tuesday (9/29/09), Google announced that music videos by Jay-Z, Madonna, Green Day, and other Warner Music artists will return to YouTube after a nearly year-long breakdown in negotiations between the companies. The latest deal brings all four major music labels into revenue-sharing arrangements with the world’s largest video site.

This is exciting. According to a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, a record £1.75 billion was spent online in the first half of 2009.

The internet now accounts for 23.5% of all advertising money spent in the UK, while TV ad spend accounts for 21.9% of marketing budgets. The IAB originally predicted that internet ad spend would overtake TV at the end of 2009; however, the crippling advertising recession accelerated this by six months. TV advertising fell about 17% year on year in the first half, to about £1.6bn, according to the report.

Naturally, we see some push-back from the TV industry.

“It is interesting but meaningless to sweep all the money spent on every aspect of online marketing into one big figure and celebrate it,” said Lindsey Clay, marketing director at Thinkbox. “Online marketing spend is made up of many things, including email, classified ads, display ads (including online TV advertising) and, overwhelmingly, search marketing. They should be judged individually.”

I suspect few interactive marketers will agree — especially when they’re credited with saving the UK ad industry from meltdown during the recession. (Via The Guardian)