To listen and watch playback of the webinar, Facebook Marketing—Strategies for Turning “Likes” into Loyalty, click here. You can view the PowerPoint deck below.

The webinar will address these key questions:

• How are marketers using their Facebook pages?
• How do consumers interact with brands on Facebook?
• What can marketers do to encourage ongoing involvement once a consumer has “liked” a brand or page?
• How do brands such as Adobe Photoshop, Chef Boyardee, Clarisonic and Discovery use Facebook?

About Debra Aho Williamson

Debra is eMarketer’s lead analyst focusing on social media marketing and the demographics of social media users. She produces eMarketer’s forecasts for social network advertising spending in the US and worldwide and has written more than two dozen reports delivering key insights covering how marketers, media and consumers are engaging with social media. A founding executive editor of pioneering internet business publication The Industry Standard, Debra is quoted for her analysis in the business press and invited to speak at major digital marketing internet events.

Sponsored by Vitrue.

Check out eMarketer’s lastest coverage of social media marketing, usage and trends. This is just a taste of the digital intelligence eMarketer clients have access to. Learn more about becoming an eMarketer client here.

US Digital Ad Spending: Online, Mobile, Social
Digital continues to rise in importance for US marketers, as eMarketer predicts online ad spending will reach $28.5 billion this year. Mobile will contribute an additional $1.1 billion to the digital ad market, and social networking sites will increase revenues by 55%.

Facebook Users: The Juggernaut Rolls On
Facebook use in the US will continue on a solid growth track over the next three years, as the site cements its place at the epicenter of internet activity. As more users of all ages flock to the popular social network, marketers will find new opportunities to tap into an engaged, demographically diverse audience.

Twitter Users: A Vocal Minority
US Twitter use will continue to grow through 2013, although usage levels and growth rates will be modest compared with earlier forecasts. Still, Twitter will remain a strong force within the social media ecosystem and a viable venue for marketers targeting youthful, engaged audiences.

US Social Network Usage: 2011 Demographic & Behavioral Trends
In 2011, 63.7% of US internet users will use social networks. Key trends include the slowing growth rate in usage, the rising sophistication of the social networking audience, the dominance of the youth market, the battle between email and social networks, and the increase in mobile social usage.

Digital Dining: Chain Restaurants Add Social Media, Mobile to the Menu
As the US restaurant industry recovers, operators are increasingly employing mobile and social media marketing to meet consumer expectations. Businesses that engage, provide value and reach potential diners where they spend their time will be at a distinct advantage.

Western Europe Social Network Usage
An increasing number of internet users in France, Germany, Italy and Spain are using social networking sites. eMarketer estimates that the number of social network users in the EU-5 will climb from 100.1 million in 2011 to 141.9 million in 2015.

China Social Media Marketing
Social media use in China is very similar to the rest of the world, but retains a distinctly Chinese approach. Users have rapidly developed large online networks of friends and family. Brands can tap into these networks for promotion and increased sales.

Your competition already has the answers. Click here to learn more about why clients rely on eMarketer digital intelligence.

To listen and watch playback of the webinar, Social Media Outlook for 2011, click here. You can view the PowerPoint deck below.

You will take away:

• The numbers to know—how businesses are budgeting for social media and what they are spending
• How important Facebook is becoming to the online marketplace
• Why “liking” a brand is only the beginning of a consumer’s dialog with a company
• Which demographic groups are the heaviest users of social media and how to effectively reach them

About Debra Aho Williamson

Debra is eMarketer’s lead analyst focusing on social media marketing and the demographics of social media users. She produces eMarketer’s forecasts for social network advertising spending in the US and worldwide and has written more than two dozen reports delivering key insights covering how marketers, media and consumers are engaging with social media. A founding executive editor of pioneering internet business publication The Industry Standard, Debra is quoted for her analysis in the business press and invited to speak at major digital marketing internet events.

Sponsored by Demand Media.

eMarketer expects the number of US social gamers to grow to 68.7 million in 2012, from 53 million in 2010. That represents 29.5% growth over two years and, coincidentally, 29% of the Internet population playing social games by 2012.

What’s behind our user projections?

Our audience forecast assumes that the fundamentals of the social gaming industry will remain in place for at least the next two years. These fundamentals are a deep well of simple games that appeal to large audiences; social sharing features on Facebook and on third-party platforms that allow users to connect to Facebook; and non-real-time playing capabilities.

eMarketer’s user estimates are based on data from sources including Trendstream/Lightspeed Research, BlogHer/iVillage, Newzoo BV, Ipsos OTX MediaCT, ThinkEquity, TrustE, NPD Group and Inside Social Games. These companies looked at social gaming across all platforms, including Facebook and MySpace.

Our figures are generally more conservative than those of other research firms. Here’s why. We noticed there has been a recent drop in cumulative monthly active users among the top 15 games on Facebook, according to Inside Social Games, a resource for user data on social gaming, which releases usage data every month on a game-by-game basis.
This index showed month-to-month drops from September to December 2010, as well as a year-over-year decrease from December 2009 to December 2010.

Since most published estimates of the social gaming audience were based on surveys conducted before this trend emerged, we thought it would be prudent to issue a more guarded estimate than other researchers.
True, there was a rebound in monthly active users in January thanks to the recent launch of Zynga’s popular CityVille, but this spike was not enough to prevent a year-over-year decrease for January 2011 as well.

It’s worth explaining that this data is not a comprehensive measure of social gaming usage. For starters, Inside Social Games compiles worldwide monthly active users on a game-specific basis without regard to overlap among games.

Also, the index that showed a downward trend was limited to the top games on Facebook, which accounts for about three-fourths of social gaming traffic, according to eMarketer estimates. The next-largest social gaming venue, MySpace, showed a 6% increase in cumulative monthly active users from January 2010 to January 2011, according to Inside Social Games.

It’s also worth considering that the drops starting in September might have been precipitated by changes in Facebook’s notification policies. The social network started limiting game notifications to users who already played games. Previously, all users were notified of their Facebook friends’ social gaming activities, which helped the viral spread of the games.

With these caveats in mind, eMarketer’s conclusion is that the Inside Social Games data is not a surefire sign of waning interest, but it does put a damper on expectations. Accordingly, we’re forecasting growth–but at a slower rate than what we’ve seen over the past two years.

Look for my upcoming report, “Social Gaming: Marketers Make Their Moves.”

With all the discussion about Facebook’s worth and potential in the face of Goldman Sachs’ $450 million investment, a lot of data has been tossed about regarding Facebook’s size and growth—particularly in relation to Google.

Last month, before the deal was announced, Hitwise released its annual list of most-searched terms. Facebook made the top of the list for the second year in a row. This data led many media outlets to claim that Facebook has finally beaten Google and taken over the internet. But is search term data really that meaningful in determining who is winning the internet war?

Four different terms for Facebook were in Hitwise’s Top 10 search terms, including “Facebook login” and ”www.facebook.com.” These accounted for 3.48% of all searches in the US among the top 50 terms. Facebook.com also topped Google.com as the most-visited website of the year, and first did so back in March 2010, according to Hitwise.

Some critics of the data said that it was inaccurate because anyone already on Google.com, wouldn’t search for “Google.” Other criticisms include the fact that Googling Facebook just proves that users are not invested in the site enough to bookmark it or remember the URL.

Data for unique visitors and page views provides a more accurate picture of the popularity of a website. And, when looking at the information, Google’s entire portfolio, including YouTube, should be taken into account.

Ad revenues and monetization plans are also determining factors in the success of a site. In August, eMarketer estimated Facebook ad revenue would be $1.3 billion in 2010, below Yahoo and Google. (Our next social network ad spending report—with an updated Facebook forecast—will be out soon and Facebook will not have higher revenues than either portal.)

Hitwise reported that the combined Google properties accounted for 9.85% of all US website visits, while Facebook’s properties accounted for 8.93%. The just-released J.P. Morgan “Nothing But Net” investment guide estimated, based on comScore data, that 70% of US internet users are also Facebook users, compared to 81% who are Google users and 84% who are Yahoo users. And Google sites were still above Facebook in terms of unique visitors in November, comScore reported.

Earlier this week, eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson wrote about the benefit for marketers in the recent $500 million investment by Goldman Sachs and Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies in Facebook. Facebook uses its social graph to more effectively target advertisements, and the funding will help improve that targeting and expand it across the web.

“Where Facebook and Google are meeting head to head is in going after advertisers that typically buy search ads,” Williamson told me. “Performance-based advertising is where Facebook is putting major emphasis this year. Secondarily, I predict Facebook will go strongly after the local-ad market. Once it gets Deals up and running it’s got a pretty powerful promotional mechanism for local businesses.”

The bottom line: While Facebook is the dominant site for social networking, with the right innovation, it can use the new investment to expand its footprint online and increase competition with Google and other companies. Google, for its part, is also working to improve its search and trying to succeed in the social realm as well. In the immediate future, these two sites will continue to battle for users and ad dollars, but they will share the internet throne.