Edelman Update

Is Radio Positioned for Profits in SM?

According to a new report by Borrell Associates, $12.7 billion was spent last year in online advertising by local advertisers. Pureplay companies, like Yahoo and Google, earned most of the $12.7 billion, but local media organizations have “turned the corner” with their online operations based on the 2008 data from Borrell.

While local radio stations grabbed just 2% of local online dollars in 2008, the trends might point to expansion of local radio station Websites and social media efforts. Jerry Del Colliano on Inside Music Media has a great post today about the 7 Trends Radio Missed. Jerry reports that many radio stations missed out on the opportunity to engage their listeners through social media. He points to social sites run by entrepreneurs as examples of the kind of content that can be developed to capture local ad dollars. But, Jerry sees radio stations being in a great position to leverage their audience relationships with advertisers. What do you think?

Is it time to drop “social” from media?

The time may be right to move from using the term “social media” to just “media.”

It’s clear that the integration of social media tools with conventional media is occuring with lightening speed. Steve Rubell recently spoke to this point on a 2/2/09 post on Micro Persuasion. He makes a good case that all media is social and all social is media. A report from the Bivings Group clearly shows that 58% of Newspapers in the study are using some form of user-generated content on their Websites. Steve also makes the point that social networking sites are being used to distribute news.

The lines are blurring so that clearly defining “social media” will become more difficult. Ian Orekondy has a great post today on the fusion of traditional media, social media  and search in today’s campaigns. While his example Pampers Potty Dance is pretty crazy, his analysis is dead-on.

Internet Radio Use At Work Up 8%

According to Arbitron/Edison Media Research, the share of at-work Internet radio listeners is up from 12% to 20% as reported by Steve Smith at minonline. 30% of college students students are listening to Internet radio. That’s an amazing statistic and explains why services  like Pandora,  CBS’ Last.fm and Slacker have been growing rapidly lately. Radio executives are obviously taking note. Steve quotes Larry Rosen at Arbitron/Edison saying “For a growing number of people, obviously those in front of the computer, the Internet is simply a better solution for ‘radio’ listening than a traditional AM/FM radio.”