According to recent findings from MomConnection, The Parenting Group's research panel of 5,000 moms, 60% of moms report having used a social network in the past 24 hours, turning to online communities and social networks for advice, support and connection. The most surprising finding, however, despite all of the attention being given to the relationships that moms form online through social media, is that they do not use social networks as a resource when it comes to product decision-making. Moms are four times more likely to turn to their personal offline network of friends and family than online social …

According to recent poll of corporate communicators conducted by Ragan Communications and PollStream, 49% of today's professional communicators say they think press releases are "as useful as ever," but a third of the respondents said the press release is "a necessary evil that won't go away soon." A corollary paper by Lindsey Miller from Ragan pointed out that 45% of respondents said If press releases are losing relevance, it's because of the growth of social media. Though, 23% and 24% respectively blamed the demand for a more trustworthy and/or engaging information source and the decline of the newspaper and …

According to findings from Alloy Media + Marketing's 9th annual College Explorer Survey, projected annual technology spending among college students (ages 18-30) has reached an all time high at $6.5 billion, ranking 3rd in overall discretionary spending for college students, just below food and auto. When all platforms were totaled, the study found that students are spending an average of 12 hours daily engaged with some type of media. Nine and a half of those hours are spent with their "tech" gadgets, including computers, mobile devices, MP3 players, and gaming devices.

According to new findings from the 3rd annual Edelman Consumer Study, 57% of consumers globally say a company or brand has earned their business because it has been doing its part to support good causes, with Asian countries coming in highest with China at 85% and India at 84%. 67% globally also say they would switch brands if another brand of similar quality supported a good cause, peaking in Brazil at 83% and Italy at 74%. The study also found that 83% of people are willing to change consumption habits if it can help make the world a better …

American Press Institute, with ITZ Publishing and Belden Interactive, recently published initial results of a study designed to help Newspaper executives understand the current peer practices in generating revenue from digital content, the various pay models, success levels, and approaches to issues like site registration, electronic editions and tracking original content across the Web. Among the preliminary findings, nearly 60% of respondents are considering initiating paid access for currently open/free news and information online, and nearly 25% expect to implement a paid strategy in the next six months. This is a big change, says the report, considering that 90% …

According to a Nielsen analysis of a media study conducted by the Council for Research Excellence, 77% of adults are reached by broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. The study found that Web/Internet (excluding email) reached 64%, newspaper 35%, and magazines 27%.

Some 19% of internet users now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves, or to see updates about others. This represents a significant increase over previous surveys in December 2008 and April 2009, when 11% of internet users said they use a status-update service. Three groups of internet users are mainly responsible for driving the growth of this activity: social network website users, those who connect to the internet via mobile devices and younger internet users (those under age 44).

A new Harris Poll finds that more than half of all adults are saving money by purchasing more generic brands, while over 40 % are brown bagging more often and cutting back on visits to hairdressers and barbers. Over 30% have switched to tap water and cancelled one or more magazine subscriptions. Smaller percentages, but many millions of people, have also cut down on dry cleaning, cut back or cancelled cable television service, cancelled a newspaper subscription, stopped buying their morning coffee, changed or cancelled their cell phone service, increased their use of carpooling or mass transit and cancelled their …

According to results of Shop.org's eHoliday Study, conducted by BIGresearch, 47.1% of retailers surveyed will be increasing their use of social media this holiday season. 60.3% of retailers said they have added or improved their Facebook page, and 58.7% their Twitter pages this year. 65.6% have added or enhanced blogs and RSS feeds. In addition, to provide consumers with an extra incentive to start shopping, 34.3% of retailers say they will offer holiday deals earlier this year.

According to the annual Ipsos Green Technology report, few technology purchasing consumers are aware of specific environmental policies and practices of technology firms, despite the efforts of companies and the accolades in the media. Though few are aware of specifics, environmentally friendly policies and programs are becoming more top of mind for U.S. consumers when making technology related purchase decisions.