According to a study presented at a Pivot Conference (in partnership with Extra Mile Research) entitled "Marketers' Current and Future Use of Social Media," 63% of marketers are already investing in social media marketing, and of the 37% that are not currently investing in social media marketing, 62% are planning to invest, including 46% who plan to do so within one year.

According to a new study, conducted by Philadelphia's Tantala Associates, digital billboards do not pose a problem for drivers. Eight years of data covering 35,000 traffic accidents, with more than 233 million cars passing by these billboards every year in Reading, PA, finds that digital billboards are not related to traffic accidents. "The overall conclusion of the study is that digital billboards in the greater Reading area have no statistically significant relationship with the occurrence of accidents," the report says.

According to new research from The Nielsen Company, though Email has long been the king on home computers, it's shifting quickly to social networking and online gaming. Americans spend 36% of their online time communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging, up from15.8% just a year ago (43% increase).

According to a new study by Accenture "Onward and Up - How Marketers Are Refocusing the Front Office for Growth," finds that marketers have significant barriers to overcome to achieve their professed strategic objectives of improving operational efficiency, increasing profitability and responding effectively to change. The marketers find their objectives have taken on increased importance since, over the last two years, they have been challenged to shift from doing the same with less to doing more with the same.

According to a new poll of brand marketers by Harris Interactive for Buddy Media, 72% of brand managers agree that social media offers great potential to reach existing and potential customers across the globe, but they are lacking tools and information to leverage it successfully. On the heels of Facebook's announcement that it has reached 500 million users worldwide, the largest and fastest-growing two-way communication platform in the world, few companies are using Facebook to reach customers globally. According to the poll only one-third of large companies with revenues in excess of $100M are currently using Facebook to do …

According to projections from a comprehensive assessment of consumer demand for interactive periodicals by Oliver Wyman for Next Issue Media, the potential for $3 billion in revenue for the U.S. magazine and newspaper industry by 2014 suggests that, after accounting for potential cannibalization of some print subscriptions, the industry could realize $1.3 billion in incremental revenue. An "interactive periodical" as defined by Next Media is one that uses video to create multimedia content, reflows text to optimize layout and navigation, uses interactive features to engage the user in new ways, adds enhanced content for a print-plus experience, and allows …

According to July data from comScore, 178 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content during the month for an average of 14.7 hours per viewer. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property with 143.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites, with 55.1 million viewers. Facebook.com jumped one position to capture the #3 spot.

The new comScore report, Q2 2010 U.S. retail e-commerce sales estimates, shows that online retail spending reached $32.9 billion for the quarter, up 9% versus year ago. This growth rate represented the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates.

A new study released by ExactTarget finds consumers who are active on Twitter are three times more likely to impact a brand's online reputation through syndicated Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer. The study supported the general findings that microbloggers have many reasons to follow brands they like. Though discounts and sales are toward the top of the list, news and information about a company and its products are primary. The survey of more than 1,500 consumers identifies top motivations for following brands on Twitter and provides new insight into consumers' expectations for interacting …

According to the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast 2004 -2014, The Communications Industry spending is on pace to increase 3.5% in 2010 and post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% in the 2009-2014 period to $1.416 trillion, driven by a gradual economic recovery, advances in digital technology, and secular trends impacting the entire industry landscape.