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According to recent research, 44% of online American adults (that’s 35% of all American adults) use the Internet for religious purposes.

Now a new study by Grey Matter Research, Phoenix, AZ, says 36% of American adults who are online have visited the website of a church or other local place of worship within the last year.

Most commonly, people visiting the website of a place of worship are

·         checking to see the times of services (43%)

·         checking what activities are offered (e.g. youth groups, studies, events – 29%)

·         looking for a map or directions to the church’s location (28%)

·         watching streaming video (26%)

·         listening to streaming audio (26%)

·         checking to see what the church’s religious beliefs are (22%)

·         requesting prayer (18%)

·         downloading a podcast (15%)

·         checking what denomination or group they belong to (15%)

·         sending a message to the pastor or leader (12%)

·         posting on a bulletin board or forum (5%).

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you discern relevant research and connect your brand’s content with searching people.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard, especially the Research tab.

Alexandria, VA has moved up one level this year to first place in Amazon.com’s (@amazon) annual list of the Most Well-Read Cities in America. The ranking was determined by compiling sales data of all book, magazine and newspaper sales in both print and Kindle (@AmazonKindle) format since June 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents. The Top 20 Most Well-Read Cities are:

1.   Alexandria, VA               11.  Pittsburgh, PA

2.   Cambridge, MA             12.  Knoxville, TN

3.   Berkeley, CA                  13.  Seattle, WA

4.   Ann Arbor, MI                  14.  Orlando, FL

5.   Boulder, CO                    15.  Columbia, SC

6.   Miami, FL                        16.  Bellevue, WA

7.   Arlington, VA                   17.  Cincinnati, OH

8.   Gainesville, FL                18.  St. Louis, MO

9.   Washington, DC             19.  Atlanta, GA

10. Salt Lake City, UT          20.  Richmond, VA

Read the news release in full.

See last year’s listing.

The above list differs from the one compiled by Central Connecticut State University (@CCSUToday) which names Washington, DC number one. Here’s the top ten list:

1.  Washington, DC               6.   Pittsburgh, PA

2.  Seattle, WA                      7.   Cincinnati, OH

3.  Minneapolis, MN              8.   St. Louis, MO

4.  Atlanta, GA                       9.   San Francisco, CA

5.  Boston, MA                     10. Denver, CO

Read this in full.

See last year's listing.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach readers.

And if you love books like we do, be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Marketers should make an effort to understand and cultivate so-called brand advocates as social media becomes more prominent. According to a Zuberance (@Zuberance) study, half of brand advocates make a recommendation online because of a good experience with a product or service. The second most prominent motivation for brand advocates: they want to help friends make better purchase decisions.

Though brand advocates are formally defined as making one recommendation a year, without pay – the highest percentage of them (38%) do so 5 to 9 times a year, with 16% making 10 to 15 recommendations and 16% making 15 or more. Other findings:

·         Brand Advocates are even more active than previously thought.

·         Brand Advocates have even larger social networks than previous studies showed.

·         Brand Advocates’ recommendations aren’t limited to consumer brands and products.

See the recorded webinar.

Also see our previous blogpost, “Consumer Trust in Online, Social, & Mobile Advertising Grows.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you identify and reach your brand advocates.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Consumers’ reliance on word-of-mouth in the decision-making process – either from people they know or online consumers they don’t – has increased significantly.

According to Nielsen’s (@NielsenWire) latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries:

·         92% of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising — an increase of 18% since 2007.

·         70% trust online consumer reviews, an increase of 15% in 4 years.

·         58% (nearly 6-in-10) trust messages found on company websites.

·         Half trust email messages that they signed up to receive.

·         4-in-10 respondents rely on ads served alongside search engine results.

·         36% trust online video advertisements.

·         One-third believe the messages in online banner ads — an increase of 27% since 2007.

·         Sponsored ads on social networks, a new format included in the 2011 Nielsen survey, are credible among 36% of global respondents.

·         Display ads (video or banner) on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones are trusted by one-third of global respondents, which is slightly higher than the reported consumer trust level of text ads on mobile phones (29%). While the reported consumer trust level in mobile phone advertising is still low, it increased 61% since 2007 and 21% since 2009.

·         When it comes to traditional paid media, while nearly half of consumers around the world say they trust television (47%), magazine (47%), and newspaper ads (46%), confidence declined by 24%, 20%, and 25%, respectively, between 2009 and 2011.

Read this in full.

Interestingly (perhaps confusingly), the 92% statistic above contrasts with April 2012 survey results from Ipsos (@ipsosnewspolls & @ipsosna), which finds that, while consumers worldwide may turn to their friends for advice on purchases, only 38% will trust a product or a service more because friends recommend it. Hmmmmmmm!

Possibly our previous blogpost, "Matching the Medium with the Message in Word-of-Mouth Marketing," might shed some light on the confusion.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you communicate your brand’s message through owned media, consigned media, earned media, and paid media.

Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard (and tell others about it, too).

On the heels of Gallup’s assessment of the religiosity by state, American Bible Society (@americanbible) has released findings from its State of the Bible survey (@UncoverTheWord) conducted by Barna Group (@barnagroup), which details Americans’ beliefs about the Bible, its role in society, its presence in US homes, and more.

·         47% of American adults believe the Bible has too little influence in society today; only 16% believe it has too much influence, with the remaining adults expressing neutral opinions

·         55% read the Bible to be closer to God, down 9% (from 64%) in 2011

·         79% believe they are knowledgeable about the Bible but 54% are unable to correctly identify the first 5 books of the Bible

·         46% believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are different expressions of the same spiritual truths; 46% disagree

·         On average, 85% of US households own a Bible; the average number of Bibles per household is 4.3

·         36% of Americans read the Bible less than once a year or never, while 33% read the Bible once a week or more

·         Younger adults are less likely to perceive the Bible as relevant and useful when compared with older adults.

·         62% of adults age 66 and older believe the Bible contains everything a person needs to know about living a meaningful life, dropping to 54% among boomers (age 47 to 65), 44% among those age 28 to 46, and dropping even further to 34% for those age 18 to 27.

Read this in full.

See the graphic (pdf).

Read the full analysis report (pdf).

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach Bible readers.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

A demographic milestone has been passed that will be important to marketers and publishers. Here’s how The Wall Street Journal puts it:

For the first time in US history, whites of European ancestry account for less than half of newborn children, marking a demographic tipping point that is already changing the nation's politics, economy, and workforce.

Theologian Martin E. Marty suggests,

Insert the word “Religion” next to “Politics” and “Economy” ... and you will have the mix which excites, troubles, and provides new agendas.

According to the WSJ,

Among the roughly four million children born in the US between July 2010 and July 2011, 50.4% belonged to a racial or ethnic group that in previous generations would have classified them as minorities, up from 48.6% in the same period two years earlier, the Census Bureau says. That was the first 12-month stretch in which non-Hispanic white children accounted for less than half the country's births.

The New York Times says,

While over all, whites will remain a majority for some time, the fact that a younger generation is being born in which minorities are the majority has broad implications for the country’s economy, its political life and its identity. “This is an important tipping point,” said William H. Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describing the shift as a “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”

Read the WSJ article in full.

Read The NYT article in full.

Read Martin Marty’s commentary in full.

Read the Census Bureau news release.

Also see our previous blogposts, “Millennials Aren't Kids Anymore; Plurals Are” and “New Website for Demographic Info.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach your brand’s targeted demographic.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

At the 21st Annual Minitex ILL Conference in Minnesota, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project (@pewinternet), Lee Rainie (@lrainie), gave the keynote presentation on "Learning in the Digital Age: Where Libraries Fit In."

He discussed the way people use ebook readers and tablet computers, and how those devices are fitting into users' digital lives. His presentation below describes how 3 revolutions in digital technology – in broadband, mobile connectivity, and social media – have created a new social operating system that he calls "networked individualism." And he used the Project's latest findings to help describe how librarians can serve the new educational needs of networked individuals.

How does this new way of learning among your consumers impact your publishing agenda? Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you sort it all out.

And be sure to bookmark, use daily, and tell others about the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to a new study from Grey Matter Research (Phoenix, AZ), 44% of online American adults (that’s 35% of all American adults) use the Internet for religious purposes. During the last 6 months:

·         19% have visited the website of a church or other place of worship they’re currently attending

·         17% have visited the website of a church or place of worship they’re not attending

·         19% have visited a website designed to provide religious instruction or learning

·         17% read religion-oriented blogs once a month or more

·         14% have a pastor or other religious leader as a friend on Facebook or a similar social network site

·         11% have visited the website of a group or organization from a religious faith that’s different from their own

·         1 out of 10 have “Liked” a church or other place of worship on Facebook or a similar social network site

·         8% participate in religion-oriented discussions online (e.g. bulletin boards or forums) once a month or more

·         2% follow a church or other place of worship on Twitter

·         2% follow a pastor or other religious leader on Twitter

·         57% of online adults under age 35 use the Internet for religion, compared to 48% who are 35 to 49 years old, 36% who are 50 to 64, and 31% who are 65 or older.

Ron Sellers, president of Grey Matter Research, notes how much diversity there is in how the Internet is used for spiritual purposes:

No one type of religious use or method dominates Internet religion. Eight different activities we evaluated saw participation from between 8% and 19% of online adults, from blogs to church websites to social media. There’s tremendous diversity in who is using the Web for spirituality, but also in how it’s getting used for that purpose.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you connect your brand’s content with searching people.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

According to trendwatching.com (@trendwatching), “consumers will truly embrace brands that don't hide (or ignore) all their flaws.” It terms this trend “Flawsome”:

Consumers don't expect brands to be flawless. In fact, consumers will embrace brands that are FLAWSOME: brands that are still brilliant despite having flaws; even being flawed (and being open about it) can be awesome. Brands that show some empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor, and (dare we say it) some character and humanity.

Two key drivers are fueling the FLAWSOME trend:

·         HUMAN BRANDS: Everything from disgust at business to the influence of online culture (with its honesty and immediacy), is driving consumers away from bland, boring brands in favor of brands with some personality.

·         TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH: Consumers are benefiting from almost total and utter transparency (and thus are finding out about flaws anyway), as a result of the torrent of readily available reviews, leaks, and ratings.

Read this in full.

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you identify and take advantage of trends that will advance your brand.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

As reported in the study Demystifying Social Media (#mcksocial) by Roxane Divol (@rdivol), David Edelman (@davidedelman), and Hugo Sarrazin (@HugoSarrazin) in McKinsey Quarterly (@McKQuarterly) (YouTube channel), brand owners seeking to make the most of social media must learn to “monitor,” “respond,” “amplify,” and “lead” on these sites.

·         Monitoring brand buzz is the core function of social media as it applies throughout the purchasing decision journey.

·         Responding to positive and negative comments is crucial for brand protection. “No response can be quick enough, and the ability to act rapidly requires the constant, proactive monitoring of social media—on weekends too. By responding rapidly, transparently, and honestly, companies can positively influence consumer sentiment and behavior.”

·         Amplification involves designing marketing activities to have an inherently social motivator that spurs broader engagement and sharing. It means offering experiences that customers will feel great about sharing, because they gain a badge of honor by publicizing content that piques the interest of others.

·         The fourth role of social media is to “lead” and encourage behavior change.

Read this in full.

Another study says the quality of customer service offered by US brands on social media strongly influences buying habits. The 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer says the average person using social media to get customer service is subsequently willing to spend 21% extra on a brand if the service is “excellent.”

Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you effectively market your brand, both online and offline.

And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Branding and Marketing/PR tabs.