Last month, IAB asked a group of mobile shoppers to keep a diary of their activity in a two week period. Here are some of the things they found out:

Home Usage

Here we see that almost half of all e-commerce interactions happened at home. They found that purchasing peaked in the late afternoon, early evening. 49% said they shopped while watching TV.

The dollar amounts aren’t too impressive, only 38% reported spending more than $21 a month. Most of the purchases were digital downloads with clothing and entertainment items coming in second.

Out and About

Only 29% used their mobile phone to shop while they were out, but 73% used their phones while they were shopping in a brick and mortar store. 34% used their phone to look up a price and 53% abandoned their purchase because of what they found. A few abandoned the purchase because they saw a bad review but most were lured away by a lower price – the downside of mobile commerce.

The good news is that 70% said they saw mobile as as more of an “invitation” than an “invasion.” They do not want ads to take them straight to check-out. They want to be taken to a page with additional options. 30% said they’d like to pay with mobile then pick the item up at the store.

Overall, the IAB Mobile Phone Shopping Diaries shows that consumers see mobile shopping as a way of getting the best price with the least amount of effort. They want information and options and in return they’ll allow you to use their geo-location to target them and their phone to contact them. Sounds like a good deal to me.

He figured someone could do this in ten hours a week. I told him he was in over his head. I told him he needed to focus on a few keys areas to start — Facebook and Pinterest since he was selling a very visual and colorful product. I also told him to forget article marketing, it not only wouldn’t help his business but it might actually hurt. I don’t think he liked my advice.

Now, let’s all open our Wall Street Journal to the Small Business section: “As Google Tweaks Searches, Some Get Lost in the Web.”

The story focuses on two small online business who have suffered devastating losses since the latest Google search update known as Penguin. The owner of Oh My Dog Supplies says his sales went from $68,000 in March (pre-Penguin) to $25,000 this month (expected based on current sales). He blames the loss in traffic on Google search and thinks it’s the result of two actions. He once paid for a large number of inbound links and he posts marketing articles to EzineArticles and Squidoo.

Under the new Penguin reign, these kinds of marketing ploys are considered spam. Google sees them as ways of artificially inflating the relevance of a website. As such, they are not helpful to searchers and so Google penalizes the sites for being deceptive.

The author of the article admits that some companies have gained from the Penguin update but those that took a hit are suffering, to the point of possibly losing their business.

The people the Wall Street Journal profiled in the article are all legitimate, small business owners who were only doing what they thought was best. They followed advice (Did they know that buying links has always been a questionable tactic? Not likely.) and did all the things some marketers say you should do to get noticed. Marketing, however, is not their field. They’re people who simply wanted to share their passion for pets and sports and art and found they could turn that passion into profit. Now, though, you can bet that passion is waning as they scramble to regain what they lost through no fault of their own.

I’m not saying Google is wrong. They’re right to want to clean out the spammers and the snake oil salesmen. I’m saying that it’s time to stop marketing based on the way it’s always been. The rules have changed and they’re going to keep changing. What business owners have to do is follow the path that makes the most sense for their company and forget the rest.

You know what Google likes? Relevant, accurate, informative content that is better than what the competitor has to offer. That’s how you rise in the rankings and that’s how you stay on top the next time Google makes another update.

What are your thoughts on Google’s Penguin update? Good news, bad news, or just another twist in the path?

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So rather than belabor an already over-reported “story” let’s do a quick comparison that today’s Facebook IPO brings to the forefront. Let’s just say this is a day when we may see the real changing of the guard in the world of ‘tech’.

I put tech in quotes because while many will claim Facebook is a tech company I will say that that idea is just plain wrong. Facebook is a media / publishing company that USES technology. It is a marketing vehicle. It is not going out and reselling technology solutions to people, it is going out and selling marketing solutions to people. As a result, Facebook is looking at a $100 billion valuation and many newly minted millionaires today.

Now let the Valley’s pendulum swing in the complete opposite direction and the news is not nearly as happy. Hewlett-Packard (HP), once a powerhouse in the tech world is reporting the complete antithesis of the Facebook situation. Bloomberg reports

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) is considering cutting as many as 25,000 jobs, or 8 percent of its workforce, to reduce costs and help the company contend with ebbing demand for computers and services, people briefed on the plans said.

The number to be cut includes 10,000 to 15,000 from Hewlett-Packard’s enterprise services group, which sells a range of information-technology services and has been beset by declining profitability, said these people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t final and may change.

Even if these plans do change, just the fact that HP is considering this kind of action is scary.

Today marks the day that the tide has truly turned. Innovation is occurring in the soft services of the tech world. True tech companies are being pushed aside and are falling quickly into the “means to an end” category vs. being the end itself. A few quick points when looking at HP v Facebook.

• Facebook stands to double the market cap of HP in just 8 years

• Facebook has somewhere north of 2000 employees while HP has around 325,000

• Facebook revenue last year was over $3 billion while HP’s net PROFIT was almost $10 billion

• HP started in a garage (an iconic Valley image) while Facebook started in Cambridge, MA in the new symbol of the start-up, a dorm room (Google did it as well just on another coast)

• Facebook is making news on the way up while HP makes it on the way down

This kind of side by side comparison can come off as a bit confusing. HP has 3 times the profit that Facebook has in total revenue. HP employs about 150 times the number of people Facebook does. HP is over seventy years old and has deep roots while Facebook is a newcomer.

So why the upswing for Facebook and the bleak outlook for HP? It’s the realization that the past means nothing. Why do you think mutual funds advertise their great results then put the asterisk on it which reads that past results are not an indicator of future performance”?

The future is not in hardware. That’s not new but today it becomes REALLY obvious. The future is in selling and marketing. Consumers may one day simply have dumb boxes that let them access everything in the cloud. If a large portion of your revenues is dependent on hardware sales and innovation you are likely to be a dinosaur much sooner than later. Hardware will be needed but it might become so commoditized that brands might not even matter anymore. HP, Dell, Acer etc will not matter in the least. They barely do today.

So what’s the point? The point is that today likely marks the key day when the tide truly turned toward the Internet age. We have the evidence in Facebook’s success and HP’s distress.

If you or your company have not fully embraced the Internet era let today be your final wake-up call. There will not be any tears shed for the loss of once powerful companies. Companies like HP could suffer the same fate as the horse and buggy if they are not moving where the world moves.

To heck with HP! Are you moving? If not, why not?

Well, six long years into this Twitter has admitted as much. As a result they are introducing tailored suggestions. The Twitter blog explains

Currently, when new users come to Twitter, we show them all almost the same suggestions for what or who to follow. That isn’t ideal. Since you have individual interests, you should get individual suggestions. After all, even though millions of people love Justin Bieber, FC Barcelona or Kim Kardashian, not everyone using Twitter may want to follow them.

To make it easier and faster for everyone to get started on Twitter, we’re beginning some experiments with tailored suggestions in a number of countries around the world. The first experiment will show new users a list of accounts that we recommend you follow, alongside a timeline filled with Tweets from those accounts.

This kind of personalization along with yesterday’s Do Not Track announcement shows that Twitter is working to make it more useful and efficient for users and marketers alike.

In a world where most social media news is about how someone or something has either gotten worse or is further abusing your privacy maybe Twitter is paying attention and figuring they can look different by doing something useful. Wow, now there is a novel concept in today’s business world.

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We’ve seen it coming for awhile, but the Post Office is such a staple in our world that I don’t think any of us really expected to see it fail. Then again, think about all the things you don’t mail anymore. Letters to friends and family have become emails, ecards have taken the place of invitations and announcements. Bills have gone “green” and banks no longer mail statements. The only upticks come from online retailers but even they have options other than going Postal.

Today’s press release states that the US Postal Service will have a $14 billion net loss at the end of this year. To stop the hemorrhage, they will close 140 processing centers by February 2013. That will likely be followed by another 89 closures in 2014. You can see a list of the centers here.

What this means for the average person is that mail delivery will take a little longer if you’re sending it out of your local area. 80% of First Class mail will still be delivered overnight.

What this means for the online retailer is you might have to start shipping via UPS or FedEx if you want to guarantee fast delivery. This is a tough spot because we know that shipping is a big factor in ecommerce. Shipping fees can make or break the sale and during the holidays, timing is extremely important.

In the end, we’ll all find ways to muddle through because it’s what we do and that includes the 13,000 employees who will be let go as a result of the closures. Maybe they all get jobs online.

For more information, visit the “Our Future Network” section of the US Postal Service online newsroom.

The device that is causing all the ruckus is Dish’s Hopper, a DVR that allows you to automatically hop past all the commercials on a network TV show. You know, kind of like you already do with show’s you’ve recorded, only the Hopper does the work for you.

Understandably, the networks are furious. Commercials pay for the shows they produce. If networks don’t produce shows, then Dish Network wouldn’t have any content and they’d go out of business.

On the other hand, if Dish doesn’t keep their customers happy, they’ll go back to cable and again, Dish will go out of business.

Either way, they’re biting the hands that feed them. The question is, who has more clout, the consumer or the networks?

Dish is putting their money (literally) on the consumer. They know the networks will grumble, but in the end, it’s not like they’re going to stop making TV shows, though they could pull them off the Dish Network. The New York Times says that the networks are also offering Dish a taste of their own medicine by refusing to air Dish commercials. The Hopper ad is one of the most annoying commercials I’ve seen in a long time, so I’m behind the networks on that move.

The reality is, people skip commercials and when they don’t skip them, they walk out of the room to get a snack or use the facilities. Instead of fighting the Hopper, networks need to find new ways to engage the consumer. Instead of forcing an increasing number of commercials on viewers, networks should be rewarding them for their attention. Second screen apps are perfect for upping engagement. The Celebrity Apprentice app delivers the most points on questions asked during the commercials. If you want to win the game, you have to stay and watch.

What do you think? Is Dish making the right move by putting the customer in front of the client? Or is this going to come back to bite them someplace other than the hand?

The New York Times Bits blog reports

It’s no secret that Facebook is worth about $100 billion because it collected personal data about its users. A lot of data.

Although Twitter tracks its users too — albeit in a much less aggressive way — the company has decided to take a different route. It announced Thursday that it is joining Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox Web browser, and giving its users the ability to opt-out of being tracked in any way through Twitter.

Twitter is doing this by enabling the Do Not Track feature in the Firefox browser that enables people to opt-out of cookies that collect personal information and any third-party cookies, including those used for advertising. The Do Not Track functionality will only work if a Web site agrees to acknowledge it.

Couple this action with Twitter’s recent vigorous resistance to turning over information about a user who was part of the Occupy Wall Street ‘movement’.

Because Twitter’s focus is more about the news and information that a user passes along vs. the user itself, they can play thins kind of user friendly game MUCH more easily than Facebook can. Facebook is completely dependent on the individual characteristics and data of users so advertisers can decide who they want to target. Twitter, on the other hand, is driven by keywords and hashtags which are different forms of determining what a Twitter user may or may not want to see with regards to ads.

Has Twitter found a way to further differentiate and distance itself from Facebook and even Google in the privacy realm? If yes then they have scored a rather large coup. Let’s face it, no matter what happens in Friday’s IPO Facebook will always be positioned as a necessary evil by users. This love / hate relationship is one that makes Facebook more susceptible to the whims of the individual especially if they are feeling wronged by the service (and, of course, another viable social option exists which is a big question mark).

Twitter is saying “Hey, it’s cool if we don’t have more data on you than you would like us to have.” and that is like a blast of fresh air in the day and age of ‘nothing is sacred or private in the online world.” Twitter is already different but this makes it more so and that is a very good thing for them and for users.

What’s another advantage of Twitter’s move in this direction. Well, how about having the news be “announced” by a high ranking official of the FTC? Yup, that’s the government telling an Internet company “Nice work!”. To Twitter that is priceless.

Carolyn Penner, a spokeswoman for Twitter, said in a statement, “As the Federal Trade Commission’s CTO, Ed Felten, mentioned this morning, Twitter now supports Do Not Track.” Ms. Penner added: “We applaud the FTC’s leadership on Do Not Track, and are excited to provide the benefits of Do Not Track.”

Twitter has been laying low as of late which isn’t hard to do in this Facebook IPO feeding frenzy. Maybe we should already start to ignore the IPO and see what the competition is doing? After all, unless you are getting rich from this IPO it should be business as usual and, despite the hype, there is much more to the social marketing world than just Facebook. Thank God for that.

Well, I accept that title and look to results like those found by PulsePoint (reported by eMarketer) to further make the point. It appears that the agency side of the ledger sees their delivery capabilities in the three major areas of marketing as either ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ effective. Confidence is good I suppose but only if it’s based in reality. Otherwise it can be little more than salesmanship.

Why do I see things this way? It is just that SO many people I run into have major gripes about the ‘help’ they receive from agency providers, regardless the size of the business. The get sold a bill of goods (the same bill of goods that was drilled into a salesperson’s head as gospel) then when it comes to delivery there is a serious disconnect. Unfortunately, the way many agencies handle client engagements is in a ‘fake it ’til you make it’ mode. Delivery is done by underpaid and relatively inexperienced folks and, well, you can guess where it goes from there.

The next chart made me chuckle a bit. It shows just how confident agencies REALLY are. This chart shows the marketing priorities of these three groups. If agencies were truly as good as they claim don’t you think they would be more willing to measure results better?

The revolt by marketers and others seeking agency level help has been a long time coming and really it can’t come too soon. How many monthly retainers will it take for clients to finally yell “No mas!” and simply do the best they can in house since their results were not that much better after paying someone else?

Now, don’t think this is a blanket statement or indictment against the agency model. There are great providers out there. It’s usually the ones, however, that aren’t out there saying how good they but rather doing good work and living off referral business, that steer clear of this mess.

How do you feel about the agency side of the interactive space? What has been your experience? Are you an agency provider who disagrees with me? Then please let us know your thoughts in the comments. We can’t know unless you make yourself be heard.

Who is on Facebook?

Facebook is a keeper for most of the US. 56% of all Americans have a Facebook page. 3 in 10 use it everyday with younger users visiting more often.

Those who don’t have a page, 35% say they have no interest or they have better things to do with their time. 22% stay away because they think it’s bad or not right for their age group.

Advertising:

• About 8 in 10 Facebook users surveyed say they hardly ever (26%) or never (57%) click on online advertising or sponsored content when using the site.
• Most (54%) say they would not feel safe purchasing goods and services on Facebook. Among the site’s most frequent users, half say they would not feel safe making purchases through the site.

Trust:

• 59% of Facebook users do not trust the site with their personal information and have little or no faith in the company to protect their privacy. A slight minority (13%) trust the company completely or a lot.
• Just 18% of Americans have deep confidence in Zuckerberg’s ability to run a large publicly traded company like Facebook, another 40% say they are “somewhat confident.”
• About a third of the public (36%) has a favorable impression of the Facebook founder, while 14 percent hold an unfavorable opinion and 20 percent say they’ve never heard of him or don’t know how they feel.
• The Social Network filmgoers have a more favorable impression of Zuckerberg than others (51% favorable compared to 31% among those who have not seen it).

Facebook vs The World

Facebook as a whole scores a net positive favorability rating, with 51% holding favorable impressions of the company compared to 23% who have an unfavorable impression.

• 27% of those surveyed have a favorable impression of Twitter. 4% said they never heard of it.
• 71% favor Google
• 17% of those polled have a neutral opinion of Facebook

And my favorite stat:

• 2% have never heard of Facebook.

Need more information? CNBC has put together a whole Facebook-lolapalooza site with everything you ever wanted to know about the social media giant, its founder and its prospects for the future. Let’s just say that as of right now, everything’s coming up dollar signs for Zuckerberg and the gang.

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I only follow 126 people and I get a new tweet every minute. What about the people who follow 300 accounts? Keeping up is impossible.

(Cue the trumpeters) Announcing the new Twitter Email Digest!

The digest is broken into two parts. The top features the most Tweeted stories from your followers. Below that are the hottest Tweets according to your followers. Meaning, you may not follow the Tweetee but someone on your list does.

The good news here is that an email like this is easier to take in at a glance. If it works right, you’ll be up on the hottest stories flying around Twitter.

The bad news is that it’s more of a “discovery” digest than a summary digest. It feels like it’s designed to link you to new people instead of keeping you up on the top Tweets in your group. I haven’t seen one of the digests personalized with my Tweets yet, so it’s hard to gauge the usefulness.

If you want to try the new Twitter digest, just go to the Notifications tab in Settings and check the box. Oh, wait. Twitter already checked it for me. How nice of them.

Has Twitter delivered a new digest to your email box? I’d like to know what you thought of it. Is the content relevant or not worth your time?