According to a recent study, 88 percent of marketers say they use social media to market their businesses. The study, by Michael Stelzner for the Social Media Success Summit 2009, found that even though marketers are using social media, they don’t necessarily know its benefits — 72 percent of those using it say they have only done so for a few months or less. Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn proved most popular with 86 percent, 79 percent and 78 percent using each respectively.
Source: Social Media Marketing Industry Report, March 2009

Want fries with that? A recent Technomic study suggests that consumers associate the following words with fried foods: “tasty” (89 percent), “satisfying” (86 percent), “filling” (83 percent), “something I crave” (80 percent), “comforting” (77 percent) and “good value” (71 percent). Despite these positive connotations, many consumers identified themselves as “Fried Food Curtailers” or “Fried Food Avoiders.”
Source: Technomic Inc.

The economic downturn may have consumers thinking more carefully about how and why they spend their money, but that doesn’t mean they have stopped shopping. GfK Custom Research North America, New York, and the Hartman Group, Bellevue, Wash., teamed up to research consumer attitudes toward shopping.  To date, researchers have found that shoppers are shifting their habits but are still spending. Explains Michelle Barry, SVP of The Hartman Group, "We expected we'd find consumers a little beat up or desperate. But so far, we're seeing that consumers have a tremendous amount of optimism and resilience about their own situations. They may be spending less in certain categories, but they have not given up on their lifestyles.”
Source: Marketing Daily, MediaPost Publications