For the past year, I’ve repeatedly heard how newspapers are losing their subscribers and advertisers, but a new study makes it seem like newspaper readership isn’t as bleak a situation as it seems.

Scarborough Research found that 74% of US adults (or nearly 171 million people) read a newspaper, in print or online, during the past week. The study also found that newspaper readers are still affluent (82% of newspaper readers had a household income of $100,000 or more) and educated (84% of readers are college grads or have advanced degrees).

John F. Sturm, president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, concludes that “For media buyers, analysts and others who evaluate the health of newspapers and the value of (the) medium’s advertising, audience is a far more meaningful way to measure newspapers’ ability to attract a growing audience across multiple platforms… (and) this data… also provides further evidence that newspapers reach a highly educated, affluent audience.”

Many publications realized years ago that they needed to change with the times. To do so, these papers added a multimedia department and began utilizing online editions. I personally rarely read the print edition of our local paper, but read have read the online edition everyday for years. The publications that are refusing to innovate are the ones that will be left behind, but from the study mentioned above, it’s obvious the papers with multiple formats are still doing pretty good!

I begrudingly got on Twitter for work, and now I am quite addicted. I use my account to send updates on local news, news of the weird, PR/marketing news and a little of everything in between. I often promote local events that I support, but sometimes I do tweet news and events for clients. I think this is logical and fair, but what if I was really getting paid to distribute these messages?

This is now a common practice for many big-name twitterers and bloggers. A New York Times article on this subject gave an example of someone doing just this.

Tuesday was another typical day for John Chow, blogger and Internet entrepreneur in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Chow treated his 50,000 Twitter followers to a photograph of his lunch (barbecued chicken and French fries), discussed the weather in Vancouver and linked to a new post on his Internet business blog.

Then he earned $200 by telling his fans where they could buy M&M’s with customized faces, messages and colors.

Mr. Chow is among a growing group of celebrities, bloggers and regular Internet users who are allowing advertisers to send commercial messages to their personal contacts on social networks. For the last month, he has used the services of Ad.ly, a start-up based in Los Angeles, and Izea, based in Orlando, Fla., to periodically surrender his Twitter stream to the likes of Charter Communications, the Make a Wish Foundation and an online seminar about working from home.

In October, Mr. Chow’s income from Twitter ads was around $3,000. “I get paid for pushing a button,” he said.

This whole concept is based on the idea that people trust recommendations from friends (research findings about this subject can be found here), especially when they are not paying attention to traditional advertising.

Advertisers are also going to pay people to refer buyers to sites like Amazon.com and use advertising messages in their regular conversations on social networks.

A company called Sponsored Tweets says that big name celebrities can earn up to $10,000 for sending one tweet! Other twitters that may not be big superstars may be superstars in their own circles, like a social media expert in the marketing world or a fitness guru in the health world.

This practice is now blurring the lines because is the tweet your friend sent about an awesome Guitar Hero game really his post, or is it a paid ad? And what does this do to a person’s credibility when it’s revealed that they’re actually getting paid to plug a product or service? Some companies in this industry are getting their post-ers to disclose their paid tweets with hashtags like #ad or #sponsor.

Would you unfollow a friend if they started posting sponsored tweets? If I could make a few thousand dollars from tweeting about a product that I GENUINELY liked, I’d do it in a second.

I recently blogged about a New York Times article on text message marketing, and I think this is a highly effective way to reach customers in this world of overstimulation. Now, a study has come out regarding “mobile marketing.” I guess this relates to mobile ads more than text marketing, but the article doesn’t exactly smell out their definition of the terms used.

Here are some of the findings:

• 58% of mobile-marketing’s users are men
• The average age of the mobile-marketing audience is 39.2
• 38% of mobile marketing users “regularly” use Facebook, 23% use MySpace and 13% are regular users of Twitter
• 67% of mobile marketing users don’t like text ads (vs. 64% last year), 60% don’t like voicemail ads (up from 57%) and 60% don’t like video ads (up from 56%)
• 52% say mobile marketing is an invasion of privacy and 58% say marketers must get permission before sending mobile ads.

I have to admit that I haven’t really seen any mobile ads first hand. I do remember Colleen signed up to win tickets to a concert at the Coliseum and started receiving ads from them, but I have not experienced unsolicited ads firsthand. Have you received a mobile marketing message that you never solicited?

When I begin to think that Google can’t possibly top themselves, they do. Last week, Google announced that they’re giving airport travelers free wifi for the rest of the year for the holidays.

Forty seven airports across the US will reap the benefits of Google’s virtual generosity. When asked why they’re doing it, Google responded, “With some travelers spending more time on the ground in airports than on planes during the busy flying season, now seemed an especially fitting time to offer up the perk.”

The truth be told-they actually want you to try other Google products, but Google-we already love you!

I’m sure Charleston isn’t on the list, but hope that Memphis and Atlanta are included because I have a 2-city layover coming back from Dallas!

I read a great article detailing the different ways of using social media in business. From creating a community to Twitter and viral videos, this article describes a few good case studies on the positive impact of social media campaigns. Another element discusses how to involve customers in product design and customer service.

Here’s an excerpt:

How can you add value and create customer loyalty if you don’t even control your product design process? Threadless, an online T-shirt store operated by the Chicago-based skinnyCorp, has found the secret to that, selling more than a million T-shirts a year, none of which were designed by the staff. All the designs are submitted and evaluated by the community of users on its website. Hundreds of artists submit their designs, and users vote on them. Every week, the best designs are selected for printing, and the winning designers get $2,000 in cash, $500 in gift certificates, and another $500 for every reprint. According to some reports, the company generates more than $30 million in revenue and $10 million in profits.

Touchpoint Communications recently responded to a lead requesting money saving tips for entrepreneurs, and we just found out one of our tips was picked up by AOL Small Business! The article, “Entrepreneurs’ Best Money-Saving Secrets,” published yesterday.

Here’s Touchpoint’s tip:

6. Give e-learning a try. “For a couple hundred bucks, or sometimes no money at all, we can get schooled on new techniques without leaving our desks for professional development. We saved thousands last year.”
- Colleen Troy, owner, Touchpoint Communications

We’ve also been practicing some of the other great tips in this article, including getting our green on (#8),reusing old items (#9), and our favorite, using social media to create buzz (#15)!

Thanks AOL Small Business!

I prepared a presentation on social media last week and had to research statistics on social media. This proved to be a dubious task since these numbers are constantly changing, but I did come across an interesting tidbit that relates to businesses using social media.

A recent study found that 48% of people who saw a brand’s name on Twitter went to a search engine to look for the product; where as, 34% did some on other social networks. What does this infer? Brands may have better luck marketing their product to consumers via Twitter.

Other findings include:

• 30% admitted to learning about a product, service or brand on a social network site.
• 27% say they remain receptive to receiving invitations for events, special offers or promotions from advertisers through the sites
• 25% admit to going directly to an online retailer or ecommerce site after learning about a product or service on Facebook, Twitter or another social site
• 44% of people have recommended a product on Twitter and 39% have discussed a product on Twitter
• 46% of respondents say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook
• 32% say that’s a message they listen to loud and clear to printable coupons, sales and special deal notifications follow at 28%; offers to win points for online currency at 23%; and sweepstakes participation at 21%

What is the take-away? Social networking CAN be effective for business because consumers DO want to hear about brands!