The survey, carried out on Google’s behalf by the Ipsos Mori research company, revealed that usage in the UK rose from 30% to 45% during this ten-month period; whilst usage in the US and France rose from 31% to 38%, and 27% to 38% respectively; and usage in Japan and Germany rose from 6% to 17%, and from 18% to 23% respectively.

The survey found that among smartphone users, accessing the internet on a daily basis was a very common activity; with 54% doing so in the UK. The country with the highest percentage of smartphone users accessing the web on a daily basis was Japan with 88%.

The survey also found however that, across the five countries, smartphone users had not abandoned their laptop or desktop computers; with general usage of the latter devices remaining more or less constant; and with approximately the same percentage of users accessing the internet via PCs as via smartphones.

Another interesting finding from the survey was the fact that, across all five countries, smartphone users were around 50% more likely than non-users to own a tablet.

Looking at actual tablet usage, the survey found that that this had grown among UK consumers from 4% to 6%; whilst in the US it stood at 11%.

The survey, which sought the views of 500 senior executives across businesses and their agencies, identified an intention to increase digital marketing spend in 2012 among 68% of company representatives; and among 75% of agency respondents on behalf of their clients.

The survey further found that of those businesses planning to boost their digital marketing budget, 79% intended to increase this spend by as much as 10%.

69% of businesses, meanwhile, said they anticipated increasing their outlay on marketing using social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook; whilst 57% revealed that they planned to up their investment in mobile marketing initiatives, including apps, quick response (QR) codes, and m-commerce.

Interestingly, 55% of respondents claimed a ‘good’ or ‘very good’ understanding of how to analyse the effectiveness of digital campaigns; against a total of 44% who expressed the same confidence in measuring the success of campaigns across traditional platforms.

This latter data could, it is argued, be taken as evidence of the greater transparency of digital marketing devices such as pay per click (PPC) over measurement techniques used for traditional media.

The survey also revealed that the predicted growth in digital spend would be very much at the expense of that on more traditional media: just 45% of business executives anticipated increasing marketing spend across the board this year; whilst only 16% said they would be increasing their spend on non-internet related marketing.

The survey, the 2012 Digital Influence Index, carried out by research organisation, Harris Interactive, looked at internet usage across nine countries, including the UK, the US, China, Germany and Japan.

In some countries, such as the US, the internet shared the same level of influence as family and friends. In others, however, such as China, whilst many respondents consulted both sources for information, the overall leaning was found to favour the internet: 79% against 70% in China specifically; and 79% against 60% in India.

The survey also found that 42% of respondents have chosen to follow either a brand or a friend on a social media site; with 79% claiming their reason for doing was to understand more about the brand.

Among the social media sites chosen to obtain brand or product details, Facebook was accessed for this purpose by almost 20% of those surveyed.

In terms of how consumers access the internet, the survey identified a shift away from desktop PCs and laptops; with around 66% of respondents using a mobile phone or smartphone to go online for information on at least three or four occasions each week.

One other significant finding from the survey was that search engines were used by 89% of respondents when making purchasing decisions.

Today proved no different, as the Guardian Secret Footballer tweeted photos of a letter sent by the Football Association in regards to its social media policy. Yes, just like your own workplace has rules in place to ensure the company is not brought into disrepute, so does the FA.

To take a leaf from the Letters of Note Twitter account, here’s a transcription:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re: Social Networking websites

Further to my letter dated 20th January 2011, I am writing in relation to the use of social networking websites by Participants.

The FA has seen an increase in the number of complaints and referrals it has received in relation to postings on sites such as Twitter. You will appreciate that this is of concern to The FA and we would ask that you remind all Participants at your club, with particular reference to all players, of the following key points.

- All comments on social networking sites may be considered public comment by The FA

- Any comments which are improper, bring the game into disrepute or are threatening, abusive, indecent or insulting may lead to disciplinary action

- Comments about match officials which imply bias, attack the officials’ integrity or are overtly personal in nature are considered improper

- Comments which include a reference to a person’s ethnic origin, colour, race, nationality, faith, gender, sexual orientation or disability may be considered aggravated and attract a high disciplinary sanction

- Re-Tweeting another person’s post may lead to disciplinary action if the original comment was improper

- Deleting or apologising publicly for an improper posting, whilst advisable, does not prevent disciplinary action being taken

- An individual is strictly responsible for any posting on his/her account. Participants should take every care to ensure that others do not access their account, as the fact that a posting or comment may have been made by a third party will not prevent disciplinary action being taken against the account holder

Participants are required to act in the best interest of the game at all times and should be aware that theirs postings on social networking sites are likely to be subject to public and media scrutiny.

Whilst we are conscious that the use of social networking sites can be positive we must advise that Participants exercise caution with the content of any postings.

If you have any queries in relation to this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours faithfully,

Jenni Kennedy

Head of Off-Field Football Regulation

Those who follow football players on Twitter will no doubt be aware of the Joey Barton Twitter account, which has landed the temperamental star plenty of criticism in the past. The FA’s letter comes in the wake of Barton’s recent revelation he receives regular warnings to curb his Twitter behaviour, particularly when it comes to predicting match results.

He said: “According to the FA, I am not allowed to give my opinion of possible results in case that is seen as insider information. These people are so out of touch with reality it’s untrue.”

As you do (as an SEO) when a new popular site launches; I dug around a little bit to see what was working and what wasn’t, and came across the below.

They’ve migrated some of their URLs over to a new structure (news.bbc.co.uk/sport1 to www.bbc.co.uk/sport), but they’ve not redirected some of their old content pages – most noticibly the ones for the Olympic Games which are happening this year.

The above shows the URL for www.bbc.co.uk/olympics ranking for “Olympics” searches in Google. The URL shown redirects to another (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympic_games/default.stm), which was seemingly the main URL being used for the Olympics content prior to the website relaunch. When visited, the URL shows the following:

The relaunch has now moved the Olympics section to http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/2012/ – however no redirects are currently in place to this.

They should probably look at sorting that, considering the Olympics is somewhat of an important news event this year.

The retailer, MyTuxedo.co.uk, says that traffic on its UK site website increased by 81% as a result of its SEO activity; whilst its revenue from sales also grew, by 81%.

At the same time, visits to the retailer’s Dutch and German websites also benefited from the SEO drive; growing by 71% and 85% respectively.

MyTuxedo.co.uk decided to deploy its SEO strategy last year, following the expansion of the company’s activities into Europe.

The SEO activity took place between February and July 2011, and was also supported by a discount scheme for Student Union members; the creation of a social calendar that included SEO-related key words; and the incorporation on the company’s website of search engine trigger-rich copy.

Commenting on the scheme, Tim Grimaldi, director of MyTuxedo.co.uk, said that it had

‘delivered great results as well as adding considerable value’.

MyTuxedo.co.uk is understood to have sought advice from a professional SEO agency in order to maximise the impact of its SEO efforts.

The strategy of seeking specialist advice on matters of SEO and web analytics is one that is being followed by a growing number of companies.

This is because of the difficulty in intuitively identifying the best ways of using keywords to help place corporate websites towards the top of search engine results pages.

The report, from the Boston Consulting Group, in conjunction with major search engine giant, Google, says the growth in the internet economy will be largely fuelled by the expected increase in mobile internet capability.

According to the report, first-time internet take-up is currently being secured by around 200 million people each year. The report estimates that this will lead to almost half the world’s population – three billion people – being online by 2016.

Access via a mobile handset, the report says, will account for 80% of internet users across the globe. The relatively low price of such smartphones is identified as being one of the main factors behind this anticipated growth.

The UK, the report says, is currently one of the leading countries for e-commerce. It will be the emerging economies, however, which are predicted by the report to experience the biggest rises in internet take-up by 2016.

China, for example, it says, will have 800 million web users – more than the USA, UK, France, Germany, and India combined.

The report also anticipates increased interactivity between businesses and customers through the internet; and the development of the ‘internet of things’, whereby inanimate devices such as cars and radiators are linked to the web.

Lord Leveson said that he viewed social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter merely as host sites for conversations between private individuals, rather than as platforms for news.

‘I think’, Leveson said, ‘that I might see there is a distinction between Facebook, where one person is communicating with their friends, or Twitter, and organisations that are in the business of selling themselves with reference to news or information.’

Leveson likened the material generated on social media sites to ‘pub chatter’; arguing that it was therefore distinguishable in terms of accountability from news reporting –

‘that which the state…all of us…has an interest in seeing as a level playing field’

It is not yet certain what, if any, regulations will be recommended for the UK printed and online press by the Leveson inquiry; but Lord Leveson’s stated opinion that social media should not be treated in the same way as newspapers or magazines may well be welcomed by representatives of sites such as Facebook and Twitter, in the light of submissions to the inquiry calling for greater control of the internet.

Among these latter submissions has been one from Harry Potter author JK Rowling, expressing concern that photographs of her children might currently be available on the internet without her approval.

Facebook is at pains, however, to point out that f-commerce is not the same as distance selling, but is rather what it sees as the creative exploitation of the unique power of social media.

Strategic partner manager with Facebook, Gavin Sathianathan, says that for his organisation:

“it’s really important we nail what we mean by “social commerce”’; adding that ‘at Facebook, we do not equate “social commerce” with opening a store within the network”.

Sathianathan explains that instead, social commerce or f-commerce is:

“about how we can bring social media to bear on the purchase process, be that in a Facebook store or not”.

A prime example given by Facebook of using the strengths of social media for marketing purposes is the incorporation of ‘like’ and ‘share’ buttons within their advertising clients’ own websites.

Facebook says it is also keen to help retailers re-think the most appropriate ways of promoting their goods whilst active in a social media environment. Sathianathan says that this often involves helping retailers see the ‘social aspects of their products’:

“For instance’, he says, ‘a can of baked beans may not be social but the meal you have with them could”.

Interestingly, Facebook’s emphasis on helping advertisers move beyond establishing a virtual storefront comes just as retailers John Lewis and Reiss are reported to have said that social media was not part of their marketing strategy this year.

The survey, carried out on Google’s behalf by the Ipsos Mori research company, revealed that usage in the UK rose from 30% to 45% during this ten-month period; whilst usage in the US and France rose from 31% to 38%, and 27% to 38% respectively; and usage in Japan and Germany rose from 6% to 17%, and from 18% to 23% respectively.

The survey found that among smartphone users, accessing the internet on a daily basis was a very common activity; with 54% doing so in the UK. The country with the highest percentage of smartphone users accessing the web on a daily basis was Japan with 88%.

The survey also found however that, across the five countries, smartphone users had not abandoned their laptop or desktop computers; with general usage of the latter devices remaining more or less constant; and with approximately the same percentage of users accessing the internet via PCs as via smartphones.

Another interesting finding from the survey was the fact that, across all five countries, smartphone users were around 50% more likely than non-users to own a tablet.

Looking at actual tablet usage, the survey found that that this had grown among UK consumers from 4% to 6%; whilst in the US it stood at 11%.