Promo - February 2009 - (Page 6)

www.promomagazine.com A Penton Media publication EDITORIAL PROMO Executive Editor Patricia Odell Senior Editor Amy Johannes Reporter Richard Tedesco B rian Q uinton / Editor-at- Large Editor’s note Editor-at-Large, Promo and Direct Brian Quinton DESIGN/PRODUCTION Art Director Jed Davis ADVERTISING Associate Publisher Bryan Benjamin bryan.benjamin@penton.com Account Executive Tim Lyons tim.lyons@penton.com Dir. of Mktg. Services/Classiﬁed Alan Steen alan.steen@penton.com Social But Sluggish A New Year’s resolution gets the cold shoulder It’s hard to be hip in Chicago in February. The city turns into a colony of down-filled panda bears sporting whatever earflapped and pom-pom-topped headgear promises to retain body heat. We swallow whole medicine cabinets of over-the-counter remedies for snow-shovel shoulder, icy-sidewalk keister, and whatever exotic strain of the flu was brewing in our elementary schools before Christmas. As I say, it’s tough to feel with it in winter in this place. So I was hoping to be let off the hook for a New Year’s resolution I made to friends to update my social network pages several times a week. See, I have the obligatory profile pages in Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. But I watch in amazement as my friends—who all have demanding jobs and full family lives—manage to keep their content up to date, posting new items to their feed just about daily. Meanwhile, I add something to my social profiles once every three months or so. (I like to think of it as a policy of seasonal updates.) Basically, I’m too old to do this stuff, I tell myself; I’m no teenager. And my friends need to grow out of it. But the Pew Internet & American Life Project says people my age—or at least out of teen age—are in fact the majority in social networks. Research it published last month found that 35% of adults now have a social profile page. That’s lower than the 65% of online teens who have a page, but since teens are way outnumbered by adults over 18, that finding actually means adults make up the bulk of the membership on social networks overall. I can take a little comfort in the age/usage stats among that “adult” crowd. Pew found that 75% of 18- to 24-year-old adults who’re online have a social net page, as do 57% of those age 25 to 34. The figure falls to 30% for 35- to 44-year-olds, and drops further to 19% for 45- to 54-year-olds. Ten percent of those age 55 to 64 have a profile on at least one social network, and 7% of online adults 65 and older do too. Granted, simply having a page doesn’t qualify one as an “active” network user. Among the adults polled by Pew, 37% said they visited social networking sites daily. Twenty-three percent logged in every few days, and 155 reported checking the social nets once a week. About 23% copped to showing up less often than that. Those are my people. How come I can’t make any Facebook friends among those sluggards? Looks like it’s time to get off my icebound aspirations and start updating P my pages. l 6 Resource Sales Associate Cynthia Foristel cynthia.foristel@penton.com Resource Sales Associate Karen Putrimas karen.putrimas@penton.com Online Sales Development Director Rob Shore rob.shore@penton.com Production Manager Brenda Wiley brenda.wiley@penton.com Classiﬁed Production Coordinator Lindsey Sutton lindsey.sutton@penton.com P E N TO N M A R K E T I N G M E D I A S T R AT E G I E S Senior Vice President, Penton Media Financial Services and Marketing Group Warren N. Bimblick Publisher Leslie Bacon Group Editorial Director Ray Schultz Group Copy Chief Charles Vietri Group Research Editor Richard H. Levey Audience Marketing Manager Seth Olson Show Director Angela Eastin READER INFO Editorial e-mailbox: promo.mag@penton.com Subscriber Service: (866)505-7173 (toll-free in the U.S.); (847)763-9504 (for calls originating outside the U.S.) Reprints: reprints@pentonreprints.com or (888)858-8851 List Rental: Marie.Briganti@walterkarl.infousa.com EDITORIAL OFFICES 11 Riverbend Drive South Stamford, CT 06907-0225 Phone (203) 358-9900 Fax (203) 358-5834 ADVERTISING 249 West 17th Street New York, NY 10011-5300 Phone (212) 462-3580 Fax: (212) 683-4572 Chief Executive Oﬃcer Sharon Rowlands sharon.rowlands@penton.com Chief Financial Oﬃcer/Executive Vice President Jean Clifton jean.clifton@penton.com Chief Revenue Oﬃcer Darrell Denny darrell.denny@penton.com Vice President, General Counsel Elise Zealand elise.zealand@penton.com Reprints: Contact Penton Reprints (www.pentonreprints .com) to purchase quality custom reprints or e-prints of articles appearing in PROMO at (888) 858-8851 or reprints@pentonreprints.com. Instant reprints and permissions may be purchased directly from our Web site; look for the iCopyright tag appended to the end of each online article. Portions of our magazine subscriber lists are available to carefully screened companies that oﬀer products and services directly related to the industries we cover. Any subscriber who does not want to receive mailings from third-party companies should contact the subscriber service department at (800) 441-0294 (USA), or (913) 967-1707 (outside USA). ©2009 Penton Media. All Rights Reserved February 2009 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.promomagazine.com http://www.pentonreprints.com http://www.pentonreprints.com http://www.promomagazine.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - February 2009

Promo - February 2009 Contents Editor's Note A Bitter Pill Moving the Pictures Exclusively Yours Smart Mart Web Watching Tell Your Friends Commentary Second String Q&A: Shop Right Cover Story: Game On! Game On! Resource Center The Agency Center Testing... Testing... Index of Advertisers

Promo - February 2009

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