Thursday, September 06, 2007

JupiterResearch Finds Viral Marketing Missteps Reach Epidemic Proportions

JupiterResearch Finds Viral Marketing Missteps Reach Epidemic Proportions

Business Wire via NewsEdge Corporation :

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 4, 2007--JupiterResearch, a leading authority on the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on business, reports viral marketing efforts have failed to effectively reach the mass audiences advertisers had anticipated. Despite the growing popularity of such social media sites as MySpace and You Tube, viral marketing campaigns are consistently proving ineffective in delivering and sustaining a brand over time, due mainly to misdirected tactics.

These findings are outlined in a new report published by JupiterResearch, "Viral Marketing: Bringing the Message to the Masses", and indicate only 15 percent achieved the goal of prompting consumers to promote their messages for them in the past year. Although targeting influentials was the most popular technique to stimulate viral behavior, viral marketers plan to decrease use of this tactic by 55 percent within the next year. While social media sites eliciting user generated content would seem to provide a perfect vehicle for viral marketing campaigns, those initiating the campaigns must dig deeper to understand the tendencies of the appropriate audiences.

"Viral marketers often send one campaign to all influentials," explained Emily Riley, Analyst at JupiterResearch. "Different influential groups not only respond very differently to advertising campaigns, but also influence others in very different ways."

Relatively older online users are actually more likely than are relatively younger users to forward advertising messages to friends or tell friends about ads. Although young audiences show increased use of social sites, relatively older audiences show increased use of e-mail, watch some video, and should be absolutely incorporated into viral marketing campaigns--especially because they are the traditional target audiences for brands or products.

"There are definitely pitfalls associated with the social networking sites. While these sites may appear to be the most effective manner of delivering a message regardless of brand appropriateness, by failing to truly understand the audience, viral marketers stand to alienate as many consumers as they interest," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. "Advertisers should be cognizant of the fact that attempts to reach outside their brand images or target demographics and only end up looking like they are trying too hard."

The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online at www.jupiterresearch.com. For details on JupiterResearch's methodology, visit www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/methodology or email press@jupiterresearch.com to request a detailed methodology statement. For additional information on this report or JupiterResearch's Social Marketing research service, visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service, at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupiterresearch.com.

About JupiterResearch

JupiterResearch provides unbiased research, analysis and advice, backed by proprietary data, to help companies profit from the impact of the Internet and emerging consumer technologies on their business. The company helps online businesses make critical decisions about technology selection, spending, staffing, and Web site effectiveness; advises consumer-facing companies with online advertising, marketing, and customer service strategies to understand, attract, convert and retain customers; and guides technology vendors and service providers on market opportunity, positioning, product definition, and pricing. JupiterResearch is headquartered in New York City and has offices throughout the US and Europe. For more information, visit www.jupiterresearch.com.

 

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MedHelp Touts Online Community

MedHelp Touts Online Community

Wireless News via NewsEdge Corporation :

MedHelp, an online health community connecting people and medical experts, said that it now provides more than four million people monthly with a way to research medical information, share experiences in more than 100 medical forums, and get questions answered daily by partnered doctors and specialists from 14 of America's leading medical institutions.

MedHelp enables consumers to seek health information and advice online as a complement to regular doctors' visits. The active community of millions of people consistently maintains their position among the top ten most-visited websites in the US in the health and medical information industry (Hitwise, June 2007). The health forums range in topic from allergies, cancer, child behavior, depression, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, nutrition, sexually transmitted diseases and urology.

MedHelp said that its momentum proves more and more people are going online to manage their health. Over the last two years, the number of people who have used the Internet to search for health-related information has increased from 53 percent in 2005 to 71 percent in 2007. This brings the number of all U.S. adults who have ever searched for health information online to 160 million, from 136 million in 2006 and 117 million in 2005 -- a 37 percent increase over two years (Harris Poll, July 31,). MedHelp provides a place for people to share stories and advice in an anonymous forum, if they choose.

"We're focused on providing our robust and active community with a comprehensive and helpful resource for patients to take control of their health concerns as well as providing a support system for those who seek health information and advice outside of the doctor's office," said MedHelp CEO, John de Souza. "As our partner network continues to expand, so does the wealth of expertise and information our members can tap into."

Below is a list of a few of the elite specialists currently working with MedHelp (a full list of affiliated doctors and specialists can be found at http://www.medhelp.org/physician_profiles.htm):

-- Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.

- The Ovarian Cancer Forum - Associate Professor OBGYN and Reproductive Biology Harvard Medical School.

-- H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.

- Senior Research leader, Battelle Seattle Research Center - STD Forum, HIV Forum

-- David L. Keefe, M.D.

- Professor and Chairman of OBGYN of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery - USF College of Medicine

-- Ash Tewari, M.D.

- Associate Professor - Urology and Public Health Director Cornell Weill Medical School

-- David Tinkelman, M.D.

- Vice President National Jewish Medical and Research Center - Respiratory Disorder Forum

-- Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D.

- Clarence Shrag Professor of Sociology University of Washington - Sexuality & Relationships Forum

In addition to leading specialists, MedHelp noted that it is affiliated with many top-rated hospitals and medical centers, including (a full list of hospital affiliations can be found at http://www.medhelp.org/medical_partners.htm):

-- American Academy of Ophthalmologists - Eye Care Forum

-- National Jewish Medical & Research Center - Asthma & Allergy Forum - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) Forum - Respiratory Disorders Forum

-- Cleveland Clinic Foundation - Breast Cancer Forum - Heart Forum - Neurology & Neurosurgery Forum

-- Partners Healthcare - Ovarian Cancer Forum

-- Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation - Type I Diabetes Forum

-- Partners Healthcare (Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital) - Gynecology Forum - Ovarian Cancer Forum - Pregnancy Forum

-- University of South Florida - Pregnancy Forum - Fertility Forum - Urogynecology Forum

((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com))

((Distributed on behalf of 10Meters via M2 Communications Ltd - http://www.m2.com)) ((10Meters - http://www.10meters.com))

<<Wireless News -- 09/03/07>>

 

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Bayer Web site promotes 12,000-patient aspirin clinical trial

Bayer Web site promotes 12,000-patient aspirin clinical trial

 

Bayer has launched a Web site to educate researchers and clinicians about one of the largest-ever clinical studies conducted in a population at moderate risk of initial cardiovascular disease events. Bayer's ARRIVE (Aspirin to Reduce Risk of Initial Vascular Events) trial will study use of aspirin for primary prevention of events associated with cardiovascular disease. According to the site, www.Arrive-study.com, the trial will study about 12,000 patients at 400 study sites in five countries: Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The site includes information about the trial and eligibility criteria and also about aspirin and cardiovascular disease. In addition, there are ARRIVE resources such as links, conference slides, and video of key opinion leaders and discussion from the 2007 ARRIVE Symposium.

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Nielsen to measure, syndicate healthcare professional Web site usage

Nielsen to measure, syndicate healthcare professional Web site usage

Starting this fall, Nielsen will begin measuring professional healthcare Web sites in an effort to compare which sites healthcare professionals visit, how often, and for how long. The NielsenHealth initiative will combine Nielsen//NetRatings with PERQ/HCI, which reports on advertising in healthcare journals, to create a new standard for measuring healthcare professionals' activity online. Users will be able to view detailed information for individual health-related sites and across entire healthcare specialties. Results will be delivered online through the Nielsen//NetRatings Market Intelligence service. Metrics will include unique browsers, page impressions, average page and session duration, reach among measured sites, frequency of visits, and audience duplication across sites. Data capture began September 1, and data will be available to subscribing agencies, healthcare manufacturers, and media companies in the fourth quarter.

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WSJ: Rogue Wikipedia edits coming from Abbott Labs computer?

WSJ: Rogue Wikipedia edits coming from Abbott Labs computer?

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Health Blog is reporting that someone from a computer at Abbott Labs removed a reference to a study linking Humira to increased cancer risk from the company's Wikipedia entry. The phantom editor also removed a link to a site that recruits patients for attorneys, according to the report. However, within two minutes, the information was put back into the entry by a "recent changes patroller." An Abbott spokesperson told WSJ that the company does make edits to Wikipedia, but only to correct factual errors and identifies itself when it does. The company is looking into the mystery edits. WSJ's blog entry also includes information about the site WikiScanner, which, according to the site itself, lists "anonymous Wikipedia edits from interesting organizations."

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