Interview by Sue MacDonald, Research Manager, Online Division
In a difficult economy of rising unemployment, struggling newspapers and advertising agency cutbacks, Alexa Robinson graduated this year from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill with a degree in… journalism and advertising. But she wound up finding a position that carried an entirely new job title — one that didn’t even exist when she started at UNC — “Twintern.”
As Pizza Hut’s first-ever Twitter intern (Twitter + intern, hence, “Twintern”), the 22-year-old Greensboro NC native has been on the job in Dallas since late …

The notion that teens are too busy texting and Twittering to be engaged with traditional media is exciting, but false. To develop the best strategy around teens and media, start by challenging popular assumptions about teens.

David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research / Sue MacDonald, Research Manager
You’ve probably heard of the Morgan Stanley report that declares “teenagers do not use Twitter,” based on a sample size of one 15 year-old intern named Matthew Robson. Morgan Stanley rightfully disclosed that they do not claim that his study is representational or merits statistical accuracy, so we thought we could provide both with our NetRatings panel of 250,000 U.S. Internet users.
Twitter’s footprint has expanded impressively in the first half of 2009, reaching 10.7 percent of all active Internet users …

Charles Buchwalter, Senior Vice President, Research & Analytics
There has been much talk in the Internet industry around the importance of the “long tail” (niche content and service-oriented sites) and how consumers gravitate to it. The central concept is that people tend to be most engaged in content that is core to their specific interests, rather than more generalized content.
Looking at our newly expanded panel that includes more than 30,000 sites, we have found that short tail sites (those with a greater than 1 percent reach) remain the most engaging …

Anticipatory buzz around the release of the latest model of the iPhone most likely helped Apple secure the top traffic spot among hardware manufacturers in May 2009. The site drew 55.7 million unique viewers, more than double that of Hewlett Packard which attracted more than 21 million visitors.

Hardware Manufacturer Destinations: May 2009*

Rank
Brand
Unique Audience
(000)

1
Apple
55,716

2
Hewlett Packard
21,294

3
Dell
16,826

4
Sun Microsystems
3,410

5
Nintendo
2,212

6
XBOX
2,212

7
Gateway
1,847

8
MagicJack
1,812

9
Intel
1,648

10
IBM
1,606

Source: The Nielsen Company
*U.S. Home and Work

In June, anticipation of the new iPhone 3G S sent blog mentions up 1,226 percent week-overweek on June 8, the day of the announcement. After the initial …

Nic Covey, director of insights for The Nielsen Company posed the question at the annual What Teens Want Conference. Experts from Brandweek, Marvel Comics, The Hollywood Reporter, and Microsoft’s Massive discussed texting, gaming, comic books, movies and more. Learn more about Nielsen’s research on teen media habits in the just-released How Teens Use Media report.

It’s 2009: Do you know where your kids are?
They might be on the Internet, or gaming or texting… but they could also be be watching live TV, listening to the radio or reading a newspaper. At the annual What Teens Want conference in New York, The Nielsen Company presented How Teens Use Media, which argues once you look past the hype – American teens are not as alien in their media usage as you might expect. Sure, it might sound hip and trendy to suggest they’re too busy texting, Twittering …

What does a “Day in the Life” of a technologically savvy mom look like?
Nielsen Online recently hosted a webinar (listen and follow along below) focused on Power Moms based on the recently launched “Power Moms Initiative” in conjunction with Nielsen Life360. The goal was to get a more intimate view of moms’ use of digital tools through groundbreaking video ethnographic research. As part of the study, a select group of women from around the country revealed how they use their “digital toolkits” to juggle careers, manage demanding family schedules, streamline …

Memorial Day, Star Trek and President Obama topped Nielsen’s monthly index of most blogged news stories for May 2009, according to the just released top 10 most-blogged topics report.
Conversations about Memorial Day ranged from the hottest retail sales during the holiday to plans for the weekend. So what were bloggers doing? Maybe they were at the movies. Two of the top 10 topics in May were the new movie releases, Star Trek and Terminator Salvation.

Political figures were also widely discussed in May, with Barack Obama being the No. 3 most …

Dave Osborn, SVP, Product Leadership, Nielsen Online
Recently, there’s been a fair amount of buzz about supposedly new and revolutionary ways to measure audiences online. Just this week, a press release from a competitor promised that their new “hybrid” methodology (panel + census) will provide “a comprehensive accounting of the complete digital media universe.”
The Nielsen Company has long believed that using panel and  census data – the best of both worlds – is a great way to measure the Web, especially in the increasingly layered, three-screen world. In fact, …