Social Media Grows More Useful for Marketers, Users

Social media tools such as RSS, blogs and podcasts are becoming more popular than ever with users - and marketers - according to new research from Bluestreak.

The study is titled "Emerging Digital Channels: Consumer Adoption, Attitudes & Behavior" and surveyed consumer behavior and attitudes toward emerging technologies, eMarketer reports.

All respondents to the Bluestreak study said they use email, and 88 percent use text messaging; other forms of online communication were also popular. Some 71 percent of respondents said they use message boards, 63 percent read blogs, 38 percent listen to podcasts and 28 percent use RSS.

"Emerging technologies are offering marketers and consumers an increasing number of channels through which to communicate, although marketers are allocating budgets for multi-channel communication without a clear understanding of the effectiveness and desirability of each channel," Doug Anderson, president of Bluestreak, is quoted as saying.

Other highlights:

Text messaging was the only form of communication that most users did not want to see sponsored advertising on: 88 percent of respondents had a negative opinion of companies that sponsored advertising on text messages. Next were RSS feeds at 21 percent, message boards at 16 percent, podcasts at 14 percent and blogs at 12 percent.