I make it a habit to subscribe to as many various email distribution lists as possible — not because I like having my inbox full, but because I like to see what type of new, interesting, groundbreaking content people are using in their email programs.

Unfortunately, I’m rarely impressed.

One of the most solid email programs (this has been well-documented) over the past few years has been that of the Obama political organization (now called Organizing for America.)

I’m not an OFA supporter (I’m a Republican and do not endorse the actual material being sent out by OFA) — but one of the reasons they are so successful is the simple, succinct emails they deploy.  Please click on the graphic to the right to see what I mean.

All too often, political campaigns send out emails with large headers that fill up my preview screen with a goofy picture of the candidate.  Many times, pol

itical campaigns fill up their emails with too much content and too many pictures.

As you’ll notice from the OFA email I received last night, their email template is simple.  Light on graphics. Light on content.  Clear call to action.

That’s the way it should be done.  In the case of email marketing, less is more.

Well, the Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new study today that backs me up.

In summary, this report, Older Adults and Social Media, finds:

• Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled—from 22% to 42% over the past year.
• Half (47%) of internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.
• One in ten (11%) online adults ages 50-64 and one in twenty (5%) online adults ages 65 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.
• Email and online news are still more appealing to older users, but social media sites attract many repeat visitors.

The important thing to realize is that email remains king with this older demographic.  Overall, 92% of those ages 50-64 and 89% of those ages 65 and older send or read email and more than half of each group exchanges email messages on a typical day.

What this means is that a balanced communications program is vital to reaching older Americans — one that relies on email as a foundation, but doesn’t ignore social networking sites.

The amount of older adults on these sites has absolutely exploded during the past 12 months — and will no doubt continue to do so in the months and weeks to come.  Are you tailoring your communications plan to reach this demographic?

In fact, freelancers or employees who have handled social media as part of their position are now being relieved by full time employees or social media consultants — but the transition is taking time.

Only 9% of surveyed organizations have full-time positions dedicated to managing social media responsibilities, while 90% include those as part of someone’s overall responsibilities, according to a survey by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42.

Why would social media be deserving of a full time employee?  The reasons are numerous.

Full time social media consultants can deal with customer complaints, expand social media horizons — but most importantly, boost sales.

When it comes to expanding social media to reach more people, Ashley DiVeronica proved her worth at TransMedia Group.  ”The biggest factor in creating my position as a full-time job – which is now a full-time department – came down to engagement,” she tells MarketingVOX. “I proved my case by taking two different clients, one with constant communication versus an account with little and sparse communication. The difference in followers/fans, retweets, questions, responses, and so on were staggering between the two. The more active each account was, the more the fan base and interaction rate would climb.”

This increased fan base and consumer interaction means increased sales and brings incredible value to companies engaged in social media.

The goal of any marketing campaign is to increase sales for a company — and the basis of their success or failure.  The correlation between social media marketing and sales is undeniable.  Bringing social media up to a level requiring full time engagement is essential to its success.  It’s the only way to fully utilize the potential found within.

So maybe its time to create a full time social media position and reap the rewards of increased sales and increased consumer interaction.  In the ever changing game of marketing, its the only way to remain successful.

Just take a look at comScore’s latest online video viewership report for July:

• Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube, ranked as the top online video content property with 143.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55.1 million viewers.
• Facebook jumped one position to capture the #3 spot with 46.6 million viewers.
• Of the 178 million U.S. Internet users who watched online video content during the month, also viewed nearly 3.6 billion video ads in July.
• Leading the pack with 783 million ad impressions was Hulu.
• Hulu was followed closely behind by the Tremor Media Video Network at 451.8 million, and the Brightroll Video Network at 248.4 million ad impressions.
• Online video ads reached 27 percent of the total U.S. population an average of 44.5 times during the month.

Online video is single-handedly changing how we get our news, weather, favorite shows, and entertainment. The advertising potential is enormous, and the impact is bigger still.

With 89% of Internet users consuming online video, it is essential to incorporate this valuable tool in your modern communications arsenal.

If you were to approach a New York Times writers desk, you would be guaranteed to find one thing — the AP Style guide.  This guide is the Bible of print media.  Grammar, punctuation, tone, structure — all laid out for the journalist to follow.  When printing presses ruled the day, it was the standard.

Now that the metamorphosis has taken place, Journalism’s standard must change too.

And that’s why Yahoo! has created the Yahoo! Style Guide, attempting to set the new standard for online journalism.

The standards set between print and the computer screen are vastly different and journalists will have to shed their old habits.

Unlike the AP Style Guide, which proclaims its standards like a stern 5th grade grammar instructor,  Yahoo’s guide is imbued with a keen consciousness of content users as well as content creators. One chapter is entitled “Identify Your Audience” and urges authors to study usage data, do online surveys and create profiles to adapt their content to readers.

The Yahoo! Style guide doesn’t just address grammar and tone, it is also focused to help those journalists still in their printing press cocoon.

For example, newspaper journalists like to use italics to convey everything from emphasis to irony. But as the guide points out, those italics don’t show up in online RSS feeds or search-engine results, so the reader may get a completely different impression from what the author intended.

Digital editors are advised to write and insert “alt text” when publishing photos.  If a reader is constrained by anything from a slow Internet connection to a visual impairment and unable to see the image, the text will still convey its content.

The main difference between the two guides is their goal and motives.  The AP guide — designed to set the standard was solely aimed at journalists.  The Yahoo! Guide addresses the fact that anyone can post stories on every corner of the Internet — the focus being marketing, rather than journalism.  Yahoo! lays out the standard for getting your content linked, read, and atop every search engine a potential reader may use.

The task at hand is building audiences for this new journalism standard.  Yahoo, without apology or complaint, embraces the view that online writers and editors are responsible for building and curating their audiences. At the same time, it asserts the need for editorial standards that will inspire trust in this new medium.  Elevating content creation to the level of craft benefits everyone on the Web.

It’s hard to say if the Yahoo! Style Guide will be as powerful as its predecessor in dictating standard online media and practice, but if you write or produce web content at all — it may be your ticket to bigger and better audience exception.  Whether you blog from your basement, or report for the Wall Street Journal, embracing this new standard will set you apart and might lead to success in this new digital age.

A recent survey by Exact Target might have an influence on your choice between Facebook and Twitter.

The survey found that Twitter is the way to go.  Active Twitter users are three times more likely to impact a brand’s online reputation via Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer.

The scope of a Twitter campaign can be massive — and according to the survey:

“Although Twitter’s active user base remains smaller than Facebook’s, these daily users are the most influential online consumers, and their conversations spill over into every other part of the Internet.  The conversations that take place on Twitter fuel discussions across all areas of the Internet — from blogs and forums to product reviews and coupon sites, which influence both Twitter and non-Twitter users alike.”

It comes down to the nature of Twitter users.  Everyone starts a Twitter account for mostly one reason, to influence their followers — and active users are three times more likely to publish content online, spreading the scope of your brand.

This need to influence drives tweets and their content to double Twitters active user base, increasing the impact of your campaign.

In order for your brand to take advantage of these unique twitter qualities, you have to have the followers who trust and love your product/brand.  This is no easy task, so you must subscribe directly to what the follower needs.  Twitter users follow brands for a myriad of reasons.  Updates on new products, discounts and special promotions, or access to exclusive content.

Gaining and keeping followers is hurdle number one — but once your base is established, prepare to expand beyond Twitter through re-tweets, reviews, and blog posts.

Your brands social media campaign can be successful, especially if you give Twitter a chance to do its special magic.  Make sure your followers see a benefit in following your brand, and they will reward you handsomely.

Similarly, an online marketing strategy cannot be built on Twitter or Facebook alone because they — like a hammer — are just tools. Without a content strategy, those tools don’t mean much.

For many, whether a small start up or a big brand their first venture into social media is the decision to create a Facebook page. They upload the company logo, post a few office photos, and write a status update from time to time.

Most of these same companies would not undertake any other marketing on a whim, but carefully craft their campaigns to target specific markets and plan their marketing strategies to the smallest detail. No company would want their marketing activities to be based on luck alone.

Creating and managing a page in such a cavalier manner, in hopes of becoming a hit on Facebook, is as likely to be effective as say standing at the side of the freeway and yelling to rush hour traffic about your products over the drone of passing cars. No one wants to listen, and if they did, they couldn’t hear you anyway.

In creating and managing an effective social media campaign you should identify your target audience and the platforms they already use. Demographic information is available for most of the major social networks, so there is really no reason not to target your social media activities to your audience.

If you plan how your grow your online following steadily by engaging with the right people, on the right platform, with the right content, you are more likely to get predictable results. Your social media strategy must detail your marketing aims and objectives. If you don’t have a social media strategy, how will you know when you have achieved your goals?

The first step of creating an effective social media strategy is to take an inventory of your organization’s content. It’s as simple as what you produce, or could be producing, on a regular basis. Things like:

• The obvious: Company announcements, press releases, marketing materials, company information.
• Events: Any special events that either your organization is putting on or that is related to your organization, that you can “live tweet”.
• News of the day: Comment on news of the day that is relevant to your organization or your mission.
• Your experts: Who are your organization’s experts and what they have to say about your mission, recent events, or news and world events.
• Human interest: Don’t overlook content about employees weddings, birth announcements, anniversaries, and other accomplishments. Your employees stories puts a human face on your company or organization.

Once you have considered and decided upon your content the next step is to decide what platform would be most effective for your company or organization. Click here to read our previous post in which we provide specific examples of how some companies and individuals are doing just that.

As your organization looks to delve into the world of social media take a good look at your overall content strategy. Without a solid message, the medium doesn’t really matter.

Which is great news for marketing strategist.  You can reach great numbers of people at low or no cost.  According to an eConsultancy study of 1,400 U.S. consumers, 42% said they prefer to receive ads for sales and specials via e-mail compared to just 3% who said the same for social-networking sites and 1% who preferred Twitter.

In an earlier post this week we talked about the potential for e-mail — but  its use alone only provides a one-way conversation from businesses to consumers.  When integrated with other social networks the potential for impact grows exponentially.

Nielsen revealed last week that email’s share of time declined 28%, putting it in third place, while social networking, the leader climbed 43%.  Despite these trends the reality is that email is stronger than ever before.

Savvy marketers are beginning to see that if they leverage all of their channels effectively, they can increase their overall sales and company exposure, and in the process establish a deeper bond with the customers and influencers.

Thanks to some new innovations — many companies are now building end-to-end “social CRM” tools that will help marketers manage their relationships by connecting their email-marketing and social-networking sites.

One example of this new wave of integration comes from the popular email newsletter platform, Mail Chimp.  They are in the process of integrating Facebook like buttons to campaigns.

So if it’s a question as to whether a business should use email, or social networking sites the answer is clear.  Its not one or the other, but rather both.

That open communication window is an important aspect of e-mail marketing — but it is limited in its scope.

Brian Solis, digital analyst, sociologist writes in a recent blog post:

“I’ve labeled email as the world’s largest untapped social network and even though many services attempted to socialize the inbox over the years, email, for the large part, remains regressive.”

The potential for e-mail is there, but its use alone only provides a one-way conversation from businesses to consumers.  When coalesced with other social networks, the potential for impact grows exponentially.

Total e-mail/social integration has become one of the best ways for a company to reach out and extend it’s network.  Including links to social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, allow recipients of the e-mail to begin a far more personal one-on-one relationship with a company.  As they click “like” or choose to “retweet” content, exposure jumps another level to their friends and friends friends and all their followers.

It turns out that many businesses are beginning to experiment with this type of integration.  eROI recently released a new report, “The Current State of Social, Mobile, and Email Integration,” which found that 66% of marketers included links to social profiles in their email campaigns.

Facebook leads the way for being most integrated, followed by Twitter and LinkedIn and several others.

At the end of the day, a social integration campaign is worthless without good content.

The mere presence of a company on Facebook or Twitter will not make them successful, unless their message is deemed worthy by its friends and followers to be passed along to others.

E-mail integration alone cannot save a poorly crafted marketing campaign, but if done right, can mean great reward in the long run.

What’s a marketer to do?  Go online, of course.

This week’s Chicago Tribune features several case studies of local businesses who are using a variety of online tools to boost their sales.  Local businesses can tailor their specials, coupons, and offerings to the public in their area quickly and effectively with the touch of a few buttons

For example, the Chicago Tribune highlights the Marion Street Cheese Market in Oak Park. It was featured on Groupon with an explosion of interest that started on Wednesday morning.

“It’s been a little overwhelming. Well, wonderfully overwhelming,” said Assistant General Manager Michelle Dirks

She thought it would be a good chance to offer existing customers discounts while trying to get a few new customers — but she didn’t expect the explosion of interest.

The Cheese Market was featured as a daily deal on Groupon.  You pay $20.00 and get a $40.00 gift certificate.  In order to qualify, at least 200 people needed to sign on.  They hit that mark at 7:05 am and surpassed 2,600 by 2:00 pm.

2,600 customers — talk about direct response!

Stores and retailers aren’t the only ones cashing in with social media.  The Unity Temple Restoration Foundation was featured on the site to try to get more people in for tours.  The foundation offered 50 percent off admission July 14th  and like the market the organizers were surprised with the results.  Hoping to surpass 200 tickets — they sold more than 1,300.

Kudos to the Tribune for featuring these success stories.  The economic downturn doesn’t have to mean the end of your marketing efforts.  Online tools offer a variety of low- or no-cost ways to boost your sales quickly.

A new study by Duke University and the American Marketing Association shows that businesses not only intend to increase their social media spending — they intend to double it.

According to the CMO survey, social media is expected to be 10% of all marketing budgets within one year and nearly 18% in five years.  That is up from the February 2010 level of 5.6%.

The different marketing sectors seem to be on par with social media spending, according to the study.  The B2B and B2C sectors of both products and services show steady growth across 5 years.  The largest spending increase in social media belongs to the B2C services companies — up 4%.  Over the next twelve months, the B2B services companies will nearly double spending from 6.5% to 11%.

The adjustment is already taking place for business all across the country.  The CMO survey also reports that hiring priorities have changed for the marketing department.  Surveyed for the top three most important skills, marketers chose Internet marketing, innovation/growth, and customer relationship management.

Companies aren’t just increasing the bankroll for social media, they are putting the people in place to take full advantage of the paradigm shift happening right now.  Companies that don’t adapt to this ever changing world will be left in the dust.

It appears, according to this MediaPost piece, that this political ad rule of thumb is set to rise:

This year’s political ad spending could be up between 5% and 10% from 2008 levels, spurred by the Supreme Court’s recent favorable ruling on corporate political spending. Although as much as 75% of political ad dollars are spent on local TV, more of it in the future will be diffused to online, mobile and other new media.

The slow, secular shift away from measured media to marketing services, TV’s gradual disintermediation by Internet-connected media, and the movement toward more a la carte, on-demand video are among the wild cards. All will play havoc with once predictable advertiser spending, even in election years, analysts say.

This shift tracks with the poll results we’re seeing that show media consumption among voters is increasingly fragmented.

While broadcast is still king — its rein is much more tenuous than it was even a year or two ago.  Voters are increasingly getting their news online, and our ability to hyper-target these voters makes online advertising an increasingly wise and effective investment.

A new report from 360i shows that most brands are coming up short in their attempts to utilize Twitter as a marketing tool.  But let’s be clear — it’s the brand’s use (or abuse) of the medium, rather than the medium itself, that is holding them back.

According to 360i, after a six month study, Twitter users barely know or care about brand presence on Twitter.  When brands tweet and try to communicate with their followers, it’s mostly a one-way conversation.  The study finds that only 1% of consumers who mention a brand in a tweet are in a conversation with that brand. The large majority of users’ tweets are on a personal level.  They tweet about seemingly mundane details of their lives, such as meals, plans, and get-togethers.  360i reports that 94% of tweets are personal, with 85% being original content that is not re-tweeted.  Instead of truly engaging and trying to become of this personal conversation, most brands have resorted using Twitter as a type of press release service.

“There is still a misperception that if brands show up, people will listen to them, kind of like Facebook a few years ago,” 360i Senior-VP Sarah Hofstetter told Advertising Age. “Twitter can be used as a promotional RSS feed, but that’s not going to establish a relationship with anybody.”

Modern communications isn’t simply about “eyeballs” anymore — it’s about engagement.  And those brands that choose to use Twitter as a press release service are simply living in the past.

On the other hands, those brands that are engaging best are seeing the true benefits of this communications tool.

What’s the best way for them to engage?  We’re fond of comparing Twitter to an “online cocktail reception.”

Why?  Have you ever walked into a cocktail party where you don’t know anybody and everybody seems to be already be engaged in familiar conversation?

What do you do?  Do you walk up to a stranger and start reciting your company’s latest press release?  Of course not.  You usually break into a conversation by making some small talk. Maybe you mention the weather, or the type of drink you’re consuming, or something about the drapes in the restaurant — let’s face it, small talk can be mundane.

But my point is that there are all these conversations going on, and you use some mundane, sometimes personal, detail to strike up conversation. Then that personal conversation may lead to a discussion of business, then an exchange of business cards, then perhaps a business deal.

So it goes with Twitter. Most “tweets” are people talking about what they’re watching on TV, or the kind of work day they had, or what food they’re cooking for dinner, or what they’re doing on their vacation. Those tweets can lead to conversations with other people who have the same interests. Sometimes — just like the cocktail party — that can lead to business.

So is Twitter merely a networking tool? Yes, but it’s much more.

• Frank Eliason was a customer service manager at Comcast who, in 2008, started Comcast’s first Twitter account: @comcastcares. A few years later, Frank was managing a full team of customer service “tweeters” and he tells us that (as of January 21, 2010) his team serviced a total of 160,000 people via social networking sites — more than 50,000 of them on Twitter. That’s just since February 2008. Frank’s team monitors Twitter to find out who is talking (or complaining) about Comcast and reaches out to them to help solve their problems. They also receive a good number of service requests by people who now know they will receive quick replies from Frank’s team via Twitter.

• Similar to Comcast, major brands monitor Twitter to find out who is a) Tweeting about their brands, b) Saying good things about their brands, and c) Who is complaining or “trashing” their brands. For example, according to a recent Forbes article (Daniel Adler, “Twenty-One Twitter Tips,” Forbes, July 31, 2009), there were 3.37 million mentions of “Starbucks” through May 2009. Starbucks follows those mentions like a hawk — using it as a real-time focus group.

• In Illinois, we have a fast food chain called “Culver’s” that has great burgers and custard. The local Culver’s franchise in my town has its own Twitter account (@culvers177) and provides daily tweets of their “flavor of the day.” Many times, these tweets are tempting enough to lure me and my family for dinner (or dessert.)

• In Los Angeles, the nightclub crowd is familiar with the “Kogi BBQ” mobile trucks that park outside the clubs late at night and sell Mexican tacos stuffed with Korean-style meat. The company has 52,000 Twitter followers and uses Twitter to send out alerts on the locations of its four mobile trucks. How successful is this marketing effort? The trucks regularly draw crowds in the hundreds — and they have been featured in publications ranging from the Los Angeles Times to the Wall Street Journal.

• K9Cuisine.com is an online purveyor of premium and organic dog food. They have a Twitter account managed by the company founder and president, Anthony Holloway (@k9cuisine). Anthony uses Twitter as a customer service tool — but also as a way to help answer questions and provide tips and advice to pet owners. Although they don’t overtly use it as a sales tool, Anthony tells us that Twitter is the third-largest source of traffic to the company Web site — very warm leads that could lead to hot sales.

So, you see, different organizations are using Twitter in different ways to communicate with their unique audiences.

The new report from 360i report may seem negative on Twitter on the surface.  But further reading shows that it’s the message, not the medium, that makes the difference between success and failure.

Women own an 80% share of household spending.  With the rise in online shopping and social networking, advertisers know they can reach most women online.

A recent study by Unicast shows that the top priority of women on the Internet this summer will be connecting with family and friends (76%).  About two-thirds of women also planned to keep up with the news and shop for sales.

Women were also polled as to which ads they would respond to most.  While surfing, 46% of women chose money saving offers like special discounts and promotion codes.  31% preferred entering contests for a chance to win prizes.  Location based, opinion sharing, and twitter feeds were also favoured.

With the economy imposing frugality on many American families, it is no surprise female consumers click when they see savings.

It is important for your business to take advantage of the current money saving mindset engaged in female consumerism.  It could make or break your summer, or possibly your year.

Most small businesses return to traditional advertising, such as the newspaper, Yellow Pages, and radio. But some businesses have forsaken these advertising staples all together, and created successful marketing campaigns online — for far less money.

Facebook and Twitter present a unique opportunity for small business owners. There are currently more than 1 million small business profiles on Facebook which reach out to millions of customers everyday.

Businesses with fewer than five employees “see Facebook and others as a way to reach targeted consumers” while saving marketing expenditures during a rough economy, says Darren Waddell, vice president of marketing at MerchantCircle.

According to the MerchantCircle report, “More than half of the nearly 10,000 respondents to the survey say they plan to create or maintain a social-networking presence in the next three months.”

Some businesses have found a degree of success with their online exposure.

John Swartz writes in USA Today, “Online sales at Southern Jewlz have doubled in six months since recent college grad Randa Yezak, 23, started using Twitter and e-commerce software. Her 2-year-old business also has 8,000 fans on Facebook.”

As with any success stories, we must add the tag “results are not typical.” HipChat, a group chat and messaging service for companies, reports that more than 90% of the 2,000 small businesses it works with use social media, but few have seen a business benefit.

Fact is, Facebook and Twitter offer a way to effectively communicate with consumers interested specifically in your product or services. Small businesses are the only way to steer our economy back on track, and a majority of them are now using social networking to do so.

Will you join them?

As epolitics.com reports:

Call it innovation, call it self-preservation, call it a traffic scheme, but the Baltimore Sun, one of the leading papers covering Maryland politics, has made the decision to offer a blog to every legally registered candidate running for office in the state of Maryland. The offer is bipartisan and covers both federal and state candidates.

Why do I love it? First, because I just like seeing traditional media try new things. If they fail, it’s entertaining (yes, I know it’s mean). If they succeed, we all benefit.

Second, I am going to watch to see which candidates take advantage of this opportunity and produce compelling content that actually moves their campaigns forward.

So there — you know what I think.

What do you think of this move by the Sun?

Yes … and no.

A survey conducted by PR network Oriella concludes that, for now, traditional media outlets are optimistic about maintaining current revenue levels.  The long-term outlook, however, is grim.

“When asked about the future of their respective publications, over half of those polled believe that these channels may well fold and be taken off the market. This is a sharp rise from last year, when only one in three journalists surveyed believed this would happen. Nearly one in six confirm this has already happened to their publication,” Oriella says in its report.

A transition to online media seems to be the only way to save some of these publications.  Many companies have already began the switch, incorporating subscription fees for online content or free web viewing for existing subscribers.

Mobile devices have also created a special niche for media to take advantage of.  As the ownership of smart-phones and tablets continues to grow, many traditional media outlets have started offering mobile apps to these on-the-move consumers.

Others have gone the way of additional online content such as journalist authored blogs and official twitter channels.

Traditional media’s readership and ad revenues are falling, forcing their hand into online media.  By splitting their revenue streams, print media can still provide the magazines and newspapers some love to handle.

A bright spot in the Oriella report, the journalists polled responded favourably to the overall quality of journalism since the inception of online media.  35% of those polled believe that journalism has gotten even better.

Traditional media is not dead — yet.

As competition pushes and pulls journalists to perform better and adjust to the online marketplace, rest assured that the flow of information from those who write to those who read will remain intact.  It just won’t take a trip to the news stand to get it.

Foursquare is a social networking platform that allows its users to “check-in” to virtually everything from restaurants to airports via their smart phone and 3G connection. Users can add tips and reviews, or even caution their friends away from an undesirable experience. When you check in, it is linked to Facebook and Twitter, so your friends can see where you are and possibly join you if in the area.

The ability to see your friends recent check-ins opens up a whole new realm of social networking. This new wave of “exploration networking” is allowing businesses to get valuable exposure to consumers who are on the go. Companies are even able to promote specials, coupons, or other marketing strategies directly to Foursquare users.

Click here to see how Foursquare worked for the Charleston Fine Art Dealers Association’s Palette and Palate Stroll, and how it helped create a successful PR campaign.

Should Foursquare join Facebook and Twitter as part of your companies social media communications strategy? We think so.

As more and more users depend on this style of social network to virtually interact with businesses around their area, the potential for promotion and exposure is priceless. So put your business on the map and reap the rewards of the Foursquare revolution.

As this new survey from eMarketer shows, companies are getting the picture (or, um, video) and starting to “throw their weight” behind online video.

How are they using it?

For one thing, heeding our call that it’s more about “engagement than eyeballs,” they’re moving beyond video advertising and into the realm of two-way dialog with consumers.

They’re also utilizing video for product demo’s, video podcasts, and comedic shorts to push their products. It seems this new strategy is producing results.

According to the new eMarketer survey, “46% of US multichannel retailers picked video” as the most important feature of their site.  Additionally, “42.3% of respondents said they planned to add video capability in the next year.”

Online video has become a staple of companies marketing budgets — and for good reason.

“Creating an online video presence helps marketers facilitate an ongoing dialogue with consumers, boost brand equity, lure prospective customers and solidify support among brand loyalists,” eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin noted in the report “Consumer Packaged Goods Sector Taps into Online Video.”

With today’s internet speeds and the ever expanding 3G wireless market, consumers expect to see interactive features like online video.

In order to stay at the forefront of the marketplace, companies must include online video for future success.