Wired : The Buddy System

A revolution in the science of social networks began with a stash of old papers found in a storeroom in Framingham, Massachusetts. They were the personal records of 5,124 male and female subjects from the Framingham Heart Study. Christakis and Fowler realized that this obsolete list of references could be transformed into a detailed map of human relationships.

Here some of the highlight findings:

• Having an obese spouse raised the risk of becoming obese by 37 percent. If a friend became obese, the risk skyrocketed by 171 percent
• On Facebook, the average user has approximately 110 "friends"
• When smokers quit, their friends were 36 percent more likely to follow suit
• Each happy friend increased an individual's probability of being happy by 9 percent. An extra $5,000 in income raised it only 2 percent
• Each student had 6.6 close friends in their online network
• We end up staying in touch with more acquaintances. But that doesn't mean we have more friends
• The impact of networks disappears abruptly after three degrees of separation
• People, in other words, need people: We are the glue holding ourselves together

Their Book: : 'Connected - The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives'

What makes us human -- for good and bad -- is our social nature. Nowhere is this complex, wonderful, and sometimes dark part of us more clearly revealed than in Connected.

In a social world exploding with new ways to interact, Connected is a user's guide for ourselves in the 21st century.

 View the electronic version of 'Article'.

Eyeblaster – Global Benchmark Report

Eyeblaster just released the 2009 Global Benchmarks Insights and Analysis report. Some of the findings are:

• Results were surprising—while the CTR performance of Standard Banners tends to improve as unit size increases, in Rich Media, size is a poor predictor of performance. In Rich Media, size is only one component of banner visibility on the site.
  
• The analysis indicates that better predictors of performance in Rich Media are creative features such as video, ad format, flash features and expansions. Therefore, to improve performance, advertisers should focus on enhancing ads with video and other features, rather than increasing unit size.
  
  
  
• A study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found that larger ad units are 25% more effective in lifting key brand metrics such as brand awareness and message association, even after one exposure. The research also shows that additional exposures significantly increased persuasion metrics such as purchase intent.

 View the electronic version of 'Global Benchmark Report 2009'.