<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6828" title="Blog 2" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Blog-22.png" alt="" width="339" height="298" />Recent reports have shown that affluents are spending more and more time online, especially on social media sites. In the last year, Facebook usage among affluents has seen an increase of over <a href="http://www.millionairecorner.com/article/across-wealth-levels-social-media-usage-rise" target="_blank">20 percent</a>. What's even more interesting is what affluents are doing online. They are <a href="http://luxurysociety.com/articles/2011/11/affluent-consumers-and-how-they-use-the-internet-social-media-and-mobile-devices" target="_blank">turning to</a> the Internet to "investigate brands, form connections and make purchases." <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/158831/" target="_blank">Recent reports</a> have also found that these affluents are becoming more influenced by social media when purchasing luxury items. Of individuals with assets of $1 million or more, affluents said that comments and information on social media sites influenced which retail stores they visit (56 percent), what designer brands they buy (57 percent), and what websites they visit (59 percent). This is good news for luxury marketers. Not only will they be able to zero-in on affluent audiences on Facebook and other social media sites, but they can affect their friends and family too.

According to a recent Mendelsohn <a href="http://adage.com/article/adagestat/affluency-definitions-luxury/231388/" target="_blank">study</a> of affluents with an annual income of<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=6812">[...]</a>

<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-6522" title="FR blog" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/FR-blog.png" alt="" width="229" height="288" />Want to know what the most buzz worthy films are right now? <a href="http://www.nextmovie.com/" target="_blank">NextMovie.com</a>, a division of <a href="http://www.mtv.com/" target="_blank">MTV Networks</a>, has rolled out its newest feature called <a href="http://www.nextmovie.com/movietracker/" target="_blank">MovieTracker</a>. This tool, which can be compared to Billboard Magazine’s renowned <a href="http://www.billboard.com/#/" target="_blank">music charts</a>, further expands MTV’s presence in the growing social entertainment world by ranking the top 25 films that generate the most buzz via popular social media platforms like <a href="http://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and blogs. Using <a href="http://trendrr.com/" target="_blank">Trendrr</a>, a social media “intelligence platform,” MovieTracker gathers comments from multiple social networks to generate the list. Users can browse the rankings and expand each listing to see more information regarding the buzz surrounding the movie. The rankings provide users with “Related Stories” and “Latest Tweets” with the option to tweet about the movie directly from the page.

With MovieTracker, MTV has now created a new platform for targeting young moviegoers. <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/161419/mtvs-nextmoviecom-accelerates-move-into-social-e.html" target="_blank">Scott Robson</a>, the man behind the curtain, believes that MovieTracker stands apart from<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=6520">[...]</a>

<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="size-full wp-image-6430 aligncenter" title="Social tv blog" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Social-tv-blog1.jpg" alt="" width="587" height="213" /></p>
Forget that old image in your head of the typical couch potato. In today's society, the normal TV viewer is no longer a lazy figure; rather now the normal TV viewer is busy multitasking between watching TV and being on their laptop or smartphone. The blending of TV viewing and social media has been a trend that seems to be long in the making. More TV viewers are using <a href="http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/social-media-and-tv-whos-talking-when-and-what-about/" target="_blank">social media</a> "as a platform to talk about and engage with TV content" and more marketers and media companies are finally paying attention.</p>
Consider some of these statistics about current trends in TV viewing and how social media plays a part:

- 90 percent of <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/160653/90-of-tv-viewing-live-even-with-dvrs-in-44-of-ho.html" target="_blank">TV viewing is live</a>, even though about 40 percent of U.S. households have at least one digital video recorder

- <a href="http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/social-media-and-tv-whos-talking-when-and-what-about/" target="_blank">TV buzz</a> is highest in January and September (9.3 and 9.1 percent) when most shows have premieres; and then in April and May (9.1 and 9.5 percent) with show finales<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=6428">[...]</a>

As an avid traveler, I am always searching for new information sources to reference while planning my trips, since that’s half the fun of any travel experience. I love reading travel guides, talking to friends, researching online, and gathering any and all information in order to make each trip – for business or leisure – the perfect trip for me.

The trip planning bug bit me back in college. My sister and I decided to visit my brother who was working in Japan. Since she was a busy professional, I took on the task of making all the arrangements and planning our route through the country. As I devoured tour books, asked my brother for advice, and researched on the internet I learned about the culture, found great little hotels, and found the best train ticket package to buy. In the end, I think I had (slightly) more fun planning the trip than actually being there.

Since then the information available to travelers has exploded. From travel books to blogs to Twitter to mobile apps, it’s almost too much for me to handle. How I plan travel now is completely different from how I planned travel in college. The main difference? [...]

<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-6228" title="ama" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ama.png" alt="" width="221" height="297" /> Luminosity's President <a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/pages/about/leadership_dolinski.php" target="_blank">Elizabeth Dolinski</a> will be speaking at the<a href="http://www.marketingpower.com/Calendar/Pages/2011SymposiumfortheMarketingofHigherEducation.aspx" target="_blank"> 2011 Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education</a>. The event will be held November 6-9 in Chicago, IL. The event aims to join together education marketers to discuss the best approaches to creating successful marketing campaigns for Higher Education. Some of the key areas that will be covered include: using mobile and social media effectively; new methods of marketing and measurement; marketing communications strategy and execution; long term planning and future trends in higher education marketing; and building strong college and university brands.

Elizabeth will be joined by Susan Warner, director of Publications and Advertising for <a href="http://www.nyit.edu/" target="_blank">New York Institute of Technology</a>, in presenting <a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=5575">[...]</a>

Like many other residents of the Northeast US, I spent the past weekend preparing for Hurricane Irene. We inventoried our food supply (thanks to couponing we had a great stockpile), filled the bathtub, replenished our battery collection, and embraced the media–the social media, that is. Yes, we had The Weather Channel running nonstop in the background, but it was social networking that really kept us engaged with storm developments.

A real-life Irene from Brooklyn, NY felt the effects of the social media rush firsthand, and she eventually “donated” her personal Twitter handle, @irene, to the cause of aggregating and disseminating important storm updates to her slightly misguided followers. A new study conducted by the Red Cross quantifies the important role social media plays during times of disaster. Among the key findings, the study revealed that:

• Internet is the third most popular means of information during emergencies, with nearly 1-in-5 adults turning to Facebook for this reason
• About 24% of the general population would definitely use social media such as Facebook or Twitter to communicate with loved ones during emergencies; that figure increases to 31% among online adults

So how exactly did social media bring us together during this stressful time? For those of you who lost power or otherwise missed it, here’s my roundup of three under-the-radar social media moments that helped connect us during Hurricane Irene: [...]

Our newest obsession here at Luminosity is Turntable.fm, a social music site that has connected the office on a whole new level. According to AdAge, the site has gained more than 400,000 users in just two months. It allows members to join a specific “room,” many of which feature different music styles, and everyone has the opportunity to create an avatar that “spins” music from the DJ booth. Listeners hanging out in the room can rate song selections along the spectrum ‘Lame’ to ‘Awesome,’ allowing for direct interaction. The Luminosity team has been using the site to bond over a shared love of music, learn about new artists, and, occasionally, tease each other over music picks (a country cover of “Oops I Did It Again”–really, was that necessary?!).

Turntable.fm is yet another example of the changing landscape of digital music. A recent Nielsen study shows [...]

<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/screenshot20110529at70109pm.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-5129" title="screenshot20110529at70109pm" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/screenshot20110529at70109pm.png" alt="" width="266" height="314" /></a>Recently, I stumbled upon a website that really caught my attention. The website, DearPhotograph.com is one of the latest hits to reach the online world. It features people taking pictures of themselves holding up old photographs in the same spot. Underneath each photograph, the individual posts a caption, which are the real kickers. They are wide ranging, from very sentimental captions to light-heartened ones. Yet, the impact that all of these posts have on viewers is truly profound. <a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=5128 ">[...]</a>

<img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-4869" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/logo-soundcloud.png" alt="" width="200" height="200" />Yesterday SoundCloud reached 5 million registered users, and it is quickly becoming an alternative to MySpace for artists to distribute music online. I first found out about SoundCloud through a DJ friend who uploads her mixes for self-promotion. The songs are placed on the embedded player, most of them fifteen to twenty minutes long. At any point in the music, users can place the cursor over the clip and add a comment. For example, if my friend had mixed in a nice-sounding wobble or bass drop, I could place my comment at the exact time of the drop. <a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=4860">[...]</a>

<img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-4468" title="spg-foursquare" src="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/spg-foursquare-300×187.jpg" alt="" width="219" height="140" />Starwood Hotels, whose properties include the St. Regis, W Hotels, Four Points, Westin, Le Meridien and Sheraton hotels, just made a smart move by incorporating the oh-so-popular <a href="https://foursquare.com/" target="_blank">Foursquare</a> into their Guest Rewards program. Foursquare has begun (starting yesterday) offering members of the <a href="http://www.spgpromos.com/socialcheckins/?EM=VTY_SPG_SOCIALCHECKINS_SPECIALOFFERS" target="_blank">Starwood Preferred Guest</a> (SPG) loyalty program additional points, badges and rewards for their checkins at participating hotels<a href="http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=4462">[...]</a>