Our December 2012 Webcasting Usage Survey (polling TalkPoint webcasting clients) indicated that webcasting enhances business communication efforts by increasing messaging distribution and reaching larger audiences, while accounting for less travel and reducing budgets.

Some interesting stats from the survey include:

• The primary reasons to host a webcast: audience reach (38.8%) and generating revenue (16.3%)
• Webcasting cuts costs: 59.2% of respondents said webcasting reduced their travel/meetings budget (in some cases by more than 30%)
• 69.2% of survey participants prefer webcasts to in-person events because they can attend from any location
• Accessing date on mobile devices trumps computer use due to portability (45.2%) and convenience (41.9%)

To see the full survey results on webcasting, streaming media and mobile usage and preferences (including what people are willing to give up before their mobile device) and accompanying infographic, click here: http://lp.talkpoint.com/Survey.html.

Credit: MediaPost

You read that right. Shopping on Thanksgiving Day. While several stores are opening their doors as early as 6 a.m., there are even more online deals available to shoppers. E-commerce data from IBM/Coremetrics last year showed that 15% of consumers used a mobile device to visit a retailers’s site on Turkey Day, up from 6.5% the prior year. In the last five years, the value of e-commerce transactions on Thanksgiving Day surged 128% to $479 million, outpacing the growth of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other big holiday shopping days.

Will this new major shopping day dubbed by many as “Mobile Thursday” soon replace Cyber Monday? Will consumers choose to shop after their Thanksgiving dinner while watching football on the couch versus waiting four extra days for similar savings? Probably. Most people are back to work on the Monday following Thanksgiving, and these early online deals are certainly much more appealing than waking up early on Black Friday and fighting crowds of shoppers.

Retailers like Toys “R” Us, HSN, Rue La La and ideeli hope Mobile Thursday catches on. These companies are running mobile-specific offers on Thanksgiving evening, and they’re hoping to exceed Adobe Systems projected online holiday sales, 21% from mobile devices, for the season.

While it certainly seems like Mobile Thursday/”Black Friday Eve” are taking over this holiday shopping season, some consumers don’t see the reason for the hype. In fact, 76% of adults who shop on both a mobile device and computer say it’s easier to do so on a computer (only 8% said mobile was easier). Plus, there are still those of us who prefer to celebrate Thanksgiving without shopping or retailers telling us where and when to shop.

How do you feel about the added holiday shopping push at Thanksgiving? Do you think one of these shopping days will disappear as holiday deals are introduced earlier each year or will we eventually have a Thanksgiving shopping week? For more on how retailers are changing the holidays, check out Dan Roche’s article here.

The answer is yes. In a recent multi-screen study by Google, 90 percent of people (of 1,611 people surveyed in Los Angeles, Boston and Austin in the second quarter of 2012) spread out tasks between devices, starting something on one screen and then finishing the task on another screen. The most popular starting point is the smartphone, with tasks continued on a PC.

While shopping is a popular task for moving between screens (67 percent of respondents), more complex tasks such as planning a trip and managing finances are only carried over to smartphones by 30 percent of those surveyed.

Where do tablets enter the scene? At this point, tablets aren’t employed as frequently, but they are most used for video viewing, trip planning and online shopping with carryover extended to a PC.

In addition to this sequential viewing, 77 percent of consumers are watching TV while simultaneously using another device. Eighty-one percent of people combine the smartphone and TV followed by the smartphone and PC and PC and TV (both at 66 percent).

How do you capitalize on these multi-screen viewing statistics? TalkPoint’s Dan Roche provides three key points to consider when implementing a second-screen viewing plan here.

According to Google’s Official Blog, NBC Olympics had more than 159 million total video streams and more than 64 million live streams across YouTube’s online, mobile and tablet experiences. Over 17 days, more than 20 million hours of total video was streamed. That’s more live streams than the entire Beijing Games!

Second-screen viewing also received high marks with 44 percent of people using mobile phones or tablets as their second-screen of choice. Research panels conducted in partnership with NBC in the U.S. states that second-screen viewing increased participant interest in the Olympics, with these viewers watching 52 percent more coverage on TV than single-screen viewers. Further, people who watched live streams of events online watched 66 percent more Olympics on television than people who followed exclusively on TV.

Although many viewers were unhappy with the Olympics tape delay, the introduction of streaming media to the 2012 Games proved to be a success.

What did you think of the streaming coverage? Did you watch the Olympics on multiple screens?

Smartphones have become the dominant platform for American consumers with 58% of all Americans using them, according to the June 2012 Mobile Content Study. By 2013, it is predicted that the smartphone audience will increase 53% to 151 million users.

Is your website or product optimized for smartphones and tablets? How are you implementing mobile? Are mobile apps the answer?

Not necessarily. According to the survey, more consumers said they had no preference regarding Web- or app-based access than those who preferred one over the other. Therefore, it’s important to use the mobile platform that will be the easiest, most efficient way to access and share your content – app or no app.

For more questions consumers may consider before getting an app (and if you think your company needs one), check out “App-athy” by TalkPoint’s Dan Roche.

If so, check out the On the Record business special titled “Open for Business” tonight on Fox News Channel at 10 PM ET with Greta Van Susteren. TalkPoint’s CEO, Nick Balletta, will join Steve Forbes, Carley Roney of The Knot and Jason Ackerman of Fresh Direct for the one-hour program.

For more information regarding On the Record and this special, visit http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/. You”ll even see a special thank you video from Greta to Nick for a Packers cheesehead gift basket (If you didn’t know, Greta is a huge Green Bay Packers fan).

According to an Intel-commissioned survey, 44% of participants said they feel anxious traveling without their devices. Further, 87% of the young adults surveyed said they were happier on tech-connected trips.

Even airport security, baggage fees and foregoing “comfort and hygiene” don’t deter travelers from fixating on their tech. About 64% of respondents said they often sacrifice products like clothing and toiletries to make room in their bags for electronics, and many jet-setters will sit on airport or train floors to be close to a power source.

Think this is severe? Participants also said they suffer from “outlet outrage” when there’s no power source available and have constant anxiety about losing their mobile phones on trips. In fact, 77% of travelers said they are more anxious about losing their mobile device than their wedding ring!

These numbers will certainly increase as technology becomes even more ingrained in our everyday lives. It’s important to stay connected and have the ability to conduct business on-the-go, and it’s frustrating when there is an interference in the normal workflow.

Mobile webcasting allows companies to transmit live and on-demand presentations to tablets and smartphones. Now our customers can remain in touch with their employees, sales teams, clients and other constituencies from various locations around the globe.

To learn more about how mobile webcasts can contribute to your “happiness” statistic on tech-connected trips, visit www.talkpoint.com.

TalkPoint’s Dan Roche will join Baylor Heath Care System’s Ashley Howland for the presentation titled “Unlock the Power of Video and Mobile for Your PR Programs.” In this 30-minute session (June 21, 2:15-2:45 p.m.), you’ll learn how to integrate video across social media platforms, how to determine the appropriate mobile platform for your content as well as mobile and video implementation tips and best practices.

For a sneak peak on how mobile viewing is affecting streaming media, check out Dan’s video below which offers points for consideration when developing content for mobile device delivery.

Here are the frightening commuting statistics as seen in a recent Slate article:

• Couples in which one partner commutes for longer than 45 minutes are 40 percent likelier to divorce (Umea University in Sweeden)
• 40% of employees who spend more than 90 minutes getting home from work ”experienced worry for much of the previous day” (Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index)
• One in three workers with a 90-minute daily commute has recurrent neck or back problems (Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index)
• Each minute you commute is associated with “a 0.0257 minute exercise time reduction, a 0.0387 minute food preparation time reduction, and a 0.2205 minute sleep time reduction.” (Thomas James Christian of Brown University)

What if you could reduce your commute or the travel time devoted to meetings and conferences? Online meetings and conferences can save you time and money related to commuting costs. The price of gas, flights, hotels and time expended all add up, and webcasts allow for face-to-face interaction without paying to be in the same location. Now you can work from home or the beach (shhhh!) and save yourself the hassle of traffic, road rage and jet lag.

Mobile webcasts, in particular, extend audience reach to smartphones and tablets and allows for added scheduling flexibility (live and on-demand webcasting options available), so you can communicate anywhere, at any time, without incurring that extra trip(s) and diminishing productivity.

Are you ready to say goodbye to the long commute? Say hello to webcasting, and save yourself from becoming a commuting statistic.

Today’s Inc. Magazine article “Meetings Suck? Make Them Better” references the book Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni as well as statistics from SalesCrunch.com titled “Don’t Suck at Meetings,” so clearly there is a negative association with meetings.

Just like face-to-face meetings, online meetings can be improved by following these suggested tips based on the SalesCrunch.com stats:

• Short and sweet - 15-minute meetings are 50% more successful than 45-plus-minute meetings, so keep your presentation and accompanying slides concise and to-the-point for increased audience engagement.
• Interactivity – Engagement is 20% higher when the attendees do most of the talking, rather than the presenter. Incorporate surveys or polls as well as question and answer time in order to enhance audience participation.
• Follow up – Follow up only takes place one out of seven times, so ensure that you follow up with your meeting attendees. Notify participants when on-demand meeting access is available as well as when and how they can download slides from the presentation.

Have these tips worked for you? How have you improved your online meetings?