Here are some numbers: online advertising now accounts for around 10 percent of the total advertising spend in New Zealand; and the total online advertising spend for the first quarter of 2010 was $53.32m, up 12.31 per cent from the previous quarter.

It’s a not dissimilar level to the global online spend, with the Internet increasing its share of the global ad market from 10.5 per cent in 2008 to 12.6 per cent in 2009, (overtaking magazines for the first time) and expected to increase to more than 17 percent in 2012, according to communication firm ZenithOptimedia.

Put that alongside a trend visible mainly in the United States so far, where wealthy sponsors are starting to back online community newspapers to fill holes in local news coverage caused by shrinking newsrooms at traditional papers, and a pronounced swing to online communications is becoming clearly visible.

Or perhaps, more accurately, the value of online communication is being recognised and understood.

Do you get your news by picking up a paper from the dairy on the way to work, or is it easier to do some surfing at morning tea from your desk? Do you find products and services in magazines and newspapers or on TV; or do you turn to the net as your first port of call?

And, more importantly, where are your customers finding out about you? Online, online, online.

Last week, I received a text message from the man about to start building a retaining wall at the front of my house. (Yes, he’s building it now; a great wall and I would recommend him).  This was the first time I had ever received a text message in a business context, and on top of that I had not received any communication from him before, so his text was his first response to my phone call asking him to do the job.

His message took me by surprise, as texting has — for me — been pretty much limited to two types of message: 1) Arranging social events (times and places). 2) Sending brief frivolous/humorous comments about random activities in my life to people in a small circle of friends who are understanding (if not always appreciative!) of the humour.

So now I’m wondering if texting is a legitimate new form of business communication (and if there are protocols for it); or if a text is simply the new email, which for me is my default mode of communication for all clients, including sending invoices and often making first contacts.

Emails can include links and attachments to make the communication richer. They can be formal or casual.  The time it takes to type a text limits its length, context and  overall value but they do reach people where-ever they happen to be at any given time, I guess.

They say that for kids email is already over the hill and texting is all that matters and, yes, true, the surprise of receiving a text message from my wall guy has now receded and texting has become our  main way of sorting out working issues.

But whether I’ll now disregard texting as simply a way to arrange a beer or send a one-liner, I’m not so sure.

Have you ever noticed that a large number of Hollywood movie posters have blue and orange as their two main colours? Blue for tranquility and orange for action and energy.

It’s the best combination of colours to lure people into the cinema, they reckon. Think that sounds far fetched, check this page out!

I’ll never be able to look at another movie poster again … but it does shows the power of colour in communication.

You might also be interested to read an article on an NZ Trade and Enterprise website that looks at how businesses can use colours to guide customers to action, especially on websites.

A Chicago woman made derogatory comments on Twitter about her landlord and her rented property. The landlord reportedly went straight to court to sue the woman.

The citizens of cyberspace are Tweeting and blogging like crazy about it. Messages for and against both parties.

The woman may or may not have the best intentions. The landlord may or may not be the world’s best landlord. But who’s right? Who’s wrong?

It doesn’t really matter anymore. The lid has been lifted, the genie’s out. Damage control will be difficult to put in place. Take care how you project and protect your corporate reputation!

Getting your company mentioned in the media and then having those mentions filter through the internet to be found by potential customers via search engines has, for many years, been a big part of getting company messages seen and heard.

Are those days coming to an end? Rupert Murdoch has reportedly announced today that people will have to pay to access his News Corporation’s newspapers’ websites.

News Corporation controls much of NZ’s media and has a huge influence around the world. Let’s hope a very useful channel for publicity is not shut off to the internet masses in favour only of people who can afford to pay to view.

Looking for a publicity campaign that will hit all the right targets? Probably best to stay away from a campaign like that of U.S online brokerage site Zecco who reportedly surprised its customers by giving them multi-million dollar trading balances on April Fools’ Day!

Zecco was surprised when some customers began making real trades with their newfound riches … and the company then, reportedly, further alienated customers by making them wear any losses they incurred in their trading!

Good read in the paper over the weekend with Tui Breweries having to defend its service of offering ‘Tui girls’ from Wellington at a higher price to punters hiring out its Mangatainoka brewery if they didn’t want to have the local Tui girls.

Made our iconic brewery look kinda tacky although Tui’s spokeswoman pulled it back well in saying travelling costs from Wellington and a modelling agency fee were behind the higher charge.

She wasn’t helped in her work though by loose comments from the brewery’s manager, who excelled in the poor taste humour stakes by saying “We don’t put any ugly ones out there, if that is what you’re asking.”

I feel an advertising catch-phrase coming on: Palmerston North girls are more attractive than Wellington girls … (you can complete the rest!)

I have been enjoying seeing the tidal wave of articles on Microsoft’s beta operating system Windows 7: firstly reading about what the system has to offer, but secondly for following the hugely positive PR Microsoft has had with the system.

Good press

For those who don’t know, Microsoft is giving away beta (test) copies of the Windows 7 system (a replacement for good old XP and the much-maligned Vista) to anyone who wants to download it from their website.  Thousands of people have done this, and hundreds of people have written about it after they have trialed it.

The news has been largely very positive; and scores of lengthy, detailed and positive articles have been written about Microsoft and Windows 7 and appeared in media around the world. Here’s just one recent example from the New Zealand Herald.

The system is not even due to hit the shops for another year but they have managed to build up a powerful sense of anticipation around their flagship product. Even the criticism can be viewed as a positive thing because  Microsoft has all this year to continue developing and refining the product based on customer feedback, which it has been doing.

Responsive to customers

It is also getting tons of love for being seen to be receptive and responsive to customer critiques. Something the generally prickly and defensive company can not really claim to have been in the past.

The change in approach is a massive ground-shift for the company, who, in allowing any-one who wants to test-run Windows 7, is playing the marketing game more like young online upstarts than the cumbersome and slow-moving giant it has so often been portrayed as previously. Microsoft, has in the past, been highly secretive around their new products.

Giving away stuff to make friends

The strategy is also further vindication of the increasingly popular, online business strategy of giving away stuff to get people to buy more. There’s more about that strategy here.

Microsoft is feeling and sharing the software love and making friends everywhere. What a difference a clean Window makes.

A couple of days ago we talked about an authentic and ‘human’ voice in your online communications. Here’s some more info in a knowledgeable and very readable presentation. (Click on the controls at the bottom of the presentation to view it.)

Wondering how to get attention to your online communications? Interesting stuff here from a new report …

Some US web researchers (Rubicon) argue that online discussion is a poor way to communicate with the average customer, because average customers don’t participate. But it is a great way to communicate to them, because average customers watch and listen.

So you kind of have to put on an online performance to attract and hold their attention.

What do they mean? Well … if you have lots of comments or customer feedback to your site, they reckon proportionately few people actually create them - 80 percent of content is created by 10 percent of users.

The active 10 percent is therefore the group that holds all the power and influence over how your business is perceived online.

“This means it is critical that companies understand who [they] are, and how to take care of them, because they are the companies’ fellow actors in the online performance. … Use your website to reach out to them and make sure their needs are met,” Rubicon says.

To get the most benefit from these active participants on your site, interaction with them should be viewed as performances, because the other 90 percent of visitors will simply be watching passively as an audience. You need to interact with the active users to “educate, persuade, or entertain everyone else”.

“When we say web communities are theatre, we mean that literally — you need to partner with the [actors] and make sure the show looks good. The difference from theatre is that you can’t pay the actors; you have to win them over through love, enthusiasm, and fairness.”

Need to know more? Read the recent Rubicon report here. It’s packed with clearly written, easy-to-read information and lots of great graphs highlighting stuff.