Here are a few of the top stories in which eMarketer data and analysis were featured this week:

7/1: Guardian.co.uk – US Federal Trade Commission reportedly investigates Twitter
US consumer watchdog the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly investigating the way Twitter deals with the companies that build applications and services for the company. Read more.

7/1: Reuters – Facebook crashes advertising industry party
While traditional advertising groups jostled for awards at a recent annual industry gathering in Cannes, the year’s biggest star was a newcomer to the beaches: the social network Facebook. Read more.

6/30: Entrepreneur – Advertise on Facebook? AmEx Has the Credit Card for You
Forget miles and cash back, American Express is rewarding cardholders with Facebook Ads. In what is being touted as a means for small businesses to attract new customers, AmEx announced this week that its Membership Rewards points can now be used to purchase advertisements on Facebook. Read more.

6/30: Adage.com – What Makes a Memorable Ad? Location, Location, Location
If you advertise online, you demand messaging and branding that leads to increased marketing ROI and a reduced cost of sales. You hammer the point home when planning your campaign: “We must be memorable.” Read more.

6/30: WSJ.com – Heineken Makes Deal With Google in Social-Media Push
Brewer Heineken NV, which on Thursday confirmed it had signed a multi-million euros online advertising contract with Google Inc., is in talks with Facebook Inc. and other companies about similar deals as it looks to boost its brand presence on social media sites. Read more.

6/29: Bloomberg.com – Stone’s Move to Obvious Leaves Twitter Without Full Attention of Founders
Twitter Inc. co-founder Biz Stone’s decision to join fellow company alumnus Evan Williams at Obvious Corp. leaves Twitter with none of its creators fully devoted to the microblogging service. Read more.

6/29: NYTimes.com – News Corporation Sells MySpace for $35 Million
MySpace, the long-suffering Web site that the News Corporation bought six years ago for $580 million, was sold Wednesday to the advertising network Specific Media for roughly $35 million. Read more.

6/28: Associated Press – Co-founder Biz Stone leaving Twitter
Isaac “Biz” Stone is moving on from Twitter, just five years after co-founding the microblogging site that has become integral to the social media scene around the globe. Read more.

6/27: paidContent.org – New Study Shows E-Reader Ownership Surging Ahead Of Tablets
A new Pew report shows that the number of U.S. adults who own a dedicated e-reader (like a Kindle or Nook) has doubled since November 2010, to 12 percent. That is much faster growth than predicted by a recent eMarketer survey, which predicted that e-reader ownership would not hit 12 percent until 2012. Read more.

6/27: Reuters – GSV takes stake in Facebook, valuing it at $70 billion
Investment fund GSV Capital Corp has taken a small stake in Facebook that values the world’s No. 1 social networking site at about $70 billion. Read more.

6/27: Digidaydaily.com – Pharma’s Stuck in Web’s Waiting Room
The pharmaceutical industry is new to advertising — it was only in the 1990s that it began widely marketing directly to consumers on TV — but it’s even farther behind when it comes to the Web. Read more.

6/27: Wall Street Journal – WPP Ad Unit Has Your Profile
In a quest to accelerate the business of targeting ads to consumers based on information about them, advertising giant WPP PLC plans to announce on Monday the launch of a new company that links its ad-buying technologies with a vast database of consumer profiles. Read more.

For more of eMarketer’s recent news coverage, click here.

As Twitter is rumored to have bought TweetDeck, here’s eMarketer’s outlook on the microblogging service’s ad revenue.

Global advertising spending on Twitter reached an estimated $45 million in 2010, and is expected to hit $150 million this year, according to eMarketer’s first full forecast of ad spending on the service. By 2012, Twitter ad spending could reach $250 million, but this forecast is dependent on Twitter growing its user base substantially.

A complete report on Worldwide Social Network Ad Spending is available for Total Access clients. Click here to learn more.

For AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, engaging in online social media requires careful footing and continuous regard for government regulation. As such, the American arm of the UK-based drug manufacturer has crafted its social participation around big-picture healthcare topics and, for the most part, is steering clear of specific mentions of prescription products.

The goals for the company’s social media program were two-fold: AstraZeneca wanted to raise awareness of its prescription assistance program, which helps needy patients afford their medications. Additionally, the company wanted to interact with patients, healthcare professionals and industry advocates about the best ways to promote AZ&Me.

“We wanted feedback on how to operate our prescription assistance programs more effectively and efficiently to serve patients,” said Katie Lubenow, AstraZeneca’s senior manager of external communications. In essence, the corporation wanted to crowdsource ideas for future marketing of AZ&ME.

Strategy:

AstraZeneca’s PR team promoted the scheduled Twitter chat through both @AstraZenecaUS and the company blog. The event soon caught the attention of pharma industry pundits and bloggers who retweeted and posted information about the chat. On the day of the #rxSave chat, tweets denoting the planned hashtag began to appear, creating buzz about the event. At exactly 8:00pm, Jen McGovern, AstraZeneca’s director of Patient Assistance Programs, greeted those following the hashtag and welcomed them to @AstraZenecaUS’ first ever Twitter chat.

At the beginning of the event, McGovern established that, given current regulations, she would not be able to discuss specific medications or diseases using Twitter’s 140 character limit. She did, however, tweet that if individuals had questions about specific products, they could contact AstraZeneca through its corporate website or through a telephone help line.

With disclaimers out of the way and ground rules set, McGovern—via @AstraZenecaUS—asked participants what they thought were the best ways to increase awareness of prescription savings programs. Close to 30 responses came in and McGovern probed a few follow-up questions. The participants, largely individuals in healthcare and pharma professions, suggested ideas such as healthcare social networks, front-line education and the use of patient and health advocates to spread the word.

Results:

During the time allotted to the live chat, there were nearly 400 tweets using the #rxSave hashtag. Even after the close of the event, tweeters continued to use the hashtag. And four days later, there were more than 1,000 tweets from more than 200 different people that used the hashtag. AstraZeneca also gained 73 Twitter followers the day of the chat—and this number has steadily increased.

Because a number of healthcare providers participated in the chat, the pharma company was able to ask questions and get answers about real-life actions and challenges to prescription savings program adoption. AstraZeneca was also able to ask about communicating with patients via text messages, and gleaned insight about reaching caregivers of seniors.

Despite an overwhelmingly positive response, AstraZeneca did face backlash from one persistent tweeter. The individual, making use of the #rxSave hashtag, posted tweets critical of AstraZeneca’s past legal affairs. Despite the individual’s unrelenting negativity, the conversation continued about #rxSave, with both the @AstraZenecaUS moderator and participants largely ignoring the person’s trolling.

On the heels of this first success, “AstraZeneca is open to conducting additional chats,” Lubenow said, “if there are topics that would be beneficial to discuss while staying within regulations.”

The complete version of this case study is available to eMarketer Total Access clients only. Click here for more information.

Here are some of the top stories in which eMarketer data and analysis were featured this week:

4.27: Reuters: Amazon Eyes Rosy Revenue

Amazon.com gave a confident revenue forecast that suggested its aggressive expansion into new businesses is paying off, soothing concerns about its slimmed-down profit margin. Read more.

4.27: Adweek: Is the Magazine Business Doomed to Shrink?

It isn’t news that magazines are seeing their print advertising revenue disappear before their eyes; the real story is in whether they can replace that lost cash with online revenue. New data from eMarketer answers this in the negative, projecting that total US magazine ad revenue will fall from $17 billion in 2010 to less than $15 billion by 2015. Read more.

4.27: Los Angeles Times: YouTube aims to expand movie service to compete with iTunes, Amazon

YouTube has reached agreements with Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures to offer their movies the same day they are available on other on-demand services, people with knowledge of the situation say. Read more.

4.27: Fast Company: Blame It On The Youth

If you want to know where the future is headed, sometimes telling clues reside in how the youth of the world interact and share with one another. With the rise of the Golden Triangle of technology, mobile, social, and real-time, technology is not just for the geeks, technology is part of our lifestyle…it is part of who we are. Read more.

4.26: ClickZ: How Twitter Makes Money

On January 24, eMarketer predicted that Twitter would bring in a bit over $150 million in 2011 and $250 million in 2012. (You can see the chart at the bottom of this column.) Is this realistic? I think it may be from what I have learned and am writing about below. Read more.

4.25: USA Today: Facebook Deals to Debut

Facebook plans to add yet another feature to its social-networking portfolio, with what some analysts are calling a Google Offers competitor. Facebook Deals is designed to let the site’s 500 million users easily share their shopping experiences with one another, and save money in the process. Read more.

4.25: Forbes.com: Google Must Spend to Remain Sultan of Search

Google has maintained its dominant position in the search advertising market and does not plan to yield market share quietly. The search engine giant has consistently increased its market share over the years by launching products that leverage new technologies and media as well as by acquiring companies that support its search business. Read more.

For more of eMarketer’s recent news coverage, click here.

A N I N T E R V I E W W I T H :
Tracey Weber
Managing Director of Internet and Mobile
Citigroup

Tracey Weber joined Citi in October 2010 to oversee internet and mobile operations at Citibank North America. Weber spoke to eMarketer’s Lauren McKay about new developments at Citibank—from its @AskCiti Twitter account to its mobile banking efforts.

eMarketer: What are Citibank’s biggest areas of focus for online banking this year?

Tracey Weber: One key area is driving digital engagement. Citibank offers a lot of online and mobile capabilities, but we still need to educate consumers about those tools. We’re also focused on customer experience both on the internet and in mobile spaces. We know where our customers’ pain points are in those areas and are using design and innovation to improve interactions. We want to help customers easily and intuitively accomplish their goals and manage their financial lives.

Another area of focus is accessibility. Our customers can reach us through email, phone or the @AskCiti Twitter handle. We also make it easy for customers to connect with us using a mobile browser or app. We have a mash-up between our @AskCiti Twitter and mobile feeds, which means that you can tweet us directly from the mobile browser.

eMarketer: What uptake has Citibank seen with its mobile apps, mobile website and text banking services?

Weber: Last year was an important year for us in mobile. We released downloadable apps for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch and Android devices. And we also have mobile-optimized browsers. The Twitter/mobile mash-up was another big piece. All of that has contributed to growth in mobile usage.

eMarketer: How have you marketed these mobile offerings?

Weber: Within the optimized browser we launched a Mobile Showcase, which is a set of creative materials explaining our different mobile options. The Mobile Showcase demonstrates how customers can download an app, access Citibank through a browser or set up text banking. There are visual step-by-step guides to show consumers how the services work and how to get started.

We have a lot of collateral about it on our sites, Citi.com and Citibank.com. We’ve also done in-branch advertising, since customers frequently interact with us at our physical locations. Last year, we delved into TV advertising with an ad campaign about a mother sending money to her son in France. The ad showed him seeing the receipt through Citi Mobile. We’ve tried to integrate some of the stories that we’re telling about mobile into our advertising campaigns.

eMarketer: Does Citibank have a target demographic for the Mobile Showcase or the individual mobile offerings?

Weber: We certainly think about different types of situations and people when designing the user experience and capabilities. I can see how one might think that online and mobile behavior varies among demographics, but it’s not as simple as one age group or income level.

We’re focused on having an option for consumers who find online a useful channel to access banking or to communicate with us. We want to have a lot of options to meet different situations and needs.

eMarketer: What opportunities has the @AskCiti Twitter handle provided?

Weber: It’s been a success story for us. Frank Eliason, of @ComcastCares fame, joined Citigroup in August 2010 to lead social media strategy and the @AskCiti Twitter program. Twitter has become another channel to service our customers. It’s a good forum for customers to ask quick questions. It’s also great for us—it provides insight that we can mine for trends and conversation topics. First and foremost, though, it’s a channel to ensure we’re there answering questions.

The complete interview is available to eMarketer Total Access clients. To learn more, click here.