Funny email attachment I got from a friend. Click on the image to expand it.

So now we know the blindingly obvious (or is it?) fact that social networking sites like Bebo, Facebook and MySpace don’t widen your circle of close friends.

Most of my friends are on Facebook, and I’ve started to use that a bit more than Bebo. I mean, Bebo’s got a reputation for being teenager’s site, and I’m getting on a bit now, so Facebook is the fashionable alternative.

I’ve ‘met up with’ many friends that I hadn’t seen or heard from in years. It’s great to hear from them again, and you’ll organise to go for a pint with them or whatever.

But, as this new research from Sheffield Hallam University says that the average person’s group of friends consists five very close friends, and a much larger group of 150 friends that we keep in touch with less frequently.

If you’re in any doubt as to what Facebook (and the other social networking sites) is, here’s a really good primer (and yes, if you’ve guessed, The Guardian is my favourite newspaper!).

In yesterday’s Media section of the Guardian, several Internet frontrunners attempted to peer into the crystal ball and tell us what they saw. A very interesting article indeed, with contributions from MySpace, YouTube, Google and other heavyweights.

But one section I found to be very interesting was by Maurice Levy, CEO of Publicis Groupe, who was predicting future trends in advertising. Levy, who is referred to in Wikipedia as a “French advertising magnate”, made some very cogent points about the future of interruption advertising.

Levy argues that, in an era where people are vocally against advertising that ‘interrupts’ their enjoyment of a programme, show, website or newspaper, advertisers will need to seek more creative means of reaching their target market. “This implies a brave new world of engagement and involvement between marketers and consumers”.

As far as online is concerned, I have to disagree. Ads on popular websites are rarely given the attention that their designers had hoped. Click-through rates are miniscule. And for every successful viral promotion or online game, there are countless others being decried as shameless publicity stunts.

More than ever, search engine marketing is the basis for online advertising. Being found when users search for your products and services is still by far the best way of raising your sales.

While Google is working to increase its hold on advertising outside of search, expect some innovation. But in terms of achieving measurable results from online, search is still the key and in that arena, simplicity rules supreme.

Open rates for email campaigns are dropping every year - but is the open rate an acceptable statistic for measuring how successful your campaign is? If your email doesn’t reach your prospect, how can they open it?

To increase your return on investment from email marketing, first look at whether your intended recipients actually receive your email. Your deliverability rate, the percentage of your list that actually gets your email delivered to their inbox, is the first statistic that you need to improve. Here are some tips for doing it:

1. Use double opt-in to make sure that the recipient wants to be on your list. When a user signs up to your newsletter from your website, send a confirmation email that must be replied to (or a link that must be clicked) before users are placed on your list.

2. If some of the addresses on your list persistently ‘bounce’ (i.e. emails can not be delivered to them), remove them from your list. Service providers track bounced emails, and your email can be blocked if it causes regular bounces.

3. Choose your words carefully. If at all possible, avoid words such as ‘medication’, ‘money’, ‘poker’, ‘viagra’ and so on. There’s a good list of spam-words here.

4. The HTML code you use in your emails may be affecting your deliverability. Make sure your images use “alt” tags, be careful with tracking your emails for responses, and have a read of this article to make sure your HTML is up to scratch. If you put your email up on your website, you can validate the HTML code on the W3C Markup Validation Service.

As always, the Wikipedia website is a solid source of information. Check out their article on email spam. And be sure to keep your list, content and HTML clean if you want to get your message out.