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The trilogy is complete; we are all done-finished with the Army Navy Military Expo, the 2010 SHOT Show and the ASD Military Tactical Outdoor Show.

We’ll get into ASD in depth next month, but preliminary indicators are that the show wasn’t heavily trafficked but that sales were satisfactory for the most part. It seems that Monday was the busiest day rather than the usual Sunday buyer-to-buyer traffic jam.

The floor plan at the Las Vegas Convention Center was notable for the many Sands Expo Center refugees vying for good placement in anticipation of the whole ball of wax coming over from the Sands to the LVCC in August, 2010.

Although this is subject to change, show management stated that the Summer ASD Shows will be held only in the LVCC, albeit the entire facility, not just the South Hall; Winter shows will continue to utilize both the LVCC South Hall and the Sands Expo Center.

INTERWEBS STUFF

If you cast a glance diagonally upward to the right from this sentence, you’ll eyeball our Facebook address. We will be doing our bit to promote social media as a means of communication ever more so this year. Please expect updates to our page about thrice weekly.

We’re not just doing this because it’s cool and fun and snarky. The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) compels us, that’s why.

RAMA recently released new research on the habits of social media users - at least on the habits that we can discuss in a family magazine.

The survey compares social media users to the average U.S. adult (are they mutually exclusive?) and examines demographics for each group, including make and female usage and age differences.

Survey highlights include the following:

• Seven out of 10 social media users between the ages of 18-34 regularly use Facebook more than other sites such as MySpace, Twitter and Classmates.com.
• Almost 72 percent of social media users say that after an online search, they communicate with others about a product or service with face-to-face communication.
• More people who use social media prefer to give advice about a product or service rather than receive it.
• Social media users are more likely to use other new media compared to adults 18 and over.
• Almost 71 percent of female social media users regularly use Facebook, compared to 61 percent of males.
• More men than women prefer to communicate with others via a cell phone after searching for a product or service online.

What do we glean from these factoids?

One conclusion we might draw is that businesses who incorporate social media into their marketing mix may expect a younger, more involved customer base that are more likely to follow up on the information that they find on your Facebook page or similiar social media outlet.

Followers of your social media page are also more inclined to become opinion leaders about your product or service, which can be a double-edged sword.

Oops.

On page 36 of our February issue, we inaccurately quoted John Ottaviano of Rothco; he is quoted as saying that 2009 saw the opening of more army/navy stores than in the previous ten years combined. Had we transcribed his comments correctly, that statement would have read that 2009 saw the opening of more army/navy stores in any of the previous ten years - not combined. We apologize for the error and its egregiousness.