When it comes to Internet marketing and social media marketing one of the most important metrics of success is the return on investment (ROI). Everyone demands to see something that measures this although most can’t agree on just how to accomplish that. Twitter is one outlet that people are trying to measure as to just how much value do their efforts get on the micro-blogging service.

As we rapidly approach the end of the second quarter of 2009 there is still news trickling in from what happened in Q1. As suspected, that news is not good. A study by TNS Media Intelligence was reported in today’s WSJ and ad spend for media including TV, print and online display ads fell 14% year to year to $30.8 billion.

YouTube is finally preparing to take on Hulu with premium content and better quality video from YouTube XL—preparing for a real big screen interface. You know, such as a television. Hulu is rather adamant about not going to television, so this could get to be a bit of a big deal.

While Twitter is working hard to dispel rumors that they’ll be making a reality Twitter TV show, Verizon engineers have been working hard combining Twitter with their FiOS TV.

UPDATE: Looks like there won’t be a Twitter TV show.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, there was a lot of buzz around the web regarding a Twitter TV show. Variety reported that Twitter had partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted show about ordinary people "on the trail of celebrities."

Google is not known for being a big television advertiser despite the company’s own platform for distributing television ads (which is getting more targeted according to recent discussions from Google).

Google is now testing those waters for itself though. The Google Japan team created a video promoting the Google Chrome browser, and the company is taking it to televisions.

Google is offering a look into its process for measuring and analyzing data from television ads. It’s interesting to see the metrics they use and how they are trying to make television ads more relevant to viewers.

The U.S. market for watching online video on TV is set to significantly increase, according to a new report from In-Stat.

Over 40 percent of young adult U.S. households view Internet video on TV at least once per month.

Revenue from Web-to-TV streaming services will grow to $2.9 billion in 2013.

Demand for Internet-connected television is growing rapidly, according to a new study by the Consumer Electronics Association.

The study, "Net-Enabled Video: Early Adopters Only?" found that about half of potential TV buyers say they are likely to purchase an Internet-connected TV.

There are numerous ways people would use an Internet-enabled TV. Almost half (48%) of U.S. online adults would use their Internet connected TV to find out more information on upcoming shows and identify a song that played during the show.

I’m pretty sure that if it were not for its enormous size and price tag, Google would have shutdown YouTube along with all the other services that couldn’t turn a profit for the search giant. As it stands, Google has so much invested in the video sharing service that to fail would likely wipe at least a dollar from its share price.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Google was testing an online version of its Google TV Ads. They’re now launching Google TV Ads Online in beta by invitation only.

I suppose you may have had the same response to this idea that I did initially so let’s jump right in.

Nielsen has shared results of its "State of the Media" research. Not that this fact is surprising, but television is still the most preferred gateway for media consumption.

Google is reportedly readying a service that will allow advertisers to distribute ads across not only television through Google TV Ads, but through YouTube as well. According to the Wall Street Journal, the service is called Google TV Ads Online, and will be launched within the next several months.

Google has conducted a study looking at how paid search affects TV viewing habits. The results are pretty interesting.

Adam Stewart, Google’s Industry Director for Media & Entertainment tells WebProNews that the research confirms that paid search is an effective way to build traffic for a network’s website and, as a result, increase viewership for content like online video.

A study from Nielsen and Ball State University found that 45-54 year-olds are the top consumers of video media. The study ran over the course of a year.

Data was gathered from traditional TVs (including DVD/VCR and DVR viewing), computers, mobile devices and other small screens like in-cinema movies, GPS and display screens outside of the home. Some key findings include:

It appears that television advertising is following a different trend than many have expected. Advertising Age is citing data from a recent study (due out soon) from Nielsen indicating that its doing better than ever. Some may find this a bit surprising with the increasing popularity of DVRs and online video.

The world is waiting to see how Google plans to make money from YouTube. Increasingly innovative in the slap-an-ad-on-it department, Google is a victim of its own success, relying on clicks when YouTube is better as a straight branding vehicle, just like its television predecessor.

Nearly 31 percent of in-home Internet activity takes place while the user is watching television, which indicates there is a large amount of simultaneous Internet and television usage, according to a new report from Nielsen’s TV/Internet Convergence Panel.

Intel and Yahoo have announced plans to introduce widgets to television via set-top boxes.

The application is called the Widget Channel and will allow viewers to use rich Internet applications designed for TV while watching programs. The channel will be powered by the Yahoo Widget Engine.