Archive for the ‘Internet/New Media’ Category
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 InMarket,a mobile in-store brand engagement firm, says that 50 percent of its users discovered products in stores with their smartphones in Q4 201150 percent of its users discovered products in stores with their smartphones in Q4 2011.
Product discovery — the consumer’s initial encounter with a product — plays a critical role in the path to purchase, particularly when it occurs in a store.
We suspect marketing to customers already shopping in stores who carry smartphones is going to be an increasingly big deal. A variety of technologies focused on this sort of marketing are emerging with more surely to come. So you’ll be hearing a lot more about “mobile-enabled shopping.”
Traditionally, in-store product introductions have relied on displays or end caps to capture consumer attention.
InMarket sells “virtual end caps” — product introductions that occur via mobile as soon as the consumer enters the store. With more than half of adult consumers using their phones while they shop, inMarket expects that product discovery will increase in 2012.
“Consumers use their phones every day at multiple points throughout the path to purchase, and we’re in front of them the entire time,” said Todd Dipaola, president and co-founder of inMarket.
“Brands are realizing that it’s not simply about awareness or the check-in, but about influencing consumer behavior once they’re in the store. inMarket introduces consumers to products and fosters connections when it matters — in the aisles, not on the sofa.”
Tags: end caps, inMarket, mobile-enabled shoppers, smartphones in stores
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, Mobile, smartphones, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 If you want people to respond to your email, use words such as “Apply,” “Opportunity,” and “Connect.” But avoid “Confirm,” “Join,” “Press” and “Invite,” among others. So says Baydin, which makes the email plugin Boomerang.
Baydin gathered data from five million emails and discovered which subject lines got the most responses and which did not.
It also found that sending email early – before work at around 6 a.m., worked best.
But getting past the user delete button can be tough. The average email user gets 147 emails a day (we get several hundred) and deletes 71 in under 5 minutes while spending 2.5 hours a day mostly on about 12 of them.
Here’s an infographic the company created on its findings:
Tags: Baydin, best words for email subjects, Boomerang, email marketing, worst words for email subject lines
Posted in infographic, Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 Facebook-led social media are redefining communication, Bing is gaining ground in search, brand dollars are shifting to online, the video boom, and rise of the smartphone and tablet markets are among the trends examined in digital measurement firm comScore’s new 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report.
“2012 promises to be an exciting year for the digital media industry as the explosion of available content and proliferation of web-enabled devices drive the evolution of the digital consumer, creating new opportunities and challenges for the entire digital ecosystem,” said Linda Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of Global Product Development.
“In order to be successful in this new paradigm, digital marketers must understand the key trends shaping the current marketplace and what that means for the future of their businesses.”
Key insights from the 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus include:
Facebook-Led Social Media Market is Redefining Communication in the Digital and Physical Worlds
- Social Networking accounted for 16.6 percent of all online minutes at the end of 2011 and is on track to surpass Portals as the most engaging online activity in 2012. Facebook continues to lead as the driving force behind this shift in consumer behavior, accounting for the largest share of online minutes across the entire web in 2011.
Bing Gains Ground in Search
 Although Google maintains a strong lead in the U.S. search market, one of the most notable stories in search in 2011 was Bing’s positive growth trajectory. Bing closed out the year by surpassing Yahoo! for the #2 position among core search engines for the first time in its history, bolstered in part by its social search partnership with Facebook implemented in early 2011.
Online Video Boom Signals Sea Change in Video Ecosystem
 Online video viewing witnessed impressive gains across a variety of measures in 2011, signaling a behavioral shift in how Americans are consuming video content. More than 100 million Americans watched online video content on an average day to close out 2011, representing a 43-percent increase versus year ago.
Digital Advertising Enters Era of Increased Accountability as Brand Dollars Continue to Shift Online
- A staggering 4.8 trillion display ad impressions were delivered across the U.S. web in 2011 as brand advertisers continued to shift dollars to the digital medium. This shift in ad dollars has magnified the need for greater transparency and accountability in ad delivery across the digital advertising ecosystem.
Smartphone and Tablets Fuel the Rise of the Digital Omnivore
 The rise of smartphones and tablets has drastically altered consumers’ digital media consumption. In 2011, the majority of all mobile phone owners consumed mobile media on their device, marking an important milestone in the evolution of mobile from primarily a communication device to also a content consumption tool. At the end of the year, more than 8 percent of all digital traffic was consumed beyond the ‘classic web’ via devices such as smartphones and tablets.
E-Commerce is Back and Better Than Ever
- Despite the backdrop of continued economic uncertainty, 2011 was a strong year for retail e-commerce. Throughout the year, growth rates versus the prior year remained in double-digits to significantly outpace growth at brick-and-mortar retail. Total U.S. retail and travel-related e-commerce reached $256 billion in 2011, up 12 percent from 2010.
To download a complimentary copy of 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, please visit:http://www.comscore.com/2012USDigitalFutureinFocus
Tags: 2012 U.S. Digital Future in Focus, Bing gaings, comScore, e-commerce, facebook, online video, smartphones, tablets
Posted in Hardware, Internet/New Media, IT, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, video | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Mobile devices are playing a critical role in the entertainment research and planning process for a majority of smartphone and iPad users, according to a new study by Greystripe, the world’s largest brand-focused mobile ad network and a division of ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK).
The study, which Greystripe conducted on its network, revealed that 53 percent of smartphone users and 27 percent of iPad users search for movie listings, times and locations on their devices.
Good news for film studios
This is good news for film studios, which can now target movie marketing directly at consumers on the go, looking for films to watch.“Not only are mobile users going to the movies frequently, they are using their mobile devices at every step of the process, from learning about new movies and watching trailers to scouting times and locations, finding the theatre and even completing the process with a purchase.”
The study also finds that participants are using their smartphones and iPads to discover new movies, interact with movie ads, watch trailers, and purchase tickets and DVDs.
Greystripe collected data from 546 users on its network of iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and iPad devices during a one-month-long period from November 1, 2011 to November 30, 2011 to better understand how mobile users are interacting with their smart-devices to research, discover, plan and pay for entertainment.
The study found iPad and touch smartphone users are a key movie-watching demographic, with 39 percent and 41 percent, respectively, watching movies over four times a year.
According to the study, the most common entertainment-related mobile activities for iPad and smartphone users are viewing movie times, locating theaters and watching mobile trailers. These actions are all performed most commonly using a native app, not on the mobile web.
Greystripe also found that mobile videos are capturing the attention of participants with approximately half of smartphone and iPad users, 56 percent and 45 percent respectively, saying they are most intrigued by video ads.
In addition, a majority of smartphone and iPad users, 69 percent and 59 percent respectively, said they watch movie trailers on their mobile device.
The study also uncovered the critical role advertising plays in entertainment-based decisions made by mobile users, with advertising emerging as the top format for new movie discovery and decision-making:
- 65 percent of smartphone users and 67 percent of iPad users find out about new movies from advertising
- 52 percent of smartphone users and 44 percent of iPad users decide which movies to see based on movie advertisements
- Of the users who base their movie decisions on advertisements, 67 percent of smartphone users and 58 percent of iPad users have interacted with entertainment ads on their respective mobile devices
“Mobile is an essential platform for any movie advertiser looking to grab the attention and interest of frequent moviegoers,” said Jim Zarley, CEO of ValueClick. “Not only are mobile users going to the movies frequently, they are using their mobile devices at every step of the process, from learning about new movies and watching trailers to scouting times and locations, finding the theatre and even completing the process with a purchase.”
Some mobile users are going a step further and utilizing their smartphones and iPads to make purchases, with 15 percent of smartphone users and 13 percent of iPad users purchasing movie tickets on their mobile device. Furthermore, 10 percent of smartphone users and 13 percent of iPad users purchase DVDs on their mobile device.
Tags: DVDs, iPads, mobile marketing, movies on mobile, smartphones
Posted in Internet/New Media, Mobile, smartphones, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 Average advertised maximum download speed has increased dramatically over the last 3 months, due to LTE deployment and 3G upgrades to HSPA/HSPA+ technologies, according to a new report, “Mobile broadband – prices falling while download speed and allowances grow.”
Author, Pawel Kmiec, says, “Strategy Analytics analysis shows that the average advertised maximum download speed now stands at over 14 Mbps, an increase of over nine percent in the past quarter. This rapid growth comes from the recent move to 4G or LTE technology in many countries, including Austria, Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey and the USA.
- The number of plans with maximum download speed advertised above 21Mbps represents over 20% of the total;
- The number of tariffs in the fastest download range (between 50Mbps and 100Mbps) grew 114%, from 22 to 47 in just 3 months.
Based on the pace of change seen in the past two years of tracking mobile broadband pricing, Strategy Analytics expects the average maximum download speed to exceed 15Mbps by mid-year and 20 Mbps by the end of 2012. Average data allowance will edge upward, toward a norm of at least 8GB.”
Posted in Internet/New Media, Mobile, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Friday, February 10th, 2012
 2012 is a turning point for the mobile devices market as most device vendors go full swing into LTE, according to a new report from Market Research.
Having already witnessed over 269 unique device launches, and shipments of over 8 Million units in 2011, the LTE devices ecosystem is set to grow at a CAGR of over 104 % over the next five years.
In 2016, there will be nearly 300 Million LTE device shipments all over the globe, with revenues of over 82 Billion USD.
Equally important to consider is the recent approval of the LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) standard by the ITU (International Telecommunications Union).
It is clear that developed LTE markets with available spectrum, such as the United States and Japan, will be the first countries to launch LTE-A devices, and major device vendors and chipset manufacturers, such as Samsung, Motorola Mobility and Qualcomm, will certainly be frontrunners to enter the 4.5 G market in order to grow revenues.
However, there still remain some key unanswered questions in relation to LTE-A adoption such as when would the first LTE-A devices launch? And how many subscriptions will it account for relative to LTE?
“LTE and LTE-Advanced Devices” takes an in-depth look at answering the aforementioned questions besides analysing key trends, vendor/service provider strategies, market share, shipments and revenue in the LTE devices ecosystem.
The report is complemented by a comprehensive LTE-Devices Database that lists LTE device sales and subscriptions by region, country and service provider from 2011 to 2016, and a complete list of 269 commercial LTE devices by vendor, device type, and operating frequency band.
For more information, visit http://www.marketresearch.com/Signals-and-Systems-Telecom-v3882/LTE-Advanced-Devices-Share-Key-6789101/
Tags: LTE devices report, market research
Posted in Hardware, Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
 Catherine Tabor, CEO, Sparkfly. Sparkfly is one of 60 innovative firms presenting at the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference By Allan Maurer
Merchants and manufacturers spend billions annually on offers and promotions such as coupons, daily deals, online banner ads, sweepstakes, and more, but all have shortcomings, says Sparkfly CEO Catherine Tabor.
Founded in 2001 in Atlanta, Sparkfly was an early player in the electronic offers and promotions business, initially providing employee discount platforms to large firms such as Coca Cola and SunTrust and to Emory University.
That business grew covered a million employees nationally and $3 million in annual revenue, but Tabor says merchants in the company’s program really wanted to know what employees were doing once they came into their stores to claim a discount.
“I’ll partner with someone who can take these promotions to an in-store environment,” Tabor thought, but five years ago, “it didn’t exist,” she says.
After an “exhaustive search,” the company partnered with Softcard Systems, which had built a robust platform to track millions of high speed transactions, and built its new technology on top of that platform.
Raised capital for acquisition and platform development
Previously, Softcard had been tracking sales of sugar and flour and other packaged goods at grocery stores, but, Tabor notes, “it could just as easily track movie ticket sales or anything else.”
They were on their way to the “Holy Grail” for retailers, understanding their customers at the point-of-sale.
Sparkfly bought Softcard Systems in 2010, raising an angel investment north of $10 million to fund the buy and platform development. Development of its platform is now complete.
Will present at Southeast Venture Conference
Sparkfly is among 60 innovative technology firms presenting their business plans to venture capitalists and angel investors representing billions in capital at the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1. The company is seeking its first institutional round.
With the world going mobile, marketers have the ability to reach many more consumers, but they need ways to tie their promotions to actual purchase data.
Sparkfly sells a cloud-based solution that enables creation and distribution of personalized offers via the web and mobile devices that will be redeemed at point-of-sale. The patented technology does not require additional in-store hardware or software.
Owning redemption at POS
The product creates a dynamic code tied to buyers redeeming offers which zips back to its servers for authentication and tracking. It then unlocks any new offers to that buyer.
“What we’re trying to own is redemption at point of sale.”
 The system also can connect online advertising to brick & mortar redemption of offers, which is often the missing link in tracking ROI for online advertising.
Retailers and manufacturers can customize promotions based on individual purchase behavior to deliver and manage offers for specific products by location, time of day, and demographic variables. Customers can receive their offers via social, mobile, or web channels. Tabor says it leverages existing infrastructure in POS environments and adapts easily to multi-lane or multi-store operations.
It has integrated with POS providers, including NCR/Radiant, MICROS, Gilbarco, REtalix, IBM, POSitouch and Verifone. The company holds 16 patents with other pending.
Sparkfly is also testing its new integrated platform in pilot runs with several large brands.
The company gets paid for performance – by transaction.
It’s continuing to integrate its software with merchants, consumer package goods manufacturers, and publishers.
Tabor points out that while daily deals and online discount offers are a big business, it’s expensive to be a Groupon or a Foursquare – businesses that required hundreds of millions in startup funding.
“We have the opportunity to make all those businesses more viable,” says Tabor, “tracking people within those networks through point of sale, which provides an opportunity to reward frequent buyers and loyalty rather than just giving someone you’ll never see again a coupon.”
Sparkfly is starting a pilot program with its first national merchant, Auntie Anne’s (the pretzel chain) in the Atlanta market during February.
Tags: Allan Maurer, analytics, Atlanta, coupon offers, online discounts, point of service tracking, POS, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, Sparkfly, venture fund raising
Posted in entrepreneurship, Events, Internet/New Media, IT, Money | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
Have you had bad experiences on Facebook or other social networks? Several of our friends temporarily departed Facebook after users stalked them with threats, but on the other hand, another managed to raise money to pay members of an orchestra doing a Mahler concert solely from Facebook friends.
The overall social and emotional climate of social networking sites (SNS) is a very positive one where adult users get personal rewards and satisfactions at far higher levels than they encounter anti-social people or have ill consequences from their encounters.
A nationally representative phone survey of American adults finds that:
- 85% of SNS-using adults say that their experience on the sites is that people are mostly kind, compared with 5% who say people they observe on the sites are mostly unkind and another 5% who say their answer depends on the situation.
- 68% of SNS users said they had an experience that made them feel good about themselves.
- 61% had experiences that made them feel closer to another person. (Many said they had both experiences.)
- 39% of SNS-using adults say they frequently see acts of generosity by other SNS users and another 36% say they sometimes see others behaving generously and helpfully. By comparison, 18% of SNS-using adults say they see helpful behavior “only once in a while” and 5% say they never see generosity exhibited by others on social networking sites.
At the same time, notable proportions of SNS users do witness bad behavior on those sites and nearly a third have experienced some negative outcomes from their experiences on social networking sites.
Some 49% of SNS-using adults said they have seen mean or cruel behavior displayed by others at least occasionally. And 26% said they had experienced at least one of the bad outcomes that were queried in the survey.
Those bad outcomes were:
- 15% of adult SNS users said they had an experience on the site that ended their friendship with someone.
- 12% of adult SNS users had an experience that resulted in a face-to-face argument or confrontation with someone.
- 11% of adult SNS users had an experience on the site that caused a problem with their family.
- 3% of SNS-using adults said they had gotten into a physical fight with someone based on an experience they had on the site.
- 3% of adult SNS users said their use of the site had gotten them in trouble at work because of something that happened on the site.
In addition, 13% of adult SNS users said that someone had acted in a mean or cruel way towards them on a social networking site in the past 12 months.
Adults are generally more positive and less negative than teens about the behavior of others and their own experiences on social networking sites.This survey of adults was conducted in order to compare adult experiences on social networking sites to teenagers’ experiences. The Pew Internet Project reported the teen findings in November 2011.1
As a rule, more adults than teens reported positive results on SNS. For instance, a higher proportion of adults than teens say their experience is that people are mostly kind on social networking sites.
And significantly smaller proportions of adults have had bad outcomes based on their SNS use such as confrontations, lost friendships, family strife, and fights. Overall, the two surveys show that 41% of SNS-using teens have had at least one of the bad experiences we queried, compared with 26% of the SNS-using adults.
When they see mean or aggressive behavior on social networking sites, adults are more likely than teens to ignore it and not get involved.Compared with teen SNS users, adults are somewhat more likely to stand back, not get involved, and ignore the offensive behavior. For instance, 45% of adult SNS users who have witnessed problems say they frequently ignore offensive behavior online, compared with 35% of SNS-using teens who say they frequently ignore offensive behavior.
Some 34% of adult SNS users say they never confront the person being offensive, compared with 21% of SNS-using teens who never take that step. Some 29% of adults who have witnessed problems never defend the person or group being attacked, compared with 19% of teens who never take that action.
At the same time, adults who have seen harassment on SNS are a bit less likely than teens to say they join in the harassment that they see occurring on social networking sites.
Some 19% of teen SNS users said they at least occasionally join in the mean and offensive behavior that is being directed at another SNS user, compared with 15% of adults who say they join in at least occasionally.
Interestingly, there is a split when it comes to the behavior of men and women when they see a people acting meanly on a social networking site. Men are more likely to ignore a problem they see on a social networking site and women are more likely to respond.
- 26% of SNS-using women will frequently tell a person to stop attacking someone on a social networking site, but only 19% of SNS-using men will do that frequently. At the same time, 41% of men say they never tell someone to stop harassing another person on a social networking site, while only 29% of women say they never take action when they see a problem unfolding.
- Similarly, 28% of SNS-using women say they frequently defend a person or group that is being harassed or insulted, while only 19% say they will frequently do so. At the same time, 33% of SNS-using men say they never defend a person or group that is under attack on a social networking site, compared with 25% of women who say they never defend someone under attack.
Minorities, women, parents, and Millennials are most likely to witness offensive material on social networking sites.
Asked how frequently they see language, images or humor on SNS that is offensive, 73% of SNS-using adults said they encountered such offensive content or language only once in a while or never. There were several groups, though, that were more likely to encounter such material:
- 42% of black SNS users said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 22% of white SNS users. In addition, 33% of Hispanic SNS users said they encountered such material that often, notably higher than whites.
- 34% of Millennial generation SNS users – those ages 18-34 – said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 17% of SNS users in GenX (those ages 35-46). Even smaller percentages of SNS-using Baby Boomers and retirees said they had encountered such material.
- 29% of women SNS users said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 22% of men.
- 29% of SNS users who are parents with minor children said they frequently or sometimes saw language, images or humor on SNS that they found offensive, compared with 24% of nonparents.
–additional comments are by TechJournal Editor, Allan Maurer. (Allan at TechJournalSouth dot com).
Tags: Pew Internet in American Life Project, SNS, social & emotional climate of social networking
Posted in Internet/New Media, People, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
 Want to get some digital analytics data on your sites or those of your competitors but don’t have the tools? Now you can take a look at a snapshot of the search and social success of some 75 million domains free.
Searchmetrics, a leader in search and social analytics software, is making a host of complimentary digital marketing data instantly available online, allowing anyone to assess the Search Engine Optimization (SEO), paid search advertising, backlinks structure and social media visibility of over 75 million domains that Searchmetrics monitors in 15 countries.
The data is available via a new online dashboard which has been introduced for the company’s Searchmetrics Essentials search and social analytics software, as Marcus Tober, Searchmetrics’ CTO and founder, explains:
“Now anyone can enter the URL of almost any web site into the new Searchmetrics Essentials dashboard to get an at-a-glance snapshot of the search and social success of the site. How does it rank against other sites in terms of organic and paid search?
Highly ranked keywords
What are some of the top keywords it ranks highly for and who does it compete with in search? It even provides measurement of how often a site’s pages are liked, tweeted and shared at top social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Google + 1.
If the site you are interested in is one of the over 75 million domains we monitor in 15 countries, then our dashboard will show you some valuable insights.”
Searchmetrics is making this complimentary data available to anyone who has an interest in search and social media marketing, without registration, in a bid to demonstrate the power of its Searchmetrics Essentials software.
“For example if you type in CNN.com into the Searchmetrics Essentials dashboard, you can see that according to our analysis, CNN’s web site is estimated to rank No 231 in the U.S.’s top 100,000 sites for search engine optimization and it is ranked 37,5662 for paid search visibility for this week.
The site is estimated to have 58,323,004 Facebook likes, shares, and comments which link to its pages and 11,693,789 links shared on Twitter,” explained Tober.
“We wanted to offer our services to the widest audience possible so that anyone could see how simple it is to gain market insight and maintain a competitive advantage online. The dashboard gives you a taste of the data we can provide.
If you are a professional search and social marketer who needs deeper analysis, then you can upgrade to the full version of the software,” added Tober.
Searchmetrics Essentials is powered by the largest, fastest databases available for search and social media giving global marketers instant access to competitive intelligence in organic, paid and universal search, as well as visibility on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +1, Delicious and StumbleUpon.
Powerful single dashboard
By providing a powerful single dashboard — instead of multiple tools and websites — the full Searchmetrics Essentials allows marketers to instantly research the visibility of websites, market verticals, industries, and social media mentions. Less time spent switching between tools and manually producing reports means more time to focus on activities that drive revenue.
“We monitor 100 million keywords, over 75 million domains, across 15 countries. This means businesses can see how they compare to competitors both here and abroad,” said Tober. “And if you use our enterprise tool, the Searchmetrics Suite, you can even monitor in 53 countries and nearly all search engines in the world.”
Try the new Searchmetrics Essentials online dashboard to get an unrivaled snapshot of online marketing data of any URL now by going here:http://suite.searchmetrics.com/en/essentials.
Tags: backlinks structure, digital marketing data, free SEO analysis, paid search, Searchmetrics, social media visibility
Posted in Analytics, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing | No Comments »
Thursday, February 9th, 2012
 A gap exists between attitudes towards social media and investment in social media, according to the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) , a trade association for the software and digital content industries, in its new report, ”Marketing in Today’s Economy”
About 90 percent of marketing executives surveyed use social media marketing, and three quarters believe it has a positive impact on their business.
At the same time slightly more than half (54.5 percent) of respondents said their company’s marketing team spends less than 10 hours per week investing in social media. And further,35 percent said they spend only between one and five hours per week on social media marketing.
“Social media has clearly become a widely used tool among B2B marketers and few doubt that it is helping their business,” said Rhianna Collier, Vice President of SIIA’s Software Division.
“But our survey also shows that marketers may not be dedicating the resources necessary to get the results they want from social media marketing. It is remarkable to see that, despite their strong belief in the power of social media, over one-third of marketers are engaged in it for only five hours or fewer every week.”
The SIIA survey suggests that marketers do recognize the need to dedicate more resources to their social media efforts going forward. About 65 percent of respondents cited social media as an area in which they would like to invest more spending, and over 70 percent indicated they expect to increase their use of both Twitter and Linkedin in the year ahead.
Applying same ROI metrics as to other marketing efforts
And importantly, marketers are beginning to apply the same ROI metrics to social media that they do for other marketing efforts, both offline and online. For example, 59 percent of businesses are using social media use web traffic as an indicator of social media ROI, while 53 percent are using qualified leads as a key ROI metric.
Collier continued, “Social media is still a relatively new method for growing a business, but marketers clearly believe it is has value and will require greater investment. And with more marketers now applying traditional ROI metrics—such as qualified leads—to their social media efforts, they are more likely to get a clear sense of what level of investment makes sense. The maturation process of social media is clearly underway, and we can expect to see significant advancements in the coming years.”
The survey looked at wide range of issues, and found a number of other results that are important for marketers—including:
- 75 percent of respondents do not outsource any social media efforts.
- Nearly 60 percent of respondents said that less than 5 percent of their deals began through social network interactions.
- Privacy is the top ethical concern in today’s marketing world.
- Most marketers predict that the biggest trend in 2012 will be greater communication and quantification of value to customers.
The Software & Information Industry Association conducted the survey in conjunction with Lopez Research during the fourth quarter of 2011. The survey interviewed 106 marketing executives, of which 88 percent were business-to-business marketers.
Tags: B2B marketing, SIIA, social media investment, social media marketing
Posted in best practices, Internet/New Media, social media, Studies, surveys, reports | No Comments »
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