Posts Tagged ‘social media’
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
 Search and social marketing agency, Greenlight says it expects search giant Google to overtake Yahoo and become king of display advertising by the end of the year.
Greenlight also predicts 2012 will be will be the year of social link building and that social media sites will take on a multi-faceted identity.
These alongside others from Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, are some of the firm’s predictions in the latest quarterly edition of Greenlight’s monthly magazine which accompanies the firm’s independent research.
Paid Search – Google will overtake Yahoo to become king of display
2011 was a busy year for the Search Industry with Google acquiring Invite Media and Teracent. In early December, Google officially launched its DoubleClick Search V3 platform – DS3 – a bid management programme which combines Yahoo and MSN into an AdWords type interface.
Google is making significant investment in the DoubleClick platform, specifically DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) and the Exchange. So will online advertisers really need to invest elsewhere when Google is pretty much geared up to be the one-stop-shop?”
“Google’s noteworthy acquisitions and investments in 2011 combined with the mighty AdWords suggest that by the end of 2012, not only will 90 per cent of advertisers’ Search budgets be in AdWords, but also that this trend is set for display,” saysHannah Kimuyu, Paid Media Director, Greenlight.
2012 – The year of Social Link building
Adam Bunn, SEO Director at Greenlight, says the confluence of user signals influencing search engines’ perception of brand strength, and everyone being on the “social media helps us build links” bandwagon, will make 2012 The Year of Social Link Building.
What users search for can tell search engines about the strength of a brand, because the strength of the brand directly influences those searches. As such, Bunn argues that now, social media is the best means of influencing brand perception online.
At the same time, more and more marketers are cottoning on to the fact that social media can dramatically catalyse search engine optimisation (SEO) campaigns, by increasing the speed of accrual and the volume of natural links pointing to a site.
“It is time to stop thinking of SEO as a bubble, time SEO becomes more than SEO, more than just links,” says Bunn. “It is SEO=Digital PR. SEO=your brand. This year, marketers who think like that when planning their campaigns will win, and those who do not, will be ‘also-rans.’”
2012 – The year social media starts taking on a multi-faceted identity
According to Anna O’Brien, Social Media Director, Greenlight, social media as it currently stands does not support myriad different relationships and personalities we have.
While sites like Reddit and 4chan appeal to the user who wishes to share information, cloaked in anonymity, Facebook provides a mass audience live feed. However, while these sites thrive, they live at opposite ends of the spectrum and both only currently provide a single use view.
“Somehow these mainstream sites will evolve to allow you to become more multi-faceted. This is more than Google circles or Facebook friend groups. Those cater to organisation of content rather than the accurate portrayal of multi-dimensional identities.”
Tags: 4chan, AdWords, Doubleclick, Google, Greenlight, MSN, online display advertising, Reddit, social link building, social media, Yahoo
Posted in Google, Internet/New Media, Marketing, social media | Comments Off
Friday, December 30th, 2011
 With high profile security breaches in the news throughout 2011, security firm Agiliance sees dramatic changes ahead for the security industry in 2012. It’s list of predictions for the coming year in security focus on mobile, cloud computing, legislation, and social media.
These predictions are based on the company’s engagement with Global 2000 companies, government agencies, fellow security vendors, industry analysts and security consultants, as well as market research it conducts on a regular basis.
Topping the list is Agiliance’s prediction that organizations will recognize that risk is security’s new compliance.
A risk-based approach and holistic view of the organization’s IT infrastructure will be driven by further consumerization of IT, challenges related to social media as an instrument in cyber warfare, stricter enforcement and new legislation focused on data protection, threat information sharing, and incident disclosure, as well as the emerging need to assess cloud service providers’ ability to enforce security policies and continuously maintain an adequate compliance posture.
“For many years, complying with government standards and industry regulations has been seen as a check box in the lengthy list of IT security tasks,” said Torsten George, vice president of worldwide marketing at Agiliance.
“In 2012, we will see progressive organizations applying a risk-based, continuous approach to security. By doing so, they will be able to make risk visible, measurable, and actionable.”
Specifically, Agiliance expects dramatic changes in the following areas:
Mobile Devices and Social Media
New products and services will emerge that deal with the necessary delineation of employer-owned versus employee-owned data on mobile devices.
These products will go beyond anti-virus and malware software to deal with embedded strong authentication, secure mobile operating systems scanners, mobile operating system vulnerability scanning, and data segregation / encryption. For social media threats, existing security tools’ capabilities will be extended to cover monitoring of social media networks to tackle the emergency of social media cyber warfare.
Cloud Computing Security
Agiliance predicts an acceleration of efforts to create standards around cloud security, primarily driven by the data consolidation efforts of the U.S. government as well as wide-ranging support of the Cloud Security Alliance. Independent, continuous monitoring of cloud service providers’ security controls will become a standard part of service level agreements.
Legislative Initiatives
Agiliance predicts that, in the second half of 2012, a government mandate will be passed that will lead to a pro-active Information Security Risk Management system and related best practices to tackle cyber security threats.
Similar to stricter enforcement policies of the HiTech Act by the HHS, regulations penalty cases will surge in 2012. Furthermore, privacy audit is becoming a major driver behind security tool investments as organizations are coming up short on audits relating to data breaches, disclosure notifications, data handling, attribution, and incident closure.
Anti-Cyber Crime Collaboration
Sharing of sensitive threat information will become essential to prevent widespread cyber attacks across different verticals and industries. Nowadays, cyber criminals are coordinating their efforts and are well-versed in sharing vulnerabilities and attack methodologies. They even have their own online communities where they exchange information.
This is unmatched by the commercial sector and government agencies. As a result, Agiliance predicts that the increase in cyber security attacks and data breaches will lead to the introduction of a formal information sharing database that will be made accessible to a broader group.
Risk is Security’s New Compliance
With more than 365 security incidents reported this year to date, affecting over 126 million records, cyber security attacks have become a mainstream event in the industry.
Based on these changes, Agiliance predicts further increase in demand for software tools that are able to aggregate data from existing security tools and information management applications to make risk visible, measurable, and actionable.
These tools will not only provide advanced reporting capabilities, but interconnectivity to ensure that remediation actions can be triggered and followed through easily. To better describe the capabilities of these tools, analysts will create a new software category called Security Risk Management.
For the in-depth predictions, data, and accompanying graphics, please see Agiliance’s 2012 IT Security Predictions:http://www.agiliance.com/forms/WhitePaperReg.html?doc=Security_Predictions.
Tags: Agiliance 2012 security industry predictions, anti-crime collaboration, cloud computing secuirty, cyber security legislation, mobile security, risk management, social media
Posted in Cloud, Internet/New Media, IT, Mobile, Security, smartphones, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | Comments Off
Monday, December 5th, 2011
 A new study from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs shows that content marketing is now responsible for 26% of total B2B marketing spending. In addition, 60% of marketers plan to increase content marketing budgets in 2012, with a full nine of 10 organizations surveyed now using content marketing.
The most popular content marketing tactics include articles (79%), social media (excluding blogs) (74%), blogs (65%), and eNewsletters (63%).
“One of the most interesting findings was what we term the ‘confidence gap,’ in which marketers use tactics but are unsure of how effective they are,” says Joe Pulizzi, Founder of the Content Marketing Institute and co-author of Managing Content Marketing.
“While uncertainty still exists, marketers are becoming increasingly more confident in the content marketing tactics they are using. This increase is especially notable with blogs, case studies, videos and webinars/webcasts.”
Other notable findings include:
- On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.
- Every major social media channel is seeing increased adoption, often by 15-20%.
- 60% report that they plan to increase spending on content marketing over the next 12 months, compared to 51% in the previous study.
- Marketers, on average, spend over a quarter of their marketing budget on content marketing.
- Last year, only 55% of marketers used outsourcing in some capacity. This year, 62% of B2B marketers use a mix of insourced and outsourced content.
B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends is the second annual survey from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs about content marketing in the business-to-business (B2B) space to date. Over 1000 B2B marketers from diverse industries and a wide range of company sizes were surveyed in August 2011. The full content marketing research report can be found at the Content Marketing Institute.
Tags: 8 content marketing tactics employed by b2b, B2B content marketing, b2b marketers to increase content marketing spend 60 percent, blogs, case studies, social media, webcasts, webinars
Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, Marketing, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Twitter | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011
 Shane Johnston, Capstrat VP By Allan Maurer
So, when you hear talk about digital marketing tactics, what term makes you roll your eyes and curse under your breath? That’s one of the questions communications agency Capstrat asked the marketing and technology pros who attended the recent TechMedia Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC.
“Far and away, of ten choices, they said QR codes,” says Shane Johnston, a vice president and account director at Capstrat. QR codes (Quick Response Codes are those bar codes you scan for information or to go to a web site). “A lot of people think they are overused and misused and don’t pay off,” Johnston adds.
In the survey, 23 percent said QR Codes caused the most eye-rolling, while 14.6 percent said social media, and 10.9 percent said SEO.
Capstrat received about 240 responses to its survey, a statistically significant number of the 1,800 or so people who attended the Internet Summit Nov. 15-16.
“We tried to keep it a bit entertaining and snarky,” Johnston says of the survey. It asked questions such as, “What trend is the next Justin Bieber-in its adolescence now but sure to hit its prime soon.
Mobile headed for prime time
No surprise there: 25.7 percent said “mobile marketing,” followed closely by “location-based marketing,” with 25.2 percent. “Only one vote separated the two,” Johnston notes.
 The 2011 Internet Summit in Raleigh filled the ballrooms at the Convention Center. Which tactic is the most misunderstood (the Kanye West of digital marketing, the survey suggests). Social media nabbed 28.3 percent of the votes there, with only analytics at 11.9 percent even close among the ten other choices.
Asked which marketing trend will fade like a fake tan in the next year, QR Codes again won the voting with 37.1 percent, followed by banner advertising at 25.9 percent.
Personally, we think banner advertising gets a bad rap. One of the things we hear from digital marketing experts and measurement firms such as comScore is that for certain campaigns (such as selling package goods), banner ads can be as effective as TV advertising in moving goods off store shelves.
One marketing expert who spoke at the event said, “You hear a lot of talk about people not clicking on banner ads, but if its an ad for something they’re looking for, they click on them.”
Which buzzword is most misused?
What would you respond if asked, “Which digital marketing buzzword do people – like that annoying intern – misuse all the time?”
Those responding to the survey said “cloud,” (25.7 percent), with “engagement” (18.9 percent), “thought-leadership” (16.7 percent) and “new media” (14.9 percent) also getting significant responses.
“What’s the bright shiny tactic your CEO keeps grabbing for? Survey said: Social media (24.5 percent) followed by analytics at 12.3 percent.
Ok marketing wizards, what new technological magic will transform digital marketing in the next two years? The Internet Summit attendees said “digital wallets,” (22.5 percent), mobile (19.3 percent) and new platforms (such as tablets), 19.8 percent.
After using our new Amazon Kindle Fire tablet for only a few days, we suspect new platforms may be a major factor, ourselves.
Bad news for traditional marketing
Here’s some bad news for print, TV and radio media. Asked if they could slash spending in one area, which they would choose, a whooping 41.7 percent said “traditional media.” But online media took its lumps too, because “banner ads” came in second at 25.5 percent.
A majority (20.3 percent) said that if they could, they would throw more money at customer relationship management (20.3 percent), analytics (18.9 percent) and social media (18.7 percent).
And finally, a result we applaud (can you hear me clapping?): most said their number one source of digital marketing news is online publications (37.4 percent) followed by blogs (21.8 percent) and soical media (22.7 percent).
Tags: Capstrat, cloud, Internet Summit, location-based marketing, mobile, SEO, Shane Johnston, social media, thought-leadership
Posted in Cloud, Events, Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
 While federal government departments are using social media, the effect may be muddled for citizens, according to a report from customer experience analytics firm ForeSee, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Quarterly E-Government Satisfaction Index, including an analysis of the state of social media in the federal government.
ForeSee’s audit of social media activity in the federal government identified clear themes and best practices, showing that the public sector is learning to communicate with citizens in ways that are not usually associated with government services.
ForeSee conducted an expert usability review of the 15 executive department websites in order to gauge how many participate in social media and how they do it. All are participating in the three most popular social platforms—Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—and many are using other new media and communications tools, from Flickr and podcasts to email newsletters and RSS feeds.
Social media now a necessity
“Social media is no longer a nice to have but a necessity in both the private sector and the public sector. It’s just the way people communicate now,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee and author of Managing Forward: How to Move from Measuring the Past to Managing the Future.
“The good news is that federal departments are participating in social media; the bad news is that efforts are happening at a variety of levels, and the effect can be muddled for citizens.”
Several clear themes and best practices emerging from the research are included in the report and can serve as useful guidance for other federal, state, and local governments.
When government agencies adhere to the best practices that make their sites easier for citizens to use, citizen satisfaction increases, as does transparency and trust. Studies show that when satisfaction increases, citizens are more likely to use the website as opposed to other, costlier channels.
Today’s report also includes the third quarter update of the ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index, a report that has been issued every quarter since 2003. Overall, satisfaction with federal government websites remains at 75 on the ACSI’s 100-point scale.
Citizen satisfaction has remained at 75 or higher since late 2009 (with only one exception in the second quarter of 2010, when satisfaction fell briefly to 74.7). Today’s report represents more than 270,000 citizen surveys and includes scores for 100 federal government sites, all on a 100-point scale, so that comparisons can be made between sites over time.
Customer satisfaction a moving target
“Customer satisfaction is a moving target that requires continual adjustment to changing circumstances,” said Professor Claes Fornell of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and head of the ACSI. “Whether it is government or business, achieving high satisfaction requires responsiveness to consumer tastes, preferences, and even how they communicate, and part of that is effective use of social media.”
Today’s report also contains the ForeSee Online Transparency Index, which provides a consistent measure of online transparency and quantifies its impact on citizens’ attitudes and behaviors for 36 federal websites. In aggregate, transparency increases one point to 77, which is an all-time high for the category.
A full list of individual website scores along with more discussion of social media trends and best practices is included in the Q3 2011 ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index, available as a free download at www.foresee.com.
Tags: American Customer Satisfaction Index, best practices for federal government use of social media, facebook, federal government use of social media, ForeSee, podcasts, Quarterly E-government satisfaction index, RSS feeds, social media, twitter, YouTube
Posted in best practices, Government/Defense, Internet/New Media, social media, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Thursday, September 29th, 2011
 A company’s corporate website is the top source of new sales leads—second only to personal connections and referrals, and more than seven times more effective than social media, according to a 2011 Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study released today by marketing technology company Demandbase and online business network Focus.
However, study participants report that the website still vastly underperforms in terms of lead generation. And, while businesses feel that they understand their sales prospects (more than 60 percent report knowing or understanding their prospects well), they do not understand their prospects’ behavior on the very site that’s driving those sales leads.
The 2011 Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study was conducted among the Focus Expert Network, a nationwide cross section of sales, marketing and engineering executives from small, midsize and enterprise companies. The survey was conducted online between May 18 and May 25, 2011.
All online marketing roads lead to the company website
“Social media may be heralded as the silver bullet to bring B2B marketing up to snuff but, despite its increasing influence, it’s important to keep in mind that no business sale is made without the buyer going to the corporate website first,” said Chris Golec, CEO, Demandbase.
“Regardless of its origin–social media or e-mail, banners or search—traffic driven from online marketing initiatives always intersects at the website. And, while businesses are investing heavily in their sites, the study shows that they are then ignoring the very audience they worked so hard to attract.”
Findings Include (Note: Detailed findings around a broad range of questions asked in the survey can be found in the Demandbase and Focus.com 2011 National Website Demand Generation Study):
- The Corporate Website: Hub vs. Spokes
- While online marketing activities act as ‘spokes’ into the sales funnel, the corporate website clearly remains the primary hub to harness customer interest driven by these marketing activities.
- Executives cite the website as the top online source of sales leads (23 percent), well exceeding e-mail (14 percent), online advertising (7 percent), and social media (3 percent).
- Corporate Hub Leaves B2B Visitors Underserviced
- While the corporate website may be a leading source of new leads for businesses, 80 percent of respondents report that their company website is not performing to its maximum lead generation potential.
- IT respondents are far less aware of website’s shortcomings, with roughly one-half (52 percent) reporting that it was not living up to its potential, vs. non-IT respondents, who are keenly aware of its limitations (90 percent).
- Unidentified, Untracked Web Browsers
- When it comes to areas of improvement, 87 percent of respondents report that the website needs to improve on the tracking and reporting of unregistered site users, with18 percent citing that strong improvement is needed in this area.
- Nearly one-half of executives surveyed do not know where (web page or section) their users are most likely to abandon their website.
- Quality vs. Quantity
- The single most important factor for measuring website effectiveness is the quality of leads generated, with 34 percent of all respondents indicating that quality is more important than quantity of sales leads (9 percent).
- Enterprise businesses, which are often more interested in overall branding than their small business counterparts, emphasize the importance of measuring volume (44 percent total), whereas small businesses emphasize quality of leads (40 percent total).
“B2B marketers are getting more skilled at Sales 2.0 tactics—using marketing to learn more about their prospects. But they are underperforming when it comes to Buyer 2.0—helping their prospects learn more about them,” said Adam Greco, senior partner, Web Analytics Demystified, Inc. “Marketers clearly understand that their web strategies are underperforming, and they now need to focus on building personalized experiences that engage their customers every step of the way.”
The full 2011 Demandbase National Marketing and Sales Study
Tags: all online marketing intersects with company websites, company websites top lead generators, Demandbase, hub vs. spokes, National marketing and sales study, social media
Posted in best practices, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing, social media, Studies, surveys, reports | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
 If you’re an e-commerce retailer with lots of engaged fans on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media networks, now it could help you qualify for a capital advance in this lending-challenged economy.
Kabbage Inc., a provider of working capital for online merchants, is offering Social Klimbing, which gives small businesses additional access to capital based on social network activity. Today’s announcement represents the first time a financial services company has provided benefits to its customers as a result of Facebook fan pages and Twitter feeds.
“Kabbage is the only company providing working capital to companies based on social media activity and utilization,” said Kathryn Petralia, Kabbage co-founder and COO.
“With Social Klimbing, small businesses can – for the first time – benefit from maintaining and growing relationships with their customers through Facebook and Twitter. While other companies are ‘talking’ about customer engagement, Kabbage is actually quantifying and utilizing it as a means to give small businesses more capital to grow.”
To date, Kabbage has leveraged marketplace data, such as seller ratings for online merchants, to underwrite its business customers. With Social Klimbing, Kabbage can now reward businesses that leverage social media to attract, interact with and retain customers.
Social Klimbing allows customers to connect their Kabbage accounts to existing or new Facebook fan pages and Twitter feeds, which is immediately analyzed and translated into additional capital. As customers increase followers, activities and chatter on Twitter and Facebook, they will automatically gain access to more funds.
Kabbage, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is pioneering the first financial services data, technology and marketing platform just for online merchants, supporting millions of small and medium businesses that make a living selling online. The company presented at TechMedia’s Southeast Venture Conference and recently raised funding itself.
Kabbage leverages data generated through merchant activity across various marketplaces and channels to understand business performance and craft financing options that meet their needs.
Kabbage is venture funded and backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures and BlueRun Ventures, with additional investors including: David Bonderman, founder of TPG Capital, Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens Inc., and the UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund.
Tags: Atlanta, capital advances, e-commerce, e-merchants, engaged social media fans, Kabbage, Kathryn Petralia, online merchants, SEVC, Social Klimbing, social media
Posted in Georgia, Money, social media | Comments Off
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
 IVANS, Inc., the largest insurance data exchange in the country, says that the top five technologies insurance carriers are investing in or planning to implement over the next 12 months are: underwriting solutions; policy administration systems; consumer portals; predictive analytics/business intelligence; and mobility/virtualization.
According to IVANS 2011 Carrier Automation Trends study, 49 percent of carriers that responded are investing in underwriting solutions to boost efficiencies and grow their business.
Speed to market has become critical, and carriers looking to differentiate themselves are investing in underwriting applications that incorporate real-time processes and create greater visibility in the front end of their value chain.
Seeking ways to increase flexibility
A heightened focus on expense reduction and growth strategies is causing carriers to look for ways to increase flexibility, improve functionality and streamline reporting processes across their lines of business.
Not surprisingly, 42 percent of carriers surveyed are investing in policy administration systems to provide new avenues for capturing marketshare. With improved workflows and automated underwriting results, carriers are able to increase their ease of doing business and write more business with agents.
IVANS Inc. president and CEO, Clare DeNicola said, “We are seeing carriers focus on infrastructure, product innovation, analytics and automating workflows to maintain growth and create market differentiation in an increasingly challenging economic and regulatory environment.
Clear strategy is a challenge
The challenge is creating a clear strategy on value creation that aligns technology with business, and optimizes the benefits with a carrier’s business partners. Those who are successful will be able to capitalize on new market opportunities and foster long term growth.”
The IVANS study also revealed that 25 percent of carriers already have a consumer portal while 22 percent are currently implementing one and 18 percent have plans to put one in place over the next 12 months.
With limited ways to grow in the property-casualty insurance industry, consumer portals provide real-time quoting capabilities and lead-generating functionality that open up new distribution channels that can be seamlessly integrated into a carrier’s website.
Almost 37 percent of carriers are currently implementing or have plans to integrate predictive modeling and business intelligence into their organizations over the next 12 months. With external influences (e.g., natural disasters, regulations) playing a larger role in the industry, these technologies enable carriers to make more consistent and accurate business decisions in less time.
Rounding out the top five technologies are mobile devices and desktop virtualization. Twenty one percent of carriers are putting into operation these technologies and 13 percent are planning to do so over the next year. Carriers are using mobility to improve productivity in such areas as sales, support and claims. And, desktop virtualization lowers IT costs while providing carriers better agent support and a strategic agility that can help with regional compliance requirements.
Half use LinkedIn, 49 percent use Facebook
IVANS also asked carriers about social networking, and LinkedIn and Facebook were chosen as the most popular social networking websites. Fifty percent are using LinkedIn and almost 49 percent are relying on Facebook as a daily business tool for communication, even though a return on investment is difficult to measure for both. Interestingly, 52 percent of agents surveyed by IVANS in another study said they do not engage in social media and, of those who do, only 14 percent use it to enhance customer service, citing lack of resources and having to compete with carriers for customer attention as barriers.
DeNicola said, “These findings indicate that for carriers and agents to realize the full potential of social networking, they need to develop joint social media strategies that cultivate customer relationships and improve agent-carrier communication. Additionally, the strategies need to communicate thought leadership while provide guidance on privacy and security issues. Doing so creates a consistent message that will further strengthen the brand, and lead to greater business growth for both.”
Tags: business intelligence, consumer portals, insuance carriers investing in tech, IVANS, predictive modeling, social media, survey
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
 WASHINGTON, DC – Consumers in the Baltimore and Washington, DC areas are using daily deal websites such as Groupon and Living Social and engaging with user-generated product and service review sites like Yelp in ways that impact their purchasing decisions.
The Capitol Communicator/WB&A Market Research Poll, a study sponsored by branding and marketing communications agency ZilYen, queries consumers on their behavior across a range of online activities from exploring daily deal websites to following companies on Facebook and Twitter to scanning QR codes with smartphones for product and service information.
If you’re looking for insight into the Digital Media world in the Potomac region, you might want to check out TechMedia’s Digital East Conference next week (Sept. 28-29) at Tysons Corner, VA. And now, back to our regular program:
According to the July/August study of 836 households, about a quarter of respondents said they purchased online coupons through a daily deal website in the past two months (Baltimore 24%, Washington 30%).
One-third using social media
Slightly more Washington, DC area residents bought a daily deal coupon for a merchant they had not tried before (25%), than for merchants they had made a previous purchase from (21%), whereas a similar proportion of Baltimore area residents purchased these daily deal coupons both for merchants they are trying for the first time and for merchants they had experience with in the past (17% vs. 16%).
Baltimore and Washington, DC area residents are also using the growing reach of Social Media to follow and gain information on companies through Facebook and Twitter. In fact, about a third of residents in both areas “friend” or “like” companies on Facebook (Baltimore 34%, Washington, DC 32%), while almost one in ten “follow” or “tag” companies on Twitter (Baltimore 7%, Washington, DC 9%).
“There is so much online data available that consumers can quickly get information overload when researching a purchase,” says Steve Markenson, president of WB&A Market Research, “so our study provides some insights to help marketers and communicators develop the most effective strategies.”
Other findings from the study available at www.WBandA.com are:
More than half of residents said that user-generated online reviews have impacted a purchasing decision in the past 6 months (Baltimore 57%, Washington, DC 59%). However, a smaller proportion of residents are actually posting reviews themselves (Baltimore 42%, Washington, DC 33%).
There is higher overall smartphone ownership in Washington than Baltimore (58% vs. 42%), with more Washingtonians scanning a QR code for additional information or discounts on products/services (23% vs. 17%).
More Baltimore area residents (59%) would be impacted by an online tax as compared to half of Washington, DC area residents (50%).
“With this snapshot of consumer behavior in Baltimore and Washington we are helping marketers and communicators find the hot buttons of their audiences and ways to reach them,” says Paul Duning, co-founder of Capitol Communicator. “It will be interesting to see how this data changes over time.”
Tags: Baltimore, Capitol Communicator WB&A Market Research Poll, consumers using daily deal sites and social media to make buying decisions, daily deal sites, DC, social media, survey
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, social media, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011
We recently ran a story about the the top ten social media events this year (so far), many of them emeregencies, from the Japan Earthquake/tsuami to Hurricane Irene.
Here’s an infographic on how we use social media in emergencies:
Click to see large version.
Tags: Creditloan, emergencies, infographic, social media, top ten social media events
Posted in infographic, Internet/New Media, IT, smartphones, social media, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
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