Twitter users choose to follow certain companies for a reason. “Subscribers, Fans, and Followers: Twitter X-Factors” indicates the largest single percentage of users who follow a company, brand, or association do so because they have a desire to get updates on future products. Another 32 percent, the second largest percentage, want to get more information about the activities of a company.

It makes sense that users would want the inside scoop on an organization, and Twitter is often the most recently updated source for a given business. By checking for updates via Twitter, the consumer can know when it is time to prepare to invest and when one should be watching other markets.

Following these two informational reasons, the next highest percentages of Twitter users follow companies to receive discounts (31 percent) and freebies, such as coupons and samples (28 percent). Unfortunately, only 23 percent follow to show support for a company and only 20 percent have a desire to interact with the company.

For a company, successfully integrating Twitter into its overall marketing strategy can be tricky. According to ExactTarget, the key to success is to not think of Twitter as a way to maintain direct relationships with customers, but as a way to serve those customers who chose to follow them.

For more information on this study, visit http://bit.ly/8XzvdI.

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The excitement around marketing automation systems and the extended lead nurturing activities they enable shows no sign of abating within the B2B community.  And that’s a great thing. These multi-faceted tools are enabling Marketers to delivering more relevant, timely and – ultimately – more impactful information to their prospect base, monitor prospect’s every electronic “footstep”, score and grade prospects every characteristic, etc..

And if you read the collateral from Automation vendors, it’s clear that today’s tools will do everything the B2B marketer needs – including delivering the late-night caffeine shot and monitoring the marketing team’s fashion sense. 

What many seem to lose sight of during the euphoria of launching the first drip campaign is answering the question “Why did I start down this path in the first place?”

Was it to offset staff reductions in the Marketing department that make email campaign execution more difficult? 

Was it to avoid the constant nagging from the Sales team that Marketing leads are worthless? 

Was it to stop the “How much revenue have you generated for me lately?” hallway conversations with the CEO? 

We like to think of automation as the next frontier that will revolutionize marketing from ground up.  It no doubt will over time.  But as a first step in this grand transformation, maybe it would make sense to step back and identify the top 3-5 immediate things you want your shiny new tool to do for you as you build the internal business case.

If you are part of the fortunate that have their execs convinced that a complete marketing retooling with the long-term ROI this type of change entails makes sense, great.  For the rest of us, dealing with shorter-term requirements, setting the stage with more modest, immediate and measurable objectives – which, by the way, automation tools provide as well —  just might offer a better path for success.

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Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired, caused a stir in the technology world when he declared the web “dead” in the magazine’s September cover story. Its demise, according to Anderson, stems from the growing use of simpler, sleeker services such as apps and smartphones. He writes:

“Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule.”

Not everyone is ready to don their mourning clothes for the Web just yet though. In fact, many in the tech community believe Anderson’s statements are not only premature, but potentially based on a fallacy. As TechCrunch blogger Erick Schonfeld points out:

“The [Wired] article is anchored by the startling infographic…, which shows the proportion of different types of traffic on the Internet. The Web, HTML traffic visible though a browser, is only about a quarter (23%) of the overall traffic, down from about half a decade ago. It’s been pushed down by peer-to-peer (23%), video (51%), and other types of apps which use the Internet for transport but are not browser-based. It’s not clear what exactly Wired is counting as video, but presumably it is not all of the Flash video on YouTube which is very much part of the Web.”

Check out Chris Anderson’s article, “The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet,” and Erick Schonfeld’s post, “Wired Declares the Web is Dead – Don’t Pull Out the Coffin Just Yet,” for yourself and see what you think: Is the Web really dead or has it just evolved?

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More than 1 billion people are linked into social networks, but business-to-business (BtoB) marketers have struggled to prove the ROI from social technologies until recently. According to a recent survey by Regus, marketers are now seeing an influx of new customer acquisition through Web 2.0 efforts.

Nearly half of small businesses worldwide have acquired a customer through social networks. Interestingly enough, large companies were less successful in obtaining new customers through social media channels—despite most likely investing more time and money into social media marketing.

In January 2010, Hubspot found that more than 40 percent of companies had acquired a customer through social media marketing. Clearly, social media efforts are starting to pay off.

 As evidence of these survey findings, one of Arketi’s clients has seen a quick return for its Web 2.0 efforts through LinkedIn and Twitter. This BtoB technology company began testing the social media waters in early 2009, integrating traditional and online marketing tactics as the groundswell of social activity grew.

 In the past few months, this client secured an analyst briefing from an industry analyst who started following the company’s Twitter page and landed a new client from a LinkedIn InMail request sent by the company’s sales executive.

 To read more of the Regus survey findings on eMarketer, visit www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007815.

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According to the Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications Industry Forecast 2004 -2014, The Communications Industry spending is on pace to increase 3.5% in 2010 and post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% in the 2009-2014 period to $1.416 trillion, driven by a gradual economic recovery, advances in digital technology, and secular trends impacting the entire industry landscape. Here are some interesting findings:

The Targeted Media sector will be the second-fastest growing industry sector and experience a 7.3% CAGR increase in the forecast period to reach $265.58 billion, according to the report. Growth will be spurred by the Pure-Play Consumer Internet & Mobile Services segment:

The complete report can be found at: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/email/headlines/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&div=-867702808&newsId=20100810006496

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In this week’s Arketi Web Watch post, we look at Firstdata.com. Though the website certainly is well designed, there are several elements that need to be taken into consideration.

Homepage
The homepage is absolutely gorgeous. However, with the exception of the navigation, logo and footer, the entire homepage is in Flash. This is not SEO friendly at all, nor is it supported on most mobile devices. In fact, a lot of what is Flash on this homepage could be achieved using JavaScript or HTML 5 without losing much of the pizzazz, if any at all.

For instance, check out the unobtrusive “dashboard” feature at the top of the page.  In it’s collapsed, default state, it appears as a discreet ticker. When opened it becomes a scrollable pane of attractive, semi-interactive charts with a “subscribe” call-to-action (CTA) always present. Equally important, the main feature and navigation are not obstructed nor pushed below the fold when the dashboard is expanded.

The homepage main feature does quite a bit of heavy lifting as it serves as an overview for FirstData’s six service areas. The functionality to toggle between the six service areas could be a bit more obvious, but each story is so well paced and structured, that it is forgivable. The pay-off screens to each overview have engaging content such as videos as well as CTAs for white papers and press releases. My one complaint – I wish you could skip right to the pay-off screens. As nice as the Flash is, if I were a repeat visitor I would want to be able to skip the fluff and get right to the more valuable content. Read the rest of this entry »

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Today McAfee released its Most Dangerous Celebrities™ list. This is a very savvy PR strategy for a company that does not often land mainstream, national (or international) press coverage. A wonderful tie-in to pop culture while advancing both a BtoB and BtoC message — using security technology to avoid cybercriminals.

By the way, Cameron Diaz has replaced Jessica Biel as the most dangerous celebrity to search for on the Web.

The full release and more info on safe searching can be found at: http://home.mcafee.com/AdviceCenter/Default.aspx?id=ad_sfs_mmdc

The only downside of this news is that it is being eclipsed by another release regarding Intel Corporation’s definitive agreement to acquire McAfee, Inc., through the purchase of all of the company’s common stock at $48 per share in cash, for approximately $7.68 billion.

Oh, well timing news is always fun for any PR team.

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Given today’s economic environment, consumers are taking extra care in deciding just how to spend their money. Though it has always been important, studies show that customer service has recently taken on a stronger role in the world of the consumer, and is more likely to influence a sale than ever before.

Sixty-one percent of Americans claim that quality customer service is of a greater importance in the current economic state. These Americans are also likely to spend roughly nine percent more when they feel as though they have been treated with above average customer service. Consumers who experience quality service are reportedly 81 percent more likely to give a company repeated business.

However, only 37 percent of American consumers believe companies have put additional emphasis on the importance of customer service since the decline of the economy. With the correlation between customer service and successful sales, one would think corporations would be rushing to improve customer service. But this, apparently, is not the case.

Twenty-seven percent of Americans feel as though companies have resisted any change in their attitude toward customer service, and a shocking 28 percent believe businesses are now paying even less attention to customer service. Jim Bush, executive vice president of world service at American Express, states that “it is important to see customer service as an investment, not a cost.” Maybe if businesses realized just how valuable the investment of customer service could be, they would do something to change these unsettling statistics.

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Christopher Hosfort of BtoB magazine made every marketer smile with today’s article on Accenture’s “Onward and Upward: How Marketers Are Refocusing the Front Office for Growth” report.

The research is not really rocket science for anyone who has worked in or with corporate marketing teams – they have insufficient budgets, skills shortages and inadequate tools – but at least it lets us all know we are not crazy or alone.

Check it out below…

Accenture: Marketers hampered by insufficient budgets, skills shortages

By: Christopher Hosford

New York—Marketers responsible for driving corporate growth are being hindered in their efforts by insufficient budgets, skills shortages and inadequate tools, according to a new study by consultancy and technology services company Accenture.

According to the company’s report, “Onward and Upward: How Marketers Are Refocusing the Front Office for Growth,” top strategic objectives include improving operational efficiency, increasing profitability and responding effectively to change.

However, respondents said they’re encountering several barriers to success, such as inefficient business practices (cited by 21% of respondents), inadequate funding (17%), insufficient integration with other business functions (15%), a lack of required skills (13%) and lack of access to the customer data they need (6%).

Generally, frustrated respondents reported that changes in customer expectations are impacting their marketing strategies. For instance, 72% said that “most or all” of their customers expect more value for money, 71% said customers have higher product quality expectations than in times past, and 68% said customers have higher customer service expectations.

Accenture’s online survey was conducted from November 2009 through January 2010 and drew 400 marketer respondents from companies with annual revenue of $1 billion or more.

Source: http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100812/FREE/100819964/1078/newsletter011

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In this installment of Arketi Web Watch we taking a look at Starbucks.com. The Starbucks site does a few things very well. However, like many large consumer sites, there are numerous design inconsistencies.

Let’s dive in.

There are some really nice things happening above the fold on the homepage. The global navigation has gorgeous typography; it’s so good that the tiny navigation descriptions are an asset and not a distraction. But it’s the navigation behavior that really shines on this site. Check out the drop menus, not only are they visually pleasing, but they have Calls to Action. One more time, the drop menus have Calls To Action!  As a veteran Web designer, I found myself saying, “why didn’t I think of that?” This is certainly something that I’d like to see become an industry standard. Read the rest of this entry »

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