Archive for January, 2010

Trends and Insights On Web 3.0

Software applications provider ICON believes that the next generation of the web, or “Web 3.0,″ promises more recommendations, free services, intelligent (semantic) searches, and tailored information. In an effort to heighten awareness about Web 3.0, Gege Gatt, the founder and director of ICON, recently identified some broad trends that are in tune with Web 3.0.

“To put the list in context,” says Gatt, “we’ve identified some broad trends that dominate the new crop… and which are in tune with the next generation of the web… which is no longer random data, but tailored, highly intuitive and delivered in real time.” 

According to Gatt, these trends are:

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New Chart: Perceptions about Social Media are Changing – How Social Media is Perceived at Budget Time

By Sergio Balegno, Senior Analyst

The question was — Which statement best describes how social media marketing is perceived within your organization at budget time?

Considering that social media is at a very early stage in its lifecycle, a 7% confidence rating that it is producing measureable ROI and should be funded liberally is outstanding.

Conservative budget increases by half of all organizations at budget time — based on the promise that social media will eventually produce ROI — is another vote of confidence in the medium for the longer term.

The 17% of organizations who still believe social media marketing is basically free and should stay that way, are destined to get what they pay for.

Not surprisingly, those who have reached the strategic phase of social marketing maturity are far more likely to be producing measurable ROI or at least seeing signs of a return on their investment on the horizon.

On the other hand, marketers in the trial phase of social marketing maturity are more than four times as likely to not recognize the value this tactic has for organizations willing to invest appropriate time and resources.

Social Media Budgeting Importance

For additional research data and insights about social marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.

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Clarity, clarity, clarity. And when you think you’ve given your website guest enough…give some more!

Clarity Trumps Persuasion: How changing the first seven seconds of user experience drove a 201% gain

While marketers invest the majority of their time and budgets on areas deeper down in the funnel, MarketingExperiments research has found that most of the gain from optimizing a website occurs in the first seven seconds of users’ experience.

Millions of dollars are won or lost in these first few moments a visitor spends on your site. So in this issue of MarketingExperiments Journal, we’ll explore what can be done in this very short period of time to increase the probability of converting those visitors into customers.

All of the complex analysis and formulaic methodologies used by our scientists to create optimized pages that deliver triple-digit conversion gains can be summed up in three simple words…Clarity Trumps Persuasion

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