Social Media Analytics

New York – Retail marketers say social media and digital, customer data and brand awareness are their top three marketing challenges. Findings from a retail marketing survey SAP conducted with University of Arizona students also showed that survey participants said 100% of respondents cited digital advertising among the most important marketing tools for their organization.

The American Red Cross has enhanced its ability to respond to disasters with support from Dell to open a new digital operations center in north Texas.

The Red Cross embraced social media in a big way in 2012 when it became apparent that Twitter, Facebook and other digital communication methods were the first place people turn when disasters strike. The relief organization opened the Red Cross Digital Operations Center roughly two years ago in Washington, D.C. with support from Dell and now the two are working together to open the north Texas location.

St. Louis -- Whether shopping alone or in a group, Millennials remain digitally connected contacting friends and family for advice or opinions via text, phone call or social media, according to a survey conducted by Mooslyvania, an independent digital advertising agency. While 57% surveyed said they tell their friends about their purchases, 44% prefer to "show off" their purchases, even if it's in subtle ways.

Alpharetta, Ga. - Almost half (45%) of brands see measuring ROI as a challenge in using Twitter as a marketing tool, followed by building an audience (42%) and engagement (37%). In addition, a new survey of brand marketers from Social Media Marketing University (SMMU) shows that 40% of brands agree that Twitter is an effective marketing tool and 25% strongly agree, but 31% are undecided, 1% agree and 3% strongly agree.

Atlanta – Close to half (45.1%) of brands reported that ‘measuring ROI and results’ is their greatest challenge when using the Twitter platform for marketing, followed by ‘building an audience’ (42.1%) and ‘engagement’ (36.8%). According to a new survey from Social Media Marketing University (SMU), 65% of brands say that Twitter is an effective marketing tool, while 30.6% are undecided. Other notable findings include: • 96.2% of brands using Twitter as a marketing tool report having challenges using the platform to achieve specific goals.

Armonk, N.Y. -- With consumers engaging more directly with businesses through mobile and social media, more than 60% of CIOs will focus more heavily on improving the customer experience and getting closer to customers, according to a new report released by IBM.

The report, entitled "Moving from the Back Office to the Front Lines — CIO Insights from the Global C-suite Study” is based on face-to-face conversations with more than 1,600 CIOs from 70 countries and 20 industries worldwide.

Chicago – Sixty percent of Millennials would be willing to provide details about their personal preferences and habits to marketers, whereas Baby Boomers are much more protective of their personal information. According to a new study from Mintel, even for the most private of information, at least 30% of Millennials who claimed they would not provide it said they would do so after receiving an incentive offer (i.e., a $10-off coupon toward their next purchase), whereas for Baby Boomers only 13% could be swayed by these same type of incentives.

Los Gatos, Calif. – A new phishing scam is reportedly targeting Netflix customers and trying to obtain their financial and personal information. According to the Huffington Post, the scam provides customers with a phony Netflix log-in page that brings them to another fake Netflix page informing them their account has been suspended for unusual activity and providing a fraudulent customer service number.

Connecting brands with influential voices via social media is the premise on which Collective Bias was founded. This week the firm strengthened that proposition with several new initiatives to increase the effectiveness of brand’s social shopper marketing efforts.

Hispanic consumers are outpacing non-Hispanics in their adoption of mobile, social and online sources for local shopping, according to BIA/Kelsey's Consumer Commerce Monitor study released this week.