jatiN mahindrA doT coM

Good News for Google Buzz – Social and Email Top Mobile Priorities

An interesting study has been released by PR firm Ruder Finn, which finds that 91% of mobile phone users go online to socialize, compared to only 79% of traditional desktop users. Meanwhile, Americans are spending an average of 2.7 hours on the mobile Internet. "Mobile phones have become the way people organize their lives—managing finances, connecting with friends, purchasing products—and...

More Marketing Dollars Shifting from Offline to Online

Econsultancy and Exact Target have released a report based on joint research, polling over 1,000 marketers about their brand reputation strategies. The research found that marketers are slashing their budgets for radio, TV, and print, while looking online to build their brand reputation. The firms say the research indicates there will be a 17% surge in digital marketing spending this year. "The...

As Companies Relax on Social Media, Threats Increase

Even as social media has grown to be a much more widely accepted form of communication among businesses over the years, there is still plenty of data out there depicting the flaws and setbacks that can occur when social networks are used in the business environment. Just as with email or web surfing in general, there are security concerns, and a new report (pdf) from security firm Sophos claims that...

Average Person Spends 13 Hours a Week Online

Harris Interactive has released the findings of its latest poll on Internet users. This doesn’t come as much of a shock, but people are spending more time online these days. According to the poll, adult Internet users are spending an average of 13 hours a week online." Of course, people’s usage varies greatly; one in five (20%) of adult Internet users are online for only two hours...

Mobile Banking Trends Accentuate Mobile Growth in General

Mercatus released the results from an interesting survey about the mobile offerings of banks. According to the firm’s findings, banks that offer mobile financial services can increase their new customers acquisitions by as much as sixty percent. Mercatus also found that the current pace of mobile adoption is exceeding that of past innovations, such as ATMs, debit cards, and online banking. About...

Is Retargeting the Most Under-Utilized Marketing Strategy?

Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) have shared some interesting findings from a survey about online ad technology. The two organizations found that there is a lot of untapped opportunity for retargeting in online advertising. Retargeting is basically when you market your product from a different angle or to a different market altogether. There’s a...

Yahoo Survey Finds Optimism for Holiday Online Retail

Yahoo conducted a survey of small business online retailers to find out how they think they’ll perform this upcoming holiday season compared to previous years. "Surprisingly, based on the current economic landscape, the results show an optimistic outlook, with over 60 percent of the Yahoo! merchants surveyed expecting sales to be the same as most years or even stronger," a representative...

Online Shoppers Have Bigger Holiday Budgets Than Offline Shoppers

Compete has shared some findings from a new study on consumer holiday shopping behavior. According to the firm, active online buyers (consumers who intend to spend over 30% of their holiday budgets online) have bigger budgets than other shoppers. Furthermore, they are more likely to spend that money on Black Friday. The study shows that "active online buyers" plan to spend twice as much...

Americans’ Social Media Habits Highlight Business Potential

Euro RSCG released some interesting findings from a study exploring the different ways Americans are using social media to "redefine their lives." The study looked at 1,228 social media users in the United States. "Word of mouth has always been the most powerful marketing tool; what social media has done is dramatically increase the scale, velocity and immediacy with which people can...

Consumers Are Looking for Offers on Social Networks

Razorfish has released a wealth of interesting data about consumer online behavior, and a good deal has to do with social media and brand interaction. For those struggling to find the right use of social networks for their business, the data is worth paying attention to. The data is based on a survey of 1,000 consumers in the US, about half male and half female. They cover four major age groups and...

Social Networks Don’t Waste Time, People Do.

Social Media policies of well-known organizations often appear in the news with commentary throughout the Blogosphere, the Twitterverse, etc. There is an ongoing debate about just how restricted social networks should be when it comes to employee use. Where do you stand on this debate? Share your thoughts. Bloxx, based in the UK, has released some research finding that 90% of IT Managers surveyed...

Consumers Not Happy with Mobile Web Sites

Web app company Gomez, Inc. released the findings of a study on consumer mobile web experiences today, and found that most of them aren’t happy with the performance of mobile web sites in general. "While mobile users may accept sites that are ‘light’ on richness and small in form factor, they are evidently not willing to sacrifice performance," said Matt Poepsel, Gomez’s...

Study: Half of Traffic to UK Sites Comes from Online Marketing

The AT Internet Institute conducted a study comparing investments in online marketing campaigns among France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The firm’s findings are that the UK far exceeds the other three countries in this realm. According to the AT Internet Institute’s findings, online marketing campaigns in the UK account for over 50% of visits to websites that have adopted...

Google: IT Departments Moving Toward the Cloud

Google has been pushing Google Apps use big time this year. They took out billboard space, and they recently sponsored a survey about IT departments and cloud computing. The poll covered 1,125 IT decision-makers. Google has prepared an entire report based on the findings, which is available for perusal here (pdf). The report covers measurement of IT success, IT’s role in communications security...

Most Enterprises Taking Social Media Seriously

Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research have released findings from a study of companies sponsoring online communities. The study found that enterprises are continuing to invest in social media tools and online communities. Specifically, 94% of the respondents indicated that they plan to maintain or increase investment in their communities. Only 6% intend to decrease...