A Washington Post poll ranking tech giants Google, Apple and Facebook revealed most Americans favor Google. Of the 1,007 Americans surveyed, 83 percent gave Google a favorable rating, while 72 percent gave Apple a favorable rating. Facebook scored the lowest with only 60 percent of survey participants giving the social network a favorable rating. While the poll did not survey Facebook users between the ages of 13 to 18, young adults were more likely to give Facebook a favorable rating with favorable votes outnumbering unfavorable votes three to one in the 18 to 29 age group. Among seniors, [...]

Related Topics: Apple | Channel: Industry | Facebook | Google | Statistics: General | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

If you run a standalone digital agency or an agency that specializes in a specific vertical like social media, your days are numbered. That's the conclusion of a recent study of more than 2,000 European marketing students -- in the UK, France, Spain and Belgium, to be more specific. The study, "Next Generation of Marcoms," asked a variety of questions to students between 20 and 25 years old that are studying Advertising, Marketing Communications, Design, PR and Events. (Note for those who may not know: "Marcoms" is short for marketing communications and is commonly used to describe a hol [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Internet Marketing Industry | Internet Marketing Industry: Stats | Statistics: General | Top News

In a new report from Gartner, the only global market to experience mobile phone sales growth during Q1 2013 was the Asia/Pacific region, demonstrating a 6.4 percent increase year-on-year. This growth rate accounted for a 53.1 percent year-on-year increase in Asia/Pacific's share of mobile phones globally. China witnessed a 7.5 percent increase last quarter compared to Q1 2012, and accounted for 25.7 percent of all global mobile phone sales. "The Chinese and local manufacturers have been exemplary at addressing the demands of buyers by offering affordable devices with optimum features," claim [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Samsung | Statistics: General | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

[caption id="attachment_37768" align="alignright" width="300"] Image via Shutterstock[/caption] Often, you want to look at your metrics over a longer time period than usual in order to identify long-term trends. This is especially true if your metrics are "jagged" and move around a lot. You have two choices: You could use a larger time period. If you usually watch daily metrics, switch to weekly. Or monthly. Or quarterly. This will smooth out your data and will also smooth out directional trends emerging from your data right at the time when you want to catch such changes. You could u [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Statistics: General

According to a new report from comScore, retail e-commerce spending reached $50.2 billion for the first quarter of 2013, surpassing the $50 billion mark for the second consecutive quarter on record after reaching $56 billion in Q4 2012. This is the fourteenth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth and tenth consecutive quarter to earn double-digit growth, with sales up 13 percent for Q1 2013. While still strong, last quarter's 13 percent growth rate was slightly less than growth during previous quarters. "One potential explanation for this mild deceleration is the payroll tax increase [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | E-Commerce | Statistics | Statistics: General | Statistics: Online Behavior

Amazon.com is the poster child of e-commerce, having grown from a bookseller to a company that sells just about anything and everything (and even has its own mobile devices). But, according to a new report, Amazon doesn't own the best growth rate among online retailers over the past 10 years. That honor goes to Urban Outfitters. According to the Internet Retailer 2013 Top 500 Guide, Urban Outfitters has experienced a 65.2 percent compound annual growth rate in the last decade -- putting it atop the rankings of online sales growth. Coming in second is the sports gear retailer Fanatics [...]

Related Topics: Amazon | Channel: Retail | E-Commerce | Statistics | Statistics: General

After publishing a study last year that measured the speed of websites around the world, Google compared recent Site Speed data to the 2012 data to determine if the Web is getting any faster. While numerous improvements have been made to the core infrastructure of the Internet, there has not been a significant change in speed for desktops because of the increasing size of webpages. Since 2012, Google reports webpage sizes have increased by over 56 percent. In contrast to desktops, mobile access speeds have increased approximately 30 percent compared to 2012 with the addition of several L [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: Mobile | Statistics | Statistics: General | Statistics: Web Browsers

According to new forecasts from local media analyst firm BIA/Kelsey, U.S. social ad revenues are projected to grow from $4.7 billion earned in 2012 to $11 billion in 2017, an $18.6 compound growth rate (CAGR). While BIA/Kelsey expects mobile local ad revenue to experience an astounding 49. 3 percent growth rate during the next four years, locally targeted social ad revenues are expected to grow as well, generating $3.6 billion by 2017, an increase of 26.4 percent from $1.1 billion earned in 2012. The analyst firm attributes this growth to more local penetration by both brands and SMBs as so [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: General | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Social Media | Statistics: Spend Projections

According to a new survey conducted by Dimensional Research, an overwhelming 90 percent of respondents who recalled reading online reviews claimed that positive online reviews influenced buying decisions, while 86 percent said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews. The survey, sponsored by Zendesk in the early part of 2013, included responses from 1,046 participants. Respondents had to be in the United States, and had to have experienced a recent customer service issue with a midsized company, either as a consumer or in a business context. Approximately two-thirds of [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: General | Statistics: Online Behavior | Top News | Word Of Mouth Marketing

According to eMarketer, mobile advertising will reach $7.29 billion by the end of this year with Google projected to take home more than half, earning $3.9 billion in US mobile ad revenue for 2013. According to the report, US mobile advertising grew 178 percent last year and is expected to grow 77.3 percent this year, a five fold increase since 2011. Mobile ad dollars represent display, search and messaging-based formats served on mobile devices. Mobile advertising will continue to climb dramatically, with an expected $27.13 billion in total mobile ad revenue by 2017, just under 45 percent [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Mobile | Google: Display Advertising | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: General | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News | Twitter: Advertising

Findings from a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive and inContact, a provider of cloud contact center software, prove companies cannot rely on brand loyalty when it comes to keeping existing customers or winning new ones. The survey, conducted online February 11 through February 13, 2013 using a nationwide sample of 2,191 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older, examined changing consumer behavior trends and customer service preferences. Survey findings confirmed that consumers are less likely to make buying decisions based on brand loyalty, and more likely to choose a company that of [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Statistics: General

According to Glassdoor company review data, Mark Zuckerberg has the best employee-approval rating of any CEO in the US. Last year he wasn't among the top 25. By the same token, last year's top CEO, Apple's Tim Cook, has fallen from number 1 to number 18 on this year's survey. Glassdoor's company review surveys ask employees to "indicate whether they approve or disapprove of the way their CEO is leading the company." Glassdoor said that "rating and rank in the 50 Highest Rated CEOs list was determined using the average approval rating a CEO received between February 25, 2012 and Februar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Statistics | Google: Business Issues | Statistics: General | Top News

Worldwide e-commerce sales surpassed the $1 trillion mark for the first time in 2012, according to a new eMarketer estimate out today. The research firm estimates that B2C online sales grew 21.1 percent last year to $1.097 trillion. Leading the way was the US e-commerce industry, which grew 13.9 percent to an estimated sales total of $364.66 billion. EMarketer expects that to grow in 2013 to just above $409 billion. Despite that growth, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow even faster and take over the top spot in online sales in 2013 - with an estimated 33.4 percent of all e-comm [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | E-Commerce | Statistics: General | Statistics: Online Behavior

The Baltimore Ravens just beat the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl XLVII in a game that came down to the final seconds. But online, the social network showdown belonged to Twitter in a dominating win over Facebook, Google+ and all other social networks. According to my count, Twitter was mentioned in 26 of 52 national TV commercials -- that's 50 percent of the spots that aired during CBS' game coverage. Facebook was mentioned in only four of those commercials -- about eight percent. Google+, which is reportedly the No. 2 social network in the world, wasn't mentioned at all. YouTube [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook: Instagram | Facebook: Marketing | Facebook: Pages | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Google+ | Google: Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Statistics: General | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

Online retail sales are expected to grow between 9-12 percent in 2013, substantially outpacing overall retail industry sales, which are seen growing 3.4 percent this year. That's according to a new forecast from the National Retail Federation and its digital division, Shop.org. The estimates cover most traditional retail categories, but don't include auto dealers, gas stations and restaurants. This year's estimate for online sales is in line with what happened during the just-completed holiday season. The NRF says online retail grew 11.1 percent during November and December 2012. The [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: General | Statistics: Online Behavior | Top News

More than two-thirds of marketers surveyed say they're planning to spend more on data in 2013, and more than half percent say they're planning to hire new employees for data/analytics jobs this year. That's according to Data Rich & Insight Poor, a new study from Yesmail Interactive and Infogroup Targeting Solutions. The survey involved just over 700 marketers and was done in October 2012, with questions asking about their plans for dealing with data and analytics in 2013. In the survey, 68 percent of marketers said they'll increase data-related spending in 2013. Only three percent pl [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Strategy | Statistics: General | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

Once upon a time the comScore "top 50" sites release was an exciting revelation of gainers and losers in the relatively new internet derby. Now it has become very routine and, frankly, a little boring. Yesterday the measurement firm released the top 50 US site rankings for November. Rather than just say "here it is," I decided to spice things up by looking back at the earliest top 50 ranking I could find. That turned out to be May 2006. I was trying to go back 10 years but wasn't able to find anything from 2002. Below is the current top 50 rankings: Here's the list from May 2006: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: General | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

This weekend comScore reported that for the first time Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion. The expectation is that today, the awkwardly named "Cyber Monday," will see potential online sales exceeding Friday's totals, perhaps reaching $1.5 billion as Americans throw off the shackles of austerity that have limited holiday spending over the past few years. Black Friday originally was a reference to aggressively discounted in-store sales, while Cyber Monday was so named for the day when people returned to work and could shop online with a high speed connection. The reality today is [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: General | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

Rare is the B2B marketer that's not using content marketing. But despite marketers' almost universal adoption of tactics like social media, article writing, blogs and infographics, only about one-third of B2B marketers say their content marketing efforts are effective. The numbers come from a new Content Marketing Institute/Marketing Profs study (sponsored by Brightcove) of more than 1,400 North American B2B marketers in August. The results might be seen as somewhat self-selective -- participants were made up of members/subscribers of CMI and Marketing Profs, which means these are marketers [...]

Related Topics: Blogging | Channel: Content Marketing | Features & Analysis | Internet Marketing Industry: Stats | Social Media Marketing | Statistics | Statistics: General | Top News

Mobile advertising grew 95% from the first half of 2011 to the same period in 2012, though the sector still only represented $1.2 billion in revenues, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which jointly release revenue figures for the industry every quarter. The industry as a whole grew to an all-time high of $17 billion in revenues in the first half, a 14% increase year-over-year. Another sector making big strides in the first half of 2012 is digital video, which is a component of display advertising. Digital video grew 18% year-over-year to a litt [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: General | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Online Advertising | Top News