A new study carried out by KPMG has shown that consumers are using their smartphones, tablets and PCs for an increasing number of varying activities.</p> <p>The survey was carried out on 9,600 people in 31 different countries. It showed that 86% of people surfing the web prefer to do so on their PCs. Only 8% prefer using their smartphones and 6% prefer tablets. However, there has been a decline in PCs as the favoured option for social networking, from 94% in 2007 to 76% presently. Meanwhile, the preference for mobile social networking has risen from 3% to 16%. Tablets had not been included before and gained a response of 7%.</p> <p>In relation to e-commerce, nearly 70% of respondents said they were more likely to go online to buy holidays and flights than use any other method. The corresponding result for the purchase of CDs, books, video games and DVDs was 65%. When it comes to luxury goods, 47% of shoppers are not interested in purchasing online, while 41% prefer to do their food and grocery shopping elsewhere.</p> <p>When asked about researching purchases, 86% said they would research online before buying a PC, 8% before buying a mobile phone and 5% before purchasing a tablet.</p> <p>Another result of the survey showed that 62% of respondents were willing to be tracked online if this would mean free or cheaper content. Half of those surveyed said they would view ads on their PC but only 38% would do so on a mobile phone. Only 6% would pay for full website access and nearly three-quarters would not pay for any online content.<br />

<br /> There have been various signs in recent times pointing towards a major shift in the magazine industry, away from print magazines. </p> <p>Last year, iCrossing digital marketing agency was bought by Hearst Magazines, a move that has resulted in the launch of digital publications with no print version. There are also announcements continually being made about new iPad apps for various magazines, offering over and above the content on offer in their print counterparts. </p> <p>However, the biggest indication yet of this shift is the appointment last week of Laura Lang to run the world's largest magazine publisher, Time Inc. Laura Lang was formerly the chief executive of Digitas digital advertising agency, giving a clear indication of the anticipated way forward for the company.</p> <p>Ms Lang commented, in a recent email: "This role at Time Inc. affords me a significant opportunity to influence our industry from a different lens, specifically content, brands, publishing, editorial, the consumer and the web that connects these five elements together.? She added, "I still believe that data-driven ad purchasing has clear and tangible benefits, but I also believe that the 'inventory' must be compelling, surprising and offer customers and clients benefits that are sustainable and scalable."</p> <p>Time Inc is, however, playing down the digital aspect of the appointment. Time Warner's chief executive, Jeffrey Bewkes, says he wanted someone to inspire and lead the magazine group, support the journalism and help with the longer-term evolution of the business. He emphasised Ms Lang's business and management experience but said the number one consideration was not "the digital part".<br />

Whilst nobody can deny how popular social media marketing has become to a vast number of businesses, there is some debate about measuring how effective the marketing actually is. Many analytical tools used in traditional marketing campaigns and indeed many web based marketing tools, don?t necessarily work in finding out the effectiveness of marketing on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Some crude measures like counting the number of followers, friends or ?likes? will give an overview of the effectiveness, but won?t necessarily paint a full picture.</p> <p>Rating Engagement </p> <p>According to Gadi Ben-Yehuda who is an expert in social media marketing trends, there is more that businesses should do to rate the effectiveness of a social media campaign: ?The good thing about followers and friends is they are easy to count,? he suggested. ?What it does not tell you about is the actual engagement.? A massive amount of followers who ignore your posts are not a valuable as a smaller hard core of users, who regularly respond, comment and debate the issues raised on your social media platform.</p> <p>Analytical Tools</p> <p>A number of free services exist, such as Tweepskey, which analyses your Twitter followers, giving you information about their influence and level of engagement. Other services chart the geographical locations of your followers, and score your followers according to how they use their social media sites. Rather than using the blunt instruments of counting followers, a range of more intricate measures will help you truly assess the success of your social media campaigns.<br />

A new survey has shown that consumers in the UK shop online more than those in other countries.</p> <p>Ofcom's annual International Communications Market Report surveyed the UK alongside 17 other countries. It found that of internet users in the UK, 79% had bought something online already. In Italy, only 27% had done so. Almost 90% of UK respondents had looked at shopping websites in January 2011, with an average time spent viewing of 84 minutes, compared with about 20 minutes for respondents in Italy and Poland.</p> <p>The survey also found that twice as many people owned smartphones in August 2011 than in February 2010. Ownership rose from 24% to 48%, making UK levels the highest in Europe. In Spain, 45% of respondents owned smartphones, 40% in Italy, 35% in France and 32% in Germany.</p> <p>More people in the UK also use their smartphones to surf the web, with 46% of internet users in the UK going online via their phones. Three-quarters of consumers use social networking sites overall and 83% of 18 to 24 year olds.</p> <p>Mobile phones are used to play games by more than a third of people in the UK, with a quarter looking at news website content on their mobile devices. However, the UK did not top the response rate for Skype and other internet telephone services, with 28% making use of this technology in Italy but only 19% in the UK.</p> <p>Respondents in the UK were also behind with their use of superfast broadband services, as only 4% had signed up, compared with 10% in the US and 40% in Japan.<br />

The Guardian newspaper plans to introduce marketing on its website that is more targeted in nature, with the intention of steering its readers toward the paid-for services offered that are most relevant to the individual consumer.</p> <p>The services on offer that will be subject to targeted marketing include the Soulmates dating service and Guardian holiday deals. Consumers will be directed towards relevant services based on their user behaviour and eventually by using demographic data as well. The newspaper hopes that this form of targeting will encourage users to spend more time overall on its website.</p> <p>The content sales and marketing director at The Guardian, Chris Lawson, said: "If we know someone is a new customer that has never visited the site before, is promoting a subscription to our iPhone app as relevant to them as pointing it to someone that's been on the site 25 times? Of course it's not. This is about trying to show users the most relevant offers so they get the most useful experience from our site."</p> <p>Mr Lawson emphasised that they were not aiming to drive customers away from the journalistic content offered by the site, but to showcase the commercial aspects of the site in a more targeted way.</p> <p>Each month, more than 60 million unique users visit The Guardian's website and over 4 million people have the Facebook app installed. The Guardian hopes that its new strategy will help double its digital revenues to almost </p>

reputation as a troublemaker. The use of sites like Twitter and Facebook in the Arab uprising led to rather robust debate over the use of such services and the behaviours they were said to be enabling. Although largely praised in the West, the use of social media, particularly that of BlackBerry Messenger in the UK wide disturbances this summer was roundly condemned.</p> <p>Security is Important to Users</p> <p>The prevalence of BlackBerry handsets amongst the young has contributed to BBM becoming the social network of choice for teenagers across the UK and the wider world. The fact that messages on the service are encrypted and sent to a closed network of acquaintances made it the ideal platform for many troublemakers to coordinate their actions. Most of the posts about rioting on Facebook and Twitter were speaking out against the trouble, with any troublemakers being quickly flagged or shouted down. </p> <p>Social Media ?Class War?</p> <p>The relative cheapness of BlackBerry handsets, compared to the iPhone, and the unlimited messages on BBM have made it very popular with the young. Twitter and Facebook have general appeal, with a broad user base, but LinkedIn is becoming the social network of the elites. Of all of the major players in social media circles, LinkedIn has more graduates using the service, and 44 per cent of users say they earn over </p>

Research has found that the more services and applications smartphone owners use, the less likely they are to switch to another brand. In fact, of those who own both an iPhone and iPad, one in five say it would be more difficult to change smartphone than to switch bank accounts.</p> <p>The research was carried out by GfK on 4257 smartphone owners across nine countries, including the UK and US. It focused on the barriers consumers have to switching their smartphones, as well as how their attitudes impact on the user experience overall.</p> <p>As consumers build up personal content on their handsets, their brand loyalty correspondingly rises. The tipping point is apparently when they use at least seven services on the device.</p> <p>The impact of three core areas of user experience was also examined. These are integration of features, simplicity of use and access to content. Moving to an unfamiliar smartphone is the biggest challenge when it comes to switching devices, as 72% of respondents say the navigation of their existing smartphones is easy. Another barrier is having to move content, with 28% citing this as an important factor.</p> <p>GfK's Ryan Garner commented: "The barriers to switching smartphones show the importance of the age-old mindset, 'if it ain't broke don't fix it.' This mindset has only hardened with the growth of connected devices and rapidly improving user experiences, while cross device accessibility of content is also delivering great benefits to consumers. Those who are satisfied with their current set-up will be difficult to tempt to a new platform and the more services they use, the greater a consumer's loyalty to a brand."<br />

As more and more companies begin to embrace social media strategies, they would do well to remember that any marketing using these outlets should be thought about just as carefully as their more traditional marketing. There could well be an argument for the view that social media marketing should be planned even more carefully, due to the instant feedback possible from consumers. As social media allows a wide range of consumers, including those who may have an axe to grind, unabated and often anonymous right of reply, companies should treat the new media options with care.</p> <p>Negative Engagement</p> <p>Australian airline Qantas, which has recently been in the news because of the strike action and grounding of its fleet, attempted some kind of Twitter based reconciliation with their customers. The airline asked its followers to name their ?dream luxury flight experiences? as part of a competition. The response was massive, and almost entirely related to the troubles that the company had been going through. Whilst many companies at some point will experience scathing feedback from their customers, a rapid and honest response is always needed at this point. The old saying, ?when customers are complaining, they are giving you a chance to make amends? rings true here.</p> <p>?Twitter Spam?</p> <p>Somewhat more cynical was the ?Twitter spamming? that took place on Habitat?s feed in 2009, where an unnamed employee in the marketing team used hash tags that were completely unrelated to their tweets, but were amongst the most popular trending topics that week. Twitter users were quick to condemn this approach, and Habitat was forced to issue an unreserved apology.<br />

When planning a corporate blog, it can be all too easy to commit any one of a number of sins. Whether it?s creating bland and unimaginative content, splashing ?marketese? all over the pages or making the whole affair a self-congratulatory love fest; getting the content wrong will have readers heading for the back button on their browsers in their droves. A great corporate blog will address the following key areas:</p> <p>Why Should I Choose You?</p> <p>This should be the focus of every corporate blog. Answer any of the tough questions that may be posed by your customers, such as, ?why do I need your product?? and create content that speaks directly to them. Ensure content is not just lifted from the company mission statement, but is humanised writing that can enthuse customers to actually choose you.</p> <p>What do you Really Think?</p> <p>This can be a minefield, as bringing opinions to any corporate arena can cause problems. Opinions, and the debates that they can produce can help to draw a real buzz to your blog. If your blog can attract experts from the field to comment, as well as the wider population, you are creating something that will be genuinely interesting. Don?t try to grab attention or foster debate by posting controversial, inflammatory or overly grumpy comments, as this is unlikely to paint your company in a positive light.<br />

The online phenomenon of the last couple of years has truly been the emergence and development of the social networks. Whilst the casual use of tremendously successful sites such as Twitter and Facebook has allowed users a window into the lives of their favourite celebrities, the most exciting use of these sites in business is to build and maintain customer relationships. One of the biggest bonuses as far as companies are concerned is the fact that these massively popular sites are effectively free communication channels, allowing them unbridled access to their customers.</p> <p>The Circles of Trust</p> <p>Relationship management experts, Convergys, have conducted a study regarding the use of social media in business and have uncovered some interesting trends. The study discovered the importance of social media in the building and maintenance of customer trust. According to the findings, three quarters of the people that found out about a bad customer experience through social media stopped using the company in question. It is therefore vital for companies to be vigilant about what is being said about them online, addressing any problems swiftly and effectively.</p> <p>Dip a Toe In</p> <p>Many companies may initially feel wary of dipping a toe into the waters of social media. ?Corporate Facebooking? is in its infancy at the moment, but anecdotal evidence is overwhelmingly positive. People seem to like to see the human face of companies, and use of social networks can help businesses to cast their net much further than many forms of conventional marketing.<br />