Optimize Marketing Across Multiple Channels
from CIO Today
As contact centers play an important role in the marketing efforts of a company, many struggle to optimize online and offline marketing campaigns across a number of new marketing channels. Aberdeen has published a new study that examines the efforts of Best-in-Class companies. In executing their marketing efforts, companies tend to keep silos of information in separate channel-centric technologies. When combined with distributed marketing efforts, the organization discovers increased challenges to managing multichannel marketing efforts. More

Which Social Networking Site is Best for Your Business?
from USA Today
In the olden days - say five years ago - it was enough for a small business to market its services with advertising and public relations. But in the last few years, an avalanche of new opportunities has cascaded on the Internet in the form of social networking sites. More

Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses
from Advertising Age
Twitter's real-time messaging service is turning out to be a boon to local establishments, who are starting to get onboard -- mostly because the message pops into users' Twitter feeds and they're close enough to act on it. More

How to Get Your Mail Past the Inbox Bouncers
from ClickZ
Getting your e-mail opened and read by your recipients is like trying to get into the most exclusive club in town. Having your name on the VIP list (your recipient's address book or Safe Sender's list) is the best way to get ushered past the velvet rope. If it's not there, you'll have to prove yourself to two tough bouncers, who are there to keep the riffraff out. If neither bouncer recognizes you right away, you'll either get turned away (blocked) or sent to cool your heels in the rope line (the junk folder). More

Does Social Media Activity Really Help SEO?
from eConsultancy
As the buzz around social media gets even noisier, it has been fascinating to watch search agencies stake a claim to this territory and reposition themselves accordingly. But how closely do SEO and social media really fit together? We spoke to several leading search agency figures to get their perspective. More

Optimize Your Videos for Prime Time
from Search Engine Land
Many savvy advertisers are making strides in attracting their target audience with online videos. They are utilizing popular video sites such as YouTube and Hulu to engage and connect with consumers. This is an extremely smart strategy since 78 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience views online videos, according to March’s comScore Video Metrix. More

Studies Show the Genders Really are Different Online
from Fortune via CNN
Gender, more so than race, ethnicity or economic status, determines how and what we peruse online. According to a recent study by eMarketer, slightly more women say they use the Internet than men. However once logged on, male Internet users tend to spend more time surfing the Web than females. More

Direct Mail Doomed, Long Live E-mail
from MediaPost
After making quick work of print newspapers, and the Yellow Pages industry, "The kudzu-like creep of the Internet is about to claim its third analog victim," warns a new report from research firm Borrell Associates. The victim? "The largest and least-read of all print media: Direct mail." More

Look at This Article. It's One of Our Most Popular
from The Wall Street Journal
Popularity is, unfortunately, still all the rage. The Internet has facilitated an outbreak of popularity contests as online news providers rank the top 10 most-read, -emailed or -commented articles on their home page. Using popularity rankings to make decisions, however, has downsides. These online rankings are public, creating a positive-feedback loop. The more popular something becomes, even if just from a random burst of interest, the more likely it is to grow ever more popular. More