Consumers Find Relevant and Timely Tweets Most Popular

News on Twitter Marketing, according to Brafton News, Twitter users usually focus on Tweets, endorsing product or service from a business or share information related to the industry. About one in three users see “promotional Tweets” valuable, and the same number find importance in reading updates in the form of news.

Potential prospects stay away from business accounts with too many personal messages while corporate Tweets with questions and random thought will most likely have a complete read.

While giving out and sharing information is very important, social media marketing campaign manager must balance between attracting users and updating with worthless Tweets.

Strictly conversational Tweets have 24% saying they are worth reading, while 34% said they are not. But half of users find Tweets designed exclusively at “presence maintenance” worthless.

As the study shows that most of the users wanted updated information, businesses are encouraged to present fresh angle on news and add context to shared links.

Brafton reported that Twitter accounts with meaningful and important news are most popular with the users, supporting an old idea that links to further information as part of news marketing campaign is very valuable to companies.

Read more at Study suggests promotional and informational Tweets catch social marketing

Custom content as a marketing strategy

News on Social Marketing, according to Brafton News, consumers believe that brands offering custom content gain a competitive edge. The Custom Content Council share some data showing companies growing investment in content marketing and shoppers’ increasing awareness in branded content.

Since 2006, the share of marketers who had custom content as part of their marketing arrangement has increased 14% and two-thirds are changing financial plan toward content expansion in the next couple of years.

Lack of analytics is one reason why marketers are afraid to further invest in content marketing. According to Brafton, lack of resources and time is the main obstacle to the content marketing success.

The Custom Content Council recommended, having a thriving investment, companies should consider tapping content marketing agencies offering editorial resources with positive results.

When brands offer valuable content, three-quarters of customers welcomes it and even more when the content providers are selling something with information that is very useful. Seventy five percent say they choose information from businesses in the appearance of articles over ads.

Mike Winkleman, former president of the Custom Content Council says, “Consumers are accepting custom content, and marketers are starting to understand its power. It’s all setting the stage for the continued growth and effectiveness of content as a marketing strategy.”

Read more at Three-quarters of consumers prefer content marketing over ads

Marketing Online Content on the Rise

News on Social Marketing, according to Brafton News, in 2011, over $40 billion was spent by companies on content marketing with a record-breaking $16 billion on the digital content investment. A study by The Custom Content Council and Content Wise’s Characteristics shows that print media leads but data shows the rising movement toward marketing online content.

As Brafton reported, digital white papers grow from 23% in 2009 to 38% in 2011. Email marketing increases from 66% to 7%, but the largest growth came in video marketing adoption, leaping to 52% from 3%.

Over a three year study, the use of print content plunged from 91% to 83%. This puts website content very much behind print as used by 82% of businesses.

Fresh website content is also becoming a priority for brands, with companies spending in more numerous updates. Showing a steady increase over 2011, with an average user making 145 site updates through posts and articles. In terms of maintaining active sites to boost conversions, the industry still has a long way to go.

Creating original content proved to be a major obstacle in content marketing campaigns, showing that 70% of marketers will outsource, while 87% are spending in content marketing.

Read more at Content marketing spend surpasses $40 billion, 82 percent invest in custom website content

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