Etiqueta: Research

Who is Using Twitter?


 

Written by  – jeffbullas.com


Twitter is the mysterious online cousin to the mobile text message and has always been branded with strange names.Who is using Twitter

Twitter users have often been associated with  terms such as  Twits, Tweeps and Twerps and have hidden their tweetingidiosyncrasies from friends and family. Like an alcoholic hides their bottles.

The 140 character limit has been cast as not necessary in a world of “Big Data”, where saying a lot is valued more than saying less.

I have often been asked to explain what Twitter means at dinner parties and one of my favorite phrases has been

“It is like a SMS on Steroids”

Its brevity is its charm and strength.

Is the Younger Generation Using Twitter?

In 2010 I was lecturing at the International College of Management to a class of 18 to 24 year old students.

I asked who was on Twitter and only one had the courage to own up in front of their peers.

Fast forward 18 months and a different class but with the same demographics, I asked the same question, instead of one hand I saw five.

It appears that Twitter is gaining acceptance amongst the millennial generation.

Is my “very” scientific research supported?

According to the Pew Research Center’s Study it is and here are some of the facts and figures.

Is Twitter Growing? Leer más “Who is Using Twitter?”

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The Science of Social Timing Part 3: Timing and Blogging


http://blog.kissmetrics.com

Timing is everything, and maintaining a blog is no exception to the rule. Learning when your audience is tuning in, and therefore when to post, is mandatory for any successful blogger. In the third and final part of this series we’re going to explore how timing can affect your blog readership.

Data courtesy of Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella), searchengineland.com (@sengineland) and HubSpot. Content available as a webinar by Dan Zarrella here. Note: all of the data below is presented in Eastern Time (EST) unless otherwise noted. Leer más “The Science of Social Timing Part 3: Timing and Blogging”

Get better data from user studies: 16 interviewing tips

One of my favorite parts of my job is interviewing a huge variety of people about their habits, needs, attitudes, and reactions to designs. I like the challenge of quickly getting strangers to talk freely and frankly about themselves, and to try figuring out new designs and products in front of me. User research shouldn’t be like the boring market surveys they read from clipboards in the mall. Great research interviews should be like listening to Terry Gross on Fresh Air — engaging and insightful. That’s what I aim for. Here are some tips and techniques that have helped me get the most out of user interviews.


Photo by pasukaru76

One of my favorite parts of my job is interviewing a huge variety of people about their habits, needs, attitudes, and reactions to designs. I like the challenge of quickly getting strangers to talk freely and frankly about themselves, and to try figuring out new designs and products in front of me. User research shouldn’t be like the boring market surveys they read from clipboards in the mall. Great research interviews should be like listening to Terry Gross on Fresh Air — engaging and insightful. That’s what I aim for. Here are some tips and techniques that have helped me get the most out of user interviews.

1. Get into character >>> Leer más “Get better data from user studies: 16 interviewing tips”

Senior Marketers Seen Lagging in ROI Analysis of New Digital Tools

Only 14% of senior marketers whose companies use social network marketing say they are tying their efforts to financial metrics such as market share, revenue, profits, or lifetime customer value, while only 17% of those whose companies are using mobile advertising say they are doing so,according to [download page] a survey released in March 2012 by Columbia University’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA). This compares to 41% whose companies measure the financial impact of their email marketing, and 47% whose companies do so for their traditional direct mail marketing.

This is despite adoption of new digital tools such as social network accounts (85%) and mobile ads (51%) having risen to a point where they rival the adoption rates of more established channels such as sponsorship and events (90%), print advertising (85%), direct mail (74%), and TV and radio ads (59%).


 http://www.marketingcharts.com

nyama-roi-measurement-marketing-channels-march2012.jpgOnly 14% of senior marketers whose companies use social network marketing say they are tying their efforts to financial metrics such as market share, revenue, profits, or lifetime customer value, while only 17% of those whose companies are using mobile advertising say they are doing so,according to [download page] a survey released in March 2012 by Columbia University’s Center on Global Brand Leadership and the New York American Marketing Association (NYAMA). This compares to 41% whose companies measure the financial impact of their email marketing, and 47% whose companies do so for their traditional direct mail marketing.

This is despite adoption of new digital tools such as social network accounts (85%) and mobile ads (51%) having risen to a point where they rival the adoption rates of more established channels such as sponsorship and events (90%), print advertising (85%), direct mail (74%), and TV and radio ads (59%). Leer más “Senior Marketers Seen Lagging in ROI Analysis of New Digital Tools”

Components of High-Quality Blog Posts

Components of High-Quality Blog Posts

Creating a Powerful Introduction

In order to engage readers from the start, you have to begin with an attractive abstract that succinctly encapsulates the subject of the blog post. This introduction should be short and concise — try keeping it within 3-5 sentences. After reading your introductory paragraph, readers should immediately know what they will be in for.

Think of your introduction as a sales pitch. Let the potential reader know why he or she should read the rest of the post by stimulating their curiosity and outlining the value they will obtain should they read the post.

This introduction can also be useful for developing things such as post excerpts, metadata, descriptions for submitting to social news portals and so forth.
Using Research and Secondary Sources

A blog post should always have sound and accurate information. It’s best to support ideas and arguments with secondary resources, quotes, and research studies. Linking to relevant sources reinforces the things you say in your own blog posts and gives the reader greater context about the items you’re discussing.


by Pamela Dominguez | http://sixrevisions.com/content-strategy/components-of-high-quality-blog-posts/

 

Components of High-Quality Blog Posts

Today, almost everyone wants to share his or her thoughts on the web. And with so many easy ways of blogging brought to us by services like Posterous and Tumblr, why not do it, right?

Nevertheless, we shouldn’t go around ranting uncontrollably about random stuff on the web. If we really want to share something interesting with the community of our choice, we should, at the minimum, project professionalism and trustworthiness and emphasize accuracy and quality of the writings we put on the internet.

Whether you’re maintaining a personal blog, starting up a design blog, or managing and updating your company’s official blog, the fundamental tips and strategies discussed in this article will ensure that all of your posts will be professional, high-quality, and awesome to read.

Why Should We Care About the Quality of Blog Posts? Leer más “Components of High-Quality Blog Posts”

The Power of Customers’ Mindset

re your customers in a concrete or abstract mindset as they think about purchasing your product? The answer can affect how much they buy.

Every day consumers make purchase decisions by choosing among large sets of related products available for sale in the aisles of stores. What factors might systematically affect how consumers make decisions among an array of products? Our research explores one aspect of that question.

As most marketers realize, not all shoppers are created equal. Within the same store, one may be searching for a specific product to meet an immediate need, while others may simply be browsing. Just as they can have different goals when they enter a store, individual consumers may approach purchase decisions with different mindsets that can affect how they shop. In social psychology, a mindset is defined as a set of cognitive processes and judgmental criteria that, once activated, can carry over to unrelated tasks and decisions. In other words, if you get a consumer thinking a certain way, that way of thinking — that mindset — can influence his or her subsequent shopping behavior.

In particular, social psychologists have identified two distinct mindsets that are relevant to how consumers make decisions when choosing among large sets of related products: abstract and concrete. An abstract mindset encourages people to think in a more broad and general way. Consumers in an abstract mindset who face an array of related products will focus more on the shared product attributes associated with an overarching purpose — for example, the general category of hair care or car maintenance. Conversely, a concrete mindset draws attention to lower-level details and attributes associated with execution or usage; consumers in a concrete mindset will thus focus on factors that differentiate between products.

(…)


By Kelly Goldsmith, Jing Xu and Ravi Dhar
Full article [PDF]
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/articles/2010/fall/52112/the-power-of-customers-mindset/

Are your customers in a concrete or abstract mindset as they think about purchasing your product? The answer can affect how much they buy.

Every day consumers make purchase decisions by choosing among large sets of related products available for sale in the aisles of stores. What factors might systematically affect how consumers make decisions among an array of products? Our research explores one aspect of that question.

As most marketers realize, not all shoppers are created equal. Within the same store, one may be searching for a specific product to meet an immediate need, while others may simply be browsing. Just as they can have different goals when they enter a store, individual consumers may approach purchase decisions with different mindsets that can affect how they shop. In social psychology, a mindset is defined as a set of cognitive processes and judgmental criteria that, once activated, can carry over to unrelated tasks and decisions. In other words, if you get a consumer thinking a certain way, that way of thinking — that mindset — can influence his or her subsequent shopping behavior.

In particular, social psychologists have identified two distinct mindsets that are relevant to how consumers make decisions when choosing among large sets of related products: abstract and concrete. An abstract mindset encourages people to think in a more broad and general way. Consumers in an abstract mindset who face an array of related products will focus more on the shared product attributes associated with an overarching purpose — for example, the general category of hair care or car maintenance. Conversely, a concrete mindset draws attention to lower-level details and attributes associated with execution or usage; consumers in a concrete mindset will thus focus on factors that differentiate between products.
(…) Leer más “The Power of Customers’ Mindset”

Key to being happy may not be in genes but in your choices

Working shorter hours did not necessarily lead to happiness, but working a lot more or less than they wanted made people very unhappy.

“It appears that prioritising success and material goals is actually harmful to life satisfaction,” Professor Headey wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Partner choice played a big role. Women were less happy if their partner did not prioritise family goals than if they had no partner, and people with a neurotic partner were far less happy over time. They never got used to their partner’s negative emotions, either – even after 20 years of marriage there was no decline in the effects on their happiness.

Doing exercise and being a healthy weight were beneficial, and obesity was strongly linked to unhappiness, particularly for women.

Professor Headey did not know why many people continued to prioritise goals which did not seem to make them happy. “I think people don’t often sit down and think about what really makes them happy, and then try to do more of that.”


Amy Corderoy | http://www.smh.com.au

Happy, happiness.Happiness … It’s a choice.

The sad sacks and Eeyores of the world are not doomed to gloom forever, according to new research that shows happiness is not dictated by genes.

Instead it found your choice of partner and life goals drastically affect your satisfaction with life – overturning the popular theory that happiness is largely decided by personality traits moulded early in life and genetic factors.

Up until now much research had seemed to show even extreme events such as becoming disabled or winning the lottery had little effect on people’s happiness, and studies of twins strongly linked happiness to genetics.

But in reality, over the course of their life about 40 per cent of people experienced large changes in their levels of happiness, said the study leader, Bruce Headey, an associate professor at the Melbourne Institute at Melbourne University.

The study, the first to track happiness over a long period, followed 60,000 Germans for up to 25 years. Leer más “Key to being happy may not be in genes but in your choices”