Australian Companies Embrace Twitter, Facebook and SMS, But Email Still Rules

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, Aug 22, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Responsys, Inc.


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, the leading provider of email and
cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced the results of the
company’s second annual Big Australian Report, which is Australia’s
largest ever study into the digital marketing activities of
Australian corporates.

The Big Australian Report signals a significant rise in the volume of
marketing messages sent to Australian consumers. For example,
Australian companies sent three times as many mobile messages, ten
times as many social messages and one third more emails last
financial year in comparison to the previous financial year. Despite
increased use of mobile and social channels, email remains the
central and most used channel, and the highest volume by a
considerable margin. Of the marketers surveyed, not surprisingly 100%
are sending emails to customers and members.

Also noteworthy is the massive increase in the number of companies
using data to understand and segment their customers, ensuring that
marketing messages are increasingly targeted and relevant to their
audience.

Other key findings include:

        
        --  More than three quarters (77%) of large Australian companies are using
            social networks for lifecycle marketing activities, with 63%
            "significantly increasing" focus on social, primarily with Facebook
            and Twitter.
        --  Nearly one in three (30%) companies is sending mobile messages to
            customers, primarily alerts such as reminders and confirmations. There
            was also a 300% increase in the number of emails opened on mobile
            devices.
        --  For the first time, the majority (62%) of Australian companies are
            tailoring their campaigns and messages according to preferences or
            behaviour of their customers.
        --  As companies better understand their customers, they have moved from
            broadcast to targeted campaigns, meaning that emails are sent to fewer
            people for whom the message is relevant. For example, the number of
            campaigns increased 115% while the number of emails rose only 33%.
        --  42% of direct marketing campaigns include a social element.
        
        

Responsys Asia-Pac Vice President, Simon O’Day, believes the past
financial year was a watershed for Australian companies in terms of
digital direct marketing.

“As Australian companies face the threat of online sales from
overseas, they have woken up to the tactics used by these competitors
and sought to implement them here,” Mr. O’Day said. “As a result,
capturing and using data to understand the customer has become a
priority for most marketing departments. It’s no longer enough to
send the same message to all your customers and see if any of them
actually care or respond, while other companies are creating genuine
relationships through a cross-channel approach.”

Mr. O’Day added, “Social media has also evolved from experimental to
a genuine marketing channel that’s targeted and measurable. This
coming year we expect a growing shift from email to cross-channel
campaigns that leverage mobile, social and the web. And, segmentation
and targeting will continue to be critical to achieving dramatic
increases in ROI.”

The study undertaken by Responsys analysed more than one billion
emails, mobile and social messages sent by large Australian companies
between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2011, as well as results from a
survey of 350 enterprise marketers in Australia.

To obtain a copy of the complimentary 2011 Responsys Big Australian
Report, please visit:

http://www.responsys.com/land/2011-big-australian-report_aus.php?cid=70150000000c2GwAAI

Responsys is holding a New School Marketing-In-Action Tour in Sydney
(20 September) and Melbourne (22 September). The complimentary
seminars are designed to demonstrate how marketers can capitalise on
the highest ROI and fastest growing interactive channels. For more
information and to register, please visit:

http://www.responsys.com/nsm-in-action/?cid=70150000000c2HVAAY

About Responsys
Responsys is the leading provider of email and
cross-channel marketing solutions that enable companies to engage in
relationship marketing across the interactive channels customers are
embracing today — email, mobile, social and the web. With Responsys
solutions, marketers can create, execute, and automate highly dynamic
campaigns and lifecycle marketing programs that are designed to grow
revenue, increase marketing efficiency, and strengthen customer
loyalty. Responsys’ New School Marketing vision, flexible on-demand
application suite, and customer success-focused services aim to
deliver high ROI, increased levels of automation and fast
time-to-value. Founded in 1998, Responsys is headquartered in San
Bruno, California and has offices throughout the world. Responsys
serves world-class brands such as: American Family Mutual Insurance
Company, Avis Europe, Continental Airlines, Deutsche Lufthansa,
Dollar Thrifty, Lands’ End, LEGO, LinkedIn, Newegg, Qantas, Southwest
Airlines, and UnitedHealthcare. For more information about Responsys,
visit responsys.com.

Additional Resources

https://www.facebook.com/Responsys


https://www.twitter.com/Responsys

        
        Contact:
        Simon O'Day
        Responsys
        +61 415 175 815
        Email Contact
        
        Laura Schierberl
        Responsys
        +1 415 990 0566
        Email Contact
        
        
        

SOURCE: Responsys

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Copyright 2011 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

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Facebook blames algorithm for censoring activists

In case you haven’t heard, there were some alleged censorship issues with Facebook over the weekend. We can blame it on an algorithm – at least for now.

According to the AP, the social networking site emailed notes of apology for blocking environmental activists and others from posting on Facebook pages with similar interests.
    
The most recent problems with Facebook aren’t limited to regular everyday Joes either. Supposedly even Governors of states, like Jan Brewer (a Republican), were having issues with posting information on Facebook.
    
Interestingly enough, Facebook’s little censorship issue doesn’t seem limited to a particular party; as liberals claim their ideas have been censored as well.
    
In the AP story, Facebook attributed problems with posting links and information to an anti-spam algorithm.

There was no deliberate attempt to stifle political opinions and ideas. The algorithm was just doing what it was designed to do and it messed up.
    
It sounds believable doesn’t it? And until people around the world can gather proof that something else is going on, we’ll just have to take their word for it.
    
Personally, I’m not sold on the whole idea that Facebook doesn’t blatantly censor things. I just don’t have the time to go through every little complaint to find proof that something else is going on.
    
But that’s why we have online forums and chat groups, now isn’t it? Maybe I can get help with this Facebook investigation from the online community…
    
I know that computers and the programs that operate them are flawed. We can make them think like us, but they are not us.
    
Yes, an algorithm can indeed mess up and believe legitimate content is spam when it is not. But those same algorithms can be tweaked to look out for certain political topics and ideas too.
    
There is rioting and civil unrest all over the world right now, and it was all supposedly coordinated through digital social networks. We are supposed to fear social networks now.

The guy who attacked Olso, Norway put his manifesto online for everyone to see before he went off the deep end. We are supposed to fear open access to information now too, even if that information clearly comes from a nutcase.

Can you see what the trend is lately?

Governments all over the world are mismanaging their countries to the point of collapse and some people are choosing to go nuts because of it. Some people are remaining sane, but we being told that the bad people are only bad because they got the idea to be bad from social media.

If it weren’t for social media people would love and accept the way world governments are ruining the financial future of the masses. Right?

Authoritarians are also trying to sell us on the idea that the Internet needs to be filtered and possibly censored by the government because too much access to information will somehow inspire people to carry out terrorists attacks.

Facebook, like it or not, falls into the same category that government does. It is a huge organization that has only been able to grow so large because the elite allowed it to.

The political/financial establishment is also the reason why people currently value Facebook around $100 billion. Do you really think Facebook creates as much tangible value as say Apple or Microsoft?

No way.

The day is going to come when the battle for the Internet can no longer be ignored.

The idea of an Internet and the connectivity it brings goes against the current mainstream ideas of how people should be governed. Many politicians and powerful figures think that the Internet gives people too much power to share ideas and expose their lies.

Maybe the recent issues with Facebook censorship can really be blamed on an algorithm. But keep in mind those algorithms are built by people who are motivated by certain things.

The Facebook staff who create the anti-spam algorithms can be motivated to make their algorithms censor content based on the ideas and information it contains, if they were persuaded to think that doing so would be in their best interests.

When it’s all said and done, the interests of political activists and Facebook probably will not be lined up. For now, though, we can blame the algorithm.

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