Latest Web Engagement News & Articles

If customers get the first click right they have twice as much of a chance of completing their task than if they get it wrong.

Telerik has released version 4.3 of its Sitefinity .NET Web content management system. And like we expected, there are more capabilities to support the online customer experience.

While some people were speculating that Yahoo! would be up for sale soon, the company was lining up an agreement to buy interclick, a proprietary advertising and technology solutions provider.

Denmark-based Sitecore is on a roll.  The company said it’s experiencing concurrent expansion in product development, geography and revenue gains that make this a banner year for the web content management system company, which made an early bet on the Microsoft .Net platform. 

Check out our Exclusive interview with Darren Guarnaccia, Sitecore Senior VP of Product Marketing, who speaks about customer engagement taking center stage.

There is a growing resistance to traditional marketing techniques. Today's customer is more logical, less emotional.

Sitecore has announced the launch of an online resource for web marketers, publishers and business users called Sitecore Engage. Multimedia, text and other content on Sitecore Engage are designed to help align web and business strategies for better audience engagement.

A final reminder that at 1pm ET, 10 PT today we are holding our monthly tweet jam. We will focus on the 3C's of Customer Experience: Content, Community, Commerce. The hashtag again is #CXMChat, the discussion topics:

1. Content, Community, Commerce: Which is your top CXM focus and why?
2. Is CXM maturing as a discipline and how is it changing organizations?
3. Do you believe orgs need a more abstracted role called "Experience (or Engagement) Architect"?
4. How is ecommerce evolving in the age of CXM?
5. What do you think is the big opportunity for CXM in 2012?

Check out the list of panelists attending and get yourself ready to settle in for a fast paced discussion on customer experience.

You can watch the event right here, or join us via your Twitter tool of choice. See you soon!

A Few Reminders

• Introduce yourself with your first #CXMChat tweet. Include your name, job title and organization you work for.
• Subsequent tweets must start with the question number you are responding to and the #CXMChat hashtag. For example, "@bigbird Q5 We very much believe sentiment analysis works #CXMChat"
• Please don't pitch products or services; stay knowledge focused
• Keep the discussion professional, but informal
• Remember that this is a public chat — be thoughtful

We are a little less than one full day away from our October tweet jam. This month we cover three important elements of customer experience: Content, Community and Commerce. Take a gander at who will be there and what we'll be talking about.

The customer is not captive anymore. The customer is active. They are in control.

A little interesting potential acquisition news this morning. It looks like SDL might be wanting to get its hands on web engagement management provider Alterian.

Editor's Note: Alterian released a comment on the potential acquisition offer. Read on to get their perspective.

Our focus on Customer Experience drove some thought-provoking discussions this week. For example, did you know that content is the fuel for your e-Commerce engine? Or that in order to provide the best content to a user, your recommendation engines should look at real-time data?

For those looking to launch a new CXM initiative, there's no place to start like a healthy audit of what you've got today. Here's how to conduct a website content audit.

Join us next week Wednesday, October 26th for our monthly Tweet Jam. The topic is the three C's of Customer Experience: Content, Community and Commerce. Checkout the questions and panelists in advance.

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Featured Events (all events | post your event)

• Oct 26 — e-Spirit Partner Roadshow - New York
• Nov 06 — Ektron Synergy Conference in Las Vegas
• Nov 08 — Sentiment Analysis Symposium in San Francisco
• Nov 09 — IDC Webinar: How to Future Proof your Web Content Management System
• Nov 14 — DAM LA 2011 Conference

Featured Jobs (all jobs | post your job)

• Web Content Management - Manager in San Francisco at Accenture
• Entrepreneurial Web Analytics Manager/Director in Boston at Zmags
• Business Development Manager in New York at Bridgeline Digital
• Proposal Writer Ontario at Open Text
• Solution Architect France at Sitecore

To remain relevant, the Web CMS (WCM) world must evolve. And given WCM's critical position in the information stream this fact is broadly accepted. However, the nature of the forces driving this evolution look different depending on who you talk to.

In this exclusive CMSWire interview SDL's CMO of Web Content Management Solutions, Robert Carroll, expounds on the industry shift from a core Web CMS focus towards Customer Experience Management (CXM).

These days, lead generation is more than just producing a list of names. It’s a delicate balance of art and science. With marketers juggling a wide range of responsibilities, who has time for trial and error? Set yourself up for success by avoiding these common lead generation pitfalls.

After Facebook waded into the comments space, is there still room for others to grow?  Looks like it, as Livefyre bags US$ 4.5 million in new funding and launches version 2.0 of its engagement-encouraging comments system.

People are no longer so easily fooled by happy marketing and communication spin.

Your customer experience strategy is likely composed of several initiatives. Perhaps you want to implement a new community or improve your e-commerce experience. Maybe it's your cross-channel integration that needs the most love?

This month we're focused on Customer Experience Management (CXM) practices and tools. To better serve you, we want to know what you care about most.

There is no witch here to cast spell and give you the right answer. And there's no skeleton in the closet that you need to hide — every organization has different priorities. Our poll is open until October 25th. We'll share the results here before the end of the month.

Web content management has changed. Yes, again. The universe of options for organizations to create, edit, manage and ultimately publish content to their Web platforms has shifted for the second time in a decade.

The German-based maker of the FirstSpirit CMS is making a big push into the North American market, recently opening a Boston office and now kicking-off a multi-city partner roadshow with the goal of — yep, you guessed it — convincing talented U.S. consultants that the e-Spirit take on Web Content Management is strategically interesting.

This is what we like about the content management world — it's never a dull place.

The e-Spirit Partner Roadshow

e-Spirit is holding the following roadshow events:

• Chicago: October 21, 2011
• Boston: October 24, 2011
• New York: October 26, 2011

Head over to the e-Spirit website for registration and local event information.

When fishing, one generally needs a bit of bait. The e-Spirit team is convinced that their FirstSpirit CMS technology is seductive on its own,  but is additionally running what they call the FirstSpirit Challenge. 

Consultants must submit a project proposal and the winners will be awarded a free FirstSpirit CMS license, as well as all the free project support required to make the project a success. In other words, if you convince e-Spirit of your project's merits, you might find yourself in the position of running a very high margin first implementation.

If you're an integrator in search of new alliances, check out the e-Spirit Roadshow details. Inquire directly about the FirstSpirit Challenge details.

The FirstSpirit CMS

Currently in version 4.2, FirstSpirit is a Java-based Web CMS created by Germany-based e-Spirit. FirstSpirit uses XML for storage and is both OS- and database-independent.

FirstSpirit aims to calm CIOs' fears of instability with long-term partnerships and strategies to handle all types of content. The product can also integrate with a company's existing services, including the likes of NetWeaver, WebSphere, SharePoint and FirstSpirit's own AppCenter.

Market research from ComScore suggests that Apple's iOS platform is even more popular than expected. Both Apple's tablet and smartphone platforms dominate in their respective markets, in terms of mobile web access.

We've long considered Web CMS vendors like Sitecore and Ektron to be mid-market players. And to some extent they still are. But with the evolution of web content management towards customer experience management has come a shift in the .NET Web CMS vendor landscape. Here's a look at where the players are today.