Web Engagement News & Articles

I think we are all agreed that social media has now bedded down and is as much a part of the fabric of marketing as email, direct mail and television. Better still, it is intrinsically linked to all the aforementioned disciplines in a way that boosts their effectiveness. Social media is not a standalone subdivision of marketing, because it generates data that can be tied back to the behavior and business objective it is supposed to alter.

The words multi-channel and cross-channel are used interchangeably, and while from an outside perspective they seem to have the same meaning, there is a subtle but very important difference between them.

Have you ever imagined how communities may act like collections of quantum particles? Well, you don't have to be a whiz to understand the connection between the two.

Empire Avenue, the social media exchange that allows you to buy and sell shares with just about anyone with a Twitter or Facebook account, almost entered the world under the name "Bond Street," but for the fact the URL was already reserved. How that early decision on metaphor influenced the unfolding of a site now populated with global brands and hundreds of social media's most aggressive oversharers is worth a little reflection.

The definition of a community has evolved tremendously and will continue to evolve in the future. Communities can be private or public, behind or in front of a paywall, professionally or independently run. However your community manifests itself, it’s driven by its purpose -- was it created to connect your business with your customers or the larger community? Or is it more narrowly defined? Do you want it to be private or public? What is the business purpose -- support, ideation, business process management or something else? Let’s take a look at some common use cases.

Governments are drastically cutting down budgets, and not only in Greece, but also worldwide. Citizens have to play a more active role in this very important activity. Is this an opportunity for e-Participation (tools)?

It’s no secret that people hate PowerPoint presentations. You might even say that we love to hate PowerPoint. But new data from SlideRocket suggests that we loathe PowerPoint so much we’d consider giving up things we enjoy or do more of the things we hate, just to make the boring, unimaginative slides stop.

Oracle has entered into an agreement to buy web experience management vendor FatWire Software in deal that is expected to close in the middle of this year. Now, the enterprise content management vendor has a complete customer experience solution. But has it come to the playground a little too late?

IBM (news, site) has made a couple of announcements today kicking off their Enterprise 2.0 Conference focus. Along with a new data center in Japan and some analyst accolades we were told about a new real time compliance solution that will support your social business activities.

Personyze (news, site) upped its website personalization and analytics game this week with the integration of Rapleaf's public information and personal interests aggregator. 

As part of its quest for world domination in e-commerce, eBay (news, site) announced today that it has completed its acquisition of GSI Commerce Inc., a provider of e-commerce and interactive marketing services

Microsoft (news, site) has been given regulatory approval to buy Skype, clearing the way for the $8.5 million deal.

The first step in top task management is carrying out a task situation analysis in order to understand the whole range of customer tasks that exist. I call this list of customer tasks the 'Longlist.'

Adobe (news, site) has taken customer experience management a step further today with the announcement of its Digital Enterprise Platform. This is both a re-branding of Adobe Livecycle, and a major architectural change that pulls together a suite of customer experience solutions, that ensures businesses (and in particular marketers) can be more agile and responsive to customers.

Last week, the world celebrated IPv6 Day. If the event didn’t make it onto your calendar, you’re not alone. The event was meant as a “test flight” for IPv6, a successor to the current Internet address system (IP4) that -- if successful -- will help to ensure that the Internet doesn’t run out of addresses. Yet, if your company missed the opportunity to test, it’s not too late to test whether your Internet connections are IPv6-ready.