It seems logical, yes. But a new study from Beevolve released in October finds a strong correlation between a Twitter user’s tweet volume and follower count. According to the global study of 36 million Twitter user profiles, users with between 100,001 and 1 million followers boasted the highest average number of tweets, at almost 15,300. The group with the next-largest follower base 10,001 – 100,000 averaged almost 13,000 tweets, while those with the smallest follower count 0-50 averaged 66 tweets.

via Most Active Tweeters Also Boast Most Followers.

Consumers in Germany expect a lot from brands on social media channels. But they’re willing to engage with companies on those platforms to get useful information from them, according to a June 2012 survey of adult internet users in Germany conducted by email marketing company ExactTarget.

The survey found that almost four in 10 of those polled identified as “Facebook fans,” defined as those users who had become a fan or “liked” at least one brand or organization. A much smaller number of respondents, only 7%, thought of themselves as “Twitter followers,” meaning they followed at least one business or brand on the site. Meanwhile, 94% subscribed to permission-based marketing email.

via In Germany, Users Interact With Brands on Social Media – eMarketer.

Opt-in emails e.g., newsletters, emails from retailers are far more likely to be opened within the first hour after delivery than at any hour after that, according to GetResponse findings released in October 2012. Some 23.63% of all email opens occur within the first hour after delivery, and 9.52% in the second hour. Another 6.33% occur in the third hour, and 4.8% in the fourth. Five hours after delivery the results drop more than 90%, and less than 1% of opens occur 24 hours later.

via Opt-In Emails Get Most Opens Within First Hour Of Delivery, But Timing Counts.

Everywhere you look in the traditional media industry, you can see signs of turmoil and disruption: to take just a few recent examples, the New York Times is fighting with its union over cutbacks to benefits, The Guardian is looking at forced layoffs to cut costs, and the Journal Register Co. recently filed for bankruptcy for the second time. And yet, there are still some industry leaders who question whether newspapers and other outlets should be focusing on “digital first,” something that journalism professor Paul Bradshaw argues is a waste of both time and energy, at a time when the industry needs those things the most. He is right — the question isn’t whether digital should be first, it’s whether those who aren’t focusing on “digital first” will even be around to participate in the debate for much longer.

via Digital first isn’t an option for media — it’s the only way forward — Tech News and Analysis.

A slight majority of digital news consumers get their information from web-native sources like the Huffington Post or the Drudge Report, while 43% use digital versions of established news sources e.g., the New York Times, CNN, according to research conducted for The New York Times by Knowledge Networks and reported by Poynter in October 2012. Some 19% of digital news consumers rely upon search engines like Google and Bing as news sources, and 15% use social media to get their news fix.

via Majority Of Digital News Consumers Turn To Web-Native Sources.

Content marketing is becoming increasingly popular among B2B and B2C marketers, finds a pair of studies released in October. 84% of B2B marketers are planning to increase their content marketing over the next 12 months, reports Optify [download page], while 9 in 10 B2C and B2B marketers and agencies say they believe content marketing will become more important in the next year, according to Econsultancy. Both studies find that lead generation is a primary objective of content marketing activity for B2B marketers.Yet despite the importance attributed to content marketing and near-universal use 91% of Econsultancy respondents, just 38% of in-house marketer respondents both B2C and B2B said they had a defined content marketing strategy, and only 13% of agencies said their clients had one.

via Content Marketing Getting More Attention; B2B Sees Lead Gen Potential.

The key to lead generation and sales? Creating engaging, compelling content

B2B marketers often turn to content marketing for lead generation and prospect nurture throughout the lengthy sales process. An August 2012 study from Holger Shulze, author of the blog Everything Marketing Technology, pointed to a growing number of worldwide B2B technology marketers turning to content marketing for more brand-based goals, namely boosting thought leadership and brand awareness.

Findings from BtoB Magazine echoed Holger Shulze’s top three objectives and also identified additional content marketing objectives commonly pursued by US B2B marketing professionals: Sales and customer acquisition were each cited by 29% of respondents.

via B2B Content Marketers Prioritize Lead Gen – eMarketer.

As social media becomes increasingly used for customer engagement, social media users from around the world report a willingness to collaborate with companies they like in a variety of areas, finds InSites Consulting in a September 2012 report. Among those willing to help (who make up a large majority of the social media users surveyed), some 64% from 19 countries around the world report being interested in helping companies improve an existing product or service, and 64% are also interested in helping companies improve customer service. Other identified areas in which a majority of these respondents are interested in helping are in the development of a new product or service (59%), feedback on companies’ overall strategies (52%), and feedback on companies’ communication about the market (51%).

via Social Media Users Willing to Collaborate With Brands.

Visually-focused content may be on the rise, but a catchy headline is still the biggest factor enticing Americans to read an online or print news article, according to new research released in September. Harris Interactive asked more than 2,000 adults what factors would make them more likely to read an article, with a catchy headline (54%) coming out on top, beating an interesting picture with the article (44%) and interesting data or research which supports the article (43%).

There was some variety in the responses by age and gender. For example, while those top 3 factors maintained their order among Echo Boomers (18-35), Gen Xers (36-47), and Baby Boomers (48-66), interesting supporting data or research took top billing among Matures (67+), ahead of catchy headlines and interesting pictures (55% vs. 52% for each of the latter).

Looking at the gender breakdown, catchy headlines are more likely to lure women than men (58% vs. 50%), while interesting data or research proves more appealing to men (47% vs. 40%), and in fact is more likely to draw men than an interesting picture (43%).

Infographics More Appealing to News Junkies

Despite the proliferation of infographics, overall, just 28% of the adults surveyed said that an interesting infographic would make them more likely to read an article, with this result relatively consistent across age and gender.

There was more variety in response when segmenting by news interest. Self-described news “junkies” – for whom news is a favorite leisure time activity – are far more likely than the average to say that an interesting infographic will pique their interest in an article (40% vs. 28%). By comparison, infographics appeal to 29% of people who have a moderate interest in the news, and just 17% who aren’t interested in the news.

via Catchy Headlines The Biggest Draw For News Article Readers.

National magazines are adopting mobile action codes at ever increasing rates, and it appears with good reason, according to new research from Nellymoser. Looking over 12 months at 7 titles that used its Companion App to both create the magazine’s mobile application with scanner and the campaigns that were scanned in the magazine, the company found the median response rate to be 4.5-5.9%, with visitors keeping the app open for about an average of 10 minutes.

The average response rate, weighted by circulation and removing the highest and lowest scores, was 6.4%.

Visitors Return, View Several Pages

On top of their strong response rates, the mobile action codes proved highly engaging. During the average 10 minutes that an app was open, visitors viewed roughly 19 mobile pages, though there was a significant range among the titles, from 2.6 to 62.9.

via Magazines’ QR Codes Said Delivering Strong Response, Engagement Rates.