Content marketing continues to inch up in importance for business-to-business firms, according to research from content curation platform Curata.

The company’s “B2B Marketing Trends 2012 Report” found that 87% of US B2B marketers have used content marketing this year—the most popular tactic of any queried. That was up 5 percentage points from usage levels in 2011, impressive considering the already-high level of interest in content marketing.

via Originality Is Content Marketers’ Greatest Challenge – eMarketer.

Measurement, distribution less of a problem

Content marketing continues to inch up in importance for business-to-business firms, according to research from content curation platform Curata.

The company’s “B2B Marketing Trends 2012 Report” found that 87% of US B2B marketers have used content marketing this year—the most popular tactic of any queried. That was up 5 percentage points from usage levels in 2011, impressive considering the already-high level of interest in content marketing.

via Originality Is Content Marketers’ Greatest Challenge – eMarketer.

Companies have big plans to use social tools as innovation platforms, details a new study [download page] from the IBM Institute for Business Value. Among companies experienced in social innovation activities, 57% now use social business for internal collaboration, but that number will reach 78% over the next 2 years. Similarly, while 58% now monitor customer comments for new ideas, 78% plan to do so in the next 2 years. Other areas in which more respondents plan to use social business for innovation include gathering feedback from customers (73 planning % vs. 46 currently using), enabling customers to submit plans and solutions (68% vs. 40%) and more effectively collaborating with partners and suppliers (72% vs. 38%).

via Social Media Poised To Become A Stronger Force For Innovation.

Millennials (aged 18-29) in the US have diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, and are concentrated in cities with large Hispanic populations, according to [download page] a new report from Scarborough Research. Heritage doesn’t just matter to American Millennials, though: around the world, this generation shows pride in national traditions, along with a strong sense of tolerance and openness towards other cultures.

Looking at the US, Scarborough finds that 43% of Millennials identify as Hispanic (21%), black/African American (13%), Asian, or of other race or ethnicity (9%). That compares to 38% of Generation X adults (aged 30-44), and 26% of Baby Boomers (aged 45-64). In particular, Millennials are 49% more likely than average to be Hispanic. That’s a big reason why Millennials are highly concentrated in cities like Bakersfield, CA (34% more than in measured markets overall), El Paso, TX (31% more), and Fresno, CA (21% more).

via Culture, Social Activism Matter to Today’s Youth.

Marketers may be out of touch with how consumers feel about their engagement with brands, according to [download page] November 2012 survey results from Turn, conducted by Forbes Insights. For example, 49% of marketers rate forwards or shares of ads or other content online as a strong influence on their engagement measures, but just 15% of consumers say they feel engaged or invested in a brand when they share an ad.

Data from “The New Rules of engagement: Measuring the Power of Social Currency” reveals that there are numerous similar instances of disconnect between what marketers measure and what consumers feel is important. One that stands out relates to brand recommendations. 45% of marketers say that consumers’ proactive efforts to recommend a brand is a strong measure of engagement for them. But, just 24% of consumers report feeling invested in a brand when they convince others to use it. The only measure in which both groups agree concerns opt-in messaging. For marketers, subscribers to email alerts, newsletters, or other loyalty programs topped the list of strongly influential engagement measures. At the same time, signing up for special deals or email updates ranked as the top way that consumers feel engaged with brands.

via Consumers, Marketers Disconnect On Measures Of Brand Engagement.

There’s a strong perception that with the rise of social media, mobile device usage, and other such digital trends, youth have put TV on mute. According to the latest cross-platform report [download page] from Nielsen, young people are indeed watching less TV, but it’s not a seismic shift, yet. The 18-24 group, for instance, watched a weekly average of 22 hours and 32 minutes of traditional TV in Q2, about 1 hour and 45 minutes less than they did in Q2 2011. That’s about 15 minutes less a day. The difference in monthly viewing time for this group between Q1 2012 and Q1 2011? About 1 and a half hours, or 13 minutes a day.

via Are Young People Watching Less TV?.

Public relations is not taken seriously as a function of business or as a profession. US companies spend $150 billion annually on advertising and only $5 billion on public relations, according to eMarketer and PRSA respectively. Advertising professionals make up to 75% more than their PR counterparts, as calculated from PayScale data. While virtually all MBA programs offer courses in advertising, the Associated Press reported only 20% offer a course in public relations. In popular culture ad execs are immortalized with powerful characters like Mad Men’s Don Draper who positions Kodak’s slide projector for success in part by singlehandedly christening it the “Carousel”, while PR execs are portrayed by characters like Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones who seem to do nothing but throw parties for a living.

Yet anyone who pays attention to how decisions are influenced knows that public relations is tremendously important.

via Why public relations gets no respect – Fortune Tech.

92% of US online adults say that they read and search for content online, but no single method dominates their content discovery, according to survey findings released November 2012 by nRelate. For example, 31% claim that search engines are not their primary method of finding that content, while 51% read and click on content that is pushed to them through email newsletters from brands they use. 48% report being more likely to click on related content after reading an article, meaning that context looms large in their decisions to read or click through.Data from the “Behavior Shift: Getting Content in Front of Consumers” reveals that US adults spend an average of 7.2 hours per week looking for content, with the younger age groups 18-44 skewing higher. They read between 3 and 4 articles per session and watch between 2 and 3 videos on average.But what makes them click? A 62% majority looks for traditional news links, as opposed to related images, videos or blog posts; in short, they are looking to read. That aside, 39% report being more likely to click on an article with a related image. Once they finish an article, they are more likely to click on a link to another article 34% than to a video 15%.

via Online Content Discovery And Sharing Take Many Forms.

American businesses are in denial about the need to embrace social media. New research finds that 72% of businesses that use social media do not have a clear set of goals or a clear strategy for their social media platforms.

This lack of direction is happening despite the fact that 60% of Americans use some sort of social media, according to the Pew Research Center. Businesses, however, are not convinced that social media is anything more than a fad or a temporary phenomenon.

via Social Media Denial Common for U.S. Businesses.

For users, copying and pasting to share content holds obvious appeal: It’s almost frictionless, and it allows the sharer to choose exactly what to pass on to a friend or social network.

“You probably have a lot of friends sharing the same article,” Tynt general manager Greg Levitt said. “But when you can specifically call out a personalized, relevant aspect, it makes the story your own.”

On the search side of the equation, copy-and-paste analytics give publishers information about what content is actually driving users away from their sites.

Tynt also reported that while the vast majority of copied-and-pasted content is text, 12% of copied content was images.

via Copy and Paste Drives Sharing – eMarketer.