Sword Ciboodlereleased the results of a research survey targeting US and UK companies with medium- to large-sized contact centers on their use of social media specifically for customer service.

With nearly 400 responses from around the globe, and representation from more than 10 industry verticals, the research helped to reveal insights into how organizations are leveraging social channels for customer service. The analysis covers topics such as the longevity and maturity of the social customer service practice, the integration of social channels with traditional channels, and the decision and selection criteria used to determine social customer service programs.

Survey results indicated that social channels have been strongly embraced, with 59 percent of organizations having adopted Twitter and 60% adopting Facebook, and almost 85 percent of those who have adopted one, have adopted both together. However, while social channels are widely used, participants showed that justification and validation of social customer service is proving to be a challenge.  There are a variety of differences in how social channels are used, and factors such as an organization’s size, industry and geography also play an important role. Integration of data, as well as finding the right balance between social customer service and more “traditional” channels, is an important part of what companies are wrestling with. Read the rest of this entry »

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace.

Google Sites led the explicit core search market in February with 66.4 percent of search queries conducted.

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in February with 66.4 percent market share (up 0.2 percentage points), followed by Microsoft Sites with 15.3 percent (up 0.1 percentage points) and Yahoo! Sites with 13.8 percent.

Ask Network accounted for 3.0 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.5 percent. Read the rest of this entry »

Consumers are turning to a range of sources for consumer electronics information, with Microsoft leading as the most visited computer and consumer electronics brand online in September 2011.

Microsoft’s websites saw nearly 94 million unique U.S. visitors, according to Nielsen’s State of the Media: Consumer Usage Report.

Among top brands in the category, consumers spent the most time on Apple’s websites, where 68.7 million visitors averaged one hour and two minutes per person, compared to 42 minutes on Microsoft’s sites. Adobe, Mozilla, and CNET rounded out the top five brands, with 24 to 28 million visitors going to their sites and spending 2 to 6 minutes each on average. CNET was the only news website among the top 5 in this category overall.

Amazon emerged as the clear category leader among mass merchandiser brands. Seventy-two million visitors, about one in three active web users, browsed the online shopping site in September 2011 for an average of 29 minutes per person.

Walmart’s followed as the second-ranked site, where 34.5 million visitors spent an average of 13 minutes per person on the site. Target, Shopathome.com, and Overstock.com rounded out the top five most visited mass merchandiser websites.

Women made up the majority of visitors to both categories of websites. More than three out of four women who were active online visited consumer electronics sites during September 2011, compared to seven out of 10 men. Women were also 7 percent more likely to visit mass merchandiser sites.

Young people aged 18-34 were slightly more likely than the general population (4 percent more likely) to visit consumer electronics sites.