SIIA Marketing Survey Shows Significant Jump in Business Use of Social Media Marketing

SIIA released its second annual survey of leading marketing executives today.  For its “Marketing Industry Report,” we asked executives a series of questions about their company’s use of social media and mobile marketing.  The results provide an interesting and useful snapshot of how today’s businesses are incorporating leading tech platforms, specifically social media and mobile, into their marketing programs.

The results show that technology is playing a significant – and in many cases, growing – role in corporate marketing.  And while nearly all companies have embraced social media marketing, other platforms, especially mobile, have only limited appeal for digital marketers.  The results also show that most executives have yet to invest significant resources in their digital marketing efforts – though many appear ready to increase their commitment of both time and money.

Below are key findings from the survey, which will be explored in-depth during an SIIA webinar on February 27.

Social Marketing Now Universal

This year’s survey finds a significant jump in the number of executives who say their company is using social media as a marketing platform.  Only 2 percent of respondents now say they are not using social media for marketing – a figure that stood at 11 percent a year ago.  This year’s survey also shows that 69 percent of executives say that social media is having a positive impact on their business – a slight decline from last year, in which just over 74 percent felt a positive impact.

And while the results show that nearly all businesses are now using social media marketing, they also indicate that the amount of time companies are dedicating to social media marketing has remained about the same.  This year’s results track closely with the previous year, with the exception that slightly more executives say their teams spend one to 10 hours per week on social media marketing (66 percent in 2013 survey versus 54.5 percent in the 2012 report).  The increase at the lower end of the time range is likely because more companies are using social media marketing, and new entrants tend to begin with a more limited engagement.

Executives clearly expect a greater commitment to social media in the future – 58 percent say they plan to spend more on social media marketing in the year ahead.  And while 30 percent of executives think that social media is adding to their marketing costs, an increasing number say it is reducing marketing costs (7 percent in 2013 survey, versus 4.7 percent in 2012).

With nearly all companies now using social media, it’s clear that the business community sees conclusive marketing value in these channels. The fairly stagnant time of use data suggests that companies are treadling lightly when it comes to their current social marketing commitment. But even with that, all signs point to more time and money being invested in social marketing in the years to come.

Mobile Marketing Impactful, But Usage Lags

At the same time that social media marketing is advancing, business use of mobile marketing continues to lag.  Only 25 percent of the companies surveyed are using mobile marketing – a slight drop from the 2012 survey, in which 29 percent said they are using mobile marketing.  Of the companies using mobile marketing, nearly half say that the mobile solution they offer is being used by 5 percent or less of their customers.  Given the low usage rates, it makes sense that more companies are not jumping into mobile marketing.

Still, even with low usage, executives believe that mobile marketing is having an impact.  One-third of executives in this year’s survey say that mobile marketing has changed the relationship with their customers, with 16 percent saying that product usage has increased.

This year’s survey also shows a significant drop in the number of companies targeting the Blackberry platform in their mobile marketing efforts.  Those targeting iOS, Windows and Android platforms remained largely the same between 2012 and 2013, however those targeting Blackberry dropped from 22 percent in the 2012 survey, to just 12 percent this year.

Mobile is unquestionably changing the way people live and work, but has yet to significantly change the way companies market. For the second year in a row we find limited use of mobile marketing and little indication that will change in the immediate future.  That said, there is a strong positive sign in the fact that a large percent of those using mobile are getting results.  More evidence of positive results, combined with expanding smartphone penetration and technological developments, should fuel mobile marketing growth in the years ahead.

The 2013 survey, which was conducted between October and December 2012, mirrors a survey SIIA conducted during a similar time period in 2011.  It asked questions of over 100 marketing executives who work for companies ranging in size, including those employing 1 to 99 people (65 percent), those employing between 100 and 999 (25 percent) and those employing over 1000 people (10 percent).


Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

This Week in Public Sector Innovation

GSA Releases RFI for Privatization of 3PAO Accreditation Process: This week, as announced at SIIA CloudGOV conference last week, GSA released an RFI seeking industry input on how to privatize the accreditation process for the FedRAMP 3rd Party Assessment Organizations. The idea behind this is to take some of the burden off GSA while adding bandwidth to the FedRAMP 3PAO stable, with the hope of moving more cloud service providers through the process more quickly. To date there have been 16 3PAOs certified and two companies who have received their provisional authorization through the FedRAMP program. Questions on the RFI are due February 26th and responses due by 5:00pm on March 8th. See the RFI on FedBizOpps.

Congress to Hold Hearing on IT Acquisition Reform: The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has scheduled a full committee hearing for next week to dig deeper into Chairman Issa’s draft IT acquisition reform bill known as FITARA. The hearing is currently scheduled for 9:30am on February 27th. Witnesses have not been publicly announced but the notice of the hearing can be accessed here

Cloud Computing Driving New Generation of Startups: According to a recent survey of 1300 executives in the US and UK conducted by Rackspace, cloud computing is driving more than cost reduction and innovation. The report highlights that 62 percent of survey respondents believe that cloud computing is responsible for the recent boom in entrepreneurs and startups with 25 percent strongly agreeing with that idea. Forbes has the full report.

Sequestration Looms Large with DC Area to Take Big Hit: According to figures released earlier this week, the looming sequester may have a big financial impact on the Defense Department and other federal agencies, as they will likely be forced to shorten the work week, reduce services or temporarily lay off employees. DC, Maryland and Virginia with a large population of federal employees and contractors, along with California are expected to take the biggest hit. DC/MD/VA may face an estimated DOD payroll cut impact of $1.2B. Federal News Radio has a story with a link to the Pentagon’s payroll numbers

Texas Moves to the Cloud: States continue to make progress moving applications into the cloud, with Texas being the latest to make headlines by announcing this week that they will move more than 100,000 state employees to Microsoft’s Office 365 Cloud. The contract will provide the state compliance with the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) and Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security standards, and is estimated to save the state some 75% over prior years. Government Technology has a full report.


Michael Hettinger is VP for the Public Sector Innovation Group (PSIG) at SIIA. Follow his PSIG tweets at @SIIAPSIG.

Should publishers be wary of one-sentence culture?

How much content should you give away to entice people to subscribe or join? It’s a tough question. Last week I spoke with Max Hotopf, president of Healthcare Europa, and he said something interesting about this quandary.

“We have headlines with the first line of the story [available for anyone]. The problem is I think [certain readers] kind of get used to that level of ‘subscribing.’ Maybe I need to send them the whole article when it’s particularly good to show the difference.”

Most of us do that to some extent—read the first line or paragraph of listings that are sent to us. A behemoth like Yahoo just reconfigured their home page into a whirlpool of first lines, designed to draw us into the warm waters. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t. The prevailing thought might be that if it’s free, we’ll take that next click. But what if this sub-culture has gotten us too used to a one-line world? With the limited time we all have, what if one is all we think we need?

Looking at today’s Yahoo homepage…Lance Armstrong won’t tell all to USADA—fine; water tested in L.A.—enough; crude oil prices decline-got it; India going to Mars—interesting. Am I clicking through? Not really. So what’s the answer?

A relatively new site called MATTER stresses the quality of their journalism. It “isn’t quite a website, it’s not really a magazine and it’s not exactly a book publisher either,” they write. “Instead, MATTER is something else—a new model for high-quality journalism, an area that’s been hit hard by the transition from print to digital media.”

That perception works against SIPA members, many of whom have come from newspapers and the like and continue to create exceptional journalism. MATTER offers free previews of their long-form articles. The advantage of these is that they are long enough to show off their excellence but still only a portion of the entire piece. Then you can pay 99 cents to get a “distraction-free” web edition and an invitation to a Q&A with the author. I’ve often said that I like the Q&A segments of webinars—sometimes better than the presented content; they can address specific needs—and here’s a business focusing on that.

After that, MATTER offers memberships—I believe starting as low as 99 cents a month—where you then get a place on their “Editorial Board.” “The system is based around All Our Ideas, an open source tool developed at Princeton. Members can use the tool to suggest ideas for stories, filter and refine suggestions made by others, and vote on the subjects they want to see us cover.”

I just received an email from a member listing the five areas he would like to see covered: social media strategies that won’t take all your time; new pricing/marketing strategies for newsletters; enforcing copyright (there will be a terrific pre-conference session on this at SIPA 2013!); online tools for editors; and how publishers are using text messaging to reach subscribers. Imagine if we—or any company—could get this open source tool to elicit more great ideas, filter and refine them and then have our audience select what would be most helpful?

Contrast MATTER’s pricing with a typical member like Hotopf, who is charging around £900 for subscriptions and £2300 for site licenses. It’s such a wide swath! His renewal rate is 90% so he’s putting out quality, useful stuff. But getting new members is tough. He has the data on the people who are just peeping. Does he give them a free preview like MATTER? Does he invite them for some kind of survey just to involve them more in the information? Or does he try to encourage more referrals since his audience is seemingly happy with what they’re getting? Or D, all of the above?

“MATTER is building their most valuable asset: community,” wrote Craig Mod in his recent, much talked about article titled Subcompact Publishing. “They’re hungry and talented. And they’re the tip of an iceberg.”

Mod believes that MATTER successfully marries the old and the new—“an understanding of editorial ethics, storytelling, craft” while changing “the shape of the content and distribution models of the content to match digital.” This is, of course, what SIPA members have the power to do. How to best show that off to attract new members remains up in the new and rarefied air.

Subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily for more specialized publishers industry news.


Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @RonnatSIPA

New SIIA California State Report Highlights Impact of Prop 30 and Other California Programs

After many years of budget crisis, California schools and colleges are expecting a much needed funding increase after voter passage in November of California Proposition 30.  The measure increases taxes on the highest earners in California and distributes those funds into the “Education Protection Account.” A per-pupil increase of at least $200 is expected, though it is unclear if funds will simply go into the general education fund or will be earmarked for specific programs.  In recent years, school districts have received funding flexibility in light of funding cuts, freeing up many previously restricted funds to be used for many locally-determined purposes, including for technology, content and software.  SIIA’s recently released California State Report includes details of key state programs and funding.

Governor Brown released his budget plan in January 2013, calling for continued and increased funding of education mostly through additional flexible funds provided through Proposition 30.  Look for an upcoming SIIA State of the States report for a summary of proposals by Governor Brown and governors in the 15 largest states.

The SIIA California State Report is the first in a new SIIA series of reports detailing the educational programs within the largest states.  As the more populous state in the U.S. and the home of Silicon Valley, California is certainly one of the major education technology markets. While funding for education initiatives has been generally tight in California, this report contains valuable information to help companies navigate these murky waters.  This report summarizes the key funding that local districts rely on, including for educational technologies and instructional resources.  It also outlines the state agency structure with specialized programs, contact information, links, and descriptions of certain key policies and procedures such as around instructional materials.

This report is designed to be a one-stop navigation tool for member companies interested in operating within California.  The California State report is available to SIIA members only.  Look for more State Reports and updates from SIIA on our Education Policy Page.  We also encourage members to register for SIIA’s Ed Tech Government Forum, April 9-11 in Washington, DC which will also address the role the of the state in education policy and funding.


Lindsay HarmanLindsay Harman is Market and Policy Analyst for the SIIA Education Division.

A big call to make? Ask yourself questions.

Highly regarded author Daniel Pink looks at sales a little differently in his new book, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.

“When you go into certain types of encounters, whether it’s a sales call, asking someone out a date, or pitching an idea, the conventional view is that ahead of time we should pump ourselves up,” Pink said at a recent Greater Washington Board of Trade breakfast (published in The Washington Post). “We have our self talk: ‘You can do this.’ ‘I got this.’ The research shows you are actually better off asking yourself a question. Instead of saying you can do this, you are better off with interrogative self talk, asking, can you do this?

“Why? Questions by their very nature are active. If I ask questions, I start to think of answers. Can I do this? Yes, I’ve been in this place before. I’ve done my research. I know the objections, and I’m prepared to address them. I’ve got to remember to make this point. What you do in a more muscular way, is you prepare.”

Here are 3 more sales tips from Pink and 3 from the recent Breakthrough Conference:

1. The people who do best at selling are neither pure extroverts nor introverts; they are in the middle. Research from a Wharton study, said Pink, “shows extroverts are more likely to take sales jobs, extroverts are more likely to get hired, and extroverts are more likely to get promoted. But…the classic, glad-handing extroverts only did a little bit better than the introverts cowering in the corner…Why are the extroverts not very good? They don’t listen. They are too pushy. Why are [the introverts] not very good. They don’t assert. They are quiet. The people who are in the middle, they have the best of both worlds. They know when to talk. They know when to listen. They know when to push. They know when to hold back. They are much more attuned. The good news is most people are ambiverts.”

2. Look for buoyancy in sales reps. Amid what Pink calls the “ocean of rejection,” how do you remain afloat?

3. You must take the high road now in selling. “If you know a lot more than your prospect … if your prospect doesn’t have many choices, if your prospect has no means to talk back, you can totally take the low road. But that’s not our world,” Pink said. “We are basically forced to take the high road, and the high road requires a much more fundamental human approach: understand where other people are coming from, be clear, be honest, put the other’s person’s interest first, have an ethic of service. Those things might sound superficially touchy feely but they are actually very hard-headed ways to [sell] effectively.

4. Empower your sales people with information. The world has changed. There’s a new customer who has all the same information you do, George Colony, head of Forrester Research, told the Breakthrough audience. “To serve empowered customers you must empower your teams. You must support a constantly changing portfolio of channels. And you’d better coach your CEO; their average age is 59—they first went to work with Wite-Out and a typewriter. You have to educate them and educate their children.”

5. You need to move from a one-way organization to a partnership with customers, where you are interested in what will serve them. This comes from a session delivered by the leadership team at the Christian Science Monitor. “We moved from being a silo organization to a collaborative one, where we talk to each other all the time,” said Editor John Yemma. “The new generation is not reading like the old.”

6. Take the time to know what your customer wants to achieve. “This is a trend we see,” said Denzil Rankine, executive chairman of AMR International. “It’s not only a matter of fitting into your customers’ workflow; you need to understand what they’re trying to achieve.”

Subscribe to the SIPAlert Daily for more specialized publishers industry news.


Ronn LevineRonn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @RonnatSIPA

This Week in IP Enforcement

Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services Members Selected (AG-IP-News)
Members for ICANN’s Expert Working Group on gTLD Directory Services have been selected, and the group will begin work immediately to help redefine the purpose and provision of gTLD registration data.

Anti-Piracy Group Welcomes Pirate Bay Lawsuit (Wired)
The Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC), an anti-piracy group accused of infringing The Pirate Bay’s copyright, has said that a lawsuit from The Pirate Bay could benefit anti-piracy campaigners by forcing the site’s anonymous operators to identify themselves by name.

In Lawsuit With Publishers, Open Textbook Startup Boundless Hits Back (paidContent)
Facing a lawsuit alleging such violations as copyright infringement, unfair competition and false advertising from publishers Pearson, Cengage and Macmillan, open textbook startup Boundless has requested a trial by jury after a judge denied its motion to dismiss.

EA and Zynga Quietly Resolve Copyright Dispute Out of Court (All Things D)
In federal court, all lawsuits related to Electronic Arts’ claim that Zynga copied one of its Facebook games were dismissed. EA filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Zynga in August, charging that Zynga’s social game called The Ville was an “unmistakable copy” of EA’s The Sims Social.

As 3-D Printing Becomes More Accessible, Copyright Questions Arise (NPR)
As 3-D printers and 3-D scanners get cheaper and become more available, this nascent industry could be roiled by battles over intellectual property.

USC Report Finds a Shift in Advertiser-Supported Piracy (Los Angeles Times)
In the latest reports on advertising-supported online piracy, USC says two major distributors of ads online – Google and OpenX – have “significantly reduced the number of infringing sites they are placing ads on,” but that smaller ad networks have rushed in to fill the gap.


Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.

Cyber Debate Heats Up, New Legislation Supports Technology Readiness for Digital Learning, and Obama Calls for More Work on Patent Reform

Cyber Debate Heats Up with Executive Order, Federal Legislation and EU Proposal

Cybersecurity has generated a lot of attention for several years, but an Executive Order (EO) by President Obama and proposals on the Hill and in Europe have officially set heavy policy discussion in motion for 2013 and beyond.

Last week, President Obama called-out cybersecurity as a priority in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday, announcing the release of the much anticipated Executive Order (EO) on cybersecurity.  The EO is focused specifically on critical infrastructure protection, calling for a NIST-led multistakeholder process to identify existing consensus standards, practices and procedures that can become the basis of a voluntary “Cybersecurity Framework.”  In announcing the EO and corresponding guidance and initiatives, the President has labeled the EO as a “down payment” for legislation, which in his view is still very necessary to address many of the key cybersecurity priorities, most notably improving information sharing from companies to the government, and for creating incentives for broad adoption of the voluntary cybersecurity framework. SIIA issued a statement in response commending the President for prioritizing cybersecurity, seeking to preserve innovation and reiterating the need to avoid applying regulations around what will be developed as a voluntary framework.

Also last week, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-MI) and Dutch Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) reintroduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), bipartisan cybersecurity legislation to enhance sharing of cyber threat information between the public and private sectors. Last year CISPA received more than 100 bipartisan cosponsors and was passed by the House with strong support.  In response, SIIA joined with other leading trade associations in support this legislation.  The House Intelligence Committee followed-up with a hearing on the legislation Thursday.

These developments in DC last week came on the heels of the European Commission (EC) publishing a cybersecurity strategy and a draft directive on network and information security (NIS).  In response, SIIA issued a statement expressing concern that the proposal is too prescriptive and overly broad.

New Legislation Supports Technology Readiness for Digital Learning and Online Assessment

U.S. Representative George Miller (CA) recentlyintroducedThe Transforming Education Through Technology Act” (H.R. 521), legislation to help ensure the nation’s elementary and secondary schools have access to the technology infrastructure, applications and professional support needed for digital learning and online assessment. Congressman Miller is Ranking Democrat on the U.S. House Education & the Workforce Committee, coauthor of the No Child Left Behind Act, and was recently recognized for his leadership in education technology. In response to the bill’s introduction, SIIA issued a statement of support of the legislation as an important step forward in providing our students and educators with the technology supports they need for success in school and in the workplace.  SIIA also joined with a coalition of organizations endorsing the bill, representing K-12 teachers, technology officers, administrators and high-tech companies. Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse Blog.

Obama on Patent Reform:  We’re Not Done Yet, Patent Trolls Need to be Reined In

Last week, President Obama took the opportunity in a public video chat to urge for more work to be done to stop abusive patent lawsuits.  Noting that recent patent reform efforts were “only a partial fix to the patent troll problem,” President Obama went on to say that “there’s a delicate balance between protecting intellectual property and making sure people aren’t ruined financially by patent trolls. What we need to do is pull together additional stakeholders and see if we can build some additional consensus on smarter patent laws.” Read more on SIIA’s Digital Discourse blog.

SIIA’s CloudGov Conference Features Lively Discussion on Emerging Federal IT Issues

SIIA’s Cloud/GOV 2013 conference held last week played to a packed house of federal IT employees, contractors, IT companies and policymakers. Event attendees were treated to keynote addresses from Federal CIO Steve VanRoekel, DOD DCIO Dave DeVries, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). They also heard a variety of perspectives on topics ranging from how the convergence of cloud and data analytics can make government more effective, to the latest on FedRAMP, and how to choose the right cloud solution. Making news was the announcement by GSAs Kathy Conrad that there is an RFI in the works to look at privatizing the management of the FedRAMP 3PAOs. GCN has a good roundup on the FedRAMP discussion, and video of the event is available online for those that missed it.


David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy. Follow the SIIA public policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPubPolicy.