Tag: social media

Twitter takes aims at mobile commerce with the help of American Express

Twitter is one of the world’s most used social networks. The network boasts of a highly active user base, which has afforded the company significant success in the world of business. Twitter has reportedly been looking for new ways to generate revenue. Such reports seem to have been true as the social network has entered into a partnership with American Express. The partnership will be focused on introducing e-commerce and mobile commerce elements into Twitter.

Mobile user base adds momentum to Twitter’s initiative in e-commerce

Twitter has been showing a strong interest in e-commerce in recent months. The massive number of users that access Twitter through their mobile devices has also piqued the company’s interest in mobile commerce. The company sees major potential in this field and has turned to American Express to help it tap into the burgeoning mobile commerce market that has been successful for other companies.

Users will be able to purchase products by posting to Twitter

Per the partnership, American Express customers will be able to associate their credit card numbers with their Twitter accounts. This will allow consumers to make purchases by simply posting to Twitter. This initiative will be introduced over the next few days, with Twitter users able to purchase products from American Express itself, as well as Amazon and products from Donna Karan. Because Twitter’s primary demographic is mobile consumers, the move is expected to help establish the social network’s presence in the mobile commerce space.

Success of new initiative has yet to be seen

This is not the first time American Express has introduced a mobile commerce element to a social network. Last year, the financial services company partnered with Foursquare for a similar initiative. Twitter expects to see significant benefits from its adoption of mobile commerce and suggests that there will be major marketing opportunities for businesses using the social network due to the new partnership. Whether consumers will respond well to the mobile commerce services that Twitter is adopted has yet to be seen.

The results of a recent study have just been released and indicate that retail banking is losing its enthusiasm.

A new Pitney Bowes study has shown that only just half of all retail banking marketers feel strongly that their social media marketing campaigns are successful.

One third of those in that industry feel that their campaigns aren’t effective at all.

These companies have also indicated that they will be adjusting their social media marketing budgets in order to reflect those belief. The study indicated that while the sector does intend to continue their efforts throughout this year, there has been a considerable loss of confidence in the positive effects that it will generate. This lack of certainty over its value to the business is shrinking the investments that are being made into this field.

Social media marketing will remain a focus for retail banks and credit unions despite the struggles.

Even as those organizations battle with their understanding of how important social media marketing can be to the financial industry, they intend to hang on, at least for this year. That said, the study has shown that the approach over that channel for 2013 will be a considerably more cautious one than it will be for other industries.

Kieran Kilmartin, from Pitney Bowes Software, expressed that one of the primary concerns voiced in the study, which was that “Well-intentioned marketers in retail banks could inadvertently turn customers off by irritating them with their social media behaviors.”

The independent study was conducted by Vanson Bourne, having been commissioned by Pitney Bowes Software. It looked specifically into social media marketing effectiveness and performed a comparison between its trends among the various marketing directors with the attitudes that customers hold toward the technique. Consumers surveyed were from the United States, Germany, Australia, France, and the United Kingdom.

The research also looked at seven different business sectors, in total. These included retail banking, insurance, the public sector, utilities, telecoms, and fast-moving consumer goods. It examined the perspectives and opinions that each of these areas held for social media marketing. Specifically in retail banking, the opinions are split down the middle in terms of their confidence in the impact it can have on the profitability of the organization.