LONDON - Client uncertainty over how to use micro-blogging sensation Twitter to communicate with customers means only two per cent of businesses have embraced it, according to an international survey by internet analytics firm WebTrends.
Tools such as email (46%) and online advertising (35%) are still the most popular forms of e-marketing. Optimised search (34%) is the third most-used means of communicating with customers.
"Twitter is undoubtedly the hottest thing on the web at the moment," says Colette Wade, marketing director EMEA, WebTrends. "Millions of people are now receiving blow-by-blow updates on the lives of their friends and even celebs from Stephen Fry to Ashton Kutcher.
"However it comes as no surprise that the business world has been more circumspect. Many are simply not sure how to use it, and even if they could they wouldn't be sure of what to say, and who exactly they would be saying it to."
WebTrends interviewed 300 online marketing managers in businesses with more than 250 employees across the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Australia.
Viral marketing is used by only 6 per cent of the companies responding to the WebTrends survey.
Better data analysis is seen as critical in helping to inform decisions that drive sales by 65% of respondents, and a variety of technologies and analysis tools are available to the internet marketer to support this process.
E-marketing tools - % of companies using always/often
e-Direct mail: 46%
Web analytics: 37%
Online advertising: 35%
Optimised search: 34%
Website e-news sponsorship: 9%
Online competitions: 8%
Internet forums: 8%
Viral marketing: 6%
Blogs: 6%
Podcasts: 6%
Twitter: 2%
by Noelle McElhatton, Marketing Direct