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I hope my fellow American readers had a fantastic Fourth of July. I’m sure some of you are still enjoying a long weekend. Despite the holiday break, there was still plenty of news and no shortage of studies and reports released. This week’s wrap is heavily dominated by studies and surveys, but there’s also a new Twitter feature one can only hope finds its way into all tweets. You’re welcome to visit my link blog, although the bookmarklet wasn’t working today, so a dozen or so items I wanted to share there aren’t available. With luck, Tumblr will have the problem ironed out by next week.

The waning appeal of the Net’s biggest social sites

The transition from fun to chore has made the process of visiting the top social media sites less desirable than it has been, according to a study from consumer research company E-Score. “While awareness and usage of social media sites is extremely high,” the Daily Dog story reporting the findings notes, “the allure of using these sites is starting to wear thin with consumers.” Facebook and Twitter both produced “surprisingly low” appeal ratings. That means either that people have gotten into the habit of visiting them or find them to be a requirement. The fact that Yelp scored so high on the appeal side—even as awareness was low—indicates a preference for sites that offer on-demand information rather than casual interactions with friends and family. Consumers trust traditional media brands more than they trust social media brands, the study also revealed.

Facebook, Twitter vital to effective SEO

Social media signals count for a lot in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings, according to an updated study from Searchmetrics, reported by Shea Bennett in a MediaBistro article. “Indeed, seven of the 10 most important factors in SEO now come from social media,” writes Bennett, including Google +1s, a number of Facebook activities, Pinterest and tweets. The article includes two infographics worth your time.

New Twitter feature offers YouTube-like insights

Check a video you’ve posted to YouTube and you’ll be able to see where it has been embedded. Know who has shared your video on their site can help you analyze its reach and impact. Embedding tweets has been possible for a while now, but only recently has Twitter enabled an “Embedded on these websites” notice, listing articles that feature the tweet. It shows up only on popular tweets, inviting users to “click through and discover the story behind the original post,” explains Matt Brian in a Verge article.

CMOs most concerned about customer engagement

Chief marketing officers’ top concern is customer engagement, according to the results of a study released by Korn Ferry, the retained search firm. At 52%, customer engagement is by far the most pressing concern, with taking advantage of digital earning only 29% of the votes. Acquiring digital-savvy talent earned 11% and dealing with budget issues got only 9%. The top concerns related to customer engagement include creating sustainable and engaging customer relationships and providing an effective customer experience. CMOs were split on which department owns customer engagement and experience, with 35% saying it’s marketing’s responsibility, 32% calling it a shared responsibility of marketing and sales, and 28% claiming a multifunctional task force should handle it. Read more at BtoB Online.

Should reverse-showrooming trend bring relief to brick-and-mortar retailers?

Activity on social networks—including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest—drive just as much sales from inside brick-and-mortar stories as they do online buys, according to findings shared recently by Vision Critical, a provider of insight community technologies. Retailers have been under pressure from showrooming, the practice of visiting a store to see a product before buying it for less online. But while 26% of consumers are regular showroomers, 41% “browse online and then purchase in stores—a practice we call ‘reverse showrooming,’” according to Alexandra Samuel and David Sevitt from Vision Critical. They suggest retailers need to study customers’ paths to purchase in order to refine their marketing practices to increase in-store purchases. The research also found Pinterest to be the most helpful social tool for finding items to buy, mostly for DIY projects, crafts, food and drink. Technology purchases are inspired more on Facebook and Twitter. More details are available in the Daily Dog story.

Reddit traffic grows

Reddit—the crowdsoucred news site that touts itself as the “the front page of the Internet,” now gets visits from 6 percent of all U.S. adults, according to a TechCrunch piece by Ingrid Lunden. The report—from the Pew Internet and American Life project—determined that men are twice as likely as women to become Reddit users, and consumers under 50 are significantly more likely to use the site than those older. It’s also more popular with urban dwellers than rural residents.

Yelp influences local buying

After they visit Yelp, the popular online rating and review site, 51% of people make a purchase decision, according to a Nielsen study. “More than nine in 10 said that using Yelp at least occasionally results in making a purchase from a local business,” writes Online Media Daily‘s Mark Walsh. Visitors were even more likely to visit a local vendor or buy something from them if they found the vendor on Yelp’s mobile app. Are enough brick-and-mortar locations taking advantage of Yelp? While big car manufacturers are visible via their brands, for example are dealerships engaging through ratings and reviews on Yelp?

Brands will send your Postagram for free

I first tried Postagram about a year ago, specifying which of my Instagram photos I wanted to share in print and sending it to a client. It costs $.99 to send a Postagram within the U.S. and $1.99 to send it to other countries, but that cost vanishes if you pick on of two new corporate partners whose logo you don’t mind gracing the card along with the photo you want to share. Coppertone and Hyatt House are the first to sign on. “These companies see the deal as a way to get their brand in front of consumers through direct mailings, except this time, instead of seeing their message immediately discarded in the trash, their ad is placed directly beside a personal photo and greeting from a family member or friend,” according to Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch.  Postagram has run one-off campaigns with brands, like one with the Gap clothing chain last fall, which resulted in the distribution of 20,000 cards. It’s an interesting look at one way to take advantage of the Instagram craze as well as another example of print’s longevity even in the face of digital dominance.

Frequency of visits to photo site surges

People are gravitating toward image-based networks, with Instagram drawing daily visits from 70% of respondents to a study about where and how often they go online. The newer service Snapchat is getting daily visits from 67% of respondents. The study, from ad agency The Buntin Group and Survey Sampling International, asked respondents who use at least two platforms about their destinations. “Email and Facebook each saw 87% of respondents logging in weekly to communicate with others,” according to the eMarketer report. Respondents spent an average of 23 hours per week on email, text and social networks. Thirty percent logged into Twitter and YouTube at least weekly, and 10% made a weekly trip to LinkedIn and Pinterest.