Social Media Marketing

Pinterest Tacks On Brand-Friendly Features
May 20, 2013

Pinterest on Monday announced new features and relationships with brands that will bring more functionality to its pins. The features, according to the social bookmarking company, will make the pins more "useful." Pinterest introduced its new features in a Monday blog post. Pins now show more information, so users have more than photos to help them determine interest.

The End of Social Media Marketing's Wild West
May 01, 2013

The FTC recently updated its guidelines for online advertising to address the growth in mobile and social media marketing. Now a paid tweet has to begin with the word "ad," as obvious disclosure now must be included with all commercial speech. Is the link you're tweeting from an employer? A client? You have to mention that. The new rule: If money is changing hands, disclose it.

Salesforce Slips Social Ads Into Its Cloud Atlas
April 24, 2013

Salesforce.com expanded its advertising initiatives this week with the launch of Social.com, a platform designed to help brands tie ad campaigns to what's trending on social networks. The new platform bundles Salesforce.com features that resulted from the company's acquisitions of Buddy Media, a provider of Facebook ad software, and social media monitoring firm Radian6.

More A-List Brands Will Join the Tweet Chorus
April 23, 2013

Twitter will soon significantly expand its advertising reach after the social network agreed to a deal with Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group, one of the world's largest advertising agencies. Starcom's top clients, which include Coca-Cola and Microsoft, will now win some of the premier advertising slots on Twitter. The two companies will also gain access to each other's demographic research and user data.

Cue the Video for Facebook's Maturing Ad Platform
April 18, 2013

Facebook may soon be adding video ads, a key step in the development of an advertising platform that needs to draw interest from brands that may have previously questioned its return on investment. Video ads could start to run on Facebook as early as June or July, according to published reports. Ad slots could be capped at 15 seconds.

Facebook Slices, Dices Consumers to Refine Ad Targeting
April 11, 2013

Facebook added another level of targeting to its advertising strategy Wednesday with the introduction of partner categories, a self-service feature that uses data collected from other channels to deliver ads on the social network. Partner categories will let advertisers target Facebook users based on browsing and purchase history, occupation, a wide range of specific interests, and location.

Boom Goes the Social Media Marketing Dynamite
April 09, 2013

Two-way social-media channels, like Twitter and Facebook, have changed forever the methods businesses use to communicate with their customers. Fading into the distance are the days of the one-sided official dispatch. Social media marketing has been welcomed with open arms into the fold, with corporations determined to make it an effective tool.

Facebook Home: Brilliant Stroke or Desperate Measure?
April 08, 2013

Political and economic news from around the globe may bombard us with annoying regularity here in the tech community, and as most of us know, the news is almost always bad. That, of course, is why it's such a good thing we have Facebook to filter out what we don't want to hear. It's also why we all waited in rapt attention for the Facebook Home announcement.

Marketo Winds Up for Risky IPO
April 03, 2013

Marketing automation company Marketo filed paperwork with the SEC on Tuesday to launch an initial public offering valued at $75 million. The company has not yet proposed a stock price. It does say in the filing that it is considered an "emerging growth company," and it plans to list on Nasdaq under the symbol "MKTO." The most telling portion of the filing was the company's description of risks.

Facebook to Slap Targeted Ads on News Feed Billboards
March 27, 2013

Facebook announced this week that it will test a new feature that allows select advertisers to run additional targeted ads in user's News Feeds. The test is an expansion of Facebook Exchange, one of the social network's most profitable advertising initiatives. The service allows marketers to check users' online viewing habits via a cookie-based system.

Brands Wasting Their Digital Ad Dollars, Study Finds
March 21, 2013

Brands may be shifting more money to digital advertising and social media marketing efforts, but so far that's not buying them a lot of trust from consumers, according to a new report from Forrester Research. Seventy percent of more than 57,000 U.S. consumers surveyed trust brand or product recommendations from family and friends, while digital ad formats all rank below 20 percent.

New Targeting Tools Help Ads Zero In on Twitter Users
March 19, 2013

After a year of testing and much feedback, Twitter on Monday released a set of tools for small businesses and self-service advertisers -- tools that will give businesses more of an opportunity to speak directly to consumer interests. Targeting was the most requested feature in the feedback that the social network gathered from select advertisers.

Microsoft Dynamics Gets Major Overhaul
March 19, 2013

Microsoft opened Convergence 2013 Tuesday morning with a keynote address from Microsoft Business Solutions President Kirill Tatarinov -- and the debut of an upgraded CRM application. With 11,000 attendees, this is the largest Convergence Microsoft has held to date, said Seth Patton, senior director of marketing for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "The key theme for the event is uniting business and IT," he said.

New IBM Lab Explores the Science of Personalization
March 15, 2013

IBM pushed deeper into the customer experience space with the launch on Thursday of its Customer Experience Lab. The lab brings together various elements of IBM's expertise, technology and staff to integrate mobile, social, cloud, Big Data and advanced analytics for its users.

FTC Puts a Damper on Freewheeling Digital Advertising
March 13, 2013

The Federal Trade Commission released its updated Dot Com Disclosures guidance on Tuesday, emphasizing the requirements for advertisers targeting mobile devices. In short, the rules that apply to ads in newspapers, radio and television also apply to mobile devices and social media. The update is the first since the guidelines were released in 2000 -- an era when smartphones and tablets were far, far less ubiquitous.

Facebook's Rejiggered News Feed: The Ads Have It
March 09, 2013

Facebook unveiled its new look this week, providing bigger photos and more links in users' News Feeds, along with additional ways to view specialized streams based on topics of interest, such as music. This is apparently an attempt to corral all the random musings and disjointed pictures users are accustomed to sorting through. Facebook's move seems geared toward bringing order to the chaos.

New Facebook News Feed Features In-Your-Face Photos
March 07, 2013

Facebook on Thursday announced a major makeover of its News Feed page with an emphasis on bigger images, more user control and a recognition that more members are accessing the social network on mobile devices. "News Feed has become primarily about visual content," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

Facebook's New Ad Tool Targets You Online and Off
February 28, 2013

Facebook users will soon see ads in their feeds that are more specifically targeted to what they like and where they've shopped -- both online and offline -- thanks to a series of agreements with data companies announced Wednesday. The agreements expand the social network's Custom Audiences program released last September, which was designed to allow advertisers to target their existing customers via Facebook.

Hackers: The Flies in Social Media Marketing Ointment
February 25, 2013

Did you hear? McDonald's has just acquired Burger King! Also, someone at the company apparently has a potty mouth. Another unusual and unexpected corporate trade also happened last week -- Cadillac acquired Jeep. These events, of course, didn't really happen. In both instances, hackers gained control of the brands' Twitter accounts and began sending out false and sometimes very offensive tweets.

HootSuite for Twitter Gives Advertisers a Souped-Up Dashboard
February 22, 2013

HootSuite has incorporated paid advertising into its dashboard for the first time with the rollout of HootSuite Promoted Products integration for Twitter. It allows users to buy Promoted Tweets and manage their accounts on the HootSuite dashboard. This is a significant step for HootSuite's users, said Greg Gunn, VP of business development.