In May Twitter had changed the Discovery tab to include more personalization on content discovery. That change was an improvement, but focused on top stories & content, not necessarily Tweets. The new change is geared more to popular Tweets than just news articles. When a user now clicks on the Discovery tab, they see "Tweets, What's happening now, tailored for you."  All of the selected Tweets auto-display images and article data which is a nice touch. As an irregular Twitter user, this is a big improvement. I can jump on, check the Discovery tab and see what people are saying -- [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Twitter | Twitter: User Interface

Google has announced plans to shut down its Adsense for Feeds service, a move that continues Google slow dismantling of the Feedburner RSS service. Adsense for Feeds is (was) Google's primary moneymaker for Feedburner. The program allowed publishers to make money by putting Google ads in their RSS feeds; when a user clicked an ad, Google and the publisher split the money. In the big picture, Adsense for Feeds probably earned Google peanuts compared to other Adsense-related services. And by turning off that revenue source, even if it was just pocket change, Google has no business reason [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Google: AdSense | Google: Feedburner | Top News

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Klout Adds Facebook Pages Into Its Scoring MixKlout’s mix of influence scoring signals finally includes Facebook Pages. Klout announced today that its users are now able to connect Facebook Pages to their accounts. Facebook Pages are already being factored into Klout scores, and content from those pages will soon start to show up on Klout profiles. For those who care about Klout [...] Chart: Instagram’s Dramatic, 6-Month R [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Klout's mix of influence scoring signals finally includes Facebook Pages. Klout announced today that its users are now able to connect Facebook Pages to their accounts. Facebook Pages are already being factored into Klout scores, and content from those pages will soon start to show up on Klout profiles. For those who care about Klout scores, the company says that mean score increase from connecting a Facebook Page will be about seven points. The scoring algorithm will look at things like how many fans a Page has and how many people are talking about the Page, among other things. Ther [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Pages | Klout

You may have seen the headlines this week: For the first time, Instagram surpassed Twitter in average daily mobile visitors last month. It's an important milestone in Instagram's growth, but the August numbers don't fully reflect the dramatic gains that Instagram has made over the past six months. ComScore, the source of this week's statistics via its new Mobile Metrix service, dug back and shared comparison mobile data for the two services covering March through August 2012. In that six-month span, Instagram's average daily mobile visitors jumped from 886,000 to 7.3 million -- that's a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook: Instagram | Facebook: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Mobile

Mapageddon was front and center as the new iOS Maps fallout continued and the fight to control the most valuable context began in earnest. Meanwhile both LinkedIn and Bing raced headlong into identifying experts and assessing authority. While you can quibble with their implementations the trend toward a web of people is undeniable. While these two themes dominated the week, there were plenty of other interesting stories from Groupon's acquisition of Savored to the launch of Wanderful Media to new NFC business cards from MOO. This is ... Marketing Biz. Apple had over a year left on Googl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Marketing Biz

Kara Swisher at AllThingsD, the prodigious leaker of Yahoo internal memos, has released former Chief Product Officer Blake Irving's August 2011 internal strategy document. The 21-page memo is called "Yahoo Three-Year Product Strategy" and lays out "five strategic elements" and a number of "horizontal" areas of focus: "Personalization, Video, Mobile, Social, and Local." According to Swisher, the document's recommendations are similar to the vision recently laid out by new CEO Marissa Mayer. As reported by AllThingsD, there were lots of generalities (e.g., "shift platform to mobile") in M [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Yahoo | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: News

Under the stewardship of new CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo is launching a new contextual advertising network -- similar to Google's AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network it abandoned in 2010. This time, the company is partnering with Search Alliance ally Bing, and technology provider Media.net. The idea, apparently, is to bulk up the amount of contextual advertising inventory Yahoo and Bing can make available to advertisers. The mainly-text contextual ads are already displaying on some Yahoo sites, and those marketers who have opted into display ads on Bing Advertising will automatically have [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Google: AdSense | Top News | Yahoo

Gone are the days of dishing out miniature icons posing as virtual presents on Facebook. Instead of the standard "congratulations!" wall post users will soon be able to comment and include real-world gifts for any occurrence. The new commerce-based Facebook Gifts that users can purchase for their friends directly from their profile page. Facebook Gifts range from gift cards to a large selection of physical goods. The gift giver simply needs to choose an item for a friend, pay for it within Facebook. An address is not required as Facebook will coordinate with the recipient directl [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Social Media Marketing

Over the past two days Facebook has removed millions of fake Likes for pages in an attempt to improve overall integrity. Facebook estimates that less that 1% of Likes on any given Page will be removed. The Like removals will target those Pages that violated Facebook Terms in order to gain Likes. The official statement claims: These newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes. While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Spam | Top News

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Klout Gains Clout With Microsoft InvestmentBing’s social sidebar is now showing Klout information, but this is happening for more than the typical partnership deal. Microsoft is now an investor in Klout. From Klout’s blog post today: To build towards that future, I am proud to announce that Microsoft has made a strategic investment in Klout and that we have signed [...] Google Introduces “Local Discovery” App: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Bing's social sidebar is now showing Klout information, but this is happening for more than the typical partnership deal. Microsoft is now an investor in Klout. From Klout's blog post today: To build towards that future, I am proud to announce that Microsoft has made a strategic investment in Klout and that we have signed a multi-year agreement where Bing will become one of Klout’s most significant partners. No terms beyond that are given. Klout recently underwent a redesign to help reposition it as a type of social resume service. I'd say Klout has been struggling with the perceptio [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Klout | Microsoft | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News

Google's Niantic Labs project, headed by former Google Local/Maps chieftain John Hanke, has just released its first mobile app: Field Trip. Currently it's only available for Android but an iOS version is coming soon. In short it's a customizable "local discovery engine" that runs in the background on your smartphone (or connected tablet, though it's not intended for tablets) and notifies you when you're near something interesting -- across a wide range of categories. Categories include: history and architecture, places and events, lifestyle, offers and deals, food, "cool and unique" and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Android | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Top News

Marketers communicating via their Facebook pages could once only speak to their entire fan base at the same time. While we've been able to geotarget posts, we'd never been given the chance to say “hi” to the men (or women), between the ages of 18 to 35 (or 35 to 55) that were single (or married, or engaged or in a relationship), or to customize our communications to each group. Now we can − with  Page Post Targeting. For the first time on the Facebook platform, sans advertisement, we have been given the chance to have a conversation with very distinct groups. This will allow brand [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook Marketing Column | Facebook: Pages | Social Media Marketing

Here's our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web. From Marketing Land: Retail Web Sites Are Getting Slower; IE 10 Beats Firefox & Chrome, Study SaysThe top retail websites are slower to load than they were last year, and the problem is at its worst on Google’s Chrome browser — the slowest of three browsers measured in Strangeloop Networks’ Fall 2012 State of the Union study on page speed and web performance. Strangeloop measured the performance of the top 2,000 [...] Stephen Colber [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

The top retail websites are slower to load than they were last year, and the problem is at its worst on Google's Chrome browser -- the slowest of three browsers measured in Strangeloop Networks' Fall 2012 State of the Union study on page speed and web performance. Strangeloop measured the performance of the top 2,000 retail websites (as ranked by Alexa) during July and August, and found that the median page load was nine percent slower than its last study, which was done in November 2011. That's measuring first-time page views, which slowed from 5.94 seconds last year to 6.5 seconds this ye [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Firefox | Google: Chrome | Microsoft: Internet Explorer | Statistics: Web Browsers | Top News

If you watch the Colbert Report, you know that host Stephen Colbert is a big iPhone fan. But issues with the new Maps in iOS 6 even caused him to work in a little dig last night. It was brief, in the intro, but funny. "I have got an iPhone 5," he says, taunting the audience by waving it around, "and Apple Maps says I'm in Norway," he jokes, to laughs. Enjoy below: The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Intro - 9/25/12 www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive Relate [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing

A new Forrester report titled "The Purchase Path of Online Buyers In 2012" analyzes conversion paths on 77,000 orders to determine what sources returned the most revenue. While the report found a handful of high revenue sources (paid search, organic search, email) one clear cut source fell behind the rest: social media. The data showed that fewer than 1% of transactions could be traced back to social links. Forrester suggests that the low numbers could be due to measurement periods required (a 30-day attribution model was used in this report) and company sizes. It should be noted that t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | E-Commerce | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Social Media | Top News

This afternoon Yahoo announced that its new CFO would be Ken Goldman. Tim Morse, who had been CFO and acting CEO for a brief time, will be leaving shortly. Morse started in mid-2009. Goldman brings a solid tech-industry resume to the position. According to his bio on Fortinet site (still up): Ken Goldman is an accomplished executive with extensive financial, operational and business management experience and a solid track record of success. He served as senior vice president, finance and administration, and CFO of Siebel Systems from August 2000 until the close of Oracle Corporation's acqu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Yahoo | Yahoo: Business Issues

Many variables play an important role when you're analyzing search engine optimization efforts. This includes factors such as site keywords and content development, as well as the queries being searched for. It can be tempting for marketers to optimize results for shorter queries and ignore the long tail, but how much traffic is overlooked this way? And how does the quality of that traffic impact its relevance? Data provided by advertising network Chitika shows the correlation between query length and ad performance, looking at user engagement as well as the volume of traffic on a given [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics