This week the creepy factor gets turned up to 11 with the science behind Google Now, the launch of Sense Networks Retail Retargeting, expansion of Facebook Highlight and BuzzFeed's purchase of Kingfish Labs. Conductor and Mass Relevance launched new products for enterprise marketers and Dice confirmed the validity of content marketing with a $20 million acquisition. Of course, the mobile payments space continues to evolve with Tello's PassTools, Groupon Payments and a massive round of financing for Square. This is ... Marketing Biz. Why Google’s Predictive Personal Assistant is be [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Marketing Biz

It could be the end of an era for one of blogging's institutions, not to mention one of search marketing's favorite ways to give and get links. The blogroll -- or Link Manager as it's currently known -- is on the chopping block for the upcoming release of WordPress 3.5. The folks at WPBeginner noticed a ticket in the WordPress 3.5 development system that discusses the possibility of removing the Link Manager from the core WordPress software. The way WordPress development works is that ideas are proposed and then discussed among the developer/user community; this idea has a few dozen [...]

Related Topics: Blogging | Channel: Search Marketing | Search Marketing

Walmart's launch of 3,500 Facebook Pages last year for its local stores has had "very low consumer impact," and the pages aren't as popular as the Facebook pages of competing small businesses in similar local areas. Those are some of the findings from a new study by Recommend.ly, a social media tools/analytics company. Walmart launched the "My Local Walmart" campaign last October, which involves a Facebook app that stores can use to communicate sales, specials and other updates with fans in the local area. But, according to the study, local stores haven't been using their pages effective [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Facebook | Facebook: Pages | Facebook: Statistics | Features & Analysis | Social Media Marketing | Statistics: Social Media | Top News

Every now and then someone will reach out to me claiming they can't make money with affiliate marketing because they don't have the same natural talent for it that I do. That statement makes me laugh every time I hear it. The fact is, there is not a single drop of natural talent in me when it comes to affiliate marketing -- or making money online in general. I don't have a marketing degree or a computer science degree.  I was a casual internet user when I started. Any talent I have has been learned in the trenches while I was attending the Internet Marketing School of Hard Knocks [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Affiliate Marketing Column | Channel: Content Marketing

More than any other element, targeting is what sets Facebook advertising apart from other channels. Anything that a user inputs into his or her Facebook profile is targetable: age, gender, relationship status, location, interests, level of education, and more. These capabilities allow you to reach customers at a much deeper and more customized level. Instead of waiting for your customers to come to you, you can bring highly relevant content to them. Don't Oversimplify Overlooking or oversimplifying your targeting approach limits the kind of success you can have. The abundance of targe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook | Facebook Marketing Column | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Update: Due to new information, the original headline of this story has been changed. Please see the postscript at the end of the original article. If This Then That (IFTTT) is notifying users today that it will stop supporting Twitter-based "triggers" as of next Thursday, September 27th. But the service will still allow users to create actions that use Twitter as the "action" -- the end result of a trigger. In a letter to users, IFTTT CEO Linden Tibbets says Twitter's new developer guidelines mean that IFTTT users can no longer use the service to send tweets to Dropbox, Evernote, email [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

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: Apple Maps Is This Year’s Google+Not as good as what was already out there. A downgrade. Lacks essential features. Rubbish. Why would they release this to the public? Those are some of the reactions that we’ve seen this week to the launch of Apple Maps. Or are they the reactions we saw last year when Google launched Google+? They could [...] Facebook To Businesses: It’s Now Pay-To-Play For Facebook OffersThanks to a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

Not as good as what was already out there. A downgrade. Lacks essential features. Rubbish. Why would they release this to the public? Those are some of the reactions that we've seen this week to the launch of Apple Maps. Or are they the reactions we saw last year when Google launched Google+? They could be either. Comparing The Launches Of Apple Maps & Google+ Apple Maps' launch this week is a lot like the Google+ launch in June 2011 -- negative initial reactions, bugs and problems with the service, and so forth. Consider: Apple MapsGoogle+ Not as good as [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Top News

Thanks to a "free" price tag and ease of use, Facebook Offers has been popular in the small/local business community. In the next few weeks the Offers service will begin to charge a fee. Reuters reported that merchants will now have to pay $5 on related ads to promote a Facebook offer to a targeted audience of fans and friends. Not only would this help Facebook monetize a popular feature, but also force businesses to experiment with Facebook Ads. Gokul Rajarm, director of product management for Facebook's advertising and Pages businesses, told Reuters: "We think this aligns incentive [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Facebook | Facebook: Offers | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

 Google and Facebook are by far the dominant players in the display ad space, together expected to command 30% of the overall market in 2012. And their substantial lead is set to become even greater, according to an eMarketer report that predicts the two will sell 37% of all display ads by the end of 2014. Among the two, Google comes in slightly ahead with 15.4% of the market this year ($2.31 billion), compared to Facebook's 14.4% ($2.16 billion). Yahoo, which once dominated the display ad market, is on the decline with 9.3% of the market ($1.39 billion). Google and Facebook have been l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

New data released by comScore shows that in the US "4 out of 5" smartphone owners are visiting retail sites on their mobile devices. The total number of mobile-retail visitors was 85.9 million according to the measurement firm. Amazon was the leading retail destination with an audience of almost 50 million smartphone owners. This makes perfect sense given the strength of Amazon's brand and the early investments the company made in mobile and tablet app development. It is the site most often used in stores to check prices and product reviews. It is also the so-called "m-commerce" leader in t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

Old timers in the SEO world will remember the "Google Dance," if not fondly, at least with some nostalgia. It was when Google's rankings went through a change each month, sometimes dramatically, when a new algorithm was launched. The Google Dance eventually disappeared. Who'd have thought it would ever return? But it sure has, and we're likely to be dancing even more. The Days Of The Google Dance The Google Dance took its name from how the results at Google seemed to "dance" around when it unleashed a new search algorithm -- Google's recipe for ranking web pages -- on the world. A sear [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search Marketing | Google: SEO | Search Marketing | Search Marketing Column

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: A Virtuous Cycle Of Twitter Community ManagementWhat if a prominent journalist followed a brand’s Twitter account and no one noticed? No one on behalf of the brand reciprocated the follow. In an ideal situation, the journalist would have been thanked, added to a list, and engaged. Ouch! It’s easy for community managers to get caught up in the daily and hourly [...] Survey: 49 Percent Of SMBs To Incorporate Mobile Into Marketing Ef [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Marketing Day

What if a prominent journalist followed a brand’s Twitter account and no one noticed? No one on behalf of the brand reciprocated the follow. In an ideal situation, the journalist would have been thanked, added to a list, and engaged. Ouch! It’s easy for community managers to get caught up in the daily and hourly flow of all the bits of information coming and going, and as a result, miss critical activities. To prevent these types of omissions, develop your own Twitter workflow for the people managing your Twitter community. It can help to think through the four main groups of acti [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Twitter | Twitter Marketing Column

A new survey sponsored by mobile lead-gen provider Pontiflex found that 49 percent of small businesses (SMBs) are "somewhat likely or very likely" to incorporate mobile into their marketing efforts in the next year. The online survey had 1,300 respondents, mostly from the US. Among those that were already buying mobile ads/media, 72 percent planned to maintain the same level of spending or increase it in the coming year. A majority of the 27 percent who planned to increase mobile ad spending said they would do so by up to 30 percent. However, one of the barriers to further mobile ad [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Statistics: Email Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

More than 25 million users leverage StumbleUpon to discover great content across the web. Today they'll be able to discover more content quicker than ever thanks to new iPhone and iPad apps. Not only are the apps easier to use with navigation and design upgrades, but they also contain new features like StumbleDNA and slide previews. "Slide" Preview One of the changes that will excite avid Stumble users the most will the the all new "slide" preview. Instead of reviewing each and every full page of content, the new preview will load quickly while the main content loads in the background. I [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | StumbleUpon

In case you missed the big announcement on the Today Show yesterday morning, Twitter has updated profiles with a new Timeline-like header photo that will appear across platforms, transitioning the social channel to become more visual and image-centric. How To Update Your Twitter Profile Header There isn't an obvious "update" on your profile, though, you'll need to go into your account settings and make these changes yourself (take it from someone who waited an hour to see if the roll out would "hit" my account.) To get the new look, you'll need to log in, go to the gear icon in the top right [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Accounts & Profiles | Twitter: User Interface

Want to make sure that all of your friends know you bought that car, got that job or are doing fine in your relationship? Well, thanks to an expanded test, you may be able to ensure that your friends see your most important posts -- for a price. Kristel Cuenta of Kairay Media spotted the expanded test in the wild that prompted her to promote a recent image to all of her connections. The promotion language states: "Now you can promote posts and bump your important news, links and photo higher in news feed" If the test has expanded to your profile, you will see either a call-out, or a "pr [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Social Media Marketing | Top News

It's been a week since Google released its first ever YouTube app for the iPhone and iPad. It's now the top free app in iTunes and may be a harbinger of what will happen with the expected Google Maps app. YouTube Loses Default Status It may sound odd to some that YouTube is new to Apple's iOS devices as an app, but that's because it hasn't needed to be until now. With iOS 6, which will be installed on the iPhone 5 and available as an upgrade for many older versions of the iPhone and iPad, YouTube is no longer a default application. When news that YouTube was being dropped became clear in [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Local | Features & Analysis | Google: Maps | Top News

Twitter has a new iPad app out for the service. Some hate it already. Certainly it feels less "iPad-like" than the old one, in that you can't just swipe around with a finger to go between content. But the app does have nice benefits in learning about others or discovering engagement on tweets. Let's take a look. No Longer An iPad Poster Child? The first thing you notice is how much space seems to be wasted in the new version. Consider the old: Yes, there's space to the right that seems wasted, but that's not the case as you start using the app. In contrast, the new app, at first glance, f [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Features & Analysis | Top News | Twitter