Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of Facebook's public offering. It has arguably been the most volatile and momentous period in the company's roughly eight-and-a-half year history. Facebook went public in May of last year at $38 and closed Friday at just over $26. The low, last September, was $17.55. The volatility of the stock and the fact that it hasn't fully returned to its offering price may give many institutional investors reason to complain; but, most other statistics and metrics are up from a year ago. For example, Facebook has impressively been able to grow its mobile reven [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Home | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Statistics | Featured | Features & Analysis | Top News

Nearly two years after its launch, Google is still dealing with people who question why they should bother with Google+. But in recent weeks, the company has released what it considers "game changing" features that it feels will better enlist both marketers and developers to embrace its platform. "You're now seeing us put out, on a constant drumbeat, tools and capabilities for developers and marketers that I think are game changing, that they may not get anywhere else," said Seth Sternberg, product management director for the Google+ Platform, when meeting yesterday with a small group of re [...]

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

Yahoo is trying to buy social blogging platform Tumblr for $1 billion (or more). That would represent about a third of the company's existing cash -- though it stands to make more cash from its remaining Alibaba stake. It's a big bet and the type of high-impact acquisition that Marissa Mayer has wanted to make since becoming CEO of Yahoo. Why buy Tumblr? The reasons are almost self-evident. Yahoo is a media/content company whose primary revenue source is display advertising. Tumblr is a massive user-generated content machine with a huge audience and page views (read: inventory). It's a t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Top News | Tumblr | Yahoo | Yahoo: Business Issues

With the announcement of Google Affiliate Network closing its doors in July, many retailers are being forced to find new alternatives for their affiliate advertising programs during the coming weeks. While such a major task may not be at the top of any marketers favorite things-to-do list, the move could result in improved numbers for retailers using GAN that have put off migrating to a new network. After speaking with two former GAN clients, both reported significant increases in their affiliate advertising revenue since migrating from Google. One Retailer's Story Matt Khalili, a marketi [...]

Related Topics: Affiliate Marketing | Channel: Content Marketing | Features & Analysis | Google | Interviews | Top News

No women in tech? Women are invisible in tech? As part of the pushback against such problems and sometimes mistaken assumptions, Google I/O featured an end-of-day session with seven women who've been extremely successful in tech. And, the advice they shared was hardly for women only. Speaking as part of the "7 Techmakers & A Microphone" session were: Kathy Kleiman, founder of the ENIAC Programmers Project Google's ad chief Susan Wojcicki Anna Patterson, Vice President of Engineering in Artificial Intelligence for Google Johanna Wright, VP of Search & Assist for Google [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Internet Marketing Industry

The new look for Google+ is rolling out now, and with it, the new "related hashtags." These allow you to see other posts that are related to the one you're reading, if that post uses a hashtag. The New Hashtag Tab For example, consider this: In this post, it made use of the #io13 hashtag. With today's design update, that hashtag in turn is now used in a new tab along the top right of the post. Related Posts If you click on that hashtag button, a new related area appears above the post box, while the post itself "flips" to show the first related post. You can continue to flip through m [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+

Google+ gets a facelift -- and new photo organizing tools. Google Hangouts comes to iOS. "OK Google" may be the new way you search by talking to your computer or mobile phone. The Google Knowledge Graph gets stats-smarts, Google Now gains new "cards" and Google Maps gets big, bold and glorious. These were the highlights, as we saw it, coming out of the opening keynote at Google I/O 2013. Google I/O is Google's big developer conference, but the opening keynote often has products and announcements that are of relevance to consumers and marketers. That was certainly the case with this year [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Google: Google I/O

[caption id="attachment_43397" align="alignright" width="250"] (L-R: Mike Blumenthal, Matt McGee and David Mihm; photo courtesy of John Denny)[/caption] There's a hint of truth in Peter Shankman's recent article, the one where he says Robert Scoble is so over the top about Google Glass that he's damning the device to be nerds-only for eternity. But, the reality is that most of America (much less the world) doesn't know or care who Scoble is, and their introduction to Glass is going to come (or has already come) in a variety of other ways: local news clips about it, mentions in mainstream [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Glass | Top News

With an open mind and help from a Google staffer showing me how the device works, it was pretty easy to see some compelling use cases within the first hour that I was a Google Glass owner. On Monday, I visited Google's Mountain View headquarters for my onboarding appointment with a Glass specialist. Marketing Land/Search Engine Land Founding Editor Danny Sullivan was there, too, to help document the visit in photos and videos. Much has been written about Google Glass in the three weeks or so since Google began inviting "Explorers" to get their devices -- but a lot of it has focused on th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Content Marketing | Features & Analysis | Google | Google: Glass | Mobile Marketing | Top News

Microsoft has effectively renewed its search vows with Yahoo a second time, pledging once again that Yahoo will indeed earn a high "revenue per search" that was promised back when the alliance was made in 2009. That's not going to happen. When the latest extension expires in a year, the expected RPS still won't be reached. Microsoft will either renew again or Yahoo will walk away, if it can. All About RPS Yahoo Extends Microsoft Search Deal & Revenue Guarantees is our story on Search Engine Land today that covers how Microsoft is extending a part of its deal with Yahoo about "revenue pe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Features & Analysis | Internet Marketing Industry | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues

Now that Google Glass devices are making it out into the real world through Glass Explorers, the debate has started. Are these things just an expensive joke? A device like a Segway that seemed cool but never took off as some expected? I'd say no, and I'll draw from the TV series "Arrested Development" and movie "Wall Street" to help explain why. It's The Next Segway! If Mike Butcher of TechCrunch didn't originate the Segway comparison, he's sure had one of the best summaries of how Google Glass might go that way. Based on his limited experience in wearing them, he wrote: So Google Glass [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features & Analysis | Google: Glass | Search Marketing | Top News

In a poll commissioned by the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), 92 percent of 1,000 Americans surveyed agreed that free news, weather, email, blogs and video content was either somewhat or extremely important to the overall value of the Internet. Less than 10 percent of the people polled would prefer an ad-free Internet where users paid to access  blogs, entertainment sites, videos and social media sites, while 75 percent surveyed said they prefer the existing Internet model where most content is free, but includes ads. Conducted earlier this month, the poll measured attitudes reg [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Internet Marketing Industry: Stats | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Online Behavior | Top News

You think you have it tough when it comes to managing social media? Put yourselves in NASA's shoes -- or spacesuit -- for a moment: the agency has almost 500 different social media accounts spread across multiple social networks. Yes, 500. I get tired just thinking about the coordination effort involved. "If we tried to manage 500 social media accounts, we'd fail," says John Yembrick, NASA's Social Media Manager. "So, rather than do everything from one hub, many of those accounts are managed from NASA's 10 field centers. And each one works with the scientists, engineers and others tha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Features: 5 Questions With | Interviews | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Yesterday, the IAB released digital ad revenue figures for the US market in 2012. Overall Internet ad revenue came in at nearly $37 billion, making the Internet the second largest medium after broadcast TV. Mobile and video advertising were the two biggest digital advertising growth drivers, according to the report (PDF). Mobile ad revenues came in slightly under $3.4 billion for the year, representing 111 percent growth over 2011. Mobile revenues grew from 5 percent in 2011 to 9 percent of total digital ad spending in 2012. Source: IAB, PwC The $3.4 billion mobile advertising fi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Spend Projections

The Internet Advertising Bureau released its latest statistics on Internet advertising spend yesterday, with digital ad revenues now poised to overtake broadcast TV spend. And, look at that growth in mobile! But then again, digging into the stats, the way IAB classifies spend into different categories raises some serious questions. There's no doubt in my mind that Internet ad spend continues to see phenomenal growth. But, how much is search really growing? Or digital? Or mobile? If you get into the fine print, it becomes clear that answers to this aren't clear at all. When A Search Ad Isn' [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Statistics | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

If only Epicurious had been using Social Flow or Buffer, it might've avoided the headaches associated with social media's latest tragedy-related faux pas. But it appears the food-lover's website wasn't using either of those social management services, and sent out a couple tweets on Tuesday that looked like an attempt at self-promotion in the aftermath of a terrible event. Twitter user Thomas Powell seems to have been the first to notice (that's his image above), and coverage on other websites has quickly picked up steam, as is always the case when brands take this route with their s [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter

With the third consecutive year of double-digit annual growth, digital advertising revenues hit new records in 2012, according to the IAB’s annual Internet Advertising Revenue Report conducted by PwC. Released today, the report shows a 15% rise to $31.6 billion in U.S. digital advertising revenues in 2012, with Q4 revenues topping $10 billion for the first time. Coming in at $10.31 billion, Q4 ad revenues increased 14.9% from the prior year and were up 11.6% from Q3, outperforming the overall media market. Nielsen Company and Kantar both estimated that total media revenues grew just 3% in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Features & Analysis | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

According to an online survey conducted by SurveyMonkey, the popularity of content on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ significantly impacts the likelihood it will be read. Out of 629 participants, 374 were given a survey asking how likely they were to read an article on Facebook that already had 451 Likes. The remaining 255 respondents received a survey asking how likely they were to read an article with only 11 Likes. Survey responses demonstrated users were more likely to read an article with a higher number of Likes on Facebook. The same was true for Twitter, with respondents more likel [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Content Marketing | Facebook: Insights | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter: Statistics

Most companies don’t get value out of marketing automation. One way to win, though, is to  get started on the best foot possible. This is the first in a short series on Winning with Demand Generation – the art and science of creating lead flow for sales – and Marketing Automation – the technology supporting demand generation. What’s The Definition Of Victory? Either you have a marketing automation system already or you’re getting one soon. Either way, you need to be successful. The Big Objective of marketing automation is to create and qualify valuable lead flow to your sales te [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Marketing Tools

Anti-Google lobbying group FairSearch lobbed an antitrust grenade at Google's Android operating system yesterday, complaining to the European Union that it violates competition laws. Unfortunately, this week's release of the HTC First -- the "Facebook Phone" -- may cause the grenade to bounce back at FairSearch. The FairSearch Complaint We covered FairSearch's complaint earlier, that Android is a "Trojan Horse" product that forces makers to include Google products. Actually, what we covered earlier was FairSearch's statement about the complaint. It hasn't released the actual complain [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Home | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Top News