According to a recent mobile hashtag survey by RadiumOne, 58 percent of respondents said they use hashtags on a regular basis, and 70 percent of the hashtag users are doing so from their mobile device. RadiumOne's survey evaluated how consumers perceive, value, and use hashtags. Of the 494 survey respondents, 71 percent were female and 44 percent, middle-aged. (RadiumOne noted that while social media use is most predominant with 18 to 24-year olds, comScore credits middle-aged women as the group most responsible for growth in social media site usage.) Another key insight from RadiumO [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Instagram | Google: Google+ | Mobile Marketing | Pinterest | Pinterest: Business Use & Advertising | Pinterest: Mobile | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Top News | Twitter

A new Twitter ad-buying platform aims to take Social TV advertising to the next level. As Adweek and other outlets have reported, TBG Digital's Calendar Live lets marketers choose TV shows and schedule targeted promoted tweets to run when those shows air. Calendar Live is one of the first tools released that uses the new Twitter ad API, which was launched last month to make it easier to run promoted tweets. With Calendar Live ad buyers can select TV shows and live events on roughly 35 channels by date and times and then add additional demographic or interest targeting criteria of the second [...]

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

Equality has arrived in Twitter's advertising system. The company has announced that small, self-serve advertisers now have access to the same "advanced" dashboard as bigger spenders, and can also target ads using the same options as big brands. These are things that Twitter has offered its bigger advertisers for some time now, but weren't offered to the little guys until today. Little advertisers logging in today will see the "Switch to Advanced" option at the top of the dashboard. And, whether they use that or not, they'll have access to new targeting options that only big advertisers [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Advertising

To date, Twitter has owned the market on real-time, crowd-sourced information. Whether it's during the Super Bowl, Television, or cultural events -- users flock to Twitter (and hashtags) to see what's happening. Our own Danny Sullivan summed up the current Facebook/Twitter experience masterfully in the article "For Social Media Viewing, Twitter Is Live TV, Facebook Is DVR." Well, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Facebook wants out of its DVR status and in on the hashtag. Sure both Google+ and Instagram support tags, but Facebook has typically stayed far away from th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: User Interface | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: User Interface | Uncategorized

Under the banner of preventing "fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices," the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has updated its online advertising disclosure guidelines and requirements. A previous version of these guidelines was issued in 2000. The rise of mobile devices and social media marketing, in particular, were cited as reasons the guidelines were updated: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising, takes into account the expanding use of smartphones with small screens and the rise of social media marketing . . . Like the original, the updated guidan [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Legal | Legal: General | Mobile Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising

Today, Twitter released some initial findings of the Nielsen Brand Effect for Twitter's survey program that launched last fall to help advertisers measure the impact of their Twitter campaigns. The program is graduating from beta, and brand surveys will be "widely available" to advertisers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. The findings of the beta studies include: Promoted Tweet exposure drove 22% increase in message association Brand favorability saw a 10% lift when users saw a Promoted Tweet campaign 2-3 times versus once. Users who engaged with a Promoted Tweet [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: Statistics

Little Twitter is growing up, today announcing it will offer an advertising API for its Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts products, a development allowing marketers to buy and optimize Twitter ads alongside their other media buying. The company has been testing the system for the last month or so, with beta partners Adobe, HootSuite, Salesforce, TBG Digital and SHIFT. "With the Ads API, marketers now have more tools in their arsenal to help them deliver the right message, to the right audience, on the desktop and on mobile devices — all at scale," wrote April Underwood, Twitter's prod [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Marketing Tools: Social Media | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News | Twitter: Advertising | Twitter: User Interface

Facebook touted the success of its Promoted Posts product and the general success of ads in the News Feed during its earnings call today, in which it announced Q4 financial figures that beat analyst estimates. During the earnings call, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg announced that almost 500,000 Pages have tried Promoted Posts, the ad product that gives Page owners a chance to push a status update to more Facebook users. The costs depend on the amount of fans that a Page has, and can range from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. Page owners big and small have complained about the Promo [...]

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

Many online marketers love social media marketing because it's traditionally been a free channel for customer outreach and/or customer service; but, almost two-thirds of those who answered a recent survey say they'll be spending more on paid social media ads this year. According to a new report from the Nielsen-owned company, Vizu, 64 percent of online marketers say their budgets for paid social advertising is increasing this year. Thirty-four percent said those budgets will remain the same, and the other two percent said their budgets are decreasing. That's good news for Facebook an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Statistics: Spend Projections

In 2013, it's estimated that Twitter will surpass the half billion mark in ad revenue for the first time. Since launch in 2010, Twitter has scaled up ad revenue with nearly 100% growth year after year. TechCrunch reports that they may be releasing a new ads API that would help incite the ad growth even further. A Twitter API would be a boon for big brands and firms, as custom advertising systems can be created with more advanced reporting, analytics and targeting. This API release was hinted at back in September when Twitter released the new API 1.1. In the initial API 1.1 terms, it was st [...]

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

If you wondered whether Instagram's apology and revised new terms of service mollified all of the user anger out there, the answer is no. And at least one user, San Diego resident Lucy Funes, and her attorneys have filed suit, seeking class action status for their complaint. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, makes various claims related to Instagram's planned changes to its terms of service, now set to go into effect in mid-January. The complaint claims Instagram's unilateral changing of the contract between itself and its users violat [...]

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

Advertisers using Twitter's Promoted Tweets product have new keyword options to target their tweets in Twitter's search results, along with a new tool to import keywords from other online ad platforms. The company is launching three keyword matching options, along with the ability to use negative keywords, too. Search marketers will be familiar with the keyword matching options: exact match phrase match keyword match Using negative keywords acts similarly to other platforms; advertisers can indicate keywords that they don't want their ads appearing next to in Twitter search resu [...]

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

In today's 2012 Social Media Report from Nielsen, one thing was clear -- social media usage shows no signs of slowing down.  The biggest boon to the continued growth has undoubtedly been smartphones and mobile apps. In July of 2012, users averaged 88.48 minutes, a number that jumped 58% to 121.18 minutes in July of 2012. While the overall number of minutes spent on social media has jumped up substantially, surprisingly the number of social media users on the web actually declined. Computers are still the main method of social usage but that number has dropped. In 2011 97% of all th [...]

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

Twitter has partnered with Komli Media to launch Twitter ad products in Southeast Asia. In today's announcement, Twitter VP of international revenue Shailesh Rao, says Southeast Asia is one of the company's fastest-growing markets. "We are seeing significant interest from marketers who want to use our Promoted Products to build their businesses and connect with consumers," Rao says, "and working with Komli, and its management team, gives Twitter a strong partner with a footprint throughout the region." Komli specializes in digital advertising in the Asia Pacific area. It will manage [...]

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

Twitter's push to expand its advertiser base continues today with news that the company will give away up to a million dollars in ad credits to small business owners that haven't advertised on Twitter before. In its announcement, Twitter says that it'll give $100 credits to the first 10,000 qualified small businesses. The signup form details those qualifications: the business must be U.S.-based, have a complete Twitter profile (including profile image), tweet regularly, have at least 20 followers and be a new advertiser. Twitter says the giveaway is its way of supporting the Shop Small a [...]

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

So, you’ve chosen your ad types, written creative, ran and optimized your campaign. What’s next? Evaluating Success It’s a fairly straightforward process to decide if your campaign was successful. Did you get fans? Conversions? Sign ups? Did you fulfill your campaign’s original goals? That should be easy to measure. The optimization strategies outlined in my previous column should have allowed you to make the most of the dollars you spent on Facebook. You’ve (hopefully) come away feeling satisfied that it was money well spent. Don’t forget about the less tangible successes [...]

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

One of the toughest items that most Page admins ask is "what should I post my content?" While there have been various studies and findings, a new tool helps admins maximize post reach and visibility. PageLever has launched PageLever Now, a real-time Facebook Analytics tool. This tool gives admins a visual representation of post reach that allows users to see when a post is dwindling down so they can either pay to promote it, or release another post. This also acts as an all-in-one tool for Page Management. The rel-time view lets admins see the overall virality of their posts and most [...]

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

App developers rejoice! Facebook has unleashed new targeting options that allow advertisers to target specific mobile operating systems and devices. This is very important to companies and developers who make platform specific applications. Advertisers can now push different ads to specific sets of mobile users. The mobile operating systems available to target are iOS, Android and the devices which can be targeted are iPhone, iPad and iPod. This targeting is now available in the Power Editor and Ad API.   [...]

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

As Facebook's continued quest for revenue continues, the News Feed relevance appears to be declining. Under immense pressure to generate meaningful ad revenue, Facebook has begun sponsoring stories and pages and, most recently, suggesting posts. The key? These new ad units have been intrinsically social -- promoting a Facebook post or page. Now InsideFacebook reports that Facebook is testing the placement of traditional non-social ad units in the News Feed. Traditionally, Facebook ads and News Feed content have been a separation of church and state as ads have always been placed to [...]

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

By now, we've all seen Sponsored Stories popping up in our news feed, and a new ad unit may increase the overall number of posts. New "suggested posts" will allow companies to display posts directly in users' feeds, no connections required. Facebook's popular Sponsored Stories ad type shows posts from pages but must come from one of the user's connection. This new "Suggested Post" ad type would allow brands to advertise a specific post to users who have no interactions or connections with a brand. This ad unit makes quite a bit of sense for Facebook. The traditional ads on the sideb [...]

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