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YouTube Grows Up: The Maturing of a Medium October 03, 2012 Remember Charlie? YouTube isn't just about cat videos and basement productions anymore. Charlie's a big boy now, and YouTube has been growing up too. The site has evolved into a full-fledged social media platform, and entertainment companies and other businesses have begun to take note. "In a world of short attention spans, text is no longer enough," said Phil Starkovich, president of Sincell.

F-Commerce: Business Boom or Bust? September 29, 2012 Discussions on Facebook's IPO and inability to market successfully have been a topic of discussion for months. Sure, Facebook has a reach of nearly a billion users, but until it can be successfully monetized, is investing in Facebook commerce a boom or a bust? The real discussion is whether Facebook is a good vehicle for marketing.

Facebook Jettisons Phony Likes September 28, 2012 As promised last month, Facebook is beginning a purge of so-called fake Likes from its social network. These are Likes that have been generated by malware, fake accounts or bulk purchase services. When Facebook announced its initiative last month, it theorized that less than 1 percent of Likes on any given Facebook page would be removed.

Twitter Travels to the Beat of a Different Drum September 27, 2012 If Twitter were a child, it would be the last one at the dinner table, eating its food on its own schedule -- never mind that everyone else had finished. To wit: Not too long ago it was still resisting pressure to roll out advertising until it was good and ready. Now, that same stubbornness is on display again. The microblogging site has no plans to go public or put itself up for sale.

EPIC Worries Facebook Could Follow You to the Mall September 25, 2012 Facebook came under fire again on Monday as a privacy advocate called for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the social network's relationship with data marketer Datalogix. This wasn't just another instance of what have become typical privacy concerns with Facebook.

Bizo Gives Social a Twirl in B2B Target Marketing September 24, 2012 Bizo, an online marketing provider that focuses specifically on the business segment, has introduced two new apps that refine its marketing reach. Bizo Company Targeting and Bizo CRM Retargeting are tightly integrated with Salesforce.com, although it is not necessary to be a Salesforce.com client to use them. "Bizo helps marketers reach business audiences across the Web," said CEO Russell Glass.

Lead Generation in the Social Revolution September 21, 2012 To grow a business, you need leads. So how do you fill the funnel, especially if you're a small business that no one has heard of yet? Ten years ago, the formula was pretty simple. It was all about driving traffic to your website, getting people to fill out a form, and then following up with them using sales reps or email marketing.

Facebook's Poor Aim May Cost It Display Ad Lead September 20, 2012 Google is poised to climb past Facebook and be this year's top earner in display ad revenue, according to new research from eMarketer. Google is expected to earn $2.31 billion in display ad revenue this year, a 38.5 percent jump from last year, just ahead of Facebook's expected $2.16 billion in earnings, up 24.4 percent from a year ago.

Sage Act Hones Social, Mobile Tools for Small-Biz Marketers September 10, 2012 Sage North America has rolled out Sage Act 2013, a new iteration of its flagship application that has been enhanced with mobile, social and email marketing capabilities, as well as new smart task automation functionality. The focus is on contemporary trends of interest to SMBs, said Brandon Balsley, director of Sage Act product management.

Twitter Flutters Above Facebook in Mobile Ad Income September 07, 2012 Twitter is ahead of its social networking competitor Facebook in mobile advertising revenue, but that lead could reverse given Facebook's recent ad initiatives, according to new research from eMarketer. The study includes a tally of U.S. mobile advertising revenue for major companies including the competing social networks, and offers projections for future revenue.

Microsoft Makes Staffing Push Into China September 06, 2012 Microsoft plans to hired an additional 1,000 employees in China over the next year, bringing the company's total in the country to 4,500, according to Reuters. The move is designed to tap into what Microsoft sees as an integral market for future growth. The company has struggled to gain ground in China's IT market, which is flooded with cheap software.

Twitter Helps Advertisers Home In August 31, 2012 Twitter is rolling out new ad-targeting capabilities that will allow marketers to identify and send messages to consumers based on their interests or likes. So, a consumer who has indicated an interest in gardening would be shown ads for gardening and outdoor-living products.

Google Study Dives Into Multiscreen Marketing Madness August 30, 2012 It has been clear for some time that consumers are using multiple devices to access the same content. Sometimes they will access a particular piece or type of content only from a mobile device -- say, a website optimized for mobile news while commuting to work on public transportation. Sometimes they will shift from screen to screen.

4 CRM Lessons to Apply as You Move to Social CRM August 30, 2012 Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, wrote George Santayana, and if you've covered technology as long as I have, you know that the cycles of repetition become shorter with each passing year. When it comes to CRM, we're seeing it again in the form of social CRM: companies are making the same mistakes they made at the start of the CRM era.

Facebook Chases Search Ads in Quest for Revenue August 23, 2012 Facebook is integrating sponsored results into its search function as part of the social network's ongoing effort to increase advertising revenue. The ads appear when a user looks for a person, place, app or other item through Facebook's search bar. Advertisers can choose which search terms to target with their ads.

What Does Facebook Have to Do? August 22, 2012 Facebook has long lingered well below its debut IPO value. But lately the stock has experienced an even harder hammering than usual. Anything less than a 100 percent increase in earnings over its next quarter will result in a price drop as low as $7 per share, according to Global Equities Research's Trip Chowdhry. What does it need to do to break the slump?

Making Business Sites Work Hand in Glove With Social Media August 22, 2012 It's not enough to have just a website, or just social media profiles. Businesses need to have both, and the traffic needs to flow seamlessly between them. Numerica Credit Union was looking for a way to offer customers a useful tool on its Facebook page while driving traffic from Facebook to its site. When Shastic offered it a chance to test drive Calcubot, the credit union jumped on the opportunity.

August Rushed In August 15, 2012 It's good to be busy, but I remember when August was a slow month, sort of like January, and for the same reasons. The holidays are out of the way, there's less to do -- other than eat the Christmas chocolates or the summer squash and tomatoes, and think about spring or going back to school. The August doldrums were a time of clambakes and vacations. Now? Clambake, si! Vacation, no mucho!

Awareness Helps Social Marketers Know the Score August 10, 2012 Awareness has enhanced its social marketing automation suite, Social Marketing Hub, with a new feature called "social scoring." The feature allows marketers and brands to identify, store and rank prospects across all the major social networks based on scoring criteria they define. It is a deliberate change from the fluffy metrics typically associated with social marketing.

Seeing Social Meet in the Middle August 08, 2012 I'm just back from a week in the woods, trying to get my head around social media and CRM again. That means I'm in the middle of writing up a report on some research that uberanalyst Esteban Kolsky and I did over the last few months, and smack in the middle of CRM Idol judging. Everything's fine, and I see some interesting parallels, and without giving the store away, here is one interesting cross tab.