Facebook is almost ready to tackle what pretty much everyone else has already done – advertise on mobile devices.

From Fat Booth and Auto-Tune to Peep and Pandora – every dumb app that’s on my phone forces advertising down my throat. Whether I’m tweeting or playing a word, I skip through a handful of meaningless, irrelevant ads about creating an online zoo or what’s on Lifetime tonight, etc. Do I care? No. But that’s the price I pay for…well…not paying for any of the apps on my phone.

Facebook mobile, on the other hand, has been a breath of fresh, ad free … Continue Reading

Facebook marketers were thrown into a tizzy last week by the suggestion that using 3rd party apps can be detrimental to your post’s EdgeRank.  If that sounds indecipherable, you are not alone.  There’s a lot to know when it comes to making your brand voice heard on Facebook.

Let’s look into the brouhaha more deeply.

Last week, EdgeRank Checker released a study outlining the influence of 3rd party application programming interfaces (“APIs”, more commonly referred to as “3rd Party Apps”) on Facebook engagement.  These apps are commonly used to schedule … Continue Reading

An integrated marketing campaign involves the strategic blend of all marketing tools to create one cohesive marketing plan. By using multiple resources, including advertising, marketing and public relations, an integrated campaign connects with the consumer and builds a stronger brand. There are multiple reasons why an integrated marketing campaign works well, but here are just a few.

• Reach a wider audience than campaigns that just use a single medium
• Increase brand visibility and reinforce the brand message
• Use marketing resources efficiently, re-purposing the creative and messaging across multiple media

Like any campaign, integrated campaigns require … Continue Reading

Mashable reports that the Nielsen Co. will soon offer ratings service for Facebook campaigns. Nielsen will be able to assess the impact of Facebook marketing campaigns in the same way it has gauged the audience reach for television advertising.

Nielsen’s system will use “gross rating points” (GRPs) to assess the reach of an ad by means of the frequency that the audience sees it. Unlike traditional online metrics like click-through rates and impressions, gross ratings points will let marketers buy online ads in the same way that they buy ads for … Continue Reading

Americans spent 53 billion minutes on Facebook in March, reports Matt Carmichael of Advertising Age magazine.  That works out to a slightly less alarming 12 minutes per user per day.

By way of comparison, Carmichael points out,
In 2009, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American spent 8.7 hours a night sleeping. Men spent just 16 minutes a day doing housework (women spent 36 minutes). Exercise? 18 minutes. Religious and spiritual activities? Nine minutes. You get the picture.
Of course, we’re talking … Continue Reading

Spending on social media advertising will increase by nearly 300% in the next five years, according to research firm BIA/Kelsey.  They predict that total spending on social media advertising in the U.S. will rise from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in 2015.  That’s a 31.6% annual rate of increase.

Display ads will continue to dominate, they predict, but non-display ad revenue (e.g., Twitter’s “promoted products”) will grow quickly and more new formats will sprout. They expect that non-display ad spending will grow … Continue Reading

Content producers increasingly hope that social media will get the word out for them.  They hope that their content will go viral. But studies show that email is still the way most people share most content.  And search is still the top method of finding websites.

Yet social sharing is capturing more attention.

Outbrain, a company dedicated to getting online content to the people who need it, reports that only one-tenth of external referrals come from social media sites.  They found that most (41%) come from search and nearly one-third from other sites.

Social … Continue Reading

While many folks go to Facebook for discounts, research indicates that they prefer email—and that email is more effective.

Lots of companies use deals and discounts as a way of encouraging Facebook and Twitter engagement, and, unsurprisingly, research shows that such offers are a primary reason that social networkers follow those brands. 

The question is, have consumers made a strong connection between social networks and retail? 

According to a March 2011 survey of daily deal site Eversave.com users, three-quarters of their female … Continue Reading