Feeling blue? Facebook might be to blame

Thursday, 15 August 2013

People feel worse about themselves when they use Facebook, regardless of how happy or unhappy they were before looking at the site, researchers say. "We measured lots and lots of other personality and behavioral dimensions, like, for example, frequency of Facebook use. ... The more you used F

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What Carl Icahn's $20 billion tweet could mean for Twitter, traders

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn used Twitter on Tuesday to reveal that he has a large amount of Apple stock, and that he believes the company to be "extremely undervalued." The tweet, and a follow-up about discussing share buybacks with Apple CEO Tim Cook, sent Apple's price soaring, boo

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Facebook product manager Peter Deng jumps to Instagram

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Instagram has signed up Peter Deng, a Facebook product manager, to be its first director of product. Deng is capable, but his presence might make it harder for Instagram to retain its own independent culture and direction, Ellis Hamburger writes. "[W]hen you bring in someone used to doing things F

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Facebook tests online-payments engine

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Facebook is testing a payments engine that could prove a threat to PayPal. The tool would allow users who have previously paid for something on Facebook using a credit card to make payments on third-party sites without re-entering their card information. Still, some analysts are skeptical about co

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How to create a website your customers can trust

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Small businesses should make sure each Web page serves a clear purpose, according to the Webreep Annual Online Consumer Behavior Report. Pages that are trying to do too much might end up falling flat, the report warns. "If your website isn't easy to use, your visitors will walk. The information on

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Tips for building touch keyboards that decrease mobile form errors

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Mobile website designers can make forms easier to fill out via touch keyboards with a handful of tools, including disabling auto-correct for form fields such as e-mail address where the dictionary is likely to be weak. Dedicated keyboards for specific functions also help decrease errors, and makin

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Hooters turns to social media for brand building

Thursday, 15 August 2013

The crux of Hooters' "Step Into Awesome" rebranding campaign from Skiver Advertising is social promotion asking users to share experiences on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and elsewhere. Hooters had added its #StepIntoAwesome hashtag to all of its marketing and had more than 10,000 user-posted phot

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CNN readying massive website redesign with responsive features, ads

Thursday, 15 August 2013

CNN is overhauling its website with a responsive design interface to create a more consistent experience for the 40% of visitors who access the site through a mobile device. The redesign will include new native and responsive advertisement formats aimed at boosting revenue. The public beta debuts

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Obama's Economic Approval Slips to 35%

Thursday, 15 August 2013

Just 35% of Americans approve of President Barack Obama's handling of the economy, according to a new Gallup poll. That's down seven points from June, with Obama's handling of taxes and the federal deficit coming in for particular criticism, but still better than the 26% rating he garnered in mid-

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Middle Eastern Subaru dealership causes uproar with Facebook post

Friday, 9 August 2013

A Subaru dealership in the United Arab Emirates has apologized after posting a misogynistic screed about female drivers -- in response to a fatal accident -- on its Facebook page. The uproar over the post made its way onto Subaru of America's page, where officials responded by emphasizing that Sub

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Pinterest turns rich pins into price-drop e-mail alerts

Friday, 9 August 2013

Pinterest has added e-mail price alerts to the "rich" pins feature it introduced in May. "Pinterest will send these sale alerts through aggregated and summarized emails, so as to prevent users from getting spammed," writes Melanie White. Amplify social media manager Adam Dacosta calls it "a very c

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Should we be able to tweet at the movies?

Friday, 9 August 2013

Going to the movies would be a better experience if cinemas turned up the lights, provided power outlets and encouraged people to tweet and use second-screen devices, venture capitalist Hunter Walk argues. Walk's controversial idea generated plenty of chatter, with some saying that cinemas shouldn

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Dell: The new rules of content marketing PDF

Friday, 9 August 2013

The explosion of content marketing, the proliferation of social platforms and the growth of digitally driven channels have fundamentally changed the relationship that today's B2B buyer has with marketing materials and the sales force. Brendan Dell explores the new behaviors and preferences of toda

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Survey: U.S. firms say generating leads is top content goal

Friday, 9 August 2013

Nearly half of U.S. companies have a formal content marketing strategy and 44% of these companies say increasing leads is the main goal, according to a report from IMN. Price might be a big factor in the strategy's adoption since one-third of respondents said they spend less than 10% of their mark

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Chinese marketers stepping up to mobile platform

Friday, 9 August 2013

Eight-four percent of Chinese companies project that mobile sales will grow over the next year, and 16% are already marketing regularly through mobile, an Experian Marketing Services' whitepaper reports. Currently, text is the main marketing channel but other technologies, including QR codes, are

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Mobile banner ads fare poorly next to native mobile experiences

Friday, 9 August 2013

Brand mobile websites, QR codes and other native mobile experiences outperform mobile banner advertisements by a wide margin when it comes to consumer engagement, according to a global study from media agency Initiative. Voucher code sites received the highest level of engagement at 74%, compared

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Snap Mobile offers rich-media templates for mobile advertisers

Friday, 9 August 2013

Snap Mobile is offering 11 simple-to-use templates as part of its Rich Media 5 project, which allows advertisers to quickly create engaging rich-media mobile ads in Hong Kong. The HTML5 templates, with more to come, are being offered free to advertisers with a promised three-day turnaround time. "

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Microsoft expands white-space tests with South African foray

Friday, 2 August 2013

Microsoft has expanded its African tests of white-space broadband service to the Limpopo province of South Africa following the launch of trials in Kenya and Tanzania. Microsoft is trying to show South Africa that white-space technology can help meet the government's goal of an 80% broadband reach

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Facebook unveils platform for publishing mobile games

Friday, 2 August 2013

Facebook is recruiting mobile-game developers for its new publishing platform that includes revenue sharing. "With more than 800 million monthly users of our mobile apps and more than 260 million people playing games on Facebook, we are using our unique reach and targeting capabilities to help gam

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Friday, 2 August 2013

Why Google+ feared the "tin-foil-hat" privacy brigade Google reportedly backed away from CEO Larry Page's planned privacy "slider" -- a tool that would have allowed users to select privacy options on a sliding scale -- after realizing that the tool's "tin-foil-hat option" for maximum privacy

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Mozilla tests personalized browsing that could turn into ad targeting

Friday, 2 August 2013

Mozilla is experimenting with an opt-in system that would potentially allow ad targeting to users of its Firefox browser. The move is surprising "considering Mozilla's recent efforts to curb the ability for other companies to drop tracking cookies on Firefox users," writes Kate Kaye. A Mozilla blo

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CNN is about "all of the news," Zucker says

Friday, 2 August 2013

CNN plans to focus on boosting its prime-time lineup and enhancing its mobile presence, while offering a broad mix of news, from politics to lighter topics, Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, said at an industry event. "What I want CNN to be about is all of the news, and all of the news is n

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Calling all young professionals and students: Join BMA!

Friday, 2 August 2013

Just starting out in business-to-business marketing? Need immediate access to a network of professionals who can offer guidance, resources and support? The Business Marketing Association is here to help. If you are 30 years old or younger, we offer a full year of membership in our Young Profession

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Report: Facebook's video ads to cost as much as $2.5 million a day

Friday, 2 August 2013

Facebook will begin selling 15-second video ads on a full-day basis for $1 million to $2.5 million each day, according to sources. Targeting of the ads will be based only on age and gender, as the social net looks to better mirror the way TV ads are purchased. Users will see a commercial up to thr

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Lenovo will look to leverage cloud storage to improve hardware sales

Friday, 2 August 2013

Lenovo will expand its 5 GB Reach cloud-storage service for files and passwords to all users in North America as it looks to improve sales numbers for its hardware offerings. However, similar efforts by hardware companies Asus and Acer have not increased device sales, according to this report. Re

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Siemens names finance chief as new CEO

Friday, 2 August 2013

Siemens has announced that finance chief Joe Kaeser will take over as CEO from Peter Loescher, who was ousted amid concern over tumbling profit. Kaeser will be challenged to put the sprawling engineering group back on track but has the expertise for the task, analysts say. "Kaeser was the logical

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Nokia exec: "We need a broader ecosystem of applications"

Friday, 2 August 2013

 Microsoft and Nokia both recognize the importance of recruiting independent application developers. Nokia's Jo Harlow says, "We need more awareness of Windows phones and Lumia, we need a broader ecosystem of applications." She touted the new Lumia 1020 smartphone as an example of the growing

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Developers say Google Play game services are working

Friday, 2 August 2013

 Google is featuring game developers that tout the value of the Google Play game services and new Google Play Games application, Jeffrey Grubb writes. For example, Concrete Software's PBA Bowling Challenge says the game platform's services -- which include cloud-based game saves, real-time m

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Pondering Twitter's staying power

Friday, 2 August 2013

By some counts, Twitter now has 500 million users -- but is that enough of a critical mass to ensure that the microblogging service doesn't fizzle out? Other analyses suggest that the site's active user base is substantially smaller, and that Twitter isn't out of the woods yet. "It's not so hard t

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What Facebook could learn from suicidal brain cells

Friday, 2 August 2013

Facebook is getting too tangled and overloaded with features, and it's time for it to start putting simplicity ahead of growth, Jeff Stibel writes. Much as the brain prunes synaptic connections to avoid excessive complexity, Facebook should cut out the distractions and focus on streamlining its co

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The trouble with Chipotle's Twitter shenanigans

Friday, 2 August 2013

Chipotle's recent Twitter "hack" publicity stunt was a lame one at that, Molly McHugh writes. The move highlighted the broader problem with Twitter buzz, which rewards brands for using PR gimmicks rather than building real engagement, McHugh writes. "Twitter is all about notoriety and follower num

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BMA Phoenix Chapter -- Event -- Young Professionals Networking Event with CEO Scott Salkin

Friday, 2 August 2013

This event will be held Thursday, Aug. 8, 5:30 to 7 p.m., at IDS Technology Marketing, 14811 N. Kierland Blvd. Suite 300, in Scottsdale, Ariz., when Scott Salkin, founder and CEO of IDS Technology Marketing, will share real-life lessons and insight from his entrepreneurial journey, turning a

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Oracle, Salesforce integration leads to high expectations

Friday, 2 August 2013

 The recent announcement of service integrations between Salesforce.com and Oracle has conjured up images of improved products and business intelligence in the minds of enterprise customers. These hopes include Oracle's Endeca using Salesforce data to manage sales and customer information, pl

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Will Gmail's new sorting feature hobble marketing?

Friday, 2 August 2013

Gmail now provides users a set of inboxes that automatically sort messages it deems "Promotions" or "Social" into tabs that are separate from a user's main inbox -- a feature that has implications for e-mail marketing. MailChimp and Return Path have noticed a small decline in open rates, but it is

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Mobile is catching up with desktops for marketing e-mail openings

Friday, 2 August 2013

Mobile is catching up with PCs in terms of consumer open rates for marketing e-mails, according to research by marketing solutions provider Harland Clarke Digital. Smartphones tend to be used for this purpose during work hours, and tablets see more e-mail openings in the evening. Read More Here.

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Field research is key to effective marketing, Motorola Solutions' Conrado says

Friday, 2 August 2013

Getting marketers into the field and having them meet more often with sales teams and customers will allow companies to better understand clients and correct buyer-process maps, says Motorola Solutions' Eduardo Conrado, senior vice president of marketing and IT. This process also involves having m

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You are probably doing brainstorming wrong

Friday, 2 August 2013

Brainstorming is a powerful tool for driving innovation, but it needs to be conducted in a manner that's free of preconceptions and unthinking constraints, write Alan Iny and Luc de Brabandere. If you're brainstorming the wrong way, you won't come u

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Is Wall Street to blame for the decline in U.S. innovation?

Friday, 2 August 2013

Wall Street's financiers aren't using their capital to effectively drive innovation, and that's sucking the creativity out of the U.S. economy, argues Lynn Parramore. The expectations of analysts aren't helping, Parramore argues, citing Lawrence Mitchell, who wrote about a survey in which 4 of 5 C

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