Twitter

It feels like social media is easier to use than ever before. With new features that auto-hashtag content, allow users to buy products right from videos, and provide tailored content recommendations to users on mobile websites, things are definitely changing for the better. While all these new features are exciting for inbound marketers, we also worry that social media may lose the personal touch it had in its younger years. How will these new social media changes affect how marketers connect with people? Check out this week’s round-up and let us know what you think. YouTube Finally Makes Some Videos ‘Shoppable,’ From Mashable Have you ever wondered how awesome it would be to simply click and buy the things you see in YouTube videos? Well, wonder no more. YouTube is releasing a new feature it calls a “channel gadget” that will bring some of that functionality to your video viewing experience. The new channel gadget will shorten the conversion path to purchase by connect viewers directly to retailers throughout the entire video experience. For example, if you’re watching a how-to video about a particular product, the channel gadget will enable shoppers to find retailers, check product availability, compare prices, and make purchases without leaving the comfort of your YouTube viewer. Marketers are being encouraged to reach out to their respective Google representatives to learn more about how they explore this new option, though it's currently only available as a premium option for consumer goods clients. This new feature will give marketers the ability to make the most of their video content and shorten the time it takes for someone to purchase. Advertising on YouTube videos is great, but turning your high quality video content into engaging and effective calls-to-action is even better. Read more about YouTube's 'shoppable' videos at Mashable. Google Launches Dramatic Redesign of Google+, Emphasizing Context and Content Discovery, From HubSpot With over 390 million monthly users, Google+ has come a long way since its launch almost two years ago. This week, Google announced a complete redesign of its social network with more than 40 new features that simulate an experience much closer to the much-loved mobile apps. Of all the changes, one of the biggest is that the Google+ stream is now broken into a three columns, allowing users to scan and scroll through content faster. Another very notable feature is the auto-hashtag, which automatically assigns a hashtag to anything you post using Google’s powerful search data. We know it’s still a social network that many marketers haven’t tapped into yet, but these new features are going to make life a lot easier for its users. With the new redesign, more and more people may start using Google+, making it an even more important social network for marketers to use. Also, since user experience and interface have a lot to do with how people interact on social networks, marketers should be sure to adjust their Google+ content strategies accordingly. Read more about the Google+ changes on the HubSpot blog. Yahoo Partners With Twitter to Further Personalize Homepage, From TechCrunch This week, Yahoo announced that it will be partnering up with Twitter to bring Tweets directly to Yahoo’s homepage newsfeed. The partnership will reinforce the aim of Yahoo’s redesign and create a more personalized experience for users. Marissa Mayer explains that this new integration will “seamlessly include relevant and personalized tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources.” Any headlines on Yahoo’s newsfeeds that come from Twitter accounts will be indicated by the news source’s Twitter handle. Although the post doesn't specifically spell out which Twitter accounts will be featured, marketers should be aware of this change as it could lead to an opportunity for brands' Twitter accounts to be featured down the road. The Yahoo homepage newsfeed is designed to adapt based on user activity, and tha

Need a little weekend reading? We’ve compiled our top ten Twitter stories of the week, which includes a tip on how to get more retweets on Twitter, a study thats that shows how Vines are shared four times more than other videos on Twitter, a look at the top 15 countries on Twitter, as ranked by growth, the top 15 social networks worldwide and some thoughts on why it pays to be yourself on Twitter. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This continues our series highlighting new positions posted at Twitter each week. Check out past listings here. This week, Twitter added 31 new jobs to its career page. And here they are: continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Over a year ago, I wrote about P&G's plans to lay off over 1,600 of their workforce because they'd wasted so much money on advertisements, and needed to move to more efficient expenditures like Facebook and Google. This week, I come to find they haven't learned a damn thing. When I wrote about their layoffs last year, I cautioned P&G (because they were obviously reading my blog article) that: Digital media is not free Not all advertising is inherently bad Not all digital advertising is inherently effective Apparently, the words of warning did not resonate. This week, Business Insider reported that CEO Bob McDonald actually ended up cutting 6,250 jobs as part of his cost-savings program -- so my 1,600 figure last year fell short of reality -- and that part of that program included "using more social media like Facebook and Google, which deliver 'free' ad impressions." *Facepalm* Here's the thing. Ad impressions are not free -- they are ads you pay for. Organic listings are free (minus headcount) -- they are based on whether the content you create is valuable enough for Google or Facebook to warrant giving your content digital face time in front of their users. This approach, this mindset, is the reason this digital "experiment" isn't going so well for P&G, and 6,250 people -- most of them brand managers -- are being laid off. It's the reason they still spend close to $10 billion a year on ads, yet simultaneously talk about the need to cut costs. As Yogi Berra said, "there are some people, if they don't already know, you can't tell 'em." P&G doesn't know, and they don't get it. The most mind boggling part of this is that their response to their inability to get last year's digital experiment to work is... wait for it... increasing their ad budget. Business Insider also reported that these layoffs were "in part...because Facebook ended the free ride for advertisers in the middle of last year." So even getting this stuff for free couldn't make their new digital strategy work. Why Isn't P&G's Digital Strategy Working? Because new technology isn't the answer. The technology in and of itself doesn't make you a good marketer, or a good advertiser. (And neither does money, clearly.) Of course, when you have money to throw around, it helps -- particularly with exposure. But exposure alone doesn't do anything anymore. If your story sucks, it doesn't matter how much money you throw at a hot new technology. Your story sucks, and no one wants to hear it. Even via your door-to-door sales (that's right, they're now going to be spending ad budget on door-to-door sales). Unless their perspective on marketing and advertising changes, no matter what the budget, no matter what the medium, they're not going to lift themselves out of their rough patch. Business Insider's article ends saying: So why did P&G's free-on-Facebook experiment fail? One reason is that Facebook changed the rules mid-year. It altered the news feed algorithm ... so a brand's page posts are only seen by about 15% of a brand's fans. If companies wanted to guarantee reaching their entire audience, they had to pay for ads inside Facebook. The free ride -- in which brands with big fan bases could reach a larger percentage of them without paid media -- was over. P&G now also appears to be rediscovering the need for paid advertising. Yes, it's Facebook's fault. It's not P&G's fault for failing to stay on top of digital trends like learning what EdgeRank is and how it works. It's not P&G's fault for relying on third-party assets to build their brand, instead of investing in assets they can control, like their own website and blog. It's not P&G's fault for failing to create remarkable content that -- and if you know how EdgeRank works you'd know this -- gets you more visibility on Facebook due to reader engagement. It's not P&G's fault for failing to realize no audience is guaranteed, paid or otherwise, and that audiences are actually earned on a daily basis. And it's certainly not P

Industry experts are saying that Twitter is on track to earn up to $1 billion in ad revenue by the end of 2013. It’s become the go-to network of choice for TV shows looking to engage their audience on the second screen, non-profits seeking donations, and local businesses who want to build relationships with their communities. But what does all this mean for you? Join us during the June 4th AllTwitter Marketing Conference‘s keynote panel to hear from some of the top minds in the Twitter community about where the network is headed, so you can be well ahead of the curve. And even if you can’t make it in person, be sure to tune into our #AllTwitterConf hashtag between 9-9:45am PT to follow along! continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Rumors are swirling that Yahoo will acquire Tumblr, one of the most popular blogging platforms. Tumblr says it is currently home to 108 million blogs with over 50 billion posts. AllThingsD reports that the Yahoo board will meet Sunday night to consider a $1.1 billion Tumblr acquisition. CNBC tweeted that Yahoo is planning to hold a product-related news event Monday night in New York City. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer plans to speak at the event. The Verge notes that Bloomberg reports that the press event is about a Flickr update. However, it could be a Flickr update, plus the Tumblr acquisition if the Yahoo board approves the rumored deal. Permalink | Recent Headlines | Facebook | Twitter | WWFeeds.com

This continues our Pay It Forward Friday series. No one likes to see sick children, it’s depressing and makes us worry for our own little ones. But would you be willing to put that discomfort aside for a moment and help ease their suffering? Hope so. Because all it takes is a tweet to help share a child’s last wish – and the smiles you’ll create in return are well worth this tiny bit of your time. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This post is full of gratuitous cuteness. Here's why. I'm looking into some flights to Ireland (I'm a sufferer of the most debilitating form of wanderlust), and I'm using the flight comparison engine Hipmunk to find a flight. I used to use a couple other ones, but the Hipmunk chipmunk is just so cute it's paralyzing. Like, he shows up in my Facebook News Feed, and I stop scrolling and emit an audible "awww!" That kind of cute. (And by the way, I know two men who also admitted to being fans of Hipmunk on Facebook purely because "the little chipmunk's so cute!" Both of them have since purchased multiple flights through them, as well. I rest my case.) What I'm trying to say is, sometimes being cute makes an impact. It taps into something that turns us all into big 'ol softies. So this Friday afternoon, because our regular readers may remember that I tend to get a little distracted this day of the week, let's just melt into big 'ol softies for a minute and enjoy some of the cutest brand mascots of all time. All together now ... awwwwww!!! The 10 Most Adorable Brand Mascots of All Time 1) The Hipmunk Chipmunk I won't belabor the Hipmunk chipmunk for too much longer, but before we move on, please enjoy this compilation of that buck-teethed, chubby-cheeked little rodent who thinks he's a person, dressing up in some of his favorite outfits. Like a big punch of cute right in the gut. 2) The Android Robot There's a reason Hipmunk robotified its chipmunk for the Hipmunk Android app (see above) ... the Android robot is pretty adorable. I know, it seems strange that a piece of machinery could ever be cuddly, but that's what makes it remarkable! You'll also notice Android uses pretty adorable names for its platforms, like Jelly Bean, Gingerbread, and Ice Cream Sandwich. The robot is so cute, in fact, that people actually create their own "art" of sorts with the robot, putting him in cute scenarios like some you see here. Image credits: dullhunk, laihiu, victoria white2010 3) The SEOmoz Robot Guess robots are just inherently cute. The SEOmoz robot always makes me smile, and the copy they use around the robot gives him an even more adorable personality! Just goes to show B2B marketing doesn't have to be totally devoid of the warm and fuzzy. 4) The Dropbox Box I've featured Dropbox on this blog a few times for their creative design. But their mascot -- which is, quite logically, a box -- always makes me smile. I think the cute comes in because ... who the heck expects a box to be cute? I mean, it's a folded piece of cardboard. Why is it smiling? Why is it wearing a party hat? Why is it in a pastel hilltop scene among happy little flowers? It's the unexpected cute that gets me with this fellow, and has a lot to do with all the other cute "people" he hangs out with, too. Bonus: Dropbox will also throw in the occasional dinosaur. I'm a sucker for an inexplicable dinosaur. 5) The Snuggle Bear Snuggle Bear ... the cuteness is kind of baked right in the name, eh? And if you mosey on over to Snuggle's Facebook Page, you'll notice Snuggle being adorable in many different scenarios, including as a stuffed animal being snuggled by cute little kids, and kids and animals giving each other big ol' snuggly hugs. So they've basically decided the bear just wasn't enough cute. 6) The Pillsbury Doughboy The Pillsbury Doughboy. So cute he has his own subdirectory on the Pillsbury site (on which you can make him dance, if you're looking for a time waster). We all know and love him -- he's a chubby, squishy, round, soft, tiny, giggling pile of dough with a chef's hat. That's pretty much all the cute adjectives right in a row. And if you haven't seen the latest co-marketing commercial with Geico in which he struggles to get through airport security (Spoiler Alert: The pat-down tickles and he can't stop laughing), I recommend you mosey on over to YouTube stat. Oh heck, it's quick, just watch it here: 7) The HootSuite Owl I feel compelled to disclose that, orig

As the web cries out, yet again, after an attack by the Syrian Electronic Army, those of us fond of 80′s superhero shows feel like we’re watching an episode unfold. And it’s pretty fantastic. Any minute now, the SuperFriends will come to the rescue. Either than, or the hacks will just continue. It’s more fun to imagine the former. Ka-pow! continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Today we give thanks for the Twitter co-founders penchant for interesting names. We have, of course, the Obvious Corp (which is anything but) and Square (that cool “pay using my smartphone” device), the new blogging platform Medium – and now, bestest of all – Jelly. Beyond wondering if they’ve employed someone solely to come up with these names, this latest mushy gushy creation of Biz Stone that has left people wondering: “What the Jelly?” continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.