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Another reason to avoid URL shorteners: they're slow

It is said that necessity is the mother of all invention, and that's certainly true of URL shortening services. The rise of the status update means that there's no room for an extraneous character, and that has in turn led to the rise of URL shortening services that make sure the links shared in status updates don't take up any more room than needed.

As these services have grown in popularity, it's not uncommon to see shortened URLs used in places where there's really no need for them, from blog comments to emails.

by Patricio Robles 19 March 2010 09:00am 7 comments

Do Facebook apps need funding?

While browsing through my RSS reader earlier, I came across an interesting post on PaidContent: a Facebook app called Second Porch raised $1m in funding from an angel fund.

I immediately scratched my head and asked myself: do most entrepreneurs behind individual Facebook apps like Second Porch really need to raise funding for their app businesses? It's a question that I think is increasingly important as more and more entrepreneurs launch their ideas on Facebook, not as standalone websites.

by Patricio Robles 18 March 2010 09:02am 2 comments

Study: People who follow brands in social media are much more likely to shop with them in the real world

Today Facebook was revealed by Hitwise to be America's most popular website. And considering how many brands have boosted sales with successful social media, you have to hope that social has gotten past the barrier of engaging frivolity for most brands.

But for those that still need convincing, a new study has found that consumers are twice as likely to purchase products from brands they follow on Facebook or Twitter.

How can your brand start getting in on those sales figures? Make sure you're giving customers what they're looking for in social.

by Meghan Keane 16 March 2010 23:19pm 13 comments

Facebook QR codes could finally teach people how to use them

QR codes have slowly been gaining traction among advertisers and publishers in the U.S., but they may finally be about to break through to the consumer conscious — Facebook appears to be testing QR codes on its profile pages.

by Meghan Keane 16 March 2010 22:06pm 4 comments

Digg 2.0 tries to woo publishers

Social media has been a boon for savvy online publishers who make a concerted effort to take advantage of it. Back when social media was coming into its own, Digg was one of the popular services that publishers latched on to.

The reason was obvious: hitting the Digg homepage could easily drive massive amounts of traffic in a very short amount of time. Few publishers, of course, dream of anything less.

by Patricio Robles 15 March 2010 08:50am 0 comments

SxSW: Trash talk. What's it good for?

Social media, whether you like it or not, is about conversations. For brands, that can be a headache. Especially when people are angry with your brand and talking about it. But marketers should take solace: there are much worse things they could be doing.

At SxSW this weekend, the panelists at Does My Sh*t-Talking Really Help Your Brand? panel were agreed: it does.

by Meghan Keane 14 March 2010 18:39pm 3 comments

Digital Cream Talk Notes Part 1: Social Media

Last week some of us from Econsultancy US had the pleasure of traveling to London for the Digital Cream event (the equivalent of September's Peer Summit in New York). Rebecca Lieb and I did a short talk made up of 5-minute bits on some hot topics from a US perspective. Naturally, social was the hottest of the hot. In Part 2, we'll look at Social Commerce and Email

by Stefan Tornquist 09 March 2010 21:24pm 0 comments

Facebook's self-serve ads need work. But as long as they're making money, they'll keep getting better.

Facebook is hard at work serving personalized advertising to its users, and the network's popular self-serve ad platform is a big part of its planned $1 billion in revenue for 2010. But it doesn't take a long visit to the site to see that those ads aren't always on target.

Today The New York Times looks at the ongoing problem of misdirected Facebook ads. Facebook's platform is still relatively new, but its personalized approach to display is not always so personalized.

by Meghan Keane 04 March 2010 20:29pm 4 comments

Websites vs Facebook Pages: which URL should you promote?

According to Facebook, there are now more than 3m active Facebook Pages on the world's most popular social network. A growing number of them belong to businesses that are trying to tap into Facebook's massive audience.

For some of those businesses, a Facebook Page represents a significant investment, and for those with a substantial number of fans, a significant asset. But having a web presence on Facebook also creates some challenges. One of them: determining whether or not to promote the company website or the company's Facebook Page.

by Patricio Robles 02 March 2010 10:59am 39 comments