Google+ Has 400 Million Members

 Internet News  275 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Google‘s social network Google+ has more than 400 million members, Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra has announced.

Gundotra posted the news on his Google+ profile today, adding that Google+ also has 100 million monthly active users — if you count in the mobile app.

“This week we also hit an important milestone–over 400,000,000 people have upgraded to Google+. It was only a year ago that we opened public sign-up, and we couldn’t have imagined that so many people would join in just 12 months,” wrote Gundotra.

MORE:  Google+ Has 400 Million Members.

 

How Facebook Timeline measures up for brands

 interface, Internet News  154 Responses »
Sep 182012
 

Timeline best practices

  • Design and build compelling engagement apps that speak in a meaningful way to the brand’s audience and capture the brand’s essence.
  • Don’t expect fans to “find” the apps from clicking the tiles below the cover photo. Drive traffic to that engagement app, post about it in the Timeline every day, and drive through other media.
  • Make sure apps are mobile-aware. Visit your favorite brand page on the Facebook mobile app. Find a link in the Timeline to an app. In most cases, the link doesn’t work. With extra effort, it’s possible to ensure that engagement apps run optimally on both Facebook desktop and Facebook mobile.
  • Strive to deliver fresh, engaging content every day (questions, challenges, daily prizes, sweepstakes entries, comments) to entertain fans and keep them coming back.
  • Include engaging media (photos, videos) to grab attention.
  • Incorporate user-submitted content if possible. This not only gives the fan a personal feeling of participation, but also gives the brand interesting content that can be used as the subject of future posts.
  • Look at ways gamification elements, like leaderboards, can juice engagement.

Bad Timeline habits

  • Engagement apps that pull fans away from the Facebook page and funnel them onto a website cause fans to lose the social context and limit the potential of word-of-mouth sharing on Facebook.
  • Facebook is special, yet many brands don’t offer Facebook fans something unique they can’t get anywhere else. Leverage the highest share possible — one from a valued and trusted friend — and give Facebook fans something unique.
  • Brands tend to be averse to tapping advocates to learn and connect deeply. There’s a huge amount of insight to be gained from the fans that are willing to talk about what they’ve bought or experienced.
  • Brands that don’t maximize the full potential of Facebook ad products (ads, Sponsored Stories) to drive more traffic and maximize reach miss out on engagement. Those ad products are designed to amplify good social behaviors to a wider audience and can be highly leveraged.

MORE:  How Facebook Timeline measures up for brands single page view – iMediaConnection.com.

 

Zuckerberg appearance helps propel stock above $20 for first time in 4 weeks

 Internet News  403 Responses »
Sep 132012
 

Zuckerberg has avoided public appearances and interviews over the past year, and his silence likely contributed to some of the uneasiness investors felt about the company. The stock, which was priced at $38 at the time of Facebook’s initial public offering in May, fell as low as $17.67 last month following the end of the first lock-up period. Even with today’s rise, shares are trading below 40 percent of their offering price. However, Facebook has recently been active in expanding its mobile monetization efforts and testing a new search-based advertising option. Zuckerberg said in his interview Tuesday that the company has many more products and feature to launch later this year.

MORE:  Zuckerberg appearance helps propel stock above $20 for first time in 4 weeks.

 

4 ways to become an Instagram rock star

 Internet News, Marketing, Your Brand  469 Responses »
Sep 112012
 

First off, Instagram is obviously a visual medium. Photos should look good, tell a compelling story, or get a laugh whenever possible. Follow the old rule of “know your audience.”

Secondly, brands should use #hashtags, which is how Instagram photos are organized into albums. Brands can leverage popular #hashtags to help users discover their content and create new #hashtags to organize their own content.

Finally, whether your brand is using one of Instagram’s mobile apps or you are building a custom application that uses Instagram’s API, integrate your other social media channels. Share to your other channels, and let your users share to their personal networks. It is worth noting that Instagram is a mobile-only social media platform. But other services, via Instagram’s API, make viewing on the web possible. A favorite of mine is Web.stagram.com.

So what fundamental knowledge do brands need to succeed on Instagram? Consider these simple tips.

MORE:  4 ways to become an Instagram rock star – iMediaConnection.com.

 

Private browsing bug fixed in Firefox 15.0.1

 Internet News, Tech News  363 Responses »
Sep 102012
 

Browser maker Mozilla has patched a bug in the latest major version of Firefox that could have exposed the websites of those using the “Private Browsing” mode.

“Private Browsing,” a feature implemented in most modern browsers, allows users to browse the Web without leaving any trace of the websites visited on the user’s computer.

But shortly after the latest Firefox release was dished out to end-users, a bug report was filed to claim that any site visited while in the privacy-conscious mode “could be found through manual browser cache inspection,” according to Mozilla’s bug-reporting site Bugzilla.

Website addresses, page images, search queries, passwords and cookies — known as cached content — were stored by Firefox 15 when the browser privacy mode was enabled.

MORE:  Private browsing bug fixed in Firefox 15.0.1 | Internet & Media – CNET News.

 

Fox to release movie downloads weeks before discs

 Internet News, Marketing  412 Responses »
Sep 102012
 

Fox is to offer movie downloads up to three weeks before the films arrive on disc and in video-on-demand services in a bid to boost digital sales.

The studio’s scheme will take place in the US, and push product – starting with Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel, Prometheus – through the UltraViolet cloud movie service.

Prometheus will be offered to UV users in the States on 18 September – folk waiting for the DVD or Blu-ray won’t get it until 11 October, which is when the film will also be made available to video-on-demand services, such as Netflix. The download will cost less too, though by how much will depend on the extent to which retailers discount a given title’s discs.

Fox executives told the New York Times that the studio will offer early, lower-priced sales on all of its forthcoming films for an indefinite period to give it time to assess the scheme’s impact.

MORE:  Fox to release movie downloads weeks before discs • Reg Hardware.

 

Apple Plans Pandora Rival (And Why That’s Bad For Advertising)

 Internet News  402 Responses »
Sep 102012
 

The New York Times yesterday reported that Apple is negotiating with record labels for a Pandora-like service, and calls it a move that “could shake up the growing field of internet radio.” The service would customize music to users’ tastes – like Pandora does. Just like Pandora, Apple’s offering would carry advertising, but through Apple’s iAd platform. Terms of the deal are unclear (e.g., if Apple would share ad revenue with labels or pay them through a licensing fee). Also unclear, whether or not the service will be ad supported and free, or with an ad-free subscription offering (which Pandora offers for $36).

Pandora is probably one of the five biggest mobile ad businesses in the US, asBusinessInsider describes; but still struggles with how to sell ads profitably. As the company said in an investor call earlier this week, “To date, we have not been able to generate additional revenue from our advertising products as rapidly as we have been able to grow our listener hours on mobile.” In short – it has all the listeners it wants, but struggles to monetize that listenership.

But, it tries hard.

MORE:  Apple Plans Pandora Rival (And Why That’s Bad For Advertising) – MarketingVOX.

 

Twitter enables embedded timelines

 interface, Internet News  163 Responses »
Sep 062012
 

Twitter has launched a new tool that enables you to embed interactive timelines on any website. According to the company, the tool provides the means to place any public timeline on any page. “With one line of HTML you can deliver any account’s tweets, favourites, a list, search query or hashtag directly to your website,” explained Twitter’s Sylvain Carle.

The timelines work much like the Twitter website, providing the means for visitors to reply, retweet, follow and tweet directly, but without leaving the page.

MORE:  Twitter enables embedded timelines | News | .net magazine.

 

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