Social optimization platform Gigya released its "The Value of Social Sign-On and the Registered User" this week, a study of 100 marketing and product executives. Execs were drawn from publishers with at least 100k monthly page views and retailers with at least 10 million in online revenue. The report concluded that social sign-on is at the top of the list of necessary elements for a social media strategy for surveyed retailers and publishers.

Mylife.com, a social search site with 37 million members, recently reported a 49% bump in site traffic. The lift wasn't because of a viral marketing campaign or a fancy AR campaign. According to Founder and CEO Jeff Tinsley, it was a result of more traditional medium- a TV campaign. The use of traditional media for a social search site speaks to MyLife.com's marketing strategy, which views traditional advertising as an integral part of its overall branding strategy.

It was something of a shock to the industry, and the filmmakers themselves. Filmmaker Billy Corben's (Clubland, Cocaine Cowboys) The U, a documentary about football players at The University of Miami in the 80's and 90's, was a small film targeted to a highly specific sector of sport fans. When it ran during ESPN's 2009 documentary film series 30 for 30, it became ESPN's most watched documentary of all time- beating out even ESPN'S The Greatest Game Ever. Why? One of the reasons was that The U's 95,000 + Facebook fans shared, tweeted and promoted The U for 4 months before the film hit the airwaves. [...]

Social media is still something of a three ring circus for marketers, complete with an 800-pound gorilla named Facebook and a slew of sites, including Reddit, 4chan and Digg, that may or may not be the tails wagging the social media dog, according to experts assembled at DIGIDAY: Social, held in New York yesterday.

Mobile devices, and smartphones in particular, are set to play an increasingly important role in content strategy. According to a survey of US marketers completed earlier this summer by PRWeek and MS&L Group, mobile social applications will have important consequences for their brand. Asked which social media efforts would have the greatest effect on their company, 17% said more usage of social media on mobile platforms and a further 12% cited uptake of mobile location-based social networking.

When it comes to location-based mobile apps, apparently MyTown is bigger than you think. A lot bigger. A new survey of over 1,500 Myxer users in the U.S. shows that consumers heavily favored Booyah Networks’ MyTown, which claimed 56% of those polled, while Loopt came in second place at 12%. Surprisingly, two of the more ‘popular’ services, Gowalla and Foursquare, trailed far behind MyTown, only capturing 8% respectively, graded from downloads on the Myxer site.

As the music business continues to struggle with digital distribution and the revenue from it, keep an eye on Tunecore. It is reaching out to indie musicians and creating links between major labels, multi-platform distribution channels and social media. Tunecore announced a partnership yesterday with Shore Fire Media whose clients include Bruce Springsteen, Toyota and Sirius radio, to offer independent musicians a smorgasbord of DIY branding tools and opportunities. These range from the launch of a Tunecore artist-only radio station to music licensing services through Universal Music Group to offering seminars such as "How To Outsell A Major Without A Label". [...]

Brands like American Apparel can drive popularity among "urban cognoscenti" with shock and awe marketing, but that doesn't necessarily create sales. So while the apparel industry struggles for micro-upticks in sales, how can retail brands utilize social media effectively?

Apple's debut of Ping is the right move at the right time for social media regardless of what company you are. Social media will spread out and allow different brands. Facebook will be the WalMart of the category, which is great for them but also leaves a lot of room for innovation and specialization. Kind of like Prince sang back in the day: “You can be the president; I’d rather be the Pope.”

In the past few weeks, we've seen a number of social gaming mergers and acquisitions. Most recently it was Google's acquisition of Social Deck, a cross-platform game developer. Now, there are hints that even Apple has a social gaming platform in the works. Big news for Facebook and various social gaming startups -- but what does it mean for brands?

The “gray wave” is hitting social media. While most companies are approaching social networks with Millennials in mind, older consumers have doubled their use of social media over the past year, according to Pew Internet research. Although email continues to be the primary way that older users maintain contact with their professional and personal networks, almost half (47%) of Internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.

Social media is being used more aggressively as a channel to increase customer loyalty, according to a new survey from the DMA and loyalty strategy publication Colloquy. In fact the survey shows that companies that use social media primarily to deepen customer loyalty spend almost twice as much as competitors who use it for brand awareness, customer acquisition and other core marketing purposes.

A few years ago, hotels were slow to adopt social media as a legitimate marketing strategy. For one, most patrons shop according to price -- so, no matter how "hip" a hotel is, an $80 per night client won't buy a $800 hotel room -- regardless of what's been tweeted about it. But now hotel marketers know that their customers will inevitably be chatting, emailing and reading reviews online, so they've made social media an integral part of the marketing mix.

As August winds down, so does National Breastfeeding Month. That fact may spur some wiseguy comments from the peanut gallery but it is a serious and passionate issue for many women and the subject of an innovative new digital marketing effort form Evenflo. Evenflo’s subsidiary Ameda, which makes breast milk pumps and accessories, has capitalized on the passion and information need around breastfeeding with a social media campaign that started at the beginning of August, called “I Breastfeed Because. [...]

David de Rothschild's Adventure Ecology engaged a global audience of environmentally-aware fans by connecting them to boat made of plastic bottles as it sailed the Pacific Ocean. The company also attracted big brands like Kiehl's and HP along the way. Read on for insights into the social media strategy that tied it all together.

A new report from King Fish Media sheds some light on how social media is being managed within companies and within budgets. While it shows spending on social media will increase over the next year as three quarters of all companies are planning to increase social marketing investment, it also shows that the social budgets are split with a third tying it to a specific custom media project and another third adding an incremental increase to their marketing budget. More than 20% are reallocating money from advertising or other mainstream marketing tactics as customers migrate to social media platforms. [...]

Facebook Places debuted to a typical hoot and holler reaction yesterday. The hollers came from the millions of Facebook users that wanted the geo-location applications that Foursquare and others have made so popular. The hoots came from privacy advocacy groups, with the California ACLU posting an informal complaint on its website.

More BtoB applications are emerging for social media. A new CareerBuilder survey reports that 35% of employers use social media to promote their company. One-quarter (25%) of these employers said that they are using social media to connect with clients and find new business. Others use it to recruit and research potential employees (21%), or strengthen their employment brands (13%).

Virtual goods revenues are playing a major role in the growth of gaming apps and social games. At Monday’s DIGIDAY: Apps conference in New York, several speakers said that the surge in virtual goods expenditures in the social gaming space is in large part due to greater education of users about virtual goods through social networks.

Social media needs to be more closely tied to customer strategy. That’s the point of a new book that urges marketers to look beyond the face value of followers and fans as the social networks get bigger and more sophisticated. In How to Make Money with Social Media: An Insider’s Guide on Using New and Emerging Media to Grow Your Business from Reshma Shah, assistant professor in the practice of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, and co-author Jamie Turner encourage marketers to think tactically about their goals and outcomes. [...]

You've just responded to an email about a summer birthday party for a friend's young daughter, and you recklessly mention the weather being "hot." Next thing you know, there are banner ads for dating sites clogging your email sidebar, featuring "hot and naughty party clowns" and "hot local girls ready to party- with YOU!" Solariat CTO Jeffrey Davits explains why many display and contextual ad systems in email and forums have "no respect" for the rules of conversation.

Virtual goods are a multi-billion dollar industry in Asia -- and especially China -- and the U.S. is still playing catch-up. One big advantage U.S. companies have is that the global virtual goods market hasn't really been cracked by brands, meaning there's a huge opportunity for game developers and brands to generate revenue and consumer loyalty by offering users branded virtual goods. Data from Viximo and Virtual Greats shows just how lucrative the opportunity could be.

Clearspring's most widely used widget, AddThis, gives rise to an audience targeting network where not just content, but influence matters.

Gannett-owned ShopLocal has a new marketing suite that allows retailers to spread local FSIs and other ads into Facebook fan pages. The suite comprises a Deals Tab, Deals Widgets and targeted ads, so that when visiting a fan page, the most relevant and personalized circular offering is shown based on user location and demographic data. According to Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal, 49 percent of visitors to corporate fan pages are seeking information on sales and special offers. Another 45 percent come to learn about products. [...]

Communication, rather than gathering information, has now become the dominant consumer activity on the Internet. A new survey from Nielsen shows that Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent just a year ago (a 43 percent increase). Americans now spend a third their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. That means 40 percent of online time is spent on just three activities – social networking, playing games and emailing. [...]

It doesn’t take long to figure out that Fabulis is a company of a different stripe. It bills itself as the “leading gay men’s social network,” calls its members “fabbits” just because it sounds cool, and when it introduced its new iPhone app last week CEO Jason Goldberg told the press that it “is like carrying the big gay world around in your pocket.” However, there’s a lot to be serious about at Fabulis. It has grown at as rate of ten percent over the past week alone. And the partners lining up to work with it include American Airlines, American Express, Netflix, Sony Music, and Warner Brothers. [...]

Ask.com returns to its roots of providing answers to users' questions by launching a new community of people it knows have the answers. The company has trained its proprietary technology not just on finding and compiling the questions and answers the Web has already provided, but in routing new questions to the most authoritative source to delight its consumers. In this process, it surmises, lies a multi-billion-dollar business.

In this installment of The SAMMY Files, we profile the winners of the 2009 SAMMY Award for Social Good: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (under the Katalyst Films banner), who teamed up with Kellogg's Cares to help feed hungry Americans. Click through to find out more about the campaign, watch the video and see why our judges gave them the award!

Facebook is the most popular site in the country. And yet, when compared to 30 other prominent sites -- including Microsoft's Bing, YouTube and even IRS.gov -- the network came up almost last in terms of customer satisfaction. Survey results from ForeSee reveal the factors that could ultimately drive users (and advertisers) toward alternative social media platforms.

What makes some of the top execs at leading digital marketing and publishing companies tick? Want to learn from their past successes (and sometimes failures)? Then dig in to our Five Questions column. This week, we chat with John Donahue, the new CTO of social media insights company BuzzLogic. Donahue recently joined BuzzLogic from OMG, where he was the global head of business intelligence, technology and data.

Arguably no generation in history has been analyzed more than the Millennials. Call them the “echo boomers” or GenY, the children of baby boomers are 60 million strong and most importantly are having their own children. They grew up digital. You can find hundreds of reports on how to manage them, sell them, and market them. But when Evenflo wanted to reach them, it found one attitude among Millennials more important than any tangible data point.

A new campaign from Hyatt Resorts blends user-generated content (UGC) on Facebook with real-world rewards, in an attempt to lure non-Facebook users into becoming fans. But will it ultimately be a boon for the brand?

BroadVision wants to the Facebook for BtoB social networking. This morning the former Internet infrastructure company will launch a new offering, Clearvale Nations, which it has designed for businesses to migrate existing social network communities, or create new ones, to its new platform.

The email campaign is going social. Several email providers and digital strategy companies are finding ways to connect emails with social networks. In the process, it is taking one of the most direct methods for customer communication and digital marketing into a new realm.

NetBase’s flagship product, ConsumerBase, gives marketers the ability to measure the consumer passion expressed on social media networks, general Internet content, and internal company reports. It already counts among its customers five of the top 10 CPG brands and in the last month of limited release, has added numerous brand-name customers, including several more Top 50 consumer brands. Last week it launched a product called the Brand Passion Index, which takes that data and measures the intensity of consumer passion for brands expressed in social media using a proprietary semantic analysis tool. [...]

AddThis, the unobtrusive yet apparently hyper-magnetic sharing widget that allows users to email news stories and post to scores of other sites, has grown so prevalent online that it has now decided to share its sharing protocol with the world. OExchage (http://oexchange.org), establishes a common way for services like Google Buzz, Instapaper, Posterous, and others to receive and post shared content around a number of third-party sharing tools, all the while preserving users’ sharing preferences. [...]

For this week's video, we thought it would be an appropriate time to share Kerin Lanyl's presentation at DIGIDAY:VIDEOUPFRONT LA last month. The Director of Business Development at RockYou shared a spotlight presentation talking about targeting and social media marketing with online video. The session covered targeting via destination sites, the overall social effect brands can achieve by leveraging video across social networks, and examples of how RockYou has built games reaching up to 50 million users. [...]

Charlene Li talks about her new book, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, which launched Monday and instantly rocketed to #5 on the Amazon business books best-seller list. What's the future of Facebook? How do you measure social ROI? Who's her pick as top transformational leader in marketing? Read on.

More than 80 percent of news that’s shared in the blogosphere and on social sites derives from a handful of news sites – the BBC, CNN, NYTimes.com and the Washington Post – reports Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism annual tracking study. In fact, more than 99 percent of news-related stories linked from blogs came from “legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks.” While the bragging rights aren't chopped liver, we're left to wonder what such traffic is truly worth. [...]

Twitter rolled out its long-awaited business model -- "promoted" tweets that show up in search results -- just a month ago. But dozens of startups had already figured out how to make money by inserting various kinds of ads into and around the tweet stream. No more. The company issued a manifesto outlining how and why it plans to build out its own ad network today -- including forbidding third-party developers from plugging ads directly into tweets.

While its largest practitioner deals with mass exodus due to privacy issues, new research launched today shows that consumers believe social networks provide a higher value experience compared with other forms of entertainment. Edelman's fourth annual Trust in the Entertainment Industry survey also reveals that the Internet, as a source of entertainment, is second only to television.

Social gamer Playdom has inked a two-year deal with ESPN to develop, promote and distribute ESPN-branded sports games across multiple social networks. ESPN has had plenty of success in the console and casual games space, but this first real foray into social gaming highlights just how quickly these kinds of games -- and companies -- are transforming media consumption and monetization overall.

There are thousands of apps in the App Store, Android Market and BlackBerry App World -- but not all of them are worth your time or money. So how do you cut through the clutter? Every Tuesday, digiday:DAILY gives you the rundown on the app that should be on your radar. This week's app: SocialScope.

As founder and president of Access360 Media, Roman Tsunder certainly has is hands full connecting brands like Honda and Wrigley through digital and non-traditional media. The company owns and operates three divisions – Mallvision360 Digital, Arena Media Networks, and Mobile360. He has also been the driving force behind the PTTOW! Youth marketing summit that recently gathered an all-star roster of marketers from Twitter to Coca-Cola that showed the youth market is important to 69 percent of all marketers. [...]

IBM's new data mining and text analytics software allows users to monitor changes in consumer, constituent and employee attitudes, uncover deeper insights, and then predict key factors that will drive future customer acquisition and retention campaigns. For example, companies can now extract sentiment from the use of emoticons and slang terminology that people often use in describing their view toward a product or service.

Social media measurement continues to command attention from solution providers. Last week Meteor Solutions announced the release of its Meteor Online Influencer Map, which displays in real-time how specific users spread content across the Web. CEO Ben Straley expects clients to use the new solution to determine that it's not the size of the community that a brand generates, but the strength of the relationship formed with individual users that matters.

Privacy issues on social media may be costing consumers big money. According to Consumer Reports latest State of the Net survey, in the past year 52% of adult social network users have posted personal information which can increase their risk of becoming a victim of cybercrime.The report also estimates that Americans have lost $4.5 billion over the past two years and including replacing 2.1 million computers compromised by malware.

Arbitron/Edison Research revealed that 87% of Americans are now aware of Twitter, up from 24% in 2009 and just 5% when the question was first asked, in 2008. But in looking at how many Americans are active users of Twitter -- defined as using the service at least once a month -- that figure came in at 7%, or about 17 million people, up from 2% in 2009.

A new report from Ground Truth shows that the larger population is using mobile phones to access social networks. “The mobile Internet may be just as reliant on social networks as it is on the mobile data network itself,” says the report from the mobile measurement firm. It says that social networking activity comprises more than half of the time spent on the mobile Internet.

There are thousands of apps in the App Store, Android Market and BlackBerry App World -- but not all of them are worth your time or money. So how do you cut through the clutter? Every Tuesday, digiday:DAILY gives you the rundown on the app that should be on your radar. This week's app: Twitter for BlackBerry.

What makes some of the top execs at leading digital marketing and publishing companies tick? Want to learn from their past successes (and sometimes failures)? Then dig in to our Five Questions column. This week, we chat with Nabeel Hyatt, CEO of social and music-gaming company Conduit Labs about the startup's new deal with Universal Music Group, and the fate of digital music companies overall.

Movie studios and TV networks are creating social experiences that help them discover who their biggest fans are, as well as how they can get them into the theater or piled up in the living room. From Facebook pages and Twitter acccounts run by characters, to apps that give fans behind-the-scenes video clips, these experiences are a way for content creators and marketers to get people engaged enough that they'll invite others along for the ride. The following movie moguls explored their plans for entertainment on various social networks, and how they fit into long-term marketing efforts. [...]

What makes some of the top execs at leading digital marketing and publishing companies tick? Want to learn from their past successes (and sometimes failures)? Then dig in to our Five Questions column. This week, we ask David Reis, CEO of DEI Worldwide, about how the process of working with Kraft on social media efforts has evolved over the past three years.

Four leading brand marketers joined FOCi Group during the Brand Innovators Panel at digiday:SOCIAL in LA. Execs from The Dial Corporation, Mattel, POM Wonderful and Publishers Clearing House were candid about their strategies, challenges and successes in utilizing social media within their marketing mix. We plan to recap the panel of highlights in a series of four columns. Today's insight: How POM Wonderful Tracked Blogger Outreach to a Clearly-Defined ROI

Four leading brand marketers joined FOCi Group during the Brand Innovators Panel at digiday:SOCIAL in LA. Execs from The Dial Corporation, Mattel, POM Wonderful and Publishers Clearing House were candid about their strategies, challenges and successes in utilizing social media within their marketing mix. We plan to recap the panel of highlights in a series of four columns. Today's insight: How Mattel Built Social Media Success for Barbie's 50th Birthday.

Built on Facebook, the new “Moments to Share” will enable parents to record their child’s milestones and special moments in a dynamic timeline created with digital photos, videos, dates, captions and stories.

PBS will be the first time a major broadcaster to introduce a full-length documentary on the site on April 11. It will use a new “social screening application” created by Brand Networks, with a customized video player, integrated with a proprietary poll system and Facebook’s comment box.

It's not a popularity contest. Social-media marketers need to define the value of a user beyond simply the number of friends or fans in order to measure value and estimate marketing budgets. The message came from executives with Facebook, Razorfish and Forrester Research at digiday:Social LA.

Digital and social media measurements provided an interesting counterpoint to Hollywood’s big night. What the Academy says and what the people say are very far apart.

OK Go teamed up with State Farm for a groundbreaking viral music video, but will its nearly two million views translate into a boost in State Farm's brand equity? And what does OK Go's digital premiere -- since it didn't roll out the first video from its new album on TV -- reveal about the power of online video for other music artists?

What makes some of the top execs at leading digital marketing and publishing companies tick? Want to learn from their past successes (and sometimes failures)? Then dig in to our Five Questions column. This week, we ask Sean Krankel, newly-appointed Creative Director, Digital, at Midnight Oil Creative, about setting clear goals for social media campaigns, as well as the components of a great ARG.

Facebook is now the second-most heavily trafficked website in the U.S., garnering more than 134 million unique visitors this past January. So how does a niche social network stay relevant--and in the black? While MySpace struggles to evolve into a content hub and Hi5 focuses on virtual goods, Classmates.com will pin its hopes on "premium" services like digitized yearbooks and reunion-planning.

Those E*Trade babies will be back and all over your email, social media and online pages.

Pew Internet clocks teen Twitter usage at eight percent of total audience, which makes it about as common among teens as visiting a virtual world, and far less common than sending or receiving text messages as 66% of teens do,

As more brands embrace social media, measurement companies are finding ways to quantify those efforts. Dynamic Logic announced today a new strategic partnership with Kantar sister-company Cymfony, that will integrate analysis of the millions of discussions occurring everyday on social media sites, blogs and message forums into their established suite of digital, media and marketing solutions. The partnership offers marketers research techniques for a more complete view of brand performance from the perspective of the consumer. [...]

Das Auto is representing Deutschland at the Uber Bowl, but don't take its first appearance as a lack of online commitment. Volkswagen of America, Inc. announced today it will premiere a 30-second spot during the 3rd quarter of Super Bowl XLIV. The spot will debut a new approach to the Das Auto tagline and positioning, and is the first step in a much larger multi-faceted campaign to increase model awareness and familiarity by reminding consumers of all the new Volkswagen products on the road. Immediately following the Super Bowl, Volkswagen will kick off a two-month campaign that will run extensively throughout February and March to support its national sales event. [...]

As a traditional, innovative American Midwest manufacturer, 3M is known for being progressive in product development. After all, it invented the ultimately practical scotch tape, post-its, and protective cleaning products. But it is not exactly a marketing early adopter. So when 3M announced it would get into the once airy world of digital goods, the event was a sort of validation for the tactic. “I think 3M getting into this was a big deal because it shows how smart they are as a company and also shows that digital goods can be a good reason to engage with a brand beyond what we would consider standard reasons,” says AdNectar marketing VP Paul Martecchini, whose company helped 3M design and execute a DG campaign around a product called Privacy Filters. [...]

Check that perception of Facebook as a white and Asian dominated network. A Facebook blog reported Wednesday that blacks and Latinos have joined the social networking giant at a rapid clip in the past several years. Facebook researchers found that about 11 percent of the social network's approximately 100 million U.S. members were African-American, about 9 percent were Latino and 6 percent were Asian, a much higher share for blacks and Latinos than four years ago.

It’s a mad marketing world— how’s a marketer to wade through the insanity and find quality placement—and the right audience? How do brands find the right mix online, allowing their creative to run where its best placed but where brand integrity can be maintained? In this confusing setting is it every brand for itself? Who’s really protecting the brand? The Brand Protectors addressed this and more when they assembled at the W at Union Square this morning to hash out brand safety. And who better to discuss the theme than Louis Giagrande, Senior Manager of Online Marketing at Samsung Electronics America and Griff Long, Senior Director of Global Carsharing at Connect by Hertz? Joining Hertz and Samsung were technologists Helene Monat, President of AdSafe Media and Kirby Winfield, Chief Revenue Officer, Mpire and Andrew Marc Goldman, SVP of Strategy and Integration at agency RAPP. [...]

AdMeld is going mobile. The ad network optimization company is adding to its online publishing solution by integrating support for mobile ad inventory. The solution applies AdMeld’s real time revenue maximization technology to the mobile space, offering premium publishers a single platform for optimizing their ad inventory across multiple channels and through dozens of demand sources. Currently undergoing beta testing, the combined product will be available to select AdMeld customers in Q1 of 2010. [...]

The DPAC AWARDS will honor the winners and finalists at The DPAC Awards Gala on 12/8 at The W Hotel Union Square, New York. The DPAC Awards judging committee has selected the finalists and winners for the awards in each category, as well as the Best in Show. This is your chance to network and congratulate the winners and finalists like American Express * IBM * Walmart * Intel Corp * The Coca-Cola Company * Visa * Publicis Modem * Subway * New Balance * Initiative * 20th Century Fox * Cadbury/ Trident * Ogilvy * Kia Soul * Oakley * PGA Tour. [...]

DM2 Events is finishing 2009 with a triple-threat event package during the month of December. In addition to the company’s second digiday:TARGET event on December 8, with the DPAC Awards to follow, DM2 is holding its first-ever Los Angeles digiday:APPS conference on December 10. “A lot of event companies treat LA as if it’s a secondary market for thought leaders and digital advertising activity,” says DM2 Founder Nick Friese. “We disagree strongly. We’ve had multiple DIGIDAY events in New York, but with digiday:APPS and we’re putting our money where our mouth is. [...]

There's just one more thing you need to read about the Twilight/New Moon movies. One of the more interesting uses of social media and entertainment marketing comes from a company called Fizziolo.gy, which measures volume and sentiment of entertainment-related chatter on Twitter, Facebook, blogs and more. It has been tracking New Moon chatter for months, shared its "Team” results after 7 weeks of Twilight-related tracking with digiday. The first analysis is simple – Edward or Jacob? Which name is mentioned in social media more? And in this, Team Edward wins easily (58% to 42%). [...]

Last week's FDA hearings on pharmaceutical advertising and digital activity look like a tie game, but other companies are moving forward. Human Genome Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline said online communication will play a key role in the upcoming launch of lupus drug Benlysta. The companies are considering various web channels, from advocacy groups to social media. With clinical trials over, executives from developing lab Human Genome said they intend to file with FDA early next year. The agency could grant priority review and approve in the second half of 2010, at the earliest. [...]

One of the promises of social media is to create communities of like interests. One of the more intriguing examples of this promise in action, and a solid example of maintaining social media integrity, can be seen at cinema content and social site The Auteurs.com. At Auteurs the motto is "Popular doesn’t always mean good." Its streaming content model allows it to make available the most obscure art films and classic masterpieces. As co-founder Efe Cakarel says "it's also about discussing and sharing these discoveries, which makes us like a small coffee shop—… a place where you can gather and talk about alternative endings, directors’ cuts, and whatever those frogs in Magnolia meant. [...]

Yesterday did more than renew the industry’s hopes for M&A resurgence. And it did more than make a healthy handful of future millionaires. To be frank, Google’s $750 million purchase of mobile ad net AdMob and Electronic Arts' multi-million dollar acquisition ($275 million up front and $100 million in earn-out) of social gaming firm Playfish proved industry confidence in previously "emerging" or "unproven" markets. Plenty has been said about the Google / AdMob deal and what it means to mobile; what does EA’s big move tell us? For one, EA's purchase of Playfish is a sign that social gaming is here to stay. [...]

We won't tell you how this one ends. But MyRomanceStory, an imprint of Arrow Publications, reports a 40-percent increase in romance graphic novel App book sales from July to August, 2009, and a nearly 200- percent increase from August to October 2009, after Apple put into effect its parental controls ratings. Novels with mature romantic content have historically exhibited strong ebook sales. Now that they are portable this can only increase their reach to an audience that spends more and more time reading on portable platforms. [...]

Content monetization solutions are coming to ecommerce. Evidence can be seen in today's announcement that ShopWiki and DigiPowers will team up to provide a new vertical product search tool for web publishers of consumer interest content sites. A statement from the two companies claims that the new tool will build on DigiPowers' technology and allow the ShopWiki product search engine to be embedded into third-party web sites, extending the consumer reach of ShopWiki's product database to highly targeted consumer audiences. [...]

Lifetime Digital is ramping up it's social commitment to moms. Today the company announced the re-launch of MothersClick.com and the debut of LifetimeMoms.com, two major initiatives to "strengthen Lifetime Networks' bond with mothers by creating communities to connect with others like them." MothersClick.com is the first digital acquisition by Lifetime Networks, and features a dynamic conversation engine that empowers women to easily find discussion topics by keywords and to engage with other moms across thousands of subjects. [...]

Facebook keeps running away with social media market share. Experian Hitwise announced today that Facebook accounted for 58.59 percent of all U.S. visits out of 155 social networking Web sites in September 2009. The 58 percent was the highest among all social networking sites sites, as U.S. visits to Facebook increased 194 percent in September 2009 compared with September 2008. MySpace received the second-highest market share of U.S. visits for the month, with 30 percent. Tagged received 2.38 percent of visits in September 2009, the third-largest amount. [...]

Meet the professional blogger. Today's installment of Technorati's State of the Blogosphere report shows thata minority of professional bloggers are making more money than ever. Bloggers can collect ad revenues related to their blogs. But they are also making money by parlaying the popularity of their blogs into speaking engagements, traditional media assignments, and running conferences. Among those who make money from blogging, 54 percent are part-timers, 32 percent are self-employed, and 14 percent work for corporations. [...]

Like the baseball playoffs it plays out over about a week on late October. This, however, is Technorati's State of the Blogoshere Report. In today's installment the company reported that 72 percent of bloggers call themselves hobbyists. About 9 percent of bloggers are self-employed, and of that group, about 22 percent say their business is their blog. Some 10 percent of the professional bloggers say that they blog more than 40 hours a week. And among professional bloggers, 40 percent said they worked in traditional media. [...]

Don’t ever tell Peter Daboll that it’s just a game. The CEO of marketing technology innovator Bunchball has taken gaming to a new level for brands and content owners, counting a big win last week with the SyFy Channel to add to a list of clients that have made 2009 a very good year. “We are having a direct effect on viewer’s behavior and giving them a reason to return to the website that they might not have revisited,” says Daboll. “We’re seeing ad responses for our solution that I have never seen before. [...]

Mark Nov. 9 on the calendar. It has all the makings of a watershed day for digital content, copyright, and the monetization of intellectual capital. On that day the parties to a Google book settlement that would allow the creation of a vast digital library outlined on Wednesday an aggressive timeline for modifying the agreement to satisfy objections from the Justice Department and others. According to The New York Times, after a hearing in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday morning, Judge Denny Chin set Nov. [...]

Even music executives are turning to mobile apps as a way to pay for content. Fierce Wireless, reporting from San Diego’s Mobile Entertainment Live! Conference, quotes several executives as still frustrated with overall business, but remain high on the possibilities of next-generation mobile applications. "Mobile creates a connection between artists and fans like never before," said Ted Mico, EVP of digital with Interscope Records. TicketMaster VP of marketing and music, Adam Flick, agreed: "Connectivity has never been higher. [...]

Today the game is officially on between AT&T and Verizon. Google announced that Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest carrier, will offer handsets with the Android operating system. That leaves AT&T as the only carrier without an Android commitment, which is probably a key element of its commitment to that other wireless product. The New York Times reports that Verizon expects to introduce two Android phones this year. It didn’t name the manufacturers, but one is expected to be made by Motorola. [...]

Not a big shock, but a big development for mobile content today as Google releases AdSense for high-end mobile phones. Just as it does via online search, AdSense mobile enables advertisers to places ads beside content that is browsed on smartphones. VentureBeat calls it “a move that further highlights the search engine giant’s strategy for mobile: It wants to target high-end mobile users.It’s also significant in that it makes development of applications and content for smartphones so much more appealing. [...]

Google Mobile made a subtle announcement today about its “redesigned local search experience” that integrates with Google Maps on your computer and includes browseable categories that let you search without typing. It was announced by Joshua Siegel, Product Manager, Mobile Local Search Team on his blog. In it he described a recent vacation to Hawaii. “Before I left, I researched places to visit on Google Maps. I signed in to my Google account and starred the places I wanted to go,” he writes. [...]

The Business Week drama continues today with several sources reporting that Bloomberg appears to be in the lead, according to pieces from Reuters and BW. By this time next week we should know who the new owner is, and most likely we’ll know more abut staffing and content plans. A decision could come as early as next week. Reports also say that even a winning bid might not represent a done deal, because of the volatility still inherent in the financial markets and the possibility that a late entry might steal the deal. [...]

CNN Breaks iPhone App … Madonna Comes Back to YouTube … Mobile Phone Apps Improve Overseas Healthcare … Obama Warns Kids On Facebook … Experian Predicts Online Holiday Trends …

Signs of the App Apocalypse (or is that appocalypse?): LifeInsuranceAgency.com, an online insurance broker, introduced its new iPhone app this week called LifeValue. LifeValue is a free iPhone application that helps people answer the at-times confusing question: What is the value of their life? LifeValue calculates the financial value of one's life and leaves the philosophical questions to be answered by philosophers. And of course, LifeValue also serves as a quote finder that can be used right on the iPhone. [...]

The Buzz on Twitter and Crowdsourcing…How Mobile Phones Can Change the World…Smartphone Social Use Triples…WSJ Confirms Paid Mobile Plan…Positive Vibes For Web Ads

The FTC announced yesterday that it will hold public hearings that will move the agency toward issuing guidelines for pharmaceutical companies that have so far shied away from social media. Pharmaceuticals, in their defense, have had every reason to shy away from social media, and that needs to change. It needs to change not for the pharmacos, and not for the sake of social media as a marketing platform, although that will dominate a lot of the coverage on this issue. It must change for the sake of the customers of these companies that currently have minimal access to the people who make the drugs that affect their lives. [...]

Last week John Gaffney wrote about the sheer amount of people on the panels and the amount of ideas flowing through the rooms during digiday:MOBILE/SOCIAL. It was especially interesting when John shared how a social media expert emailed him during the event to say, “my head is spinning.” Some of the panels and presentations during the Ad Week festivities might not have been as advanced as the content from digiday last week; however, it seems to take a lot less to spin the heads of most marketers. [...]

With a category as fluid as social media it’s tough enough to craft an overall strategy. But finding specific customer segments and understanding their behavior may be a discipline whose time has come. One new research study, for example, has found that Hispanics are a complex and frequent user group that will require a closer look when it comes to social media. “Marketers tend to be short-sighted when marketing to Hispanics, especially when social media is concerned,” says Katherine O'Hara co-founded S3, a New Jersey-based marketing agency. [...]

Facebook’s Beacon nightmare is coming to a close. On Friday the social net settled a year-long class action lawsuit related to the Beacon ad system, which launched in fall of 2007. The suit alleged that Facebook and its Beacon affiliates were in violation of the California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and other cyber privacy laws. PC World's Juan Carlos Perez notes, “Intended as a key piece of Facebook's "social ads" strategy, Beacon was designed to broadcast back to their friends the actions that Facebook members took on participating Web sites… The idea was that these notifications would act as a new form of "social" advertising, because they amount to endorsements of products made by trusted friends. [...]

I’m biased, I know. But the coolest thing about the digiday event structure is the sheer amount of people on the panels and the amount of ideas flowing through the rooms. One attendee emailed me Thursday afternoon to say, “my head is spinning.” And this is an expert in social media who has worked with several major brands. I had to play a little catch up with myself after it was all over, so forgive the somewhat random observations here: • There is a huge gulf of creativity and effectiveness in the mobile space between campaigns that work and campaigns that don’t. [...]

We are awash in social marketing data. So why is measurement so hard?! Here are Digiday SOCIAL only about a third of the audience say they are actually measuring their social programs.

Retailers are being advised to reach their most influential customer group through social media. According to a new Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey conducted by BIGresearch, Women with children at home are more likely to use Facebook (60.3%), MySpace (42.4%) and Twitter (16.5%) than average adults (50.2%, 34.4%, 15.0%, respectively), according to the survey. Additionally, 15.3 percent maintain their own blog. “Retailers who aren’t engaging customers through social media could be missing the boat,” said Mike Gatti, Executive Director for RAMA. [...]

Join Us for digiday:SOCIAL on September 17th, 2009 in New York City as top marketers from Coca-Cola, LiveStrong.org, Tyson, and more will share their Social Media Marketing success strategies! At digiday:SOCIAL You'll Learn - Can Social Media Scale For a Mass Market Brand? Entertainment Marketing's Success with Social How to Make Sense of Social Data Eye Popping Social Media Marketing Case Studies How Brands Become Connectors on the Social Web And so much more! Register Today - www. [...]

The world of three screens may be big enough for everyone. A new study from Nielsen has found that among consumers that use TV, Internet and mobile frequently, media consumption has actually increased. One screen has not cannibalized the time of the other. “Each of the three screens has its benefits and people are using them as complements, not as substitutes, for one another,” says Jim O’Hara, President, Media Product Leadership, The Nielsen Company, author of Multitasking at Home. “With respect to TV and Internet usage, we found that a fair number of people are doing both simultaneously, though in relatively small increments per day – an average of ten minutes per day per person. [...]

You quit work for the day, kick back, shake a martini, check in with the kids, and check in with Facebook. Social media is apparently part of a trend of using the Internet as a diversion like music or TV, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. The center created what it calls a segment of online economic users. This represents 88 of the entire Internet user population who use the Internet to keep up with news about the economic recession or their own personal finances. [...]

Many large brands have begun questioning the ability of their agencies of record to handle the rampant emergence of technology and new media resources. This reaction is causing huge concern with marketers about what type of relationship they should have with their agencies going forward in the digital age. Marketers are realizing that digital is a technologically driven sector and they need an alternative support group to help them achieve success in this new world. Advertising agencies and marketing services companies provide critical roles from generating the next big ideas, developing creative and executing across traditional programming areas. [...]

If only Joe Wilson would have behaved, if he could have been professional, if he could have kept “you lie” for his Twitter account rather than his verbal assault rifle, last night’s speech on health care it would have been a perfect opportunity to gauge social media’s metamorphosis. As it happened, I think it’s a reasonable conclusion to day that the ability to blog, share, tweet, retweet and Facebook this issue raised the level of debate considerably. But Wilson’s comment made it tough to see. [...]

When social gaming companies go to war is it a virtual war? Social gaming giant Zynga has filed suit against rival platform Playdom in California state court. This is Zynga’s second suit against Playdom, and a more significant case, involving multiple defendants including numerous ex-Zynga staffers who have since joined Playdom. Did I mention these folks may have stolen secret documents when they left Zynga? It's all very sordid, and given the big business social gaming has become, it's likely to result in a protracted legal battle. [...]

Facebook has debuted its much-anticipated Facebook for Android application. Google engineers offered Facebook developers a hand in the creation of the client— the collaboration seemed to suggest a thaw in the frosty relations between Zuckerberg’s social net and Big G. The app is available for free in the Android Market and offers many but not all of the features of Facebook’s iPhone client. AndroidGuys covered the app's debut, admitting: “We’ve haven’t had a chance to play with it just yet, but one of our tipsters tells us users can shake to refresh. [...]

This will be a big week for social media content. In fact, if Michael Jackson didn’t die, it would be the biggest week ever. It will not be the biggest week because every one that took a stroll by the beach will need to report what they did on the last week of their summer vacation. It will be the biggest week because there is a very thick issue on the table-- and a social media superstar is weighing in on it. Barack Obama, at 6.6 million friends, is in fact the highest-ranking live person on Facebook, still beating out Vin Diesel and Megan Fox. [...]

As summer hangs on and the working world starts to pick up the pace again, I saw a convenient number (three) things that brought the season to an interesting close: One: I thought Time.com’s co-branded strategy for social media was more innovation than I’ve seen from that company in a long time. To summarize, Siemens will be is the first advertiser to participate in the experimental “Stay Connected” program, which includes placement on the company’s social media outposts on those sites. [...]

Twitter is bringing former Google executive and Feedburner founder Dick Costolo onto the nest to serve as Chief Operating Officer. Costolo departed Team Google in July for an undisclosed opportunity. When he left Google, most mused the serial entrepreneur would launch his own venture but as TechCrunch Michael Arrington points out, that was before “Twitter swooped in and grabbed him.” The move is definitely a case of six degrees no longer separated. Union Square Ventures, a key investor in Twitter, also originally funded Feedburner before it was acquired by Google in 2007. [...]

Robert Scoble is a big fan of Twitter, make no mistake about it. The Web personality and technology guru blogged over the weekend, sharing his thoughts about Twitter, which can be summed up with his post’s title: “why Twitter is underhyped and is probably worth five to 10 billion dollars.” His attention-grabbing (and traffic-driving) headline hammers his POV home, but the full post is worth a look-see. His points include this bold (if unsupported) statement: “Twitter has taken over the business world and this should be very worrying for other companies like Google, Yelp, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo and others. [...]

When it comes to social media content, grownups are playing in the kids’ sandbox, according to a report released last week by Burst Media. Even though baby boomers (ages 49-66) make up more than 25 % of all US Internet users, and even though the majority of this group spends over five hour per week online, Burst found that only 14 % of boomers feel that the content on the Internet is focused on people their age. An even smaller number of boomers (9.9%) think that Internet advertising is focused on their demographic. [...]

Twitter may not have raised much (any?) revenue yet, but the company has plans to generate as much as $140 million in rev this year. That’s a big nut to crack, but Twitter has plans in the works for various paid services that should help chip away at that number. One way Twitter plans to generate cash: premium, paid accounts. So now for the $140 million question: why would anyone pay for a premium account when the basic Twitter service works just fine, for free? Paid Content’s Tameka Kee explains, “The accounts will include detailed analytics and ID verification (so that businesses don’t have to worry about having their brands hijacked by impostors). [...]

Since the Apple app store's debut just over a year ago the mobile applications space has exploded. By the close of 2008 the store's inventory passed the 10,000 app mark; by this June, that number had surged to 50,000 apps. Now, just two months later, some 60,000 applications are available for iPhone and iPod touch. With the apps-madness showing no signs of slowing, Alex Ahlund, founder of AppVee, asks an astute question in his TechCrunch guest column: “We are looking at a staggering 300 new applications being released every single day. [...]

Twitter has a growing spam problem. While it’s not yet paralyzing the microblogging service, spam on Twitter is definitely on the rise. Research firm Pear Analytics took a closer look-- and found that some 3.75% of all tweets are outright spam. That number doesn’t exactly make Twitter Spamalot. For instance, that's nowhere near email’s spam-load (Pear found 90% of all email messages sent in May were spam). But consider how new Twitter is, and then ponder some of the other data Pear provided: the firm found 6% of tweets are overtly promotional; another 40% "pointless babble; 37% “conversational;” and only around 8. [...]

VC Fred Wilson is a fan of Foursquare and he’s not afraid to admit it. Rumors have been flying that the notable venture capitalist is eying the application company. Now Fred seems to be backing those rumors up by commenting about the app across the web: on his blog, A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC and quipping on Foursquare's founder’s Flickr account. Okay. So, Fred Wilson likes Foursquare—what exactly is it? Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson describes it as an “iPhone app that lets users "check-in" to restaurants and bars and let all their friends know where they're hanging out. [...]

By Steve Ellwanger When asked to write this article about apps, my initial thoughts were a) this editor has lost it, and b) she likes to frustrate the elderly (I’ll be 55 next month). I agreed to do it because I am in the PR biz and therefore supposed to be hip to the latest ways to communicate and commercialize via mobile devices and social networks. Or at least appear to be. One of my clients recently informed me of its desire to go on Twitter. My mental response: Good luck with that. My verbal reply: “That might be a very wise strategic and tactical move. [...]

Google's opinion aside, apps won't be displaced any time soon by the mobile Web, speakers at digiday:APPS argued.

How will being 'open' allows for community driven applications?

digiday:APPS has the leaders in the APPS space coming together on August 12th in New York to share their expertise, vision and insights on the now, and the future of advertising on APPS! We have the creators of the #1 Facebook, #1 Mobile, #1 Women's Social App, #1 Branded App, and more who will share their secrets of APPS success with you...and your colleagues too! Plus, you'll hear from industry visionary Jason McCabe Calacanis during his keynote presentation titled - The 10 Best Apps That Haven't Been Built Yet (and assorted observations and insights into the APPconomy) [...]

The Wall Street Journal’s first attempt at social, WSJ Community, never gained traction—but that hasn’t scared it away from the social space. In fact, WSJ is getting ready to roll out a new professionally-focused social network it’s tentatively calling WSJ Connect. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington shared details on the network, which WSJ is reportedly referring to as “The LinkedIn Killer.” With over 15 million visitors each month, LinkedIn may be a tough social net to kill. However, WSJ is clearly using LinkedIn as its inspiration for the new effort; and with all those potential revenue streams-- job listings, ads, etc. [...]

J.C. Penney is targeting teens with a new multi-channel back-to-school campaign “Schooled in Style: Smart Looks for Less.” The effort looks to reach teens where they are most active: on television, and across mobile and social channels. Saatchi & Saatchi New York, Razorfish, and T3 collaborated with Penney’s on the “Schooled in Style” campaign. Mobile Marketer’s Giselle Tsirulnik explains, “The mobile aspect lets teens sign-up to receive text messages on their mobile phones about back-to-school sales and special offers at JCPenney. [...]

Peter Kafka never fails to make me think. In his “Media Memo,” he offers a piece that takes a hard look at the exploding popularity of applications—and the implications that apps could have on the media business. Kafka shares data from a survey Chicago-based consultancy Gravity Tank conducted with what is calls “app phone users.” For all us at home watching the unfolding apps-losion, that means iPhone or G1 smartphone users. The basic gist of the survey is that people like their apps-- they really like them. [...]

Please join us on August 12th for digiday:APPS! This high level event will bring together the leading executives from top agencies, blue-chip brands, app developers, mobile/social advertising networks, and content owners to discuss the explosive Mobile and Social "Appvertising" market. The App Explosion: Analysts predict that the worldwide mobile advertising market will explode from $700 million in 2008 to $7.2 billion by 2012. As the numbers of applications served is reaching 1 billion, with 50,000 applications available, and more than 30 million devices in market, will the App explosion deliver on the promise of mobile and social marketing? How can marketers harness the power of the app? And can the app platform build brands across mobile, social, and cross platform digital channels, or is it all just hype? You'll hear from App Experts - * Garrick Schmitt, Group VP of Experience Planning, Razorfish * Eric A. [...]

Did you know that Twitter had the trademark on “tweet?” I didn’t, until reading TechCrunch’s blurb this morning. The post highlights the microblogging service’s discomfort with a third-party developer’s use of the word “tweet.” Here’s the note, courtesy of TechCrunch: “Twitter, Inc is uncomfortable with the use of the word Tweet (our trademark) and the similarity in your UI and our own. How can we go about having you change your UI to better differentiate your offering from our own?” A very polite note, especially when you consider the developer apparently sported a user interface borrowing heavily from Twitter’s look and feel. [...]

Hearst and Meredith are relaunching two of their premier women’s magazines’ websites. The focus of the relaunch: community. A little over half a year since investing in women’s social communities network Real Girls Media Network, Meredith is unveiling its remodeled More magazine website. Much of the redesign focused on turning More.com into “a robust, community-oriented site,” or as editor-in-chief Lesley Jane Seymour put it, “the hub for all things relevant” to women over 40. The redesign segments the site into 9 channels, each directed by senior editorial talent. [...]

Highlights of the 140 Characters Conference and the disruptive effects of Twitter

by Sarah Schoenfelder- Noted venture capitalist Fred Wilson thinks Twitter’s real mojo is in “the power of the passed link.” Wilson, a principal at Union Square Ventures and an early investor in Twitter, spoke at the 140 Characters Conference in New York Monday. In addition to calling out the power of the retweet, he addressed Twitter’s growth, and its growing strength as a source of traffic for other sites, including his own blog and those in his investment portfolio. While Google still dominates, Twitter is now sourcing 20% as much traffic as Google. [...]

Conversations about behavioral targeting inevitably raise the question of data control and privacy. But,it might be time for consumers to accept the social contract of living in public digitally.

The SAMMY Awards - Social Advertising, Media, and Marketing Awards The SAMMY Awards honors overall excellence and breakthrough achievement in Social Advertising, Media, and Marketing. The SAMMY's are presented by DM2, the publishers of digiday:DAILY and the hosts of digiday:SOCIAL, the organization includes hundreds of leading social media and marketing experts, journalists, insiders, marketers, publishers, and social technology visionaries. The purpose of the SAMMY Awards is to recognize the outstanding efforts being made in the area of social media and advertising. [...]

The big buzz here is around Affinity Marketing – naturally created social buying clusters.

Facebook has the traffic. The growing user base. And the user engagement. But as paid Content’s Tameka Kee points out, it may be too early to write MySpace off completely. Says Kee, “it’s the top social-networking site when ranked by video streams, another sign that the “MySpace is dead” chorus may be a little premature.” According to Nielsen stats, MySpace is creaming Facebook in terms of both total streams and the total minutes of video watched per viewer. As Kee notes, “MySpace beat Facebook in terms of video streams by about 3-to-1 in April, with an average of about 40 minutes per viewer. [...]

The SAMMY Awards Are Now Open for Entries - Submit Your Winning Social Media Marketing Campaigns Today! The SAMMY Awards - Social Advertising, Media, and Marketing Awards The SAMMY Awards honors overall excellence and breakthrough achievement in Social Advertising, Media, and Marketing. The SAMMY's are presented by DM2, the publishers of digiday:DAILY and the hosts of digiday:SOCIAL, the organization includes hundreds of leading social media and marketing experts, journalists, insiders, marketers, publishers, and social technology visionaries. [...]

The wave of departures from AOL properties continues: People Networks President Joanna Shields is leaving the portal. Shields joined AOL in March of 2008 when it acquired social-networking site Bebo for $850 million. The acquisition soured almost from the start— despite the hefty pricetag, Bebo was much smaller than social networking frontrunners MySpace or Facebook, and there was plenty of talk of AOL overpaying for an asset it had trouble incorporating. Kara Swisher sums it up in her All Things D "Boom Town" colum: “Ironically, Shields, who negotiated the deal, got a lot of internal flak for getting that much for Bebo. [...]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke at Reuter’s Global Technology Summit and offered some new details on where the fast-growing social net is going. Zuckerberg also confirmed that the company will debut an ad network. Said the young CEO, “You can see over time us wanting to offer more ways for people to monetize their site and help out with that, and it could be a pretty natural extension for us to do something with ads or a number of other things that we've considered." Earlier this month, Business Insider predicted Facebook would develop an ad net to piggyback Facebook Connect. [...]

John Battelle, founder and CEO of Federated Media Publishing, announced today he is looking to step down from his post and has begun an executive search to find a leader to take four-year old blog advertising network “to the next level.” Appropriately, given Federated's prominent blogging clients, he unveiled the news in his own company’s blog. Said Battelle, “FM is no longer a scrappy startup, and while its leadership team is deep and experienced, we’ve come to the conclusion that to take the company to the place we all know it can go, we need an additional leader on board. [...]

Lessons from the front of digital marketing from DPACIII

by Sarah Schoenfelder- The buzz over Twitter and its list of potential suitors is a bit exhausting to follow these days. First Facebook flirted with purchasing the microblogging service; then all signs pointed to Google. Most recently, there’s even been news in tech rags that Apple and News Corp are considering it. But the company that has the clearest reasons to step up may be Microsoft. According to All Things D’s Kara Swisher, Microsoft’s biz dev team is taking a close look at Twitter and "has been busy formulating a valuation. [...]

by Sarah Schoenfelder - Much has been made of the Nielsen stats released this week that showed 60% of new Twitter users dropping the service within just one month. According to Nielsen's data, "Currently, more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent." Perhaps understandably, the blogosphere and Twitter universe exploded in response to these numbers. [...]

Media6Degrees, a social analytics firm that helps marketers engage with consumers by tracking their use of the social graph has secured $9.8 million Series A funding round backed by venture firms U.S. Venture Partners and Venrock. Of the funding Joe Doran, Media6Degrees CEO and former Microsoft advertising executive said, “We want to grow a lot faster than we had planned originally, and this allows us to fuel our expansion.” ClickZ explains, “The New York-based company offers advertisers a way to follow and connect with consumers by tracking their activities on social networks. [...]

Michael Arrington, Silicon Valley’s most outspoken tech pundit, rarely holds back in his TechCrunch blog. His posts are occasionally shocking, often snarky, sometimes merely opinionated— and this post falls somewhere in the middle. Arrington claims “News Corp., under new CEO of Digital Media Jonathan Miller, is looking to replace MySpace CEO and cofounder Chris DeWolfe.” Further, Arrington says in a follow-up post, “We’ve confirmed that things are actually moving much faster than we first understood, and that a decision has already been made to terminate Chris DeWolfe’s employment with MySpace. [...]

Twitter’s growing buzz has given birth to a myriad of spin-off services and businesses, some of which have secured venture funding or enjoyed a taste of success on their own right. Unfortunately, the first Twitter-focused agency has started off with a stumble. While the company named Twitter as a key supporter, in fact it is not. The mistake earned the startup a firm correction from Twitter HQ itself. Twitter Partners, a new agency based in the U.K., aims to help companies leverage Twitter as a branding tool. [...]

It feels a bit anti-climatic because we’ve been bandying about the phrase “Facebook hits 200 Million users” for weeks. But that number was confirmed today by the social network’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s in-house blog. The title of the post cleared up any mystery: “200 Million Strong.” The social net’s surge this year has been astonishing. In January it revealed its users numbered 150 million; just a month later it had leapt to 175 million. Now it has hit the 200 million milestone. [...]

How do you measure success in social media marketing? It’s difficult; almost intangible, say most insiders. At the recent digiday:SOCIAL event in NYC, one expert joked, "you know it when you see it." But really, success in social media may be most easily quantified by starting-- and sustaining-- great conversation. In order for brands to open themselves to conversation, they must be willing to lose control—or so says social media expert Paul Worthington. Worthington explains what a departure this is for most marketers in his Mashable op piece. [...]

Hallelujah! Twitter may finally be shifting from a no-profit model to a some-profit model. We won’t call the move a monetization strategy, but it is a first step. Dan Frommer of Business Insider explains the details. “Twitter is finally tapping into a revenue trickle: It will offer promotional space on Twitter.com to ExecTweets, a Web site that aggregates tweets from business executives, organized by ad network Federated Media.” As a noteworthy twist, Microsoft is a primary sponsor of ExecTweets. [...]

Facebook has lost another key executive. Netanel “Net” Jacobsson, director of business development at the social network, announced his departure by way of his Twitter feed: “When one door is closed, another is open.”

Notable tech blogger Om Malik "ditched" his iPhone due to frustrations with substandard 3G coverage on the AT&T network. While he didn't miss the dropped calls and spotty coverage, Malik admits his shift from iPhone to a Blackberry Curve 8900 made him long for many things, "about the iPhone, such as surfing the Internet with a full-blown browser." However, at the top of the blogger's list: Facebook for iPhone. Malik explains the streamlined design and utility of Facebook for iPhone made it easy for him to make updates, check out pictures, you name it-- all on the go. [...]