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SOCIAL MEDIA ROI: Approximately one-third of marketers worldwide are realizing a return on their investment in social media, according to a survey of roughly 2,000 marketers from ExactTarget.
Half of survey respondents said they believe their social media efforts will generate a return for them in the future. However, just 23% said their social media advertising program is currently effective.
This indicates that marketers are helping brands drive sales not so much via paid media, but rather using earned media strategies like content marketing. One way marketers utilize content marketing is to produce and curate relevant content that interests customers across a variety of social media channels.
With this in mind, the survey also found that more marketers plan to adopt Google+ this year than any other social media channel. Google+ is becoming a powerful content marketing platform as its integration with search provides added visibility to the content produced within the social network. (ExactTarget)
FACEBOOK HIT WITH LAWSUIT: A Facebook user in Colorado has filed a lawsuit against the social network over Facebook ads he appeared in showing that he had liked a brand's Facebook page, which this man claims he never did. It begs the question of whether Facebook's ad targeting algorithm made an error. However, a Facebook spokesperson said, "the complaint is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously." (GigaOM)
TWITTER EXPERIMENTS WITH NEW AUTO ACCOUNTS: Twitter is experimenting with a new system that will direct message users with "achievements" related to their activity on Twitter. The account is managed by the handle @AchievementBird, and it will occasionally send users statistics, such as how many times they've been retweeted in the past 24 hours. Once it works out the kinks, Twitter could equip the account with rewards or badges that it gives to the most influential users on the service, adding a gamification layer to the social network. Such a practice would likely drive user engagement. (TechCrunch)
HBO TAPS YOUTUBE: In an effort to reach its target audience at a greater scale, HBO will upload episodes of its popular TV show Girls to its YouTube channel just 12 hours after they premiere. "For us, this is an increasingly challenging demographic to reach with traditional means," said Sabrina Caluori, HBO's vice president of social media and marketing. (Mashable)
LIVINGSOCIAL CEO STEPS DOWN: LivingSocial co-founder and CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy announced that he is leaving the daily deals company. Not long ago, LivingSocial was viewed as one of the fastest-growing new Internet companies. O'Shaughnessy's departure is yet another sign that the daily deals business is struggling to regain momentum. (Washington Business Journal)
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