Social Media Marketing

Facebook Changes Advertiser Settings in News Feed
August 5, 2011

Facebook has gotten pretty good at filtering garbage out of people's news feeds. Too good, as far as advertisers are concerned: They want the garbage put back, so they can spam people, and logically Facebook is complying.

Aeropostale Jumps Into F-Commerce
August 2, 2011

New York City-based apparel retailer Aéropostale has launched a fully integrated Facebook store powered by Usablenet’s technology platform that combines shopping and social media and extends full e-commerce functionality to the Aéropostale Facebook community.

Sears Drives Traffic to its Stores With Social Gaming Technology
August 1, 2011

Sears has driven new traffic to its brick-and-mortar locations by partnering with SCVNGR, a social gaming and check-in service. Here's how the partnership works: While in a Sears store, consumers can pull out their smartphone, launch the SCVNGR app and check in to the Sears location they're currently at. These consumers then create a profile and begin participating in various challenges. For example, Sears' fitness and footwear department's challenge reads: "Tread Softly: Make yourself at home in the shoe aisle and find the coolest tread. Snap a photo and then caption it with where you want to leave your mark in the world!"

Whole Foods Goes Social for Ramadan
July 29, 2011

Whole Foods and upstart natural meals brand Saffron Road are employing Facebook, Twitter and blogs to target Muslims for Ramadan, a month-long spiritual holiday beginning Aug. 1. 

Google+ Traffic Dips
July 28, 2011

After a running start, Google+'s growth may be slowing down a bit. A report from Experian Hitwise found both traffic and users' average time on the social network fell last week in the U.S.

How Google+ Could Cost Online Retailers Millions
July 27, 2011

One second is how long Google’s +1 plug-in drags down page load time, and that’s not “just” a second when research shows that 10 percent of site traffic is lost for every extra second a site takes to load. Facebook’s ubiquitous "Like" plug-in stalls page load time by approximately .2 seconds. This means featuring both plug-ins on a page adds c. 1.2 seconds to its load time. That translates to more than a 10 percent loss in visitors, and by extension, in conversion.