Instagram, partners say early ads have seen success

Foursquare adds $35 million from investors | Instagram, partners say early ads have seen success | Prismatic tries an interests-based approach to social networking Created for tweetbroker.social@blogger.com |  Web Version   December 20, 2013 CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF        SIGN UP | FORWARD | ARCHIVE | ADVERTISE Today's Buzz Sponsored By Foursquare adds $35 million from investors Foursquare says it has received $35 million in Series D funding to support its future monetization focus. The mobile-social application has been downloaded 45 million times and is expected to bring in an estimated $20 million in 2013. The funding "will be used to accelerate progress on passive geo technology and monetization work, begun in 2013," Foursquare said in a statement. "In particular, capital will drive increased investment in engineering teams, sales channel growth, and international expansion." Adweek (12/19) Share:      Have a strong cash flow but weak profits? The problem could be your approach to cash and cost management. KeyBank's easy-to-understand "Cash and Cost Management Best Practices Guide" will help you build a plan to boost your bottom line. Download the free guide. Network Update Instagram, partners say early ads have seen success Instagram is reporting some initial successes with its first 10 advertisers, noting a 32% incremental increase in ad recall per campaign for photos from Ben & Jerry's, Levi's and two other advertisers. Levi's said the ads allowed the company to reach an audience 47 times larger than its 155,000 followers, and it also increased followers 20% since the campaign started. Mashable (12/19) Share:      Prismatic tries an interests-based approach to social networking A social network called Prismatic is scrapping the status-message and profile-page approach, instead trying a themed, topic-based approach to social sharing. Rather than wading through low-quality content posted by distant acquaintances, Prismatic lets users subscribe and post content to topics, allowing them to focus on their real interests. "You should go on Prismatic because you're going to find stuff on all your hobbies, not just the one spectrum of yourself you share on Facebook and Twitter," says CEO Bradford Cross. GigaOm (12/19), All Things D (12/19) Share:      Is Your Small Business Using Social Media? Three in five business owners expect to spend the same or more time on social advertising in the coming year. Social media continues to be a valuable resource for small businesses looking to drive sales, increase brand awareness and reach new customers. Download your free white paper, Going Global: Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses, and learn why it is important to be strategic in choosing your social media platforms. Ideas in Action Sponsored By A look at the reaction to #NotYourAsianSidekick on Twitter The #NotYourAsianSidekick hashtag, created by freelance writer Suey Park, took Twitter by storm this week and jump-started an online discussion of race issues and the Asian-American experience. The hashtag succeeded because it tapped into deep-seated and emotional issues, many of which have been heatedly discussed for decades in other forums, Jeff Yang writes. "We theorized #NotYourAsianSidekick ideas since the 70's but kids gotta learn it from a damn hashtag," law professor Mari Matsuda wrote in a tweet. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model)/Speakeasy blog (12/19) Share:      How to Deliver Faster Responsive Web Design Sites Responsive Web Design enables easy access to your site across touch points, but challenges still exist with delivering a fast web experience that meets consumer expectations. Read this new report from Akamai to learn how to deliver fast, engaging responsive web design sites. Research and Reports Sponsored By If you have more than 1 Twitter follower, you're ahead of the crowd Half of all Twitter accounts -- including inactives -- have no more than one follower, according to an analysis. Once inactive accounts are eliminated, the figure increases to 61 followers. "If you've got a thousand followers, you're at the 96th percentile of active Twitter users," says Jon Bruner of O'Reilly Radar, who performed the analysis. The Atlantic online (12/19) Share:      Could Your POS Generate More ROI? Find out, in IHL's 2013 Retailers Guide to POS Software! This definitive and highly-respected annual report on the softgoods market provides objective analyses of segment conditions, market and system trends, and retailer priorities, plus an in-depth look at the top five POS suppliers. Today, we invite you to gain these key competitive insights - a $795 value - at no cost! Download your copy now. The Takeaway Sponsored By It's the most blunder-ful time of the year The holidays are here, and that's both an opportunity and a potential pitfall for social media marketers, Alison Zeringue writes. Many peoples' nerves are on edge, so it's essential that brands don't rub customers the wrong way with clumsy messaging. "Remember consumers' sensitivity to overt sales messages during this time of year and avoid using any religious figures unless appropriate for your company or non-profit," Zeringue writes. Marketing Land (12/19) Share:      Free whitepaper: Customer Experience Through the Holidays Optimizing the online experience is smart business. But it's particularly important during the holidays when web or mobile problems can lead to a devastating number of lost sales. Find out how retailers are eliminating problems and maximizing e-commerce revenues during the holidays and year-round. Social Shareable Sponsored By The top Twitter hoaxes of 2013 Twitter saw plenty of remarkably convincing hoaxes during 2013, many of them in remarkably bad taste. One hoax attempted to trick Justin Bieber's fans into injuring themselves; another led many to believe that Cher, not Margaret Thatcher, had passed away; and perhaps most shocking of all, the @Horse_ebooks account was revealed to be performance art. VanityFair.com (12/17) Share:      PureData System: A Giant Leap Forward in Data Services Building your own database platform may soon seem very old-fashioned. The IBM PureData System for Transactions has all the things you need, pre-integrated and ready to go. It can consolidate 100+ databases on a single system, all managed from a single, integrated console. Download this free report to learn more. SmartQuote The key to high recall is Instagram's ability to take over a small screen with a message that is fully integrated into the content being organically consumed by the user." -- Julie Channing of Levi's, as quoted by Mashable Share:        Andy Sernovitz, Editor at Large Andy Sernovitz is the New York Times best-selling author of "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking" and the blog "Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!" He runs WordofMouth.org, where marketers and entrepreneurs learn to be great at word of mouth marketing, and SocialMedia.org, the community for social media leaders at the world's greatest brands.   Subscriber Tools Please contact one of our specialists for advertising opportunities, editorial inquiries, job placements, or any other questions.   Lead Editor:  Stephen Yusko Contributing Editor:  Ben Whitford Publisher:  Dena Malouf Jobs Contact:  Jackie Basso   P: 202.407.7871     SIGN UP   SHARE   ADVERTISE   SEND FEEDBACK Update Profile | Change e-mail address | Unsubscribe |  Archive | Web version (print friendly) Download the SmartBrief App  iTunes / Android   Mailing Address: SmartBrief, Inc.®, 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004 © 1999-2013 SmartBrief, Inc.® Privacy policy |  Legal Information