If you don’t work on cars, how do you know your mechanic isn’t ripping you off? And if he’s honest, he could still be inefficient — and that costs you money. It seems like everyone on Facebook is a self-proclaimed social media expert. There are no degrees or certifications, so we all operate without a license.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Custom Facebook applications are crucial for brands that run promotions on Facebook. The rules of the platform simply state that all promotions on Facebook must be administered within apps on Facebook.com, either on a canvas page or a page app. If you are about to launch an app of your own, have a look at the following tips we have picked up while developing Facebook apps for brands over the past couple of years. Some are no-brainers that are often forgotten, and some are quite specific, but all are useful to remember.
Perhaps the greatest challenge facing marketing managers right now is finding the right place online to spread their message. But since Facebook revamped its mobile and desktop offerings to include a wide range of placement options, all signs point to Facebook being an ideal platform to spend additional ad dollars. With Facebook’s recent enhancements, brands and agencies now have the ability to better engage with their audiences in new and unique ways through personalized ads that capitalize on what Ampush calls “referred intent.” This is what the social technology company characterizes as engaging relevant audiences from Facebook who are enticed by highly targeted messages or stories with social context, then perform a desired action such as liking a brand’s page or downloading a mobile application.
Cloud-based self-serve social marketing platform Shoutlet Tuesday released Shoutlet 6.0, a major update with new features including tools for social ads, social analytics, social contests, and social listening.
Data-focused software-as-a-service provider SumAll announced the completion of a $6 million series-A capital-financing round led by Battery Ventures, with Wellington Partners participating, as well.
The crowded Facebook analytics field welcomed a new entry from data visualization company SumAll, SumAll Social Metrics, which combines transactional, social, and Web traffic in one software-as-a-service environment, on a single dashboard.
If you’ve ever been surfing Facebook and got the feeling that somebody’s watching you, you might be right. The Evidon Global Tracker Report, a semiannual analysis of the ad tracking agency, listed Facebook among the top companies tracking users.
With the launch of Google Plus, Google decided it was time to add tracking of its +1 button and other metrics across Facebook and Twitter. But a full set of social media data — especially as it relates to return on investment — doesn’t show up completely in Google Analytics, despite promises to that effect.
