Social Media Marketing

Yahoo and Facebook are ending their patent infringement lawsuits against each other with a settlement that includes a licensing partnership as well as an expanded content distribution and advertising relationship. The new agreement allows for collaboration on ad campaigns during major media events.

Facebook is rumored to be testing a Want button that would be similar in look and function to its now ubiquitous Like button. The feature was spotted by developer Tom Waddington, who published the button's code on his blog. Such buttons already exist -- but they have been developed by third-party b...

Facebook recently started running ads on Zynga's website, one of several moves the social network has made recently to expand its advertising reach. Some Zynga users now see Facebook's Sponsored Stories ads, which display certain brands or businesses that those users' Facebook friends have "liked." ...

2012 is not shaping up to be a good year for Facebook. There was its disaster of an IPO, of course. Also, a number of reports have been turning out that illustrate one or another of Facebook's weaknesses. The latest is from comScore, which reported Facebook's U.S. user numbers for May. Compared to i...

Facebook is shelling out $10 million in a settlement that will allow it to keep its Sponsored Stories advertising program on the site but will saddle it with new restrictions. The Sponsored Stories system on Facebook is meant to help ads get more exposure. When a user checks into a location or "like...

With the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics, London will be the first city to have hosted the modern games of three Olympics. It will also be the first Olympics to embrace social media, as well as being the first to actually step in and place limitations on how said media can be used. The IOC has no prob...

Social media giants are teaming up with nonprofit website StopBadware to create the Ads Integrity Alliance, which will counter so-called bad ads and work to create trust within the online advertising industry. Facebook, Google, Twitter, AOL and the Interactive Advertising Bureau announced Thursday t...

Mike Heaston knows the power of a good cycling event. Get the people out there, biking through the Colorado mountains, and they'll become loyal and steadfast customers. "We're putting on events that people love," said Heaston, owner of EventMarketing Group. "We're creative, and these are our product...

Facebook can be an effective platform for advertisers, according to a report released Tuesday by comScore. The results appear to counter the findings of a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll in which four out of five respondents claimed they were never influenced by advertisements or comments on the site rega...

A new poll does not bode well for Facebook's goal of stepping up its ad revenue. Four out of five Facebook users said they were never influenced by advertising or even comments on the site to buy a product or service, found the poll, which was conducted by Reuters/Ipsos. Thirty-four percent of the...

Facebook is exploring ways to include children younger than 13 years of age as members of its social network, according to The Wall Street Journal. To that end, it is working on developing technology that would allow tweens to be active on the site under parental supervision. Facebook's move in this...

Social media is a powerful tool that nonprofit organizations can use to quickly, cheaply and personally engage with funders, volunteers and clients. But while the benefits of using social media are vast, challenges and legal risks exist. Here are some tips and traps to keep in mind and discuss with...

Engaging the customer has always been fundamental to doing good business. It's just that now that engagement often starts in digital, social media realms. The trick is to figure out how to make one's content as interesting as all the other content that shows up in the newsfeed, and this is where soc...

It appears that Pinterest may have a greater propensity to inspire its users to buy products after viewing them on the site than other social networks, based on recent research. For example, Pinterest users are 79 percent more likely to purchase something spotted on Pinterest than Facebook users are...

General Motors plans to stop advertising on Facebook because the ad campaigns are not paying off in any measurable way. At $10 million, the company's ad spend on Facebook is relatively small. The reaction to GM's decision, however, has been disproportionately big. The timing of the news, of course, ...