Did you know that 100 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute? This has created a huge opportunity for branded content and now consumers are watching more videos from brands than ever before.…
The post 3 Lessons From YouTube’s Top Video Ads of 2014 appeared first on Sprout Social.
There are many lenses through which to you can look back on 2014 — the year in pictures, in quotes, in news stories.
And then there's the art you shared with us.
Through each of Mashable's 38 photo challenges, 28 Vine challenges and two #MashMeets, we witnessed the immense artistic talent in our community. The responses we received for each challenge — from wilderness photography and faceless portraits to claymation and mini-movie remakes —were truly inspiring
We’re especially thankful for our active followers and fellow collaborators on Instagram and Vine; we hit the 100,000 followers milestone on both platforms this year, and much of that credit goes to you Read more...
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If there’s one thing you can count on this evening, it’s Uber surge pricing. They’ve had a tough year, but it looks like the company might have finally gotten the message: Be clear about things.
This morning, they sent an email to users explaining that rides home after the ball drops are going to be really expensive, so request one at midnight or just don’t go home, ever. In New York, they didn’t bother dropping a price, but in other markets, Uber warned customers of the exact dollar amount that 12:30 a.m. ride will cost:
Great chart from @Uber_LDN on when the cheapest time to book a cab home tonight will be. #NYEpic.twitter.com/f3T5JoDAHA
— Nikki Barr (@_ikkin_) December 31, 2014
They suggest splitting a fare with fellow merry-makers if you must go home at some point. The only upshot? If you can remember to type in MADDNYE before you request that car, you can donate $1 to Mother’s Against Drunk Driving.
Can’t believe tomorrow is already NYE! Uber drivers are about to make so much money!
— Timothy DeLaGhetto (@Traphik) December 31, 2014
Bah, humbug.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Twitter has analyzed tweets between Dec. 25 and New Year’s Eve to see which words are most associated with New Year’s resolutions. At the top of the list, unsurprisingly, was “work out.” Many also hoped to unplug from their devices in the new year. Here are the top 10 based on a ranking of English-language tweets:
The desire to unplug from technology has increased this past year with the proliferation of meditation apps and discussion of “the digital detox.” One study from 2014 found that nearly half of Americans never unplug from their digital devices and we’ve learned more about social media, and smartphone addiction, too.
There’s been a proliferation of tools designed to help people disconnect, including a park in England that introduced a tech-sitting service for visitors. For those wishing to cut down on their smartphone use, apps like BreakFree can help by alerting users when they’re spending too much time glued to their screens.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
2014 was a significant year for modern marketing, particularly for our organization and brand. After several milestone acquisitions, Oracle formally introduced the Oracle Marketing Cloud focused on empowering marketing leaders and organizations to deliver on the promise of customer centricity.
We have aimed to deliver content that supports your individual and team’s growth, strategic challenges, and market growth. As the year comes to close, we’ve compiled 14 of the most popular Modern Marketing Blog posts of the year. Take a look at the some of the trends, benchmarks, and strategic focus points of this past year, and feel free to share your favorite resources in the comments.
1. Upworthy’s Top Takeaways For Creating Viral Content
Take a behind the scenes look at how the viral giant developed a secret sauce for sharing, and 6 tips you can leverage to make your marketing stick, too.
2. The State of Content Marketing 2014 [Infographic]
Check out our first infographic of 2014, which breaks down content marketing benchmarks, use cases, and challenges for the modern marketer.
3. 4 Content Marketing Metrics Trends and Best Practices
These insider tips were derived from the aforementioned benchmark report and infographic.
4. How To Build Up Social Media Marketing Like LEGO
Uncover from the source’s mouth how one of the world’s most famous toy brands uses social media to engage, share, and support ROI. It’s what makes “everything awesome.”
5. 18 Marketing Challenges Cited by Leaders at the CMO Club Summit
Marketing leaders from the world’s biggest brands came together this past January in New York City; here’s a list of their most pressing challenges. Now that we come up on a year since making the list, is your challenge cited?
6. 6 Trends Highlighted at Social Media Marketing World
Our own senior manager of social marketing, Lauren Harper, was on the floor to report on social media’s latest trends, including channel focus, ROI challenges, and benchmark stats.
7. 4 Steps to Maximize Your Marketing Data
Contributing author Cassie Hrushesky from BlueWolf outlines how to make the most of your customer information with tips for every marketer across all stages of strategic maturity.
8. 5 Tips for Improving Your Social Media ROI
Lauren Harper tackles the steps every marketer should take to ensure they’re gleaning solid benefits from their social media marketing investments. *Hint: Don’t underestimate the “human touch.”
9. Introducing The Demand Gen Pro's Cookbook: Tasty Tips From Marketing's Master Chefs
One of our most popular eBooks of 2014, these case study “recipes” will get your lead gen cooking. Fire it up!
10. Seven Ugly Truths About Content Marketing
Contributing author Rachel Metscher outlines the dark side of content marketing, but more importantly, offers tips to avoid the black hole.
11. Marketers Have Gained Their “Seat at the Table,” Now it’s Time to Prove Why They Deserve it
Oracle Marketing Cloud GM Kevin Akeroyd offers a pensive piece on how marketers are tasked to piece together the broken customer experience.
12. 6 Ways Marketing and IT Collaboration Boosts ROI
Oracle Social Cloud’s Jack Newton presents a data-driven case from Oracle’s Socially Driven Collaboration Study, for how teamwork trumps individual efforts.
13. CMOs Face a Major Dilemma [Infographic]
Not your average infographic, but a visual representation of how marketing leaders need to better connect the dots of customers’ experiences across paid, earned and owned media.
14. 7 Ways B2B Marketers Can Build a Rock Star Audience on Twitter
Contributing author Carter Hostelley offers a framework for building up your Twitter following of the right, connected people.
What were your favorite modern marketing reading resources of 2014? Share your favorite post with your social networks!
Creating and distributing content has become one of the most important things a brand can do to increase its online presence and website traffic. But what if you don’t have the resources to constantly produce the new content you…
The post A Guide to User-Generated Content appeared first on Sprout Social.
According to a new panel survey released by the Pew Research Center, email, a landline, and a decent Internet connection are still the most important tools for workers. Social networks and a smartphone aren’t entirely necessary.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Click here to receive the Morning Social Media Newsfeed via email.
China Adds New Barrier to Gmail (SocialTimes)
The Chinese government appears to have blocked the ability of people in China to gain access to Google’s email service through third-party email services like Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook, which many Chinese and foreigners had been relying on to use their Gmail accounts after an earlier blocking effort by officials, according to internet analysts and users in China. The blocking began on Friday and has ignited anger and frustration among many internet users in China. Forbes The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has spent more than a decade placing restrictions on internet usage in an effort known as the Golden Shield Project or, more informally, the Great Firewall of China. The project was created in the wake of China’s effort to open up its international relations, but it still carries many of traits of its formerly cloistered Communist beginnings, namely its effort to prevent criticism against the government. Reuters In Washington, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over China’s actions. “We encourage China to be transparent in its dealings with international companies and to consider the market signal it sends with such acts,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said.
AmEx Generated 10 Million Instagram Impressions in Two Weeks with Guest Photographers (Adweek)
For the past year, American Express has experimented with turning over its social accounts to influencers for short bursts of time to pick up followers and buzz. And it appears to be working — at least based on some results from a recent two-week Instagram campaign.
Pixe Social, CEA Team Up to Allow CES 2015 Attendees to Share Photos to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (AllFacebook)
Social marketing solutions developer Pixe Social announced a partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association on a photo-sharing solution for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show, to be held in Las Vegas Jan. 6 through 9. Pixe Social said it will provide a roaming team at CES to encourage attendees to share their photos in real-time via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with images to be framed with a special #CES2015 visual theme and instantly posted to the Pixe Social Facebook page and Twitter and Instagram accounts with the #CES2015 hashtag.
Twitter is Experimenting with Selling Ad Space in Your Following List (The Next Web)
It appears that Twitter is experimenting with selling ad space in users’ lists of accounts they follow, reports Marketing Land. Actor William Shatner made a noise about it a little while ago, tweeting that he noticed that MasterCard’s account began showing up on his own Following list, even though he didn’t actually follow the credit card company on Twitter.
Awesome Things Brands Did on Social Media in 2014 [Infographic] (AllTwitter)
Two-thousand-fourteen was one heck of a year for brands using social media. Innovative campaign followed innovative campaign from businesses of all shapes and sizes, across a huge range of industries, sectors and verticals.
Five Sites and Apps to Help You Unload Your Unwanted Christmas Gifts (VentureBeat)
Christmas is over, most of the family is gone, and life is getting back to normal. Besides a few pounds and the Christmas tree, we are also stuck with a few gifts we would rather get rid of. These websites and apps help you to get rid of the things you got for Christmas and do not see any use for.
John Oliver’s Web Exclusive is All the New Year’s Advice You Need (LostRemote)
Thank goodness for John Oliver, who ventured out of his winter hiatus to tell us why New Year’s Eve is the worst in a web exclusive. In typical “Last Week Tonight” fashion, his advice is spot on.
Teen-Whisperer danah boyd Says Corporations Control Social Media More Than Teens (BetaBeat)
Danah boyd (yes, in lowercase letters), the Master of Teens and author of It’s Complicated, a book on teens and social media usage, says that putting all of the attention on teens to guess at the future of social media is misguided. Boyd, who’s working on a new project that ties her research on teens to some good ol’ Big Data, told Forbes that the CEOs and corporations behind the actual social media channels should be the real subjects of scrutiny.
Facebook Denies Involvement in Termination of Coffee Shop’s Lease in NYC HQ Building (AllFacebook)
Facebook denied any involvement in the decision by Vornado Realty Trust to terminate its lease with a family-run coffee shop and newsstand in the lobby of 770 Broadway, the building that houses its New York offices, according to the New York Post. The Post reported that the Headline News coffee stand — which was run by Pete Patel and two family members — will be replaced by the more high-end Bluestone Lane, adding that Vornado informed Patel of the lease termination six months ago.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Hiding photos on Facebook may not actually work as well as you think it does.
Picturebook, a browser extension now available in the Chrome web store, claims to allow you to "view hidden photos of anyone on Facebook"— even if you aren't friends with them
See also: How to find old Facebook posts
Sounds like a Facebook creeper's dream, right? But though Picturebook's description is technically true, it is also misleading
No app or browser extension — this one included — is able to change the privacy settings of someone else's photo. What Picturebook is really doing: surfacing photos that you could have seen anyway, even if a user tagged in them hid them from their timeline Read more...
More about Facebook, Social Media, Tech, Google Chrome, and Chrome Extensions
Last week, Mashable partnered with DoSomething.org and Mentor Up to bring you our very own Ugly Sweater Photo Challenge
But we didn't just ask you to share your ugliest sweater; we wanted you to show an adult how to snap a picture and share it on social media. 'Tis the season of giving.
What ensued was hilarious. The sweaters were terribly tacky, yes, but the selfies with grandma made our hearts melt. Take a look at our favorites, below, and view the full collection here.
Pinterest has a good New Year’s resolution: make some money. They announced this week that as of January, they’ll start selling ads on their network in the form of Promoted Pins.
It’s sort of shocking that this hasn’t happened already. Pinterest’s Joanne Bradford explained in a Pinterest for Business blog post:
Millions of people use Pinterest every day to save the inspiration and things they need to carry out plans and pursue their interests. This is a huge, unmatched opportunity for marketers today—while some platforms look to the past or present, only Pinterest focuses on the future.
Eight months ago, we launched a Promoted Pins beta for our brand advertisers. Results have been promising, and we’re now ready to bring this amazing opportunity to everyone. Our reservation-based Promoted Pins (available at a CPM) will be open to all partners January 1.
Already, recipes from food companies show up searches and retailers caught on early getting in that space, like this Macy’s wedding registry board. Some retailers also already host their Pinterest board on their own websites, like Target’s “Awesome Shop.” Now they won’t be so self-contained. Marketer’s are looking forward to it:
http://t.co/VID4wUnEF0 From my limited experience with Pinterest, ads won’t change much for users since most pins already are ads.
— David A. Arnott (@ArnottACBJ) December 29, 2014
Pinterest opening its ads platform on Jan. 1—I think it’s a matter of time before most people think $5B val seems low http://t.co/meEfzSPaKh
— Adam Besvinick (@Besvinick) December 29, 2014
Can’t wait to see early reach, click through and conversion KPIs from new Pinterest ads http://t.co/18MFMjFo0p
— Beth Carpenter (@bethshanna) December 29, 2014
The culture of Pinterest is to use it to browse and show off things you want to purchase, or make, so advertisements should fit right in to that ecosystem. If anything, it might make the whole experience more streamlined and efficient for users, unlike Facebook and Twitter ads which stand out like sore thumbs. People on Pinterest are looking to take action — whether it’s to bake a cake or redecorate their bedroom. If you’re Betty Crocker or Bed, Bath, and Beyond, you belong in that feed.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
It’s been a busy Q4 and we hope you’re enjoying the latest updates that have come your way. To close out the year, we wanted to again thank all of our customers for your business…
The post Sprout Social Product Updates: 2014 Year in Review appeared first on Sprout Social.
Editor's Note: Today's post comes courtesy of Jeff Ogden, President of Find New Customers.
Over the past year, Oracle Marketing Cloud has added more than 350 marketing applications and data partners to deliver the industry’s largest marketing technology ecosystem. The most recent addition to this list is Mintigo’s latest Oracle Marketing AppCloud application that brings predictive lead scoring and data enrichment capabilities directly within Eloqua.
According to John Stetic, Group VP of Product for Oracle Marketing Cloud, “Mintigo has built a native and integrated solution on our Oracle Marketing Cloud that can help deliver predictive marketing and lead scoring. This is a great example of an open platform with integrated, innovative solutions, that can simplify the marketer’s experience and help grow their business.“
To learn more about this, I recently interviewed Mintigo’s Chief Product Officer, Atul Kumar, who has been a key player in making this application possible.
Why are you excited about Mintigo's new integration and overall partnership with Oracle Marketing Cloud?
Atul: I’ve gone through many integration projects and worked with several different marketing automation systems. It has been a challenging task due to the complexity of technology and lack of standard business processes. Marketers today are looking for a quick solution and don’t want to deal with the complexity of integrations.
Earlier this year, Oracle Marketing Cloud announced the framework for native applications and opened up their Eloqua platform even further. We partnered with the Oracle Marketing Cloud team to create the first native application for predictive marketing which solved many complex technological issues and made it effortless for marketers to get value from our predictive platform much quicker than it has ever been possible. Now, Eloqua customers can easily install the native application with just a few clicks and the Mintigo application for predictive lead scoring and enrichment becomes part of their Eloqua canvas. This enables marketers to easily leverage the power of predictive marketing and insights to personalize the engagement with individual prospects and make data driven decisions within their existing workflows without ever leaving their Eloqua canvas.
What are some of the biggest challenges marketers are facing with their marketing automation, and how does this integration address those challenges?
Atul: If you look at Scott Brinker’s marketing technology landscape infographic you will quickly appreciate the challenges modern digital marketers face today. In the past three years, the available technology pool has increased dramatically. As a result, marketing automation can no longer remain a simple solution. It must evolve into a platform solution and allow easy access to various technologies available in the market.
This revolution was started by Salesforce.com about a decade ago when they launched the AppExchange. Eloqua took the bold step in 2011 and committed to be an open platform with the launch of their AppCloud marketplace. Today, there are over 20 marketing applications on Oracle’s Marketing AppCloud providing marketers an easy way to receive value rapidly. This past June, Oracle announced the availability of native applications that further opened up their Eloqua marketing automation platform.
With this, Oracle Marketing Cloud has become a leading open modern marketing platform. Marketers can now quickly adopt the innovative solutions to gain competitive advantage and get more out of their investment in technology and programs. We’re proud to be one of Oracle Marketing Cloud’s premier alliance partners in enabling marketers achieve greater success by leveraging innovative technology.
As someone who’s been in the marketing technology space for 15 years, where do you think the market is headed? What do you think will be the game changers for B2B marketers in the coming years?
Atul: It has been my passion to augment marketers’ creativity with data science to drive better marketing and sales results. It all started in 2000 when I was at Oracle; we built a data analytics solution for marketing and sales that provided visibility into marketing activities of prospects and customers. During a demonstration, an account executive literally jumped out of his seat when he saw that one of his major accounts had been downloading and using Oracle tools freely and widely via the trial download program. It made his sales conversations more fruitful and personalized. The old saying “knowledge is power” really applies in this instance.
In the past six years, B2B marketers have figured out how to amass leads. Advances in technologies, such as social media, has created a tremendous amount of data, but most of it is outside the reach of marketers. This data can be used to build an intelligent system or machine that uses data to drive demand generation, optimize lead nurture campaigns, and assign every prospect in the marketing funnel to the appropriate marketing or sales stage. This machine will ultimately enable multi-channel campaigns, provide insights to sales and find buyers both inside and outside the funnel.
Modern marketers are leading the way in utilizing data science to revolutionize the way they market, measure and manage their campaign strategies. It’s truly an exciting time to be a marketer and we believe the best in B2B marketing technology innovation is yet to come.
To learn more about Mintigo’s new AppCloud application, check it out on the Topliners Community or Mintigo’s Predictive Lead Scoring For Eloqua page.
Last year, we published Offerpop’s marketing predictions for 2014. Recently, Offerpop took a look at the biggest 2014 predictions to discover if they came true or if they missed the mark completely.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
James Franco and Seth Rogen celebrated The Interview's swift comeback by live tweeting the movie start to finish, for our benefit.
When Sony Pictures originally pulled The Interview from theatrical release following anonymous threats in the wake of Sony's very public hack, the likelihood of a massive comeback for the flick seemed slim. But thanks to independent theaters across the U.S. and streaming platforms including Google Play, YouTube, Xbox Video, Sony's own SeeTheInterview.com and, as of Sunday, the Apple iTunes store, The Interview is available to watch
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