The week in social media news curated by your friends at Fandom Marketing. The most epic selfie crashes Twitter, Getty Images moves toward social media friendly policy allowing bloggers free use, Facebook’s newsfeed redesign, and Sephora shares about Pinterest marketing. Plus, more.
Facebook is a darling of Wall Street, but it is ruffling some feathers on Madison Avenue.
February 28, 2014
That would seem peculiar since Facebook’s ad business is humming to the tune of $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, a more than 76 percent increase from the same quarter a year before. But according to several ad agency executives, Facebook is still mostly indifferent to their needs to the point of arrogance. One point of frustration is Facebook’s ongoing squeezing of traffic to organic brand content. A digital agency exec described a recent meeting with Facebook that turned contentious.
Full story on Digiday
Ellen DeGeneres Took the Most Epic Selfie of All Time at the Oscars
March 2, 2014
DeGeneres’ selfie is now the most retweeted image of all time, garnering more than 1 million retweets in just 45 minutes. The Oscars’ host managed to gather a gaggle of celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence, Angelina Jolie, Bradley Cooper, Kevin Spacey, Jared Leto, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Lupita Nyong’o and Brad Pitt for a picture for the Academy Awards history books.
Full story on Mashable
Ellen’s Using an iPhone Backstage, Not the ‘Samsung Selfie’ Phone
March 3, 2014
Ellen’s been on her phone quite a bit tonight, particularly for a selfie that was taken with a big group of A-listers. The image, which she encouraged to be retweeted, gave her Samsung phone a nice bit of screen time. But it looks like she’s on an iPhone for her personal account.
Full story on Mashable
Facebook Looking Into Buying Drone Maker Titan Aerospace
March 3, 2014
Facebook, one of the primary backers of the Internet.org initiative, which aims to bring affordable Internet access to the 5 billion people in the world who still lack connectivity, is in talks with a company that could help further that agenda. TechCrunch is hearing that Facebook is buying Titan Aerospace, makers of near-orbital, solar-powered drones which can fly for five years without needing to land. According to a source with access to information about the deal, the price for this acquisition is $60 million*.
Full story on Techcrunch
Physician, Review Thyself
March 4, 2014
A bogus review of a lousy book of poetry never killed anyone, but fake notices for a lousy doctor just might. Yelp and others in the review field say that there are increasing instances of medical folks being caught faking it. Of the 300 businesses that have received a Consumer Alert since Yelp launched the program in 2012, about 20 were medical spas, dentists, doctors, orthodontists and ophthalmologists. Eight of the 19 New York firms caught in a sting by regulators last fall either had a medical connection or dealt with people’s bodies in another way (a tanning salon).
Full story on NYT Blog
How Brands Can Successfully Market Themselves at SXSWi: Be Useful
March 5, 2014
Some 30,000 people will attend South by Southwest Interactive this year. It’s a safe bet that none are hoping to be hectored with marketing messages. On the other hand, SXSWi has dozens of sponsors, including eight “super sponsors” that are paying in the six-figure range to get in those attendees’ faces. Is there any middle ground? Scott McNearney thinks so. McNearney, the sponsorship chief for SXSWi, says he believes all the sponsors should add to the experience, not disrupt it.
Full story on Mashable
Splash, The Party Scientists Stealing Big Business From Eventbrite
March 6, 2014
People don’t want ads, they want memories. To shift from spammy marketing to providing experiences, companies like Anheuser-Busch, Spotify, NPR, and Wired promoted 80,000 events in 2013 with a little startup called Splash. In co-founder Ben Hindman’s first in-depth interview, he tells how Splash’s event platform is challenging bland incumbents with its beautifully designed party websites.
It’s free to set up and host event sites on Splash.
Full story on Techcrunch
Getty Images ditches lawsuits, now lets you embed its images for free
March 6, 2014
Getty Images today announced a new tool that lets anyone embed their images for free — as long as it’s for non-commercial or personal use. The announcement encourages users to embed images instead of breaking copyright restrictions. An embedded photo from Getty Images includes photographer credit, links back to the Getty Images site, and social share buttons. This change won’t eliminate Getty Images’ need to patrol and fight copyright violations, but it allows the stock photo company to boost its image and track the non-commercial distribution of its photos.
Full story on Venturebeat
Facebook Unveils News Feed Redesign, One Year Later
March 6, 2014
Facebook will begin rolling out a redesign for its news feed on Thursday. The new look includes font changes and more prominent photos that span the entire news feed, but the overall look is more subtle than the changes Facebook promised a year ago when it first announced the redesign.
The changes do not affect advertising or newsfeed reach.
Full story on Mashable
5 Bite-Sized Business Lessons From the Girl Scouts
March 7, 2014
The annual Girl Scout Cookie campaign is a big business, generating sales of more than 200 million boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas, Do-Si-Dos, and other delights. That makes the Girl Scouts the Number 3 seller of cookies nationally. According to the organization’s leaders, selling those iconic cookies teaches girls five key entrepreneurial skills. Guess what? Those same skills are what will drive success at your company. Scout’s honor.
Full story on Inc.
What We’re Watching
Bridget Dolan, Sephora’s VP of interactive media, shares about how the beauty retailer uses Pinterest to help customers try out the latest trends. They have engaged people to “pin with us” through social media engagement and making the Pin It button an important feature of their new website.
~Melonie Gallegos
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