Social news site Buzzfeed has acquired Kingfish Labs, a New York startup that processes natural language on Facebook to determine user interests. Buzzfeed said it plans to apply Kingfish’s technology to optimize ad targeting for its brand clients on social networks. Read more »
After a summer that has seen increased activity in social media marketing, media giant Gannett Co. today announced that it has purchased BLiNQ Media, which helps companies execute and manage ad campaigns on Facebook and other social networks. Read more »
On the heels of other social advertising startup acquisitions, Google on Tuesday announced that it has purchased Redwood City, Calif.-based Wildfire, saying that social marketing can complement the other online advertising services Google already provides. Read more »
A comScore study of consumer behavior following exposure to marketing messages on Facebook shows that both fans and friends of fans are more likely to buy things after they see such messages, data that Facebook badly needs to prove the value of its social platform. Read more »
Twitter is expected to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2014, according to unnamed sources, suggesting that it feels confident about its ability to make money through social advertising. Read more »
Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder, spoke at Ad Age’s Digital Conference and talked about how it’s helping usher in the transition from search to social. He said the new standard in advertising is ads that are engaging and are ripe for sharing. Read more »
Twitter and Facebook are both trying hard to show that they are powerful advertising vehicles, in part to justify their multibillion-dollar market valuations. But while each company has shown some growth, there is still skepticism among advertisers about the ultimate value of social advertising. Read more »
A breathless report says Facebook is going to use its new Timeline feature to appeal to advertisers. But is this really surprising? Like most free web services, Facebook has always relied on advertising — and adding social elements to advertising is the future of the medium. Read more »
Facebook is offering companies more information on the way fan pages are used — and new data shows that it’s for one simple reason: it’s by far the most effective way for brands to reach customers, which makes it an easy way for Facebook to cash in. Read more »
LocalResponse — a marketing platform that allows advertisers to send out targeted tweets to consumers based on where consumers have checked in or where they say they are on social networks — has found that its targeting work is paying off with significant engagement from consumers. Read more »
