EMARKETER — Content-sharing has become a staple of internet usage for most online adults. Research from Chadwick Martin Bailey found that three-quarters of web users are likely to share content with friends and family, and nearly half do so at least once a week. But while much social networking content is built around such shared items, most people still prefer to use email to pass along items of interest...

IMEDIA CONNECTION — In my most recent article for iMedia, I highlighted the three main reasons why some brands are lacking fans. And while fans are very important component in building your Facebook marketing channel, the work doesn't end once the consumer clicks the "like" button. In fact, fans often like your page with little to no intention of maintaining frequent communication with you. What got them to click "like" is probably not what it will take to keep them loyal...

ADEXCHANGER.COM — It was the final presentation at the Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing annual conference last Saturday, and maybe it was the most relevant if you're a fan of data-driven, digital marketing. After all, anybody that announces, "My company will buy 20 BILLON display impressions in the fourth quarter of 2010," as Intuit VP of Global Media & Digital Marketing Seth Greenberg did, should make targeters and data providers salivate...  read more »

EMARKETER — Del Monte Foods is known for several of its heritage brands, including Contadina, College Inn, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Meow Mix, 9Lives and Pup-Peroni. The portfolio also contains Milk-Bone, the dog biscuit brand that is over 100 years old and undertook its first social media marketing program in September 2009. Milk-Bone teamed up with its longtime charitable partner, Canine Assistants, on a campaign called "It’s Good to Give." The brand gave a percentage of every box purchased to the Atlanta-based nonprofit, which trains and provides service dogs to people with disabilities or other special needs...

MEDIAPOST — Yesterday morning, I logged into Facebook (as I do each morning) and saw a post from my cousin's wife that my cousin had suffered a major heart attack the night before and had open-heart surgery. Thankfully, he will be ok, but the shock of this happening to my cousin at such a young age was intense. His father wasn't too thrilled to learn this had been posted on Facebook before he had a chance to let family and friends know what was going on. He was fairly upset that another family member put it out on Facebook but concluded, due to her age, "That's just this generation, I guess." We are living in a time where generations are divided about what constitutes too much information, or "TMI"...

BLAISE GRIMES-VIORT — Following on from my article "10 key guiding principles for online community building and engagement", here is an overview of the steps you need to follow to build a strong, sustainable community. There are a number of questions your should ask yourself before launching a new community, and the first one is: Why?...

E-CONSULTANCY.COM — The UK’s online advertising spend increased 10% to nearly £2bn in the first half of 2010 according to the IAB. For the first time the survey estimated spend on social networks, at 3% of total online spend. Though that’s a rough-and-ready figure, it probably represents around £40-50m in the first 6 months of 2010. There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of that social spend is going on Facebook and we’ll see that increase considerably through 2011. The reason? Facebook is building a powerful performance marketing channel that takes advantage of the enormous amount of user data they have. Precisely targeted ads, priced by advertisers through an auction system can be shown to any of Facebook’s 500m active users...