EMARKETER — Social media marketers looking for an indication that their efforts are helping the bottom line will be encouraged by findings from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate that social friends and followers feel more inclined to purchase from the brands they are fans of. More than one-half of Facebook fans said they are more likely to make a purchase for at least a few brands, and 67% of Twitter followers reported the same...

SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — When you hear that Facebook is yanking Yahoo from its ranks and inching up on Google’s traffic throne, you can’t help but pay attention. And if you work for a business or own one, it’s likely that social media marketing is on your radar. More and more marketing dollars are beginning to shift toward social media marketing and this trend only continues to climb. Here are 5 studies that show how Facebook is undoubtedly a leading online social contender and a key tool that is continually changing the landscape of online engagement and fan loyalty...

NEXT GEN MARKET RESEARCH — For those of you who missed the expert social media panel on marketing to women on Tuesday, I have updated yesterdays post with a link to the recording. Also today wanted to share a link to some gender specific factoids/statistics from one of Anderson Analytics recent social media studies as well as the 10 tips below which came out of the group discussion...

TECHCRUNCH — A new study by Comscore will be released on Wednesday that may give hope to social gaming startups trying to monetize users. 35% of the survey respondents said that they engage in "marketing actions" to earn virtual currency (such as watching a video, filling out a survey, etc.), and 53% said they be willing to consider marketing action for currency if given the choice. The study was conducted by Comscore, sponsored by Offerpal, and included responses from 799 Comscore panelists who play games on social networks at least once per month. 54% of panelists play games at least daily...

E-COMMERCE-GUIDE.COM — You happily launch your online user-reviews section and wouldn’t you know it -- waiting for admin approval is a customer‘s negative product review. Before you hit delete and pretend you didn’t see it, there is positive news about negative reviews. It may sound a bit counterintuitive, but a negative product review can actually be helpful to your online business...