In what may be the most robust and detailed data analysis on the impact the social media connections of consumers have on the effectiveness of advertising and brand metrics released to date, marketing analytics firm 33Across is distributing eight months of so-called "brand graph" data used by 100 consumer marketers to target 250 online campaigns during the latter part of 2011. The most significant finding is that targeting ads on the basis of consumers' social media conversations and content significantly boosts the performance of all advertising metrics -- both direct response as well as the more elusive element of "brand ... ...Read the whole story

Among marketers, what separates the good from the bad? Effective real-time audience measurement. Smart marketers are already shifting from traditional data focused on products, channels and campaigns to the real-time identification and optimization of consumer audiences. ...Read the whole story

A new Borrell report indicates that companies with dedicated digital salespeople outperformed those without by a factor of two-and-a-half times in gross online revenue per rep ($185,900 versus $73,300). Among TV stations -- many with no sales reps dedicated exclusively to selling online advertising -- those with online-only reps average three times the gross online revenue ($208,200 vs. $70,300). ...Read the whole story

Last year ended with smartphone penetration in the U.S. reaching 46%, according to the latest data from Nielsen. Helping to drive adoption in recent months has been the iPhone 4S, launched in October. ...Read the whole story

Brand marketers continue to struggle with determining ROI for social media campaigns. Most admit to gaining positive ROI on campaigns, but a study released Wednesday from Wildfire, a social media platform company, shows the metrics remain all over the map. Inconsistencies make it difficult to create and follow industry standards. ...Read the whole story

Unlike Wikipedia, Reddit and a host of other Web companies, Google won't go dark on Wednesday to protest controversial anti-piracy legislation. But the search giant says it plans to campaign against the bill on its highly trafficked home page. ...Read the whole story

International Business Times has formed a partnership with video search engine blinkx, giving the latter access to video content in an array of categories, which blinkx will monetize with contextually relevant advertising. ...Read the whole story

Social gifting service Wrapp, which lets consumers give retail gift cards for free through a mobile app, has secured $5 million in funding from Greylock Partners. The venture capital firm co-leads the Series A round with Atomico, an international venture capital firm formed by Niklas Zennstrm, Skype co-founder. ...Read the whole story