Disney Buys Kids' Social Net Togetherville by Erik Sass

This week has seen a flurry of activity in social media for kids, with the launch of imbee (targeting 8-14-year-olds) followed by the news that Disney has acquired Togetherville, a social network for kids under the age of 10, founded in 2007. Like other social networks for kids, including imbee, Club Penguin and Minyanville's Minyanland, Togetherville aims to provide a safe online environment for kids to socialize, with more parental oversight and control than may be offered by general market social nets like Facebook and MySpace. ...Read the whole story

  • Social Media Data Works If Segmented To Key Groups by Mark Walsh

    Social media programs generate a torrent of data from fans to wall posts to rate of pass-along and poll results. But how should all that information be sifted and presented within an organization? Gear it to three basic online groups. ...Read the whole story

  • Kelsey Thinks Social, Acts Local by Mark Walsh

    With small businesses increasingly heading onto Facebook and other social networks, local media advisor BIA/Kelsey is launching a social media practice geared to the local market. 48% of small and medium-sized businesses are using Facebook to advertise or promote their business, outstripping email, at 43%. ...Read the whole story

  • Study: Search, Social Create Interlinked Purchase Path by Laurie Sullivan

    Every action creates a reaction. Research from GroupM Search and comScore released Thursday reveals 40% of consumers using search in their path to purchase are motivated to use social media to complete their decision. Similarly, 46% of consumers who use social media in the purchase pathway are driven to use search to expand their knowledge about their likely purchase. ...Read the whole story

Electronic Social Etiquette Influences Communication Success by Jack Loechner

According to a new report from Exact Target and CoTweet, data from "The Social Break-up" indicates 18% of email users say they never open email from companies, and 77% of all US online consumers say they have become more cautious in the past year about giving their email addresses to companies. Consumers are also highly sensitive to the difference between permission-based emails from companies they know and trust and unsolicited messages from unknown companies. ...More

  • The Paradox of Social Media: The More Social it Gets, The Less Social We Become by Gord Hotchkiss

    I have teenage daughters. At least, I assume they're still my daughters. They hang around our house and eat our food. But, to be honest, it's been a while since we identified ourselves to each other. Between Angry Birds, SMS and Facebook, there's precious little actual conversing going on in the Hotchkiss household. I barely recognize their faces, lit up as they are by the cool blue digital light of an iPhone screen. I assume that, at times, there's a living being at the other end of their multi-texting, but I'm not really sure. ...More

  • BIA/Kelsey Adds Local Social To Search by Laurie Sullivan

    Small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) have latched onto social networks as the advertising tool of choice to promote products and services. In fact, 48% said they use Facebook, 25% rely on other social networks, 22% use blogs, and 19% tap Twitter, according to the latest BIA/Kelsey's Local Commerce Monitor (LCM), an ongoing study of SMB advertising spending habits conducted in partnership with ConStat. ...More

  • Before Blogs Die, A Few More Words About Their Non-Demise by Catharine P. Taylor

    It looks, thankfully, that reports that the blog is dead are greatly exaggerated. ...More