Want Startup Funding? Just Get Lady Gaga On Board by Erik Sass

Backplane, the tech startup which counts Lady Gaga as an investor, has raised $4.5 million in its first round of funding from backers including Sequoia Capital, Greylock Discovery Fund, Battery Ventures, Formation 8, Advance/Newhouse Investment Partnership, and Founders Fund, according to the Wall Street Journal. All of which just goes to show that to make it in the world of tech startups all you need is a little ingenuity, some healthy ambition, and the backing of the world's most famous celebrity. Easy! ...Read the whole story

  • Samsung's Social Media Campaign Personalizes Olympics by Steve McClellan

    Samsung, a global Olympic sponsor for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, is launching a multiplatform social media campaign designed to personalize the Olympic experience for viewers. The program is being implemented through Facebook Connect and will be promoted on online and traditional media. ...Read the whole story

  • Viggle Acquires Loyalize To Engage Live TV Viewers On Mobile by Laurie Sullivan

    TV brands and broadcasters that want more attention from consumers must get them to interact with the content as it airs. So Viggle, a company supporting mobile loyalty rewards programs, acquired tech-company Loyalize, which enables brands to engage with live TV audiences on mobile devices. ...Read the whole story

  • Arby's Rebounds With Engaging Multiscreen Ad Strategy by Steve McClellan

    Last year Arby's launched a new campaign as the "Good Mood Food" chain, to promote awareness that its comfort food was also wholesome and fresh. Its ads were a viral hit, prompting the company to develop a user-generated "casting call" contest for new ads. The cross-platform campaign, also featuring a social media component, drove the company's highest sales gain in a decade. ...Read the whole story

  • media At The ANA: Social TV Is 'New Media' by Karl Greenberg

    People are no longer just watching television programs. They are talking about them online, often on branded social-media campaigns from program sponsors. Still, defining "social TV" could almost seem a Hobson's choice between a redundancy and an oxymoron. ...Read the whole story

  • search Twitter Offers SMBs Self-Serve Ads With Help From American Express by Laurie Sullivan

    Twitter will roll out its self-service ad platform to small and mid-size businesses in March through a partnership with American Express. Cardmembers and merchants can register to use the platform and receive $100 in advertising credit to put toward bidding on promoted tweets and promoted accounts. ...Read the whole story

Social Networks Pursue Mobile Ad Dollars, E-Commerce by Diane Mermigas

The fledgling mobile transactions market, which some experts expect to reach $1 trillion globally by 2015, is about to get a hyper-boost from Facebook, Twitter, Square and other social media players that consider e-sales the new end game. ...More

  • search U.S. State Department Wants To Hang Out With You On Google+ by Laurie Sullivan

    Google+ has been viewed by some as an "extra extension" or channel, but marketers are beginning to realize its significance. Victoria Esser, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Digital Strategy in the Bureau of Public Affairs, writes in a blog post that social media offers a powerful way for the State Department to better inform, understand, and engage with the American people and communities around the world. ...More

  • Social Experiments And Causes: The GROW SOLE Project by Elizabeth Elfenbein

    Everyone knows about the Butterfly Effect, which shows how small actions can make a big difference. But what about the Boot Effect? ...More

  • Social Video Views Grows 37% in 2011 by Daisy Whitney

    Who said we don't like ads? In 2011, consumers chose to watch ads more than 2.75 billion times. We're not talking pre-rolls or overlays here, either. These are user-initiated smackeroos on the play button to watch a branded video, according to a Visible Measures report on social video. What's particularly eye-popping about social video is its growth. The 2.75 billion views in 2011 is up from 2 billion in 2010, and up from 830 million views in 2009. ...More

  • New Social Media Tools Rule by Jack Loechner

    According to a recent conducted in-depth study on the usage of social media in fast-growing corporations by The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the Inc. 500 (the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. Magazine) was outpacing the revenue based Fortune 500 in their use of social media. ...More