Social Media Can Predict Box Office Hits by Erik Sass

In addition to connecting people and (maybe) serving as an advertising platform, social media can be used to predict a variety of phenomena, according to scientists who are mining the huge volume of conversations and opinions posted online and linking this data to real-world outcomes. One recent example comes from physicists at Japan's Tottori University, who say they've come up with a model which correlates a number of factors, including social media buzz, to the box office success of new movie releases. The model also takes into account the amount of money spent on advertising a movie before its release, ...Read the whole story

  • food Carapelli Olive Oil Campaign Stresses Social Sharing by Karlene Lukovitz

    Dubbed "Made with Care, Made to Share," the campaign's hub is a relaunched site. The site focuses on offering recipes and provides links to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to encourage users to share the recipes and discuss the brand. ...Read the whole story

  • In Sync: Brands Expanding Social Media Presence by Steve McClellan

    Consumers are making fewer visits to brand Web sites as they increasingly engage with brands in the social media space. Part of the challenge for marketers, a UM study reports, is determining what kind of "experiences" consumers want with a brand via social media "and which of these experiences deliver the brand's marketing objectives." ...Read the whole story

search Could Mobile Search, Advertising Become A Myth? by Laurie Sullivan

The number of mobile Internet users will surpass desktop users by 2014, according to a forecast by comScore, which also estimates that a 47% rise in smartphone users -- equaling 106.7 million or 45.6% of the U.S. mobile population -- occurred in the year prior to March 2012. The data, part of the research firm's State of the U.S. Internet report, also details trends in social, online advertising and e-commerce. ...More