Social Media Engagement Correlates with Purchases by Erik Sass

A concrete method for measuring return on investment for social media remains elusive, but recent research initiatives may be bringing such an answer within range. In one recent study scheduled to appear in a journal titled Information Systems Research, researchers from the University at Buffalo School of Management, Aalto University and Texas A&M University were able to correlate social media engagement with increased purchases for a large specialty firm in the northeast U.S. ...Read the whole story

  • pets Fresh Step, ASPCA Team For Catdance Film Festival by Tanya Irwin

    Fresh Step is kicking off the new year by leveraging the Internet to help cats in need and raise funds for the ASPCA with its Catdance promotion. As part of the festival, actress and feline lover AnnaLynne McCord joined Fresh Step in debuting five cat-inspired films from a nationwide search and unveiled a limited-edition, cat-inspired hat that will be available for purchase exclusively at ASPCA.org. ...Read the whole story

  • research Prosumers: Wallets More Powerful Than Votes by Karl Greenberg

    Exploiting social media to get companies, rather than government, is more likely to result in change for the good. A new study from Havas Worldwide finds that a lot of people feel "prosumers," consumer activists, can make a difference in that regard. ...Read the whole story

  • Nevada Tourism Hits The Road With BuzzFeed by Karl Greenberg

    Nevada's tourism challenge is not boosting Sin City, but Nevada itself. The problem is that most people think the former is the landing strip for the latter. A new campaign by communications firm Burson-Marsteller and BuzzFeed is about changing that perception. ...Read the whole story

search Will You Hire Employees To Manage Data From Search Campaigns? by Laurie Sullivan

Labor constraints, or lack of qualified search marketers who can analyze data, could derail search engine marketing campaigns both for optimization and paid search. Findings reveal that 56% of companies participating in the survey plan to hire new employees to handle data collection or analysis, with the most common position being a data analyst or strategist. ...More