New research from Nielsen suggests U.S. Hispanics have a greater interest in accessing social media for customer service than the general population using social media. Specifically, Latinos on social sites are 21% more likely than average to use what Nielsen calls “social care.” More than half (57%) have asked a question or voiced a complaint to a brand or company via Facebook, Twitter or other sites compared to 47% of the general population. Hispanics also turn to social media more frequently for customer help, with 19% doing so on a daily basis, 30% weekly, 16% a few times a …

Digital audience targeting firm Collective is among the latest companies to plug its ad technology into the Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX). Through Collective on Facebook, clients will be able to apply its data and audience-targeting tools to FBX campaigns as part of broader digital ad buys. “With the addition of Facebook Exchange, Collective further eliminates silos associated with channels such as social, TV, and display, resulting in less audience duplication and better attribution,” stated a company page dedicated to FBX. The company says clients can use Collective on Facebook to control reach and frequency across Facebook and existing display …

Extole execs said the social platform company closed a $7.6 million funding round, bringing total investments to $29.6 million. It plans to use the investment to accelerate product and platform investments. Investors include Shasta Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and Trident Capital. The funding comes on the heels of a record year for growth in bookings and customer acquisitions. Extole recently began supporting eHarmony, Spotify, Cache, Seventh Generation and HSN Improvements.

Despite record gains, sales of Apple’s signature devices during the holiday quarter fell just below analysts’ estimates, as did the tech giant’s revenue for the period. Apple on Wednesday reported selling 47.8 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter, up 29% from 37 million a year ago. Sales of iPads increased to 22.9 million units, a 49% gain from 15.4 million in the year-earlier period. But analysts had forecast sales of about 46 to 50 million iPhone and 23 to 24 million iPads. Sales of the iPad Mini, launched in October, weren't broken out, but Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer …

The Los Angeles Dodgers said Walton Isaacson (WI) has been named the team's advertising and marketing agency of record for 2013. WI will report to EVP and CMO, Los Angeles Dodgers, Lon Rosen. Guggenheim Partners, a privately held global financial services firm, which acquired the team last year.

LinkedIn has launched a new sponsored group aimed at business travelers—a natural fit for the professional networking site. Sponsored by Capital One, Jet: The Business Travelers Network will include relevant articles, Q&As, profiles of industry experts and weekly polls. All content will be curated and managed by a dedicated editorial staff for the group. After testing the group last month, LinkedIn said it’s gotten positive feedback on topics such as improving your odds for airline upgrades and discussion about the most stressful airports in America. Capital One branding and advertising is featured on the Jet site, including a “Powered by” …

The TV audience for President Obama's second inauguration was well down from his first -- mostly expected. Nielsen says 20.6 million viewers tuned in on Monday collectively for all networks -- down from the 37.8 million four years ago. Still, this was more than George W. Bush's second term celebration which came in at 15.5 million in 2004. Only one President's second inauguration did better than the first -- President Richard Nixon's …

Digital out-of-home video network operator Outcast Media is beefing up its sales organization with three key hires: Eric Davies, Senior Director of Sales, Detroit (formerly of CBS Interactive); Wes Waterston, Director of Sales, Central Region (formerly of Bluefin Labs); and Kim Lane, Director of Sales, West Region (formerly of Rocket Fuel and Edmunds.com).

MLB.com’s At Bat app, one of the biggest brands when it comes to paid apps, will be ready to go on BlackBerry 10 when Opening Day roll around. Major League Baseball Advanced Media said today that the top-selling sports app will be available on latest version of BlackBerry’s platform, which set to launch next week "BlackBerry has been an important platform for delivering content to baseball fans for many years and we are excited to continue that relationship by developing At Bat for BlackBerry 10 in 2013," said Adam Ritter, SVP, Wireless, MLBAM, in a statement. The league has …

Ubiquitous comms guy Jonathan Gardner heads over to cloud-based marketing firm Turn