Failure to refresh your creative is costing you more than you think. Facebook penalizes advertisers for overserving the same ad to the same user by charging a higher price. So not only do you risk annoying a user and/or wasting ad spend on an impression that doesn’t generate action, you could even…

Google Analytics is the de-facto industry standard analytics tool. It’s installed on almost every single business site. (It’s even looked at too, sometimes, too.) It provides a tremendous amount of data that you can manipulate, along with customization options for advanced features that power users…

Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe announced that he will relinquish the top job but stay on to lead the Facebook-owned virtual reality company’s PC VR group. Iribe said in a blog post that recent hire Jon Thomason will lead the mobile VR group at Oculus, and he, Thomason and Facebook chief technology…

Yelp launched a Cash Back rewards program, which allows consumers to receive up to 10 percent cash back on their purchases at participating businesses across the U.S. Users can sign up for the Yelp Cash Back program by visiting the program’s website , or by clicking the “Cash Back” link on the page…

Snapchat announced three new features Tuesday: Groups, Scissors and Paintbrush. Groups allow Snapchat users to create group chats with up to 16 friends, and these group chats are deleted by default after 24 hours. Snaps within Groups can be opened and replayed once by each participant, and if they…

Facebook Tuesday announced the launch of the Facebook Parents Portal , a collection of resources for parents. The Facebook Parents Portal is available in more than 55 languages globally, and it contains step-by-step videos to help parents guide their children safely around the social network.…

At any time of the day, anywhere in the world, more than one-half of the planet’s population has the ability to pick up their smartphones and transform themselves into actors, authors and artists. They can create and share in seconds. This shift in the creative power has led to the rise of a new…

Facebook is bringing a slimmed-down version of its Moments application to desktop. Sarah Perez of TechCrunch reported that the social network is making the desktop version of Moments available to all users, adding that it is accessible via the navigation column on the left-hand side, and that it…

The live video feature for Instagram Stories that was announced last month is on its way, starting with users in the U.S. Instagram announced in a tweet (embedded below) that live video is being rolled out to U.S. users this week, with another tweet (embedded below) indicating that the feature will…

Allianz chief economic advisor Mohamed El-Erian was named LinkedIn’s top influencer of 2016. LinkedIn said of El-Erian: There’s a reason El-Erian is at the top of this list: His incisive commentary on the global economy, financial markets and monetary policies–not to mention his short-form updates…

Niantic announced the first addition of more Pokemon to Pokemon Go . This update will allow players around the world to add Togepi, Pichu and other “select” Pokemon from the Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver video games to their in-game collections. Togepi, Pichu and the other select Pokemon can only…

Facebook may be looking to take on its fake news problem with a real person. Kerry Flynn of Mashable discovered a job listing from the social network for a head of news partnerships. The job listing indicates that the position can be located at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park , Calif., or out…

There are Facebook Live livestreamed videos and 360 video 360-degree videos, and now, there is Live 360. Product manager Supratik Lahiri and software engineer Chetan Gupta announced in a Newsroom post that Facebook will launch Live 360 video Tuesday (Dec. 13) at noon PT/3 p.m. ET, with National…

Snapchat is following up last week’s partnership expansion with Turner with an announcement this week of a Discover channel for Mitú . Christopher Heine of SocialTimes parent Adweek reported on the addition of Mitú, which focuses on Hispanic-American youths with English-language content. Heine…

As people become more wary of traditional advertising, brands and agencies increasingly turn to influencer marketing programs to connect with their target audiences in authentic and meaningful ways. As a result, 75 percent of marketers today use influencer marketing in some capacity, with nearly 60…

The holidays are a magical time of year. It’s the season where we are bombarded with as many brand promotions as we are Christmas songs. Over the past decade, shoppers have slowly quit spending the day after Thanksgiving clawing through massive crowd scenes in search of the best deals. Instead,…

Optimizing the customer experience is a brilliant way to get new customers. It’s also one of the best ways of fostering customer loyalty. According to Teradata, only 41% of marketing executives are using customer engagement data to inform their marketing strategy. Despite this, marketers and other…

YouTube revealed its year-end lists for 2016, which highlighted the top videos, music videos and ads on the video-sharing platform. YouTube determined the top videos and music videos of 2016 by looking at a variety of factors, including “time spent watching, sharing, commenting, liking and more.”…

Facebook appears to be testing a Snapchat Discover -like navigation bar for Facebook Live videos. Jenni Ryall of Mashable discovered the new navigation bar and shared the screenshot below, reporting that she was able to access the feature by clicking on a play button icon in Facebook’s flagship…

You’ve probably seen or heard about the phenomenon that is Snapchat filters . Snapchatters can take a selfie and superimpose a set of dog ears or a fairy crown onto their video and share it with friends. These “snaps” created with filters are viewed more than 1 billion times per day. As always,…

All is fair in love and SEO. Ranking for a profitable keyword phrase can quickly become a dog fight, and the SEO battle between two rivals can get heated and ugly in a hurry. Okay, maybe that’s overly dramatic, but you get the idea. When you’re battling for search ranking supremacy, it can get…

When it comes to customer dissatisfaction, Spirit Airlines has consistently been the forerunner in the airline industry. Even in the recent travel report published by the American Customer Satisfaction Index it had the lowest score, much below the average benchmark. Having said that, you’d expect…

The landscape of social marketing and content creation is forever changing. This year, we’ve seen a boom in influencer marketing and a tighter focus on return on investment across the industry. Visual content, video-based marketing and the slow adoption of live video and virtual reality technology…

You’ve probably seen Red Bull’s recent video showing people swinging between hot-air balloons in the “Mega Swing.” As a content creator myself, I think it’s great. It’s almost uninformative at this point to say that Red Bull is doing sharable content right. The company has been mastering it since…

Much more than just a buzzword, disruptive marketing is changing the way we react to, understand and accept companies and their advertising. From a business standpoint, disruptive marketing represents a key shift in an era where promotional strategies update as fast as the technology that carries…

Poke + Nearby Friends = Send a Wave? Reader Matteo Gamba shared the screenshot below with SocialTimes, in which the Poke-like Send a Wave feature was added to his Nearby Friends section, and a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to SocialTimes that Send a Wave is a new feature the social network is…

Niantic released the latest update for Pokemon Go on iOS and Android. With this update, users can transfer multiple Pokemon to Professor Willow at once by pressing and holding on a Pokemon to select it. In a blog post , Niantic detailed the update’s other features: Pokemon type icons have been added…

Ad spending and media buying is a complex and confusing system. While spending is up , there are more options than ever before, particularly when it comes to social marketing . An infographic from market research firm Forrester Research and cloud-based marketing and advertising platform SteelHouse…

Twitter users can now tweet emoji to Google’s official Twitter account to receive local search results in replies. For instance, a user can tweet a flower emoji to @Google, and the account will reply with a link to view nearby flower shops in Google’s search results. Users will need to have location…

When it comes to Snapchat, media giant Turner is all-in. Turner and Snapchat announced an expansion of their existing partnership, which will bring original series from Turner properties including TBS , Adult Swim , truTV , Great Big Story and Super Deluxe to the messaging application, along with a…

I think we can all agree that content marketing is both practical and potent. It’s the ultimate form of inbound marketing and makes total sense when you need to reach 21st century consumers. I could even spout off a laundry list of stats that prove just how big of an impact content marketing can…

Mobile, video and programmatic advertising are growing rapidly, and marketers are looking to use new channels and technologies to get the most out of each media campaign. As marketers buy programmatic ads across multiple platforms, advertisers need to reach out and engage with their users across…

A proven tenet of online publishing, it’s been shown time and time again that long-form content drives more value than short-form content. Search-engine-optimization results are better . Conversion rates can be better, as can social engagement rates. Interestingly, one channel where the length of…

Glu Mobile announced the release of Nicki Minaj: The Empire on mobile. The lifestyle simulation game allows users to become hip-hop stars with the help of musician Nicki Minaj . In Nicki Minaj: The Empire, each user can create and customize an avatar to represent them in the game. From there, users…

Pinterest went shopping at Walmart.com and came away with a new head of vertical strategy. Brian Monahan joined the social network in that role, after serving as head of marketing for the retail giant’s online presence. Monahan is tasked with developing and managing marketing programs to increase…

Disclaimer: Please refrain from reading this post if you’re easily offended or have no sense of humor whatsoever. It’s noisy and saturated these days in the marketing realm. Brands are in a never-ending battle of one-upmanship. With many industries being hyper-competitive and increasingly saturated,…

Most pricing pages have three plans laid out horizontally across the page. But why? And in what order? Simply copying what everyone else is doing, without understanding the purpose behind certain features or the research that shows which features convert the best, will give you a hollow page that…

Pandora revealed the 100 most “ thumbed up ” songs on its platform in 2016. Rihanna took the top place on the list, with Work (Feat. Drake ). Drake’s One Dance (Feat. Wizkid and Kyla ) came in second place, and another of Rihanna’s songs, Needed Me, came in third. Overall, Drake had the most songs…