Niantic previewed a Halloween event coming to Pokemon Go , which will allow players to earn extra Pokemon candy and catch more “spooky” Pokemon than normal for a limited time. Specifically, from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, the game will have “increased global encounters” of Drowzee, Gastly, Gengar, Golbat,…

As a marketer, you know how important it is to create a connection with your audience. It’s essential for slashing through the barriers that divide us, for establishing a unique brand identity, and for building trust. There have been times I’ve been successful in doing so. But at other times, I’ve…

With the decline in organic reach on Facebook , the introduction of an algorithm on Instagram and the real-time nature of Twitter , paid media has become necessary for brands to amplify content to the right audiences, at the right time, with the right message. Organic marketing activity is only as…

Link building. It’s the backbone of SEO. The way we build links has changed quite a lot over the past decade, but links themselves are no less valuable. Like me, you may remember the early days of online marketing, when generating backlinks to a website was as simple as requesting links from link…

The Dallas Cowboys are known as America’s Team, and according to social marketing firm Unmetric , they were Facebook’s team, as well, during weeks four through six of the National Football League season. Unmetric analyzed all of the NFL teams on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram from Sept. 27 through…

A hot prospect has demoed your software or product, and now you’ve got Sales talking with the decision-makers about an enterprise solution that will be your biggest yet. You find out they’ve narrowed down their decision to you and two of your competitors. This should be a slam dunk—you just spent…

Facebook quietly began encouraging users to endorse their chosen candidates in the 2016 presidential election , and it is apparently doing the same for pages. Some page administrators (including this writer) saw the message pictured to the right at the top of their News Feeds , reading: Who is (page…

The good news for Facebook is that should start seeing fewer complaints about posts it decided to censor. The bad news for Facebook is that it will likely start seeing more complaints about posts it didn’t censor. Vice president of global public policy Joel Kaplan and vp of global operations and…

YouTube released data related to the third and final U.S. presidential debate . The event drove 2.8 million live watch hours on YouTube, almost five times higher than the live watch hours for the third presidential debate in 2012. In addition, the third presidential debate saw 1.7 million live peak…

Personalization provides marketers with the opportunity to engage customers more fully. However, many marketers still struggle to leverage personalization data effectively and miss important opportunities as a result. An infographic from Bazaarvoice illustrates what consumers want from…

Facebook announced a multiplatform ad campaign Friday aimed at promoting awareness of and driving usage of its Facebook Live livestreaming feature. News of the campaign broke late last month in a report by Deepa Seetharaman of The Wall Street Journal . The campaign will launch Sunday in the U.S. and…

Facebook page administrators : If the figures for Reactions , shares and comments on your pages seemed a bit off between Oct. 4 and 14, here’s why. The social network announced in a Facebook for Business post that a bug affected Page Insights during that time period, and that bug has since been…

There’s a sub-genre of videos in which children react to technology relics like rotary phones, Walkmans and typewriters and reveal how foreign such concepts are. When hearing an old-style busy signal, for instance, one kid guesses that it means the phone is “loading or searching.” A good candidate…

There is only one danger more deadly to an online marketer than ignorance, and that danger is misplaced confidence. Whenever a marketer omits regular statistical significance testing, they risk infecting their campaigns with dubious conclusions that may later mislead them. But because these…

Publishers using Facebook’s Instant Articles can now include 360-degree videos and 360-degree photos to their content. Product manager Josh Roberts announced the new options in a Facebook Media blog post , saying that publishers can begin adding 360 videos and 360 photos as of Thursday, and they…

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: For manufacturers selling in retail chains, Google launches affiliate location ad extensions Oct 20, 2016 by Ginny Marvin The extension lets manufacturers to show…

Google released Wallpapers, an Android application that allows users to browse a variety of device wallpapers taken from Google Earth , Google+ and “other partners.” As reported by Android Central , the Wallpapers app allows users to browse wallpapers in a variety of categories, including Earth,…

Ubisoft announced the release of Trolls: Crazy Party Forest on iOS and Android. The city-building game is based on DreamWorks Animation film Trolls, which hits theaters in the U.S. Nov. 4. In Trolls: Crazy Party Forest, each player will build a troll village in the forest where they can plant and…

In our ongoing coverage of security topics for Cybersecurity Awareness Month , it’s important to recognize that all parties play an important role in security infrastructure. Businesses need to provide adequate solutions and people need to utilize the solutions provided. Unfortunately, according to…

Twitter is marking Spirit Day Thursday (Oct. 20) with a custom purple hashtag-triggered emoji . Spirit Day is an annual anti-bullying initiative spearheaded by GLAAD in support of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) youth. The social network announced that it teamed up with GLAAD…

YouTube announced two campaigns taking place in the YouTube Kids application during October. The YouTube Kids app contains family-friendly channels and videos from YouTube. First, October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and to mark the occasion, YouTube Kids now offers playlists of videos…

Mobile entertainment company Seriously announced the release of Best Fiends Forever, the second game in the Best Fiends franchise. The clicker or idle game allows users to help the Fiends defeat the Slugs while traveling through the land of Minutia. In Best Fiends Forever, players can tap to attack…

In recent weeks, Google and Facebook–both undeniable juggernauts in digital advertising–have gotten serious about the latest craze in technology. It has nothing to do with Pokemon Go or custom photo filters , nor does it rely on a new console or platform. During New York’s Advertising Week, both…

The wall around Snapchat’s walled garden is about to get a little more expensive for media companies to climb. Peter Kafka and Kurt Wagner of Recode reported that Snapchat is proposing radically different terms to media companies providing content for its Discover section. According to Kafka and…

Candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton discussing treatment of women provided the most-tweeted-about moment during the third and final presidential debate Wednesday night. Nielsen reported that there were 53.2 million interactions—defined as “original social media posts related to a linear TV…

Instagram took a cue from parent company Facebook with its launch of suicide-prevention tools . The new tools will allow Instagram users to anonymously report when they see posts from friends that hint at self-harm, and those friends will receive messages that read: Someone saw one of your posts and…

Facebook announced earlier this week that the customizable push campaigns for applications that it introduced at F8 earlier this year are out of closed beta. Software engineer Brian Ni announced in a blog post that push campaigns are now available to all businesses, complete with a redesigned…

Brands using Facebook’s dynamic ads can now add product images via URL, rather than solely via product catalogs on the social network. Reader Chris Ruberg , digital marketing specialist at OneCommand , shared the screenshot below with SocialTimes. Advertisers: What have your experiences with dynamic…

Social media changed the way we communicate, and visual content on social is changing the way we consume information . Visual content leads to higher engagement than all-text content, and video is becoming an increasingly important piece of the social media marketing engagement puzzle. A report on…

Electronic Arts released a major update for its Battlelog mobile application, changing the name of the app to Battlefield Companion , and adding support for Battlefield 1, the latest game in the Battlefield franchise. The Battlefield Companion app allows users to view their stats from Battlefield 1…

Pinterest Wednesday announced the formation of the Pin Collective , which is aimed at giving brands access to the social network’s best content creators. The Pin Collective is made up of select publishers, production shops and individuals, which will work directly with brands on their Pinterest…

Face it: Bots are all the rage right now. Not only are chat bots becoming more useful for consumers, they’re becoming an increasingly common way for brands to forge relationships with their customers. Whether it’s taking care of customer-service needs or helping someone find specific products, the…

Facebook quietly added the ability for users to endorse candidates in the 2016 presidential election , as well as issues tabs on those candidates’ pages. The Facebook pages for Hillary Clinton , Donald Trump , Gary Johnson and Jill Stein each contain an endorsements tab, and users who click on those…

Designs don’t always work out as intended. The layout looks good. The color choices seem great. And the CTA balances clever and clear. But… It’s not working. All of it. Some of it. You’re not completely sure, but something’s gotta give. Despite everyone’s best intentions, including all the hours of…

Updates are coming “over the next few months” for Facebook Audience Network , according to director of publisher solutions David Jakubowski . The social network unveiled Facebook Audience Network at F8 in 2014 as a way for advertisers to take advantage of Facebook’s advertising and targeting tools…

Facebook appears to be testing a new way to get users chatting on its Messenger application: conversation topics. TechCrunch readers Chris Messina and Dan Simpson shared the iOS screenshots to the right and below, respectively, with Sarah Perez , who reported that Facebook was conducting a small…

Verified pages on Facebook will be able to schedule Facebook Live videos, complete with pre-broadcast lobbies, via the Facebook Live API (application-programming interface). Product manager Peter Roybal and software engineer Brian Lin announced the new feature in a Facebook Media blog post , noting…

Facebook updated the experience of sharing 360-degree photos with other users. Specifically, users can now change the initial view on their 360 photos on iOS, Android and Chrome on desktop. With this update, when a user uploads a 360 photo on mobile, they can now drag their finger to set the initial…

Facebook has expanded the testing of its Snapchat-like Messenger Day feature to Australia, after starting out its tests in Poland. Messenger Day allows users to share photos and videos in feeds with their friends, adding filters and stickers, with those feeds disappearing after 24 hours. Several…