Periscope announced that it is rolling out a VIP Program , which will give popular broadcasters access to special rewards, including a VIP badge for their profiles. In addition to receiving a VIP badge, VIP users will have the chance to be included in a “rotating list of broadcasters for people to…

Twitter marked National Voter Registration Day with the introduction of an easy way for its users to kick-start the process. The social network announced in a blog post that users who send direct messages to its Twitter Government @Gov account will receive automated DM responses with their state’s…

Google announced the latest updates coming to Chrome on Android devices . The updates were designed, in part, to help users save data and access content even when they’re offline. First, Google announced that it has brought its Data Saver technology to videos, which it said allows users to save up…

Facebook and Twitter shared their analysis of users’ posts about the first presidential debate Monday night, and their findings were fairly similar. Facebook said 18.6 million U.S. users generated 73.8 million posts, likes, comments and shares related to the debate Monday night, adding that Facebook…

Social has become an important part of the recruiting and job searching process. While companies like to manage their brands on Facebook, Twitter is where most job seekers go to research companies and their employees. Still, according to the most recent Jobvite report , recruiters are starting to…

Stud or Dud announced the release of its iOS application, which was designed to help online daters find out more about their potential dates before meeting them in person. With Stud or Dud, users can search for a potential date’s “publicly available records” by entering their name, phone number or…

Spike released Lip Sync Battle in soft launch on iOS. The application is based on television show Lip Sync Battle, and it was co-created by Nadine Levitt , founder and CEO of karaoke app Wurrly , and Casey Patterson , executive producer of Lip Sync Battle and founder of Casey Patterson Entertainment…

With all the chatter about how many seconds (or milliseconds) consumers actually watch Facebook video ads, aren’t the experts missing the point? The point is: Regardless of what Facebook reports, these interruptive ad formats simply don’t work. Maybe the problem is not with ad measurement, it is…

By on Sep. 27, 2016 - 8:30 AM Facebook announced Tuesday that more than 4 million businesses worldwide are active advertisers on the social network, with more than 70 percent of them based outside of the U.S. More than 60 million businesses globally are using Facebook pages, and other statistics the…

We’ve talked a lot about data quality in the past – including the cost of bad data . But despite a basic understanding of data quality, many people still don’t quite grasp what exactly is meant by “quality”. For example, is there a way to measure that quality, and if so, how do you do it? In this…

Fox ’s Empire dominated the Nielsen Social Content Ratings rankings of television series and specials by total interactions for the week of Sept. 19. Empire totaled 4.005 million interactions, more than four times the total posted by second-place finisher ABC ’s Grey’s Anatomy , at 976,000.…

Wedding brand and marketplace The Knot released the results of “ The Knot Social Media Survey 2016 ,” which revealed how brides use social media from the time of their engagements to their honeymoons. The Knot ‘s survey gathered responses from 1,192 U.S. respondents aged 18 and older (99 percent…

Marketers and retailers have been trying to push social commerce on social media users. Many see it as the next wave for social marketing, as it allows connection with customers, increased opportunities for conversion and instant purchases . However, millennials–whose buying power is expected to…

Facebook appears to have given advertisers the ability to establish rules to automatically turn off ad or send email alerts once certain criteria are met. Reader Chris Ruberg , digital marketing specialist at OneCommand , shared the screenshots below with SocialTimes. Facebook had not responded to a…

Facebook vice president of business and marketing partnerships David Fischer responded to last week’s report that its data on average viewing time for videos over the past two years was flawed. Suzanne Vranica and Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the social network…

The term influencer is being tossed around a lot these days. I would even classify it as one of the top 10 buzzwords of 2016. Influencer marketing is quickly becoming one of the hottest and most effective strategies in existence. In fact, “ 59 percent of marketers use influencer engagement campaigns…

Traditional marketing channels have broadened considerably in the past decade. Now, in addition to websites, Facebook, direct mail and more, cross-channel marketing also includes applications such as Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter. Still, everyone is always on the lookout for the next big marketing…

Niantic released a new update for Pokemon Go on iOS and Android. The update adds a Pokemon’s capture location to its information screen. Specifically, when users capture a Pokemon (or look at a previously captured Pokemon), its information screen will display its capture location and capture date in…

How did you spend your Friday night? Snapchat spent it changing its company name to Snap Inc. and introducing its Spectacles sunglasses with integrated video cameras. Why the late-Friday-night announcement? A leaked video of Spectacles posted by Business Insider likely accelerated the process. CEO…

It’s no secret. Everyone knows the biggest problem B2B content marketing faces today. Well, actually several give B2B marketers fits. Which one am I talking about? Making B2B content engage and actually drive more leads. How bleak does the situation look? Not good. Content Marketing Institute’s 2016…

The winners of the annual Getty Images Instagram Grant were revealed this week. Each recipient will receive a $10,000 grant, and their work will exhibited at Photoville in New York through Sept. 25. This year’s winners, with one example of their work, were: Christian Rodriguez ( @christian_foto ), a…

YouTube introduced its YouTube Heroes program, which will allow “Hero” users to earn rewards by flagging inappropriate videos, adding captions and subtitles to videos and more. To start, YouTube said the YouTube Heroes program is available to “a select group of contributors from across the globe who…

Instagram Stories will make its live-coverage debut as part of a partnership between Instagram and CBSN . CBS News ’ 24/7 digital streaming service will feature curated Instagram Stories as part of its livestreaming coverage of the upcoming presidential and vice presidential debates , marking the…

Are you looking for a new mobile game to play this weekend? There are lots of new options available for you to try, including Disney Princess: Charmed Adventures from Disney . The app allows users to play a variety of mini-games with Rapunzel, Ariel, Belle and Tiana. If you’re looking for something…

Some Olympic sports, like gymnastics and diving, eliminate competitors’ lowest scores, and it appears that Facebook took a similar approach in its data on average viewing time for videos over the past two years. Suzanne Vranica and Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal reported that the social…

Have you ever been on Twitter and thought to yourself, “I don’t like this tweet?” iOS users can now share those exact sentiments with the social network. Alex Kantrowitz of BuzzFeed News reported that Twitter quietly introduced an “I don’t like this tweet option” for iOS users last week, and a…

I get it. I understand how brutal it can be—trying to market your small business in a world of billion-dollar businesses and multi-million dollar marketing budgets. You have a limited budget, limited time, limited knowledge, and a limited arsenal of tactics that you can afford to implement. But the…

Social and programmatic are quickly becoming one buy thanks in large part to the expansion of programmatic solutions giving way to brands that have overcome a siloed buying process. According to an eMarketer study , more than two-thirds of all digital display advertising will be purchased…

Twitter said it received 2 percent more government requests for account information in the first half of 2016 compared with the second half of 2015, affecting 8 percent more accounts. The social network released its Transparency Report for the first six months of the year, and other findings…

From social media and mobile platforms to artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things , the evolution of technology is driven by design leaders who work to discover innovative solutions to the challenges of the modern world. Much like tech startups must innovate to succeed, mature companies…

For many marketers, performing keyword research is a pretty standard procedure. What has primarily changed over time are the tools used to source key search queries and determine the quality and intent behind those keywords. While the approach to research remains largely the same, the landscape in…

Facebook introduced its Profile Expression Kit at its F8 global developers conference in April, and Thursday, the social network announced that it is available to Android and iOS developers worldwide. The Profile Expression Kit enables application users to tinker with their profile pictures and…

Disney announced the release of Disney Princess: Charmed Adventures on iOS and Android. The children’s game was developed for kids aged six through eight, and it allows users to play a variety of mini-games with Ariel, Belle, Rapunzel and Tiana. Disney said the game was designed to inspire children…

Facebook continues to pack features into its Messenger application, introducing polls and a chat assist function for payments . The social network said in a post Thursday that polls are currently available for iOS and Android users in the U.S. only, adding: Today, we’re rolling out the ability for…

As social media continues to evolve, each platform proves to serve a unique purpose in the sharing and branding paradigm. Instagram, the image-based platform, lets users show-off their personality in square frames. For brands, they are able to create followings, sponsor images and videos, etc.…

Instagram announced Thursday that it now has more than 500,000 advertisers, more than doubling its total over the past six months, and that more than 1.5 million businesses have converted to its new business profiles since that option was made available in June. The Facebook-owned photo- and…

Advertisers running mobile application install ad campaigns on Twitter Audience Platform now have access to native ads. Product manager, revenue Daniel Kang announced in a blog post that the launch of this feature gives advertisers access to a potential audience of more than 800 million when…

Panda Pop creator SGN Games has undergone a rebrand, and it is now called Jam City. Speaking with SocialTimes, Jam City co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe said the name is, in part, a nod to Cookie Jam , one of the company’s popular games. In addition, a “jam” can be a group of people coming together,…

Retention is one of the biggest challenges facing mobile application developers today. In many cases, apps hemorrhage users within the first few days of downloading, and when new users are necessary to grow services, this clearly needs to change. A report from mobile marketing platform Leanplum…

Your pricing options suck. At least that’s what some of your consumers think. They like your products. But the pricing packages aren’t meeting their expectations. Customers may enjoy one feature, but it isn’t included in a specific package. Or maybe they admire the pricing but prefer different…