A lot of people are excited about social media and think it could have a hugely positive impact on their brand, their marketing and communications, the insight they get, the way in which they deal with customer service and many other benefits it can bring to an organisation and to the way it interacts with [...]

How do you attract a flash mob of 150+ people to your restaurant?  Offer the possibility of a Foursquare Swarm Badge, of course! Last week, restaurant owner Joe Sorge attracted 161 Foursquare users at the same time to his burger joint in Milwaukee, AJ Bombers (pretty impressive considering there are approximately only 300-400 total Foursquare users [...]

Sometimes it’s helpful to verify something that seems obvious. In this case a new study from Chadwick Martin Bailey, a market research firm, confirms that people who associate themselves with a brand through online social networks are more likely, on average, to buy that brand and recommend it to friends. “No duh,” I hear some [...]

Polls show that marketers are aiming for personalization to make their e-mails stand out in recipients’ inboxes, and the rise of social media has made many consumers expect a more personal relationship with brands.  A look at e-mail subject lines suggests marketers are following that lead. While in November 2008, subjects with “you” and “your” [...]

According to the Nielsen Company, the global average time spent per person on social networking sites is now nearly five and half hours per month (February 2010 data), with Facebook accounting for the majority of that time. That’s up more than two hours from last year.