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Smartphones and Tablets: 32% of E-Commerce Traffic in 1H 2013

According to a report from MarketLive, a provider of e-commerce technology for merchants, nearly a third of traffic to e-commerce sites came from smartphones and tablets during the first half of 2013 (January-June). However, mobile devices accounted for a much smaller portion of revenue. Smartphones and Tablets MarketLive’s mid-year “Performance Index” report found that 18.6…

Half of All Emails Opened on Mobile Devices, but Transactions Taken to Bigger Screens in Q2 2013

Half of all emails were opened on mobile devices (i.e., smartphones and tablets) in the second quarter of 2013, according to a study from Experian Marketing Services. However, consumers were more inclined to carry out their transactions on desktop computers. According to Experian’s “Q2 2013 Quarterly Email Benchmark Study,” 50 percent of unique email opens…

Instagram to Start Selling Ads Within the Next Year

According to a Wall Street Journal story, Facebook’s Instagram will be ready to sell ads within the next year. The report quotes Facebook veteran and Instagram director of business operations Emily White, who says the photo- and video-based social network doesn’t have any short-term pressure to make money. Instagram, which just announced that its community…

The Fight Against Affiliate Marketing Fraud in Higher Ed: Q&A with iDatafy

It’s not too difficult to find people who will call the cost of a college education these days highway robbery, but what they might not know is that there are fraudsters who do a little looting of their own, scamming universities out of financial aid payouts. Last school year alone, about $1.2 billion in U.S.…

Distributed Brand Management for a Fragmented World: Technology Is the Answer

By Michael Weissman, chairman and CEO, SYNQY Corp. Marketers have a huge problem. They want deep, meaningful relationships with prospects and customers. Yet, shoppers increasingly consume content in smaller bits, in shorter bursts of time, and receive those messages from multiple sources and at different times over the lifetime of the brand experience. The challenge…

Marketers: Merge Mobile and Social Media Marketing With These 3 Helpful Tools

In the second quarter, Facebook had 819 million mobile monthly active users. According to Experian, 15 percent of all mobile Internet time in the U.S. is spent on social networking sites. Meanwhile, a survey conducted by Constant Contact found that 73 percent of small-business owners use their mobile devices for social media marketing. The message…

Marketers Should Use Images of Women to Get Facebook Likes but Not Shares

According to a study conducted by Taggs, a visual content marketing analytics company, Facebook users like brand images of women 41 percent more than they like brand images of men. However, users share brand images of men 19 percent more than they share images of women. The study looked at 1,103 brand images on the…

Infographic: The 21 New Rules of Content Marketing

Kayak, an online marketing company, has created a helpful, straightforward infographic ticking off the “21 New Rules of Content Marketing.” If your eyes glaze over when you encounter infographics chock-full of statistics and charts, you’ll like this stat-free, advice-driven resource. Here are some of Kayak’s “new rules”: –

Topsy Allows Marketers and Brands to Search Twitter for Every Tweet Ever Published

If you’re frustrated by Twitter’s limited search functionality, Topsy has a treat for you: The social search and analytics company now enables anyone to see every public tweet ever published. Here’s a look at our Twitter account’s first tweets: While it may seem like a fun toy for indulging vain curiosity, this kind of access…

Study: Facebook Posts With Hashtags Have Less Viral Reach Than Posts Without Hashtags

Back in June, Facebook rolled out functional hashtags on its social network and touted the potential benefits for marketers. However, the company noted that hashtags “do not impact your distribution or engagement in News Feed on either desktop or mobile.” A study from EdgeRank Checker finds not only that Facebook posts with hashtags don’t see…