Paid social
Search Engine Land is your source for paid social media marketing news and content. You’ll find a variety of up-to-date and authoritative resources, including the latest news, tactic-rich tutorials, and the latest data to help you work smarter and make better decisions.
What you read here is written by our experienced in-house team, and subject matter experts from leading brands and agencies.
Don’t miss out! Get the Search Engine Land newsletter delivered daily to your inbox. Subscribe for free!
Dig deeper into social media marketing:
How Information Is Socially Shared
The mystery of how and where articles, information, graphics, and more are shared online has been something to plague both marketers and content creators alike. Catering your information towards your target audience and where they share it most is crucial to producing content that spreads like wildfire online. Linkbait tactics would be without effectiveness if […]
Twitter Launches ‘Twitter For Newsrooms’ (#TfN) As A Resource For The Press
Twitter launched Twitter For Newsrooms, a detailed resource to help professionals in news, TV, sports and entertainment use Twitter effectively. The guide is geared toward the novice to intermediate user and helps to standardize the use of Twitter. Specific sections include: #Report #Engage #Publish #Extra The guide contains advice including: ways to properly brand yourself, recommended tools, […]
Retail Study: 1 Facebook Fan = 20 Visits To Your Website
A UK based study by Hitwise analyzed data from the top 100 retailers to find how much additional web traffic was generated by each Facebook fan. The metrics showed that each fan of a Facebook page produced an extra 20 visits to the website. In order to generate this number, Facebook traffic was analyzed and compared […]
Report: Only 3% to 7.5% of Fans View Posts From A Facebook Page
Recent findings from PageLever revealed the reach of your Facebook Page may be far less than you think. The data shows an average of 7.49% of fans view posts on a daily basis. Pages with the largest fan-base are performing the worst while pages with fewer likes are performing the best. Currently, pages with over one million likes […]
Facebook Launching New Features To Enhance ‘Places’
This week Inside Facebook revealed that Facebook was planning on bringing a few new features to their Places product. Facebook Places launched almost a year ago, a product which has seen decent usage to date. The new features that are reportedly launching should make it much easier to market places, especially for those with small […]
A Portrait Of Who Uses Social Networks In The US (And How Social Media Affects Our Lives)
Did you know that out of all social networking users 92% partake in Facebook, 29% participate on MySpace, 18% are on LinkedIn and Twitter is the least utilized network with just 13% usage? Or that males on LinkedIn nearly double the number of females, yet female usage of Twitter almost doubles male usage? Today Pew […]
Buoyed By Facebook, Social Media Sites Hit All-Time Traffic Highs In May
While Facebook gets the lion’s share of attention, the overall adoption of social media is also lifting several sites to all-time traffic levels and there’s no sign that this will change anytime soon. According to a new comScore report, LinkedIn, Twitter and Tumblr — in addition to Facebook — all hit new highs for U.S. […]
How To Track Social Conversions On Landing Pages
Earlier this month, Google released Google +1 buttons for websites. This seems like a good occasion to celebrate social conversion on landing pages — and provide you with the links and sample code to implement it in your own post-click marketing. By social conversion, we mean a social-oriented action that a user takes on one […]
15 Tips For A Successful Facebook Ads Program
If you’re a marketing or advertising professional, then lately you’ve probably been running ads on Facebook or have heard the phrase ‘paid social’ or ‘Facebook ads’. That’s because according to eMarketer, social media is the fastest growing digital media channel. As impressive as that is, it doesn’t tell the whole story. First, let’s consider some […]
Facebook IPO Coming In 2012, Could Be Worth $100 Billion
Everyone knows that Facebook is going public. When was the only question. Now it appears that it will be early next year. Facebook apparently is being compelled go public by an obscure SEC rule that requires companies with 500 or more shareholders to start disclosing financial information even if they haven’t gone public. Thus Facebook […]
Report: Facebook’s Traffic Down In The U.S. And Canada
Facebook is creeping towards the 700 million user mark, but Inside Facebook reports that Facebook’s U.S. and Canada based traffic and growth dropped in June. This marks the second straight month of lower growth in these areas for Facebook which is an unusual occurrence. The United States lost nearly 6 million Facebook users (down to 149.4 million […]
Survey: Facebook Is The Most Popular Site To Market On For Local Business Owners
The results of a MerchantCircle survey targeting small business owners showed the prominence of social media in the local marketing mix, especially marketing on Facebook. When asked which marketing channels the businesses leveraged, the most popular answer was “the creation of a profile on a social network” with 40.9% of the vote. The creation of […]
Twitter Adds Automatic Shortening For URLs
Twitter announced a new feature allowing users to tweet easier and safer. The official t.co Twitter shortener will now automatically shorten URLs right from the Tweet box when using the web version of Twitter. The feature shortens links to 19 characters, and shows users a preview of the destination link. When a user’s link will […]
5 Truly Creative Uses Of Social Media
The biggest news in the world of social media over the last few weeks has been the IPO of LinkedIn, the upcoming Groupon IPO, and the slew of floatations these two are likely to herald. And, of course, underpinning all of this has been the simple question of whether the valuations these companies are receiving […]
Live Blog: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo At D9
Dick Costolo will be interviewed today by Walt Mossberg at the D Conference. Having survived another drive across the nearby Portuguese Bend landslide here in Palos Verdes, I stand ready to live blog. Let’s do this thing. Walt: Asking about the Pew study today with new stats on Twitter usage (see Pew: Twitter Usage Grows […]
Pew: Twitter Usage Grows to 13% With African-Americans Leading Adoption
Thirteen percent of the U.S. online population now uses Twitter at least occasionally, according to new research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, marking a significant increase from the 8% previously measured in November 2010. Growth was especially strong among non-Hispanic Whites and those between 30 and 49 years old. Among online African-Americans, […]
Twitter Intros Instant Follow Button
In a bid to increase its presence across the Web, Twitter today announced the “follow button,” a snippet of code that can be placed on any Web site that allows readers logged into Twitter to click and follow instantly. Previously, a Twitter user would have to click-through to the Web site’s Twitter.com page and click […]
The Difference A Company’s Size Makes In Social Media
Maybe the size of a company has never been pondered by the employees or consultants who are managing their social media campaigns. However, whether or not a company is considered a small business or a big company can make a significant difference in overall strategy, timeliness, and overall presence on social networks like Facebook, FourSquare, […]
Twitter Buys TweetDeck, Promises To “Invest” In It
When rumors circulated in recent days that Twitter was about to buy Tweetdeck, there were red flags flying everywhere from people assuming that Twitter would buy the popular client software and then shut it down. Not so, says Twitter. In a blog post confirming the acquisition, Twitter promises that “we will continue to invest in […]
How To Use Paid Discovery On StumbleUpon To Kickstart Social Campaigns
While StumbleUpon might not currently be the most talked about social site, it still can be one of the most powerful mediums for jumpstarting your campaigns. StumbleUpon has always been a favorite of mine due to its broad range of categories and its diverse user base. The recent transformation of StumbleUpon Ads into StumbleUpon Paid […]
Likes Are Not Loves – How To Waste Time “Marketing” In Facebook
I heard the other day that if someone “Likes” your Facebook business page, they’re over 90% likely to never look at it again. Wow. 90% is a lot! We could assume that’s exaggerated by ½, but 45% is still a lot. When a website’s conversion rate is a fraction of its actual traffic – a […]
How To Avoid A Social Media One Track Mind For Businesses
For many individuals, social media is fast becoming a way of life. Tweet about lunch. Check into lunch restaurant on FourSquare. Post a photo on Facebook wall of co-workers waiting for food to arrive. Show restaurant server the electronic certificate bought from LivingSocial for $20 worth of food purchased for $10 last week. Leave a […]
Social Profiles: It’s Quality, Not Quantity
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at the excellent SMX Sydney conference. As usual, it was a great show with any number of fantastic speakers. Before my last session, I was preceded by the also very excellent Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz; his presentation on Social Media For SEO was, as with most of his content, must-have […]
Who Started The “Dear Yahoo, I’ve Never Heard Anyone Say ‘Let’s Yahoo It’ Sincerely Google” Twitter Joke?
As you might expect, I monitor a number of search-related topics being discussed on Twitter. Over the past few days, there’s been spike in funny bit of advice that Google is giving Yahoo — that no one says, “Let’s Yahoo It.” But how did that get started? Let’s start with the joke first: Dear Yahoo, […]
How To Get News From Social Network Aggregators
Each day there are billions of posts on social media sites, and places like Facebook and Twitter allow users – with virtually no filter – to post whatever they may please. If babygurl14 wants to lay our her game plan for the day, she can (including pictures or Glitterfy links). If your grandpa accidentally posts […]
YouTube Founders Buy Delicious; First Step To Taking On Google?
Delicious, the popular social bookmarking site that Yahoo wanted to get rid of, has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. Could it be a first step for the duo to jump into the search space? From the press release put out by AVOS, the company run by the duo […]
Why Google Latitude’s Check In Deals Is A Few Degrees Off
In the past month, Google’s +1 has been the most hyped Social feature that Google has launched to date, as it has the potential to compete with Twitter and Facebook. A less noticed launch during this same time included social changes to Google’s Latitude product, which have also been launched to help Google compete with Foursquare. […]
Facebook Launches “Social Deals” To Challenge Groupon & LivingSocial
After several months of anticipation Facebook is launching its second deals program: Social Deals. The new effort more closely resembles Groupon-style daily deals, with several twists. The original “Facebook Deals” is now being called “check-in deals” to distinguish it from the new program. Check-in deals are free to users; they’re mobile centric and operate like […]
Google’s Larry Page, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Make 2011 TIME 100 List
Two of the biggest names in search are on the 2011 TIME 100 — the magazine’s choices for the most influential people in the world: Google CEO Larry Page and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In the short Zuckerberg essay, April Capone – the mayor of East Haven, Conn., tells the story of how she donated […]
How Viral Marketing Has The Potential To Promote Or Destroy Your Brand
Everyone wants every piece of their content to go ‘viral’, whether that means a tweet is re-tweeted 500 times, a YouTube video has 2,000,000 views, or a blog post has 300 comments. Many companies believe that social media and online marketing isn’t “Worth it” if they aren’t getting high numbers. While this isn’t always the […]
With +1, Advertising Is Getting Social
Anyone willing to bet on Google’s attempts to get social would have to have deep pockets and a short memory. For years, Google crowed about the fact that Orkut outweighed Facebook in two of the most important developing markets (Brazil & India), but that is likely to change soon (Facebook is gaining in both), whilst […]
In Challenge To Google Places, Microsoft Launches “Bing Business Portal” For SMBs
This morning Microsoft is launching the “Bing Business Portal” (BBP). It replaces the the Bing Local Listing Center, and all listings already there have already been migrated over. The BBP allows local business owners or their agents or designated representatives to claim and enhance listings with additional content including deals. Business owners can also add […]
New Twitter Home Page Emphasizes Interests
Twitter has launched a new home page design that the company says should be visible to all users now. Sure enough, I logged out and there it was. As you can see from the screenshot above, the new home page is less cluttered and instead focuses on a single statement: “Follow your interests.” Gone are […]
The Strategy And Success Behind Viral Marketing
Stock image from Shutterstock, used under license. Who doesn’t love Betty White? The supremely funny octogenarian has delighted audiences for most of her adult life. Her successes date back to the days when radio was king and men wore fedoras without irony. Yet White’s popularity – at the twilight of her working career — is […]
Twitter Improves “Who To Follow” Results & Gains Advanced Search Page
Twitter announced that it has improved its “Who To Follow” feature with better people search results and added a new advanced search page, making it easier to do such searches at Twitter.com. People Search Gets Subject-Specific Now when you search for a topic in Twitter’s search box, Twitter will suggest people to follow based on […]
How To Convert Website Visitors To Facebook Likes
Because of its intrinsic relationship with the Open Graph protocol, there’s even more compelling reasons to use the Facebook like button than to use the official Tweet button. Like the Tweet button, the Like button is easy to install, and is highly standardized. Furthermore, the Like button is tied directly to Facebook’s analytics platform, Insights, […]
How To Convert Website Visitors Into Twitter Followers
Where the standard Tweet button gives you little control over the button’s appearance, functionality or call-to-action (you can Tweet, Tweet or Tweet) you have virtually unlimited options when encouraging users to follow you on Twitter. This is because the following action takes place on Twitter itself, rather than on your website: you’re essentially encouraging a […]
How To Convert Website Visitors To Tweeters
The official tweet button from Twitter is easy to implement, aggregates direct tweets and retweets in its counter, and includes a mechanism to encourage following (discussed below). These features almost certainly outweigh the slender benefits of employing third-party tweeting tools (the main benefit being more flexibility in styling the tweet button’s appearance). There are a […]
How To Convert Website Visitors Into Facebook Fans
Whereas Twitter direct follow buttons are not easy to implement, Facebook makes it simple to “Like” a Page on Facebook (i.e., to become a “fan” of the person or organization represented by that Facebook Page) without actually needing to visit Facebook. The alternate method of enticing visitors to become fans is simply to link to […]
7 Approaches To Engagement Conversion, 5 Explicit Tactics For Twitter & Facebook
When you successfully encourage a visitor to share content they discover on your website, that action strongly recommends your website to that visitor’s friends, extends its reach, and increases its visibility in the search engines. That same visitor may also be persuaded to make a long-term connection with you or your business, forging an incredibly […]