In a post at the Online Marketing blog, Lee Odden notes that one of the biggest fears for website owners is a sudden drop in search-engine rankings. Case in point: Google's recent 'Mayday' algorithmic change affecting long-tail searches (see Google Webmaster Matt Cutts' video explanation). It left many webmasters up-in-arms ... more

Social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men worldwide, and across leading social sites, such as Facebook, women are more engaged—consuming more pages and spending more time—according to a new study from comScore. On average, women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men; moreover, ... more

It's easy to get lost in the Facebook hype. Everybody's on it—but is "everybody" relevant to you? Here's a quick way to find out. Check out Research Spotlight: Facebook, a new report from MarketingProfs that offers a cheat sheet on the social site, breaking down vital user data for marketers. ... more

Like many aspects of mobile marketing, location-based social networks (LBSNs) offer interactive marketers the promise of connecting consumers with places and points of sale. Most marketers, however, should wait to adopt the nascent channel until larger industry players, such as Facebook and Yahoo, offer location-based services at a sufficiently large ... more

If a subject line gets truncated on its way to your subscriber's inbox, cautions Mark Brownlow at Email Marketing Reports, it can do more than cause a "wry smile" or a "little embarrassment." It can cause outright confusion, or it can tell your customers something you didn't even mean to ... more

Small-business advertisers spent on average $2,231 on search advertising in the second quarter of 2010, up 159.7% from the $859 spent in the same period a year earlier, and up 1.4% from the $2,201 spent in the first quarter of 2010, according to a WebVisible study based on its small-biz ... more

"Facebook has more than 400 million active users who collectively spend more time on the platform than on any other website in the world, sharing detailed information about their likes, dislikes, and preferences," writes Matt Lawson at MarketingProfs. In other words, the social networking powerhouse is a potential bonanza for search ... more

Now, even your offline world can have a social element: Sotokolan, whose slogan is "Objects get social," enables you to attach your Facebook page to a custom QR code. (A QR code is like a barcode that, when scanned, points users to a Web page or reveals other digital information.) Through ... more

US retailers are actively pursuing the mobile channel to enhance customer engagement and loyalty: 73% have some type of mobile initiative in place and 20% of are in the process of evaluating the mobile channel, according to a survey from Forbes Insights, in association with Research In Motion (RIM). more

It's the social weapon you just don't hear enough about: SlideShare. At first glance, it comes across as a mere archive for uploading presentations, but oh—it's so much more than that! When used correctly, SlideShare can help you cleverly boost your messaging, your brand, your very corporate presence online. Consider these four ways ... more

Though the adoption of sophisticated mobile devices continues to climb, the integration of mobile marketing into email and online programs is still low: Less than one-third of marketers say mobile-optimized experiences are relevant to their email audiences, but nearly two-thirds say they are integrating social technologies into their email efforts, ... more

Your B2B email marketing program might have a good reason for sending a steady stream of one-size-fits-all messages to prospects. "The idea being that by keeping these folks exposed to your company's name and logo, you'd stay 'top of mind,'" notes Ardath Albee at Marketing Interactions. "That process is now ... more

Tentative growth in the US advertising market has begun to propel the global ad recovery, prompting a revised forecast of global ad expenditure, now projected to grow 3.5% in 2010, up from the 2.2% forecast in April, 2010, according to projections by ZenithOptimedia. more

"The true test of pursuing either an SEO campaign or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising (or both)," writes Scott Buresh in a recent Pro article at MarketingProfs, "is knowing that it all boils down to your company philosophy, return on investment (ROI) objectives, budget, and numerous other monetary and marketing factors." To help ... more

More than 177 million US Internet users watched video content in June, also viewing more than 4.3 billion video ads, with Hulu generating the highest number of ad views at 566 million, according to Video Metrix 2.0 data from comScore, Inc. more

Ever wonder about the true long-range value of a tweet? Now you don't have to guess. Just plug a link, phrase, hashtag or screen name into TweetReach.com to get a sense of the reach it's achieved via tweets and retweets. The cool part: TweetReach doesn't just reveal how many users ... more

Weakening economic signals are having their effect on the employment outlook for digital and direct marketers in the third quarter (Q3), according to the latest quarterly employment report by Bernhart Associates Executive Search, LLC. more

In April, Morgan Stanley analyst Mary Meeker issued her report on this year's Internet trends. It included this revelation: Mobile is a hit, and in the next five years, people will be using it to get online far more often than any of their desktop devices. The current leader of this ... more

Spain and the Netherlands may be the World Cup final contenders on Sunday, July 11, but official World Cup advertisers in the US and UK also scored big with TV viewers during the first half of the tournament, and their ads outperformed those of non-sponsors, according to Nielsen. more

Chloe Sladden (@ChloeS) of Twitter recently said Twitter was worth more to MTV during the 2009 Video Music Awards than Nielsen was. Twitter worked with MTV to provide illustrated data on reactions as users watched the VMAs. Kanye West's interruption of artist Taylor Swift's acceptance speech made a splash: A ... more

The manufacturing sector is showing early signs of recovery: 70% of industrial-sector marketers expect their sales to increase in 2010 over 2009 levels and 31% plan to increase their marketing budgets—with much of those dollars earmarked for online channels, such as video, social media, and search, according to a ... more

M&A activity for media, information, and marketing services rebounded strongly in the first half of 2010, led by digital and technology-driven companies, according to The Jordan, Edmiston Group Inc. (JEGI). more

Incorporating customers' viewpoints into your business isn't just a fresh form of CRM, it can also make existing and future products better. Community manager Dawn Lacallade says her company Solarwinds actually got its R&D spend down to about 9% (compared with an industry average of about 20%) by strategically incorporating ... more

The US display ad market has made a comeback in the last few months, led by JPEG ads, which accounted for 42.4% of impressions in May, and leaderboard-style banner ads (728 x 90 pixels), among the most commonly viewed display ad sizes, according to data from comScore's Ad Metrix Creative ... more

Writing at the Retail Email blog, Chad White offers some interesting facts about the Baby-Boomer generation. First, by 2015, nearly half of the US population will be age 50 or older (AARP). Second, Boomers currently control over 80% of personal financial assets and account for more than 50% of the country's discretionary ... more