Certain businesses manufacture products specifically for younger demographics. Finding the right marketing channels to reach these prospects has become increasingly difficult with the array of new social networks, mobile devices and internet access points available to teens today. A recent survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in conjunction with Harvard's Berkman Center, evaluated younger Americans' (12-17) social media habits. The findings will help brands develop effective social media marketing campaigns.

Never doubt Facebook's dominance

Unsurprisingly, 95 percent of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 use the internet and 81 percent embrace social media sites. Facebook reigns supreme, with 94 percent of surveyed consumers using the social network on a regular basis. This data goes against recent skepticism about Facebook's ability to retain young audiences' interest. More than anything, Pew's findings suggest Facebook is still on the cusp of innovation, overshadowing newer networks with a lot of buzz.

Newer networks fail to reach today's youth

Only 5 percent of teens say they use Tumblr, 3 percent are on Google+ and about 1 percent post social media content to Pinterest. While each network promises a bright future, and constantly revamp features based on users' feedback, all three remain well behind Facebook and other leading sites.

Two strong sites among American teens

Twitter and Instagram have penetrated the veil, and reached American teen audiences. Twenty-six percent of surveyed consumers used Twitter in 2012 - up from 12 percent the year before. Instagram resonates with 11 percent of teens, coming in at third place. Perhaps the draw to Twitter and Instagram are their ability to communicate information in real time. Additionally, both networks were first built for mobile screens and then came to desktop computers. This suggests that mobile plays an influential role in how teens use social media, and might also show that networks like Tumblr, Google+ and Pinterest must redesign their mobile experiences to appeal to younger audiences.

In fact, some networks are doing just that. Brafton recently reported that Google+ unveiled a redesigned mobile application to help marketers and publishers get their custom content in front of users. As teens (and Americans in general) become more scattered across the web, social media will become the nexus of communication, and act as the central meeting point for entertainment, product discovery and research.

Marketers don't know the exact date of Google's Penguin algorithm update, but they are already preparing for it, according to BrightEdge's 2013 Search Marketer Survey. The first three versions (Penguin 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2) have been punishing sites with spammy link profiles since they were introduced last year, and the upcoming release is expected to have a major impact on marketers' SEO strategies in 2013 and beyond.

To remain in good standings with Google's search crawlers, marketers are keeping close tabs on internal site links. The survey found 36 percent think it's much more important to automatically analyze every page for low-quality links, while another 36 percent agree that verifying backlink origins is more important now than it was in 2012.

The Penguin algorithm appears to have a side-effect as well. The BrightEdge survey found that marketers are also paying more attention to internal linking strategies to make sure pages are contributing to better navigation and user experience.

While marketers aren't yet certain what the Penguin update will hold, they can brace themselves by sticking to industry best practices, according to Brafton. Posting high-quality custom content, featuring attractive graphics and educational video content, will generate organic backlinks that boost web authority and search rankings naturally.

Many people were surprised to find out that Yahoo acquired Tumblr, a site that was performing well with 900 posts per second and 300 million monthly active unique visitors. However, it appears that a number of individuals were also unhappy about the transaction. A post from WordPress' founder Matt Mullenweg reported an uptick in blog imports from Tumblr to WordPress, which he interprets more as validation of web content publishing's importance and less as a bad omen about the deal.

On Sunday night, Mullenweg wrote that import rates between the two online content publishing sites spiked. Most Sundays, WordPress receives approximately 400 and 600 imports from Tumblr. However, there were around 72,000 blogs that imported to WordPress in one hour on May 19, 2013.

"I think we’re at the cusp of understanding the ultimate value of web publishing platforms."

Mullenweg described the news as bittersweet - not because it's a bad deal for Tumblr, but rather because it could hamper an independent business' innovative spirit.

"I think we’re at the cusp of understanding the ultimate value of web publishing platforms, particularly ones that work cross-domain," Mullenweg wrote in the post. He later added that people were reading too much into the import rates, adding that "I don’t think there will be an exodus from Tumblr."

Brafton recently touted the value of brand journalism and how it applies to the business world. Statistics from WordPress show that more than 347 posts are created on the platform every minute, while an infographic from Royal Pingdom revealed the site now accounts for 52 percent of the total online publishing market.

These figures have risen as brands realized corporate blogs were crucial to compete and succeed in today's market. The buzz surrounding Tumblr's acquisition and blog imports are evidence that custom content publishing is coming to the forefront of internet marketing discussions.

​Brafton will attend the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition at McCormick Place West in Chicago on June 4-6. The event draws a highly engaged internet marketing audience and features some of the industry's brightest minds. Visit Brafton at booth #531 to speak with one of our business development executives about how content marketing can drive qualified search traffic back to ecommerce hubs and increase conversions.

IRCE presents keynotes from Al Gore, 45th vice president of the United States; Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten and Mindy Grossman, chief executive officer at HSN Inc. Featured presentations from comScore's Gian Fulgoni; Petflow.com's Alex Zhardanovsky and The American Red Cross' Craig Oldham will also take place.

Brafton's Business Development Executives Jess Locke and Abby Woodward will be on hand to field any content-related questions you may have. To schedule a time to speak with one our BDEs, visit our IRCE landing page and fill out the form to the right. We'd love to hear from you!

Also, follow Brafton's live coverage of the event by connecting with @Brafton on Twitter.

Social content has become a linchpin for B2B and B2C marketing success. Nearly all (97 percent) of marketers have already integrated social media into their content marketing strategies, and 86 percent say their efforts are important to their businesses, according to the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner.

When social media first hit the scene, critics might have not believed it was worthwhile to market on free networks. That perception is changing as more participants recognize that promotional efforts on Facebook and Twitter impact their bottom lines.

Brafton recently covered the "Key to Successful Social Advertising" report, which found that more businesses publish their own custom content on social networks, but 69 percent who use paid social advertisers are happy with the results.

Better Visibility and higher traffic

Social media participation helps 89 percent of marketers increase brand exposure. Higher site traffic was the second biggest benefit, according to respondents, with 75 percent stating their social content caused a lift in visitors to their websites.

Other advantages tied to social media marketing include marketplace insight (69 percent), loyal fan development (65 percent), lead generation (61 percent), higher search rankings (58 percent) and improved sales (43 percent).

 75 percent of marketers say their social content caused a lift in visitors to their websites.

The findings go beyond the surface level, revealing that brands did not see these results overnight. Marketers who were using social media actively (for more years, or more hours each week) saw significant benefits, while newcomers were waiting to see outcomes as impressive.

B2B and B2C social media marketing strategies vary

While B2B and B2C marketers are both seeing end-results, the study found they take different routes to achieve their objectives.

B2Cs are primarily active on Facebook. Two-thirds of consumer-facing marketing teams are on the world's largest social network, while just 10 percent are on Twitter, 5 percent on Pinterest. YouTube, Pinterest and Google+ all reached under 5 percent of B2C brands.

B2Bs take a more balanced approach to their social media campaigns, with an even split (29 percent) using LinkedIn and Facbeook. More than 15 percent are on Twitter, while 4 percent use YouTube, 3 percent participate on Google+ and none spend time on Pinterest.

As the social scene continues to develop, B2B and B2C brands may find they need to build new presences on networks that are gaining steam. To flesh out fresh accounts, marketers can repurpose online content that was created for their websites and other social sites.

​Email content is a B2B marketer's best friend. The practice, which many professionals thought was out of date, has come alive again and is impacting companies' bottom lines. According to a March 2013 survey from BtoB Magazine, brands use email marketing to achieve a variety of goals. The most common objectives for newer campaigns are customer acquisition (29 percent) and lead nurturing (29 percent), followed by brand awareness (18 percent) and customer retention (15 percent).

To reach these unique goals, marketers have pushed their email marketing strategies in every direction, and BtoB highlights the most common tactics used today. Unsurprisingly, 47 percent - the highest volume of surveyed brands - said delivering custom content to the right audience segment was the No. 1 tactic to improve their marketing efforts. Forty percent also said content quality and volume impact their promotional efforts and achievements.

How email helps brands' reach goals

Marketers see returns on their email campaigns when they focus on the components leading up to delivery. While list segmentation creates obvious audience targeting benefits, brands increasingly see messaging as the clear conversion factor for success. Without high-quality branding and compelling sales language in each email, companies will continue to talk to their prospects, but not resonate with them in the right ways.

BtoB Magazine found that 23 percent of marketers evaluate their email strategies by clickthrough rates. Brands have to take their content analytics reporting to the next level by delving into the writing behind email​s​. Perhaps the segmentation and timely delivery of each piece hits the mark, but the lack of editorial prowess keeps conversion rates low. Through simple A/B testing, and high-grade analytics, companies will see which outreach strategies generate the highest CTRs, and they can replicate their successes tenfold.

Brafton reported on four B2B content marketing challenges killing ROI, and a lot of the same obstacles also affect brands' email efforts. Marketers must align their email marketing goals with how they grade their campaigns' successes. Looking at CTRs is a great way to gauge effectiveness on the surface, but marketers must dive deeper to truly understand the impact their strategies have on audience members and why they may miss the mark.

YouTube began its meteoric rise to social media prominence in May 2005, and has since impacted brands' approaches to content marketing. Video and graphics are staples in companies' marketing budgets. This movement is only expected to gain momentum as consumers increasingly turn to the 'net for their entertainment fixes.

To celebrate eight years of user-created video content, the website is announcing benchmark statistics. This Official YouTube blog post boasts that more than 100 hours, or four days worth of video, are uploaded to the platform every minute.

Earlier this spring, YouTube reported it passed the 1 billion monthly active user benchmark. While this may seem impressive, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said it will be nothing compared to the surge of activity that occurs once emerging markets adopt YouTube.

Schmidt went so far to say that internet video content has already displaced traditional television viewership, a notion that is supported by the growing number of households that don't use TV for entertainment. Brafton previously reported there are now an estimated 5 million "zero-TV" homes in the United States.

"TV means reach. YouTube means engagement."

This is good news for companies that want to use video content to begin conversations with customers and fuel brand engagement.

Robert Kyncl, YouTube's global head of content, said that consumers have different experiences when streaming videos online than they do when watching TV.

"TV is one-way, YouTube talks back," said Kyncl. "TV means reach. YouTube means engagement."

To get the dialog rolling, more marketers are dedicating a portion of their budgets to video content creation. These materials are versatile and can be used to amplify the impact of larger content marketing strategies.

Businesses can promote videos on social media sites or release them as supplementary resources to complement technical research documents.

​Pinterest​ ​is focused on providing users with relevant information within its interface. When members search the social network for interesting content, they want to find enough supporting context to know where to turn next to prepare recipes, buy products online or create do-it-yourself projects with their kids. To enhance the educational power of Pinterest's social media content publication tool, the company revamped the type of pins brands can make, and partnered with various information hubs to spearhead the project.

Enhanced pins to feature additional branded content

Pinterest worked with websites like Anthropologie, Etsy, Better Homes and Gardens, Bon Appetit and Netflix to show more information on some pins. The three new types of posting options focus on products, recipes and movie ratings.

1. Product pins - Brands can post content with snippets of context like pricing, availability and where to buy. This information can be updated every day.

2. Recipe pins - Foodies can now find cook time, ingredients and servings in each recipe pin by a select group of contributors they come across on Pinterest.

3. Movie pins - Writers from Netflix and other sites who pin custom content to Pinterest can also include ratings and cast members in posts directly.

What does this update mean for brands?

Marketers who blog about any one of these topics can put more information in front of readers and create interactive experiences on Pinterest. While the new feature is limited to select industries and websites at the moment, the option may become widely available to other companies in the near future.

Online retailers can use the Product Pin function to increase website conversions. Brafton reported on a BizRate report from October 2012 that noted 70 percent of surveyed consumers use Pinterest to get inspiration about what to buy online. The new posting option can help companies communicate seasonal sales, deals and other events online to drive profit margins from their social hubs.

More, Pinterest updated its mobile application to include the Pin It button. Now, users can post content to their unique boards while on the go. Brafton recently reported on the mobile marketing power of Google+, and now it seems that Pinterest also looks to cultivate Americans' growing eagerness to shop and search on their mobile phones and tablets.

Technology is supposed to make things easier, but it has introduced new challenges for marketers. Companies must produce branded content for multiple channels, from social media news feeds, to weekly email newsletters and blog posts. However, brands must go beyond this benchmark and develop innovative cultures to continuously deliver digital content that interests audiences and convinces them to convert.

A recent Forrester study, "The Culture Is Key To Marketing Innovation Velocity," lists four types of marketing demographics and explains which approach drives innovation for content marketing success.

Brands that are customer-obsessed outperform others that are considered risk-averse, pragmatists or experimenters. Characterized by their flexibility and external focus, customer-obsessed companies like Nestle move to the front of the pack because they are immersed in the latest trends that win over current customers, but are always preparing for the next big thing all the while.

This is the way of marketing leaders in the future, according to Forrester. Brands are no longer in the era of the sales funnel, but that of the customer life cycle, states Analyst Bert Dumars .

"Marketing innovation is hard and getting harder. Traditional marketing tools, channels, strategies and tactics are becoming less effective in the age we live in now - that of the perpetually connected customer," he adds.

To succeed in today's disrupted marketplace, brands must fully engage in the most effective strategies, while also keeping at the pulse of trends that are coming down the pipeline. It appears companies are doing just that - Brafton found marketers are investing in a diverse array of digital content in 2013. Seventy-eight percent of marketers surveyed by BrightEdge listed social media content as the most valuable strategy this year, followed by 67 percent who cited blog and news content, 43 percent who said infographics and 35 percent who named case studies. Of course, content types should be dictated by carefully constructed brand editorial briefs more than general trends in order to target convertible traffic.

Excelling in a single channel is no longer enough for brands to see success with their content marketing campaigns. Businesses need well-rounded strategies that give them visibility across the digital spectrum to engage customers and pick up on emerging trends that matter to their unique audiences.

The divide between search and social is closing. Yahoo recently reported it's acquiring social sharing site Tumblr for approximately $1.1 billion, in what appears to be an attempt to steal search market share back from Google. A press release announcing the partnership bullishly estimates Yahoo's audience will grow 50 percent, thanks to its collaboration with Tumblr that closes in the second half of 2013. If projections are true that Yahoo will pass the billion monthly visitor mark, marketers may need to adjust their SEO content to cater to the search engine's algorithms.

Last week, Brafton reported on the latest search engine ranking figures from comScore. In April 2013, Google accounted for 66.5 percent of the search market, leaving Bing with 17.3 percent and Yahoo with 12 percent.

A press release announcing the partnership bullishly estimates Yahoo's audience will grow 50 percent.

Yahoo's strategic alignment with Tumblr would provide a much-needed surge in user traffic to reclaim queries from Google - especially with speculation Yahoo may separate itself from Microsoft in search. Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing social media sites with 120,000 signups every day, adding to its 300 million monthly unique visitors. However, the deal isn't necessarily one-sided. In exchange for bringing its popular platform to the table, Tumblr gets access to the search site's infrastructure and personalization technology.

"We're elated to have the support of Yahoo and [its] team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from," said David Karp, CEO of Tumblr.

While Yahoo's acquisition of social sharing site Tumblr is the latest evidence of the narrowing gap, it's certainly not the only one. Last week, Brafton reported Bing is now displaying social media content from Facebook in SERPs, and the search engine previously aligned with Pinterest to make images easily shareable.

As the Google's competitors develop winning combinations to fragment the search market, brands must pay attention to developments and adjust their internet marketing strategies if they want top spots in SERPs that drive traffic back to their websites.