A study from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth's Center for Marketing Research found that social media marketing campaigns have improved lead generation and web traffic for a majority of the businesses using the channel and investments are rising, accordingly. Eighty-eight percent of businesses said they have increased their web traffic as a direct result of social media ... [more]

Media companies were among the earliest adopters of social media marketing, using the platforms to share content with readers and establish a firm web presence. According to Erica Anderson, Twitter's manager for news and journalism, the company will launch new analytics tools for journalists and publishers to help them understand their social reach. According to Read Write Web, ... [more]

Marketers might like the potential for their Google+ pages to be promoted on SERPs thanks to Google's recent social search updates, but some think this gives Google+ too much dominance over other social marketing efforts. "Focus on the User," a service from engineers from Facebook and Twitter along with other social networks, is a project aimed at forcing Google to integrate social ... [more]

The Hockey East Association, a conference within NCAA Division I men's ice hockey, recently announced a new multi-channel campaign that highlights outstanding efforts from players of its 10 member institutions. The conference demonstrates how audience engagement via integrated social and content marketing can help build a brand. The Moves of the Week campaign features a YouTube ... [more]

A report from Awareness found that social media marketing has become a multi-platform concept for many businesses using the channel. The study shows that 70 percent of companies began 2012 by focusing on creating a stronger presence on all major platforms, namely Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Aside from a multi-channel presence, 59 percent of businesses said they plan to increase ... [more]

A new report Dan Zarrella indicates that businesses see different levels engagement in their web marketing campaigns based on which day the content is posted, shared or sent. Dan Zarrella of Hubspot analyzed email, social media and content marketing campaigns. In terms of Facebook engagement, Like activity spiked to 40 percent engagement rates on Saturdays, when users spend more ... [more]

Bloomberg reports that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is expanding its investigation of Google to include Google+ after the launch of Search, plus Your World last week. The FTC has been looking into Google for months, as the institution wonders if Google's search engine favors the company's products, such as Gmail, Picasa and now Google+, on its SERPs. Search, plus Your World ... [more]

The third annual Nonprofit Social Network Benchmark Report, released by NTen, Common Knowledge and Blackbaud, found that Facebook is the most popular social platform for nonprofit organizations, with 89 percent using it. Facebook has been the most popular platform in each of the three annual studies conducted by the organizations. Since the first poll in 2009, Facebook has grown ... [more]

Thinking about keeping that snarky comment out of your corporate tweet? (Maybe) think again. A recent survey from AYTM Market Research reveals that many Twitter followers enjoy seeing a brand's personality come through in social content.  The company asked Twitter users about their brand interaction habits, and marketers should be glad to hear that the majority of respondents ... [more]

A study from the Altimeter Group found that businesses using social media marketing are struggling to manage their accounts and to formalize use of channel throughout their organizations. The report says that the average large business using social has 178 accounts or projects that are included in Altimeter's definition of social media. This number reflects social campaigns across ... [more]