jatiN mahindrA doT coM

OneRiot Launches Real-Time Ads Based On Trending Topics

Real-time search engine OneRiot has launched RiotWise Trending Ad Units, which automatically refresh based on what’s trending on the social web. Previously, OneRiot’s Trending Ads were available only via OneRiot’s API, meaning developers had to create a customized user interface for their ads. RiotWise Trending Ads link the latest published and relevant content from OneRiot’s...

A Look Back at SXSW 2010

As usual, this year’s South by Southwest Interactive conference was a blur. Between the people, the parties, and purveyors of all things bacon, it was a twenty ring circus of the sublime and bizarre. There was no shatteringly impactful takeaway from SXSW 2010, as it seems we’ve entered a (sure to be brief) innovation lull. But, I absorbed many smaller lessons that will help guide my thinking...

Detailed Look at Reasons People Visit Various Social Sites

As with traditional media, it’s different strokes for different folks on social media sites.  And knowing your audience’s needs and preferences is just as valid in PR today as it ever was. According to an analysis of social sites by online advertising network Chikita published by Mashable, people go to Twitter for news, MySpace for games and entertainment, Facebook for news and community...

Twitter Responsible For Very Little Visits To News and Media

The latest post from Hitwise discusses where users travel after leaving Twitter. The post further breaks down the various news and media sites which receive the greatest traffic from Twitter.   Twitter.com accounted for 0.14% of upstream visits to News and Media sites last week. (Note that we are measuring website visits from Twitter.com only.) This compares to 3.64% from Facebook and 1.27% from...

Brands On Facebook And Twitter Favored By Consumers

People who are Facebook fans and Twitter followers of a brand are more likely to buy the brand’s product or recommend it to a friend, according to a new study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies. The study of 1,500 consumers found that 60 percent of Facebook fans and 79 percent of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower. More...

Twitter Announces @anywhere Platform

Twitter should soon become more ubiquitous across the Web.  Today, the company’s cofounders announced something called @anywhere that should help integrate the Twitter experience into standard sites, and a number of impressive organizations have agreed to take part in the initial rollout. Evan Williams essentially handled the SXSW side of things this afternoon, discussing @anywhere during...

Liveblogging: Twitter CEO Evan Williams Keynote at SXSW

We’re here at SXSW Interactive waiting for the keynote with Twitter CEO Evan Williams who will discuss "The Next Generation of Social Media." There has been some speculation that an announcement of Twitter’s ad platform could occur at this event, but that may or may not happen. We’ll see. Either way, I’ll be liveblogging the keynote below. Please forgive...

JetBlue Runs an Interesting and Successful Twitter Promotion

In the social media world, it is so important to try to do things that haven’t been done before. Why? Well, since social media is so new and the applications of it have not even begun to be thought of yet, you must be a risk taker by default to see if it will work for you and your business. We hear more about social media flame-outs, which I attribute to our human nature to feel that news is...

How the Crowd is Changing the News (SXSW)

Here at SXSW, we attended the session "CrowdControl: Changing the Face of Media or Hype?" At the end, one of the speakers asked the crowd, which they thought it was. Almost everybody responded with the former, while maybe one or two raised their hand for hype. I think it’s pretty clear that citizen journalism, the real topic of this discussion, is changing and has already changed the...

CNN President “Really Afraid Of” Social Networks

Over the years, there have been more than a few arguments about whether online news sites are killing newspapers.  Now, due to some almost startling comments made by the president of CNN, it looks like the next round of old media-new media disputes might concern social networks and cable news organizations. According to the AFP, Jonathan Klein’s remarks on this subject were in no way ambiguous. ...

Twitter Changes the Update Button to “Tweet”

When Twitter users go to post a new tweet, they have in the past used a button that says "update" (at least from Twitter.com…that varies when you get into all the different apps Twitter users use). Now, that button says "Tweet". We’re not sure exactly when the change was made, but it appears to have been very recently, as there is quite an outpour of Tweets from users...

Twitter Location Features Rolling Out

Last fall, Twitter started including geolocation information in its API, but it was not available through Twitter.com. That appears to be in the process of changing now. This week, Twitter has been rolling out (it appears to still be in the process) geolocation info on tweets at Twitter.com. Various reports from users have been circulating, with those who have access to the feature pointing to a little...

Twitter Inspects Links To Prevent Spam, Abuse

Clicking on links that different people send can often be a cross-your-fingers experience, considering that there are malicious tricksters, unknowing victims, and hijacked accounts to watch out for.  So Twitter’s attempting to make the experience less dangerous by checking (and sometimes rewriting) the links found in direct messages and email notifications. Del Harvey, Director of Trust...

Facebook And Twitter See Big Mobile Gains

Facebook and Twitter access via mobile browsers has grown by triple-digits in the past year, according to the latest research from comScore. More than a quarter (30.8%) of smartphone users accessed social networking sites via their mobile browser in January, up 8.3 points from 22.5 percent one year ago.  Access to Facebook via mobile browser climbed 112 percent in the past year, while Twitter...

Email – the Silent E

A rather unlikely suspect has been making the rounds lately. And while you may have come to know this blog for covering the cutting edge communications and marketing tools, it may seem odd that this suspect is rather old school. That’s right. Good old email is making a comeback. But it shouldn’t be a total surprise – it’s not like I didn’t warn you. Every indicator I’ve...