Most of the social networks that are of some sort of use to marketers have one very crucial feature in common. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even Google+ have all incorporated a feed of activity from friends, brands and businesses where users end up spending most of their time. For a while now, Instagram has been emerging as one of today’s more popular social networks, but they have always been a primarily mobile service. Sure, the company has a feed, but they have never really gotten to the point that they brought this feature to the web. With Instagram creating Web Profiles for its users relatively recently, we got a glimpse of the company’s plans for the future. Now, Instagram has reached the point of all of today’s other popular networks, and has a feed present on both mobile and desktop internet platforms.

Today, I’m very excited to announce the launch of a product we’ve been wanting to build for quite some time now. Since our launch in October of 2010, we’ve focused on building a simple app that has inspired creativity while capturing everyday moments through the lens of your mobile phone. In fact, our focus on building out a mobile-only experience is a unique path that we’ve chosen for many reasons, the most important of which is that Instagram, at its core, is about seeing and taking photos on-the-go. However, to make Instagram even more accessible to our growing community, at the end of last year we started to expand to the desktop web, giving you the ability to see profiles from instagram.com. To continue that path, as of today, you can now browse your Instagram feed on the web – just like you do on your mobile device. Go to instagram.com and log in to your account to give it a try.

The desktop version of the Instagram image feed is almost identical to that you would find in the mobile app. The only differences in functionality that I can see are that Instagram has denied the desktop version of the Explore tab as well as the News tab. Other than that, users can still use Instagram as they always have, only on a bigger screen.

If the company does follow suit with other well-known social networks, we should probably expect to start seeing advertising options that go hand in hand with a desktop social feed. This is especially likely considering the huge influence that Facebook has on the network since Instagram was acquired by the company late last year.

Aside from showing the potential for Instagram to become a fantastic marketing destination, the addition of a desktop version of the network’s feed shows that the company has progressed and grown. Originally, the network was to remain a completely mobile experience, but Instagram has reached the point where users need much more than that as far as functionality. It is easy to predict that users will love the addition of an online feed, and hopefully we will see some advertising offerings from the company soon.

As the popular phrase says, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Bing made big attempts for a while to create bigger and better things than Google, but the company just could not pick up the slack. Now it seems clear that Bing has accepted its fate of staying behind Google in the online search and search marketing industries. For a while now, we have seen Bing coming out with features and services similar to those we see with Google’s AdWords platform. For example, Microsoft recently announced product listing ads for Bing, much like those shown on Google. The company is trying to catch up, and now Bing will be releasing another new advertising feature in an attempt to level out the market.

Among the many offerings from Google AdWords, one thing marketers can find the option to use is a click-to-call feature that they can include within their advertising efforts. Now, according to WebProNews, Bing will be including a click-to-call ad format, which will be the direct result of two of Microsoft’s properties, Bing and Skype partnering up.

With Skype being so widely used for video and online calling, WebProNews reports the new ad format will be available on mobile and tablets, as well as on the PC.

From WebProNews,

Skype already has a click to call offering, but it doesn’t actually show an ad for the business. ‘Instead when the Skype plug-in is installed in the users’ browser on a PC, and the business listing is appearing organically on any web page, then it allows the user to click on the listing on the webpage to call that business for free using Skype,’ explains Microsoft.

The new click-to-call ads for Bing will be much more like the ones we are used to seeing on other search platforms. The option will appear in the ads of advertisers, allowing for both to appear to the consumer. Along with the feature of course will be an analytics feature to measure the performance of click-to-call ads on Bing.

These types of ads are usually best for mobile search ads, rather than those on PC. Google elaborates on this in their overview of their click-to-call ads.

When people are searching for goods or services on their mobile phones, they often prefer to call a business rather than visit its website. Now you can make it even easier for potential customers to get in touch with you by adding a clickable business phone number in ads that appear on mobile devices with full internet browsers.

It is inevitable that Bing would try to keep things even with its biggest competitor, knowing that the company is unlikely to take a huge lead. So, by imitating that marketing moves of Google, Bing has a better chance of seeing some of the success that their competitor sees.  However, Bing hopes that they are right in saying that they can do things better.

Agreement Enables Both Companies to Provide Users with More Detailed Competitive Ad Intelligence

SAN DIEGO / NEW YORK – WhatRunsWhere (www.whatrunswhere.com), the service that enables advertisers and ad agencies to track competitors’ online and mobile ad campaigns, has partnered with Advertising Red Books (www.redbooks.com), the venerable source on advertiser and agency relationships, personnel and billing information, to share selected data for their respective users.

WhatRunsWhere users researching a particular advertiser will now receive a brand description from Red Books, as well as contact information, number of employees, revenue and the name and title of a marketing or sales executive.  Conversely, when Red Books users look up an advertiser, they will see examples of several of the brand’s current online display and text ads via WhatRunsWhere.

“With the addition of essential corporate information from such a highly regarded and trusted industry resource as Red Books, advertisers and agencies can now rely on WhatRunsWhere to develop a more detailed picture of their competitors’ online advertising activities and strategies,” said Mike Cojanu, chief executive officer of WhatRunsWhere.  “In addition to knowing what web and mobile ads are running, and where, WhatRunsWhere users can now easily learn more about the companies behind those ads.”

“For over 100 years, the advertising and media industry has continually relied on Red Books for up-to-date data and insights surrounding all players in the agency and advertiser industry,” said Sameer Jagetia, President of Advertising Red Books.  “Thanks to this new partnership with WhatRunsWhere, users will now see a fresh perspective on the expanding online ad space with a real-time sampling of marketer-specific online ads.”

About Advertising Red Books

Advertising Red Books (www.redbooks.com) is the most comprehensive, up-to-date lead generation and competitive intelligence tool in the advertising & media industry.  For over 100 years, Red Books has had immediate impact on the work of media, publishing, agency, sales and marketing teams, providing the key information they need for sales leads and research. Updated daily, the database and profiles include 100,000 brands (within 20,000 advertisers), 15,000 agencies, 200,000 key contacts, 100,000 direct emails, client lists, agency-advertiser relationships, sales/annual billings, and much more.

About WhatRunsWhere

WhatRunsWhere (www.whatrunswhere.com), a competitive intelligence service for online media buying, allows users to look up what advertisers are doing online, including mobile: where they are running ads, from who they are buying inventory, and what exact ads they are using. WhatRunsWhere also allows users to see what is happening on any online publisher: who is advertising there, who is selling the inventory, and what ads are running. With data from multiple countries and actionable insights from the data, WhatRunsWhere allows users to quickly dissect competitive online advertising campaigns, resulting in reduced risk and a higher ROI.

TranDotCom completes integration with Gold Partner CPA Detective to offer superior lead fraud detection to clients.

CPA Detective’s industry leading technology now allows lenders to boost ROI by making smarter real-time lead buying decisions.

KENNESAW, GA – February 4, 2013 – TranDotCom (TDC) Solutions announces today a new integration partnership with CPA Detective, to enhance its industry-leading set of services to the online lending industry.

CPA Detective’s predictive scoring technology identifies leads that have been recycled multiple times from past campaigns and were fraudulently re-submitted by the lead source. This is achieved by leveraging real-time fraud intelligence based on the digital forensic data captured from millions of visitors forming the largest fraudulent IP address database in the affiliate marketing industry. CPA Detective’s technology has been proven to increase ROI – lenders using the service avoid purchasing fraudulent leads that are 6x less likely to convert and 2x more likely to default.

Through a seamless integration, lenders can easily make real-time decisions about purchasing a lead and even avoid buying leads from sources associated with fraudulent activity. They can then track statistics about traffic sources through CPA Detective’s interface to identify fraudulent patterns and get details about each lead submitted.

“CPA Detective’s technology is forward thinking and has a direct effect upon our customer’s bottom line,” said TranDotCom President Chris Carson. “The industry has been looking for a product to help curtail fraudulent lead volume for quite some time and the CPA Detective team has put together an impressive solution. The integration within our Loan Management System offers our clients access to a unified platform that can’t be found anywhere else. ”

David Sendroff, President of CPA Detective, added “We are excited to bring CPA Detective’s game changing technology to lenders on TranDotCom’s industry-leading platform. This partnership truly creates a best of breed solutions for online lenders. TranDotCom clients can now add unparalleled transparency to the lead buying process, all in real-time with minimal integration efforts.”

Interested in learning more about CPA Detective’s solutions and how you can take advantage of the partnership? Contact TranDotCom toll free at 866-735-6862 or via email at sales@tdcemail.com.

About TranDotCom Solutions, LLC
TranDotCom Solutions is a leader in automated consumer finance transaction processing, providing a full range of consulting, software, support and transaction processing services which allow lenders to be more competitive and highly efficient. TranDotCom Solutions understands and specializes in all of the components of consumer finance lending including payday advance, installment and line-of-credit products. TranDotCom pioneered the industry’s first web-based transaction management system and has been processing transactions since 2000, supporting storefront and online lenders in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. TranDotCom may be reached at 866-735-6862 or sales(at)tdcemail.com.

About CPA Detective
CPA Detective is the premier lead fraud detection solution proven to increase marketing ROI and maximize campaign efficiency for lead buyers across all verticals including financial services, insurance, and education. CPA Detective allows companies to make intelligent lead buying decisions by leveraging advanced lead scoring algorithms, smart device fingerprinting, and an industry-wide Fraud Intelligence Database to provide greater transparency into the quality of each lead and the overall traffic source. Learn more at http://www.cpadetective.com or call 877-449-1854.

Contact: Brian Gustason

Today, it has gotten to the point where a massive amount of people watching the Super Bowl are just as excited for the advertisements as they are the actual game itself. The Super Bowl is one of the only days of the year where viewers actually get really excited for commercial breaks. Not only is it the perfect time for a bathroom break, but it is when advertisers get to show their true colors to the public when it comes to creativity and cleverness. However, that is not all that there is to it. As we all know, we live in a multi-screen world, and the ways that marketers tie these multiple screens together is impressive. One of the most popular ways, however, is to mention social media in television commercials. With today being among the most important days in television advertising, Matt McGee of Marketing Land took it upon himself to see just how many times these different social networks were mentioned in the many commercials of the Super Bowl.

According to his article, McGee counted a total of 52 Super Bowl ads played, and of these, about 32 mentioned a social media site in some form or another. What is very impressive is that Twitter was mentioned in 26 of the 52 advertisements, which came out to exactly 50%. According to an article by McGee from a year ago, Twitter only received 8 mentions during the Super Bowl of 2011, during which there were a total of 59 advertisements.

For Facebook, the numbers did not prove to be quite as impressive. Facebook, during 2011’s Super Bowl, also received 8 mentions from advertisers, making a tie game between the site and Twitter. However, this year Facebook only got mentioned in 4 advertisements in total. Of the total 52 advertisements, that equals out to about 7.7%. Needless to say, Facebook was not nearly as popular for Super Bowl advertisers.

Now, not long ago I wrote on Google Plus’s new found fame as the number 2 social network on the web. However, Super Bowl advertisers seem to think otherwise, as the network was not even mentioned once. Apparently, the network even fell behind YouTube and Instagram, networks that were both mentioned once during Super Bowl ads.

So, why is this important? Well, not only does it show what networks bigger, more popular brands think are the most important for their marketing efforts, but it also shows that the race between Twitter and Facebook is much tighter than any numbers can show. Facebook has always been viewed as number one for marketing, but Super Bowl advertisers seem to think that Twitter is the most important place to send ad viewers. Now, sure this is probably because these brands wanted people talking about their products live on Twitter during the game. However, I do doubt that none of these marketers were thinking further into the future, and trying to send consumers to Twitter to engage with them for a more long term period. Either way, one of the country’s largest advertising periods was dominated by Twitter today, and that needed to be recognized.