This is a story all too often told in the cut throat world of silicone valley these days.  Digg was once in negotiations with Google to sell for a reported $200 Million!  The deal was never completed and after a series of unpopular changes to the site, and a dramatic drop in popularity, the once innovative social giant has been sold to New York based tech firm, Betaworks for just $500,000

This is just the final nail in the coffin for Digg after portions of the company have been sold off recently.  LinkedIn paid in the neighborhood of $3.75-4 Million for about 15 patents which were held by Digg.  The Washington Post then paid upwards of $12 Million for the Digg employees leaving the company just a shell of its former self.

Betaworks plans on bringing the Digg name and domain into their News.me properties, hoping to breathe new life into the brand, according to the Wall Street Journal.  While only time will tell, this could be a very smart move based on the bargain basement price that was paid for the company.  Digg still holds strong name recognition and a fair amount of traffic so it could help bring the popularity of their news site to the next level.

Digg was one of the earliest examples of the now very popular social news sharing sites.  It was started by Kevin Rose, Jay Adelson, Owen Byrne and Ron Gorodetzky in 2004.  It had acquired $45 Million for funding the site, and at its peak was visited by hundreds of thousands of visitors per day.  Experts believe Digg fell out of favor with their visitors after a series of changes were put in place causing over-regulation.  The site became focused on how it was moderated and regulated rather than on the users who were providing most of the content and value.

While the exact future of Digg remains uncertain, there are many lessons other tech companies can take away from the downfall of this once great site.  Making changes to a tech company is inevitable, and few things will kill a tech company faster than stagnation, however, every change must be well thought out and focused on the end user.  When the deciding factor behind changes moves from user experience toward things like profit, ease of moderation or anything else it will cause problems.  When companies remain focused on providing their users with what they want they will not only have happy visitors, but their profits will go up as well.

This is a lesson which seems to have gone unlearned by Kevin Rose who has moved from Digg to Google, where he only worked about two months before jumping ship for Google Ventures.  Where his erratic career will take him next is anyone’s guess, but if he doesn’t find another big idea soon he will just continue to lose credibility in the high-tech business world.  What we do know, however, is that marketers will be keeping a close eye on the future of Digg to see how and where it lands.

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Zappos recently revealed the key to their success in several interviews and articles. It seems that they are so successful in Facebook marketing and advertising, that they get a 350% ROI on all their Facebook marketing efforts. This comes as a surprise as more and more companies seem to be implying the opposite: that they are losing money on Facebook, and can’t make it work for them. Perhaps part of the problem is the training and how they use Facebook, but also perhaps part of the problem is the tools that they use.

In an interview with Nate Luman, the Facebook Marketing Head of Zappos, he revealed what he does with Facebook, and what should be ingnored.

 As a marketer focused on driving Web traffic through Facebook paid ads, I am constantly trying to discover new audiences to target. Tools like XA.net’s OptimalKeyword look for fan pages with overlapping Facebook users. Fan-page engagement data isn’t as important to me as it is for the folks on my team focused on community management. I have a hard time suggesting to ignore any Facebook data without first testing to see if it is relevant to your business. Just don’t get caught up in doing it because you can. We’re taking an extra lean, agile approach to development, and if a minimum viable product shows that sending targeted emails based on what a connected customer recently posted on their wall creeps them out, we’d be smart to ignore that data and move on.

He mentioned the tool, OptimalKeyword, which has been gaining some attention out there, but not much usage in the performance marketing industry.  This self-serve keyword expander tool,  is “an audience expansion and research tool that is available on the OptimalSocial.com website and also at OptimalKeyword.com and is powered by SocialPredictTM. SocialPredictTM is optim.al’s proprietary interest/affinity matching engine based on an edge graph of over 3.6 billion modeled connections between the most popular consumer interests. Keyword Expander helps you build better keyword targets based on social data, and tells you more about the brands, interests and passions that connect us.”

Nate Lumen really does love this tool. He’s quoted recently as going on an on about how great the tool is, and basically how Zappos couldn’t do business on Facebook in the same way without it.

I’m in love with this tool called OptimalKeyword. What they have essentially done is mine the entire Facebook Ads API for different likes and interests. They’re looking for overlap between different likes and interests. So they’ve indexed everything and if you search a like or interest they’re able to tell you similar ones that those fans are also fans of. So if we run a query on Zappos we’re going to find out what our fans also like. So we’ll find out they like Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Yoga. But we’ve also found other interesting things that they like: Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and they like different shows on the Food Network.

We also use that tool to discover new audiences to target on Facebook. So if we find that targeting our own fans is effective, which it is: we see our highest ROIs on our ads that target our own fans. How can we find people that are similar to our fans but aren’t our fans? We want to look for new customers on Facebook. We’ve used that tool to do that as well. So we are targeting the same likes and interests that are informing the content on our fan page, we also target them with ads and expand our audience base to see if we can’t find people who are similar to the Zappos customer, maybe fit their similar demographic profile based on what they like on Facebook.

Here’s a great video explaining how the tool works and how it can easily increase your ROI.

We spoke to Optim.al and they agreed to give everyone free credits to try the tool out and see how it can increase your Facebook ROI. Click here for more information.

Pinterest is coming up fast as one of the most popular social networking websites on the internet, which of course peaks the interest of advertisers and businesses, big and small. Almost anyone you ask will say that they have an account with Pinterest, sharing the things that interest them, and finding out what others are interested in. People get some of their greatest inspirations and ideas from things found on Pinterest, and people are influenced greatly by the things they view on the site. This is part of the reason it could be so valuable to an advertiser or a business trying to build it’s digital presence.

The problem that many marketers see with Pinterest is that no matter how good of quality your posts are, there’s no way of telling which are ‘pinned’ the most and which are the least successful. Pinterest is basically a virtual bulletin board, allowing people to post things all over the place. So, to organize things for advertisers and businesses, a company called Lexity has released a handy new app pertaining to Pinterest. The app is called Pinterest Report, and it could be exactly what businesses need to take advantage of the popularity of Pinterest while being able to monitor their presence on the site.

According to Lexity’s App Gallery, Pinterest Report allows for three things regarding Pinterest. First, the app allows you to, “Track your most pinned products.” This will allow you to find out what exactly is catching the attention in your posts. With this data, you can create a successful campaign within the Pinterest network. The next feature of the app allows you to identify your business’s top competitors on Pinterest. Using that information you can research their posts and better compete. Finally, you can figure out which ‘pinners’ are most influential in the Pinterest community. From this information, you can also learn what kinds of things are most influential to the Pinterest users and potential customers.

Lexity is a company that deals with apps for eCommerce. In their ‘Learn More’ column, they write, “Once you create an account with us you can add as many apps as you want to make up the best marketing plan for your store.” The goal of Lexity is to make things more organized for internet marketers, helping their success online. With this new Pinterest app, they have done just that, opening up Pinterest to anyone and making it easier to manage content on the network.

So, for those of you who know about Pinterest and are confused on how to use it to your advantage, this app could clear it up for you. It’s hard to tell exactly how successful Pinterest marketing will be, but it’s sure to give some decent results. With so many people getting ideas, creativity, and inspiration from the site, the users are always willing to look at a post. Pinterest is different from other social networks, in that people are on the site to look at just about anything, and not just things recommended to them.

When I’m not reading an article about any one of various subjects or finding out what’s new with Google, I do what everyone else does in their free time; Facebook. That word that has two meanings, one a noun and the other a verb, is one that entitles the site that many people spend a good part of every day scanning. Well, not unlike those people, I was browsing the site and something caused it to intertwine with my internet marketing interests. As I looked to the side of the page to scan through the advertisements, I noticed something happening that I hadn’t seen before.

I was reading an ad, and regardless of how short the advertisement was, I didn’t get to finish reading. The advertisement disappeared and was replaced with another without my clicking of anything. In fact, my hands were no where near the computer. So, of course I was immediately curious as to what may have made it happen. Through a bit of research, I found that Facebook recently started a rotation process for advertisements within a single page, allowing for more room for advertising. Because of Facebook’s recent fallouts in the advertising community, they’ve been changing things left and right with their marketing methods, working toward the ideal set up.

So, as I sat there I watched the ads change from a Disney App advertisement, to a Wells Fargo ad, and then to something telling me I could win a Pet Health manual by Merck. They change every few minutes, so I told myself I was doing research and not wasting my time staring at the same screen for about 15 minutes. Anyway, Facebook’s decision to rotate their ads is definitely a good one for a few reasons, the most important being that they now allow for more ads to appear on their platform, bringing in more advertisers.

The fact is, an advertisement doesn’t have to appear on Facebook for hours at a time on the same page, because it only takes seconds for a potential customer to view it. If they’re interested, they aren’t going to wait a half hour to click on the ad or to become aware of the product, it will happen when they see it. So, since many Facebook users stay on the same page, their News Feed, for long periods at a time, this new rotation will give more than one advertiser the opportunity to have that spot.

This new feature may even get Facebook users to pay more attention to the advertising section on the side of their News Feeds. The only problem that it may present is that, since most people don’t know of the rotating ads, they may not notice that the ads have changed, pretty much screwing over the advertiser or company whose advertisement is featured second or third. Anyway, I’m sure we’ll continue to see Facebook improving upon its advertising techniques, regenerating a good reputation in the marketing world. This small change is just proof that there is more change to come with the world’s favorite social network.

Twitter stands as a very crucial tool in the business and advertising community. As everyone in the world knows, anything as popular as Twitter has an app, usually for both Android and iOS. Twitter’s app for mobile devices got the job done usually, but it lacked the functionality that people were looking for with it. Advertisers and brands would get frustrated because of the way their Tweets worked within the mobile platform, showing only the update and nothing more. Since mobile is so huge and nobody’s attention is grabbed by just a link, the Tweets of businesses and advertisers were ineffective in the Twitter app. It was bringing down the way businesses could share information to potential customers.

Of course, Twitter soon recognized how truly simple and unprofitable their their app had quickly become, and rumors were spilled about an enhancement to the app. Just today, the rumors became fact, as Twitter released their new enhancement upgrade to their app, allowing for better use by businesses, advertisers, and consumers as well. Now the struggle to share proper Tweets with consumers will be no issue, because the new enhancements allow much more freedom in mobile Tweeting.

Twitter recently allowed for users to expand Tweets further than they originally could, and now they’ve brought that expansion to mobile devices. Now, straight from the app, any link that is shared in a Tweet can be previewed by the user, allowing them to get a look at what was posted without having to load a page in a mobile browser. Advertisers will be able to show more than just a link to mobile users. Plus, the ability to include images directly in the Tweet will help to grab attention as well. Twitter says in their blog about this new feature, “This new experience will roll out gradually to web, iPhone and Android users.”

Also, Twitter has recently made improvements to their search autocomplete feature. The feature is already new to the network, but Twitter has improved it further still, “so that you will see more suggestions when you search for people.” It’s hard to see how this will be beneficial to advertisers, but it is still a decent improvement. Along with the search autocomplete improvement comes the addition of notifications to the mobile Twitter. With a live streaming network like Twitter, it’s hard to believe that they are just getting to successful app notifications, but at least they’ve done it.

So, with the Twitter mobile app, you can see that their best improvement has been the expanded mobile Tweets. Twitter notes that users can, “Now get even more from 140 characters,” with that addition of images and expansions. Now advertisers and businesses have the ability to reach Twitter users effectively not only on the web version of the social network but on the mobile version as well. We all know that mobile is everything these days, and Twitter knew that they had sort of botched their mobile platform the first time. However, this time it seems they did it right.

Being that internet marketing is where advertisers are focusing all of their attention these days, it’s important that someone keeps track of how well it is actually doing. That way, those looking to begin on the web will know whether they are making the right decision or not. Well, the source to go to for advertisers of all types has long been places like Nielsen, a company that keeps track of trends in advertising, as well as what forms of advertising are succeeding and which are not around the world. Today, Nielsen has written a blog post showing data that is surprising in some ways, but completely expected in others.

Nielsen writes, “With consumer confidence up and brands looking to reconnect, spending on advertising is on the rise—around the globe and across media types. TV, newspapers, radio, outdoor, Internet, and cinema all saw an increase in ad spend in the beginning of 2012 compared to last year,” which means that advertisers should be nothing but optimistic. According to their chart, Nielsen reported that internet advertising has grown 12.1% since Q1 last year. Not only that, but television, radio, outdoor ads, newspapers, and cinema have all grown as well, leaving magazine advertising as the only method that has decreased in ad spending. However, none of these platforms have grown quite as significantly as has internet marketing.

Now, the continuing growth in internet marketing is definitely exciting. It means that all the money advertisers are spending on the internet right now is still worth it and will remain worth it for a while. However, Nielsen further includes another chart, explaining the locations where this growth is occurring. Internet marketing in North America hasn’t budged at all since this time last year, which simply means that it was harnessed in North America before anywhere else, giving the time advantage for growth. But, it’s still exciting that internet advertising has grown around the globe, in that advertisers from anywhere in the world will now be reaching out to anybody on the globe. Where online spending by advertisers has grown most is Africa, at 35.2%. Even with such a high number, though, Africa’s most used advertisements are outdoor ads. As cultures differ globally, so do the methods of advertising. Advertising can only grow around the people of a certain area, and when society shifts, ads shift.

In sum, Nielsen is reporting that all is well in the world of internet marketing. Although there hasn’t been much growth in North America, there’s been no decreases either. Plus, it hasn’t decreased anywhere else either, meaning that marketing on the web continues to be the hot platform in one way or another. “Though TV continues to attract the majority of advertising dollars, Internet advertising saw the biggest increases, with advertisers spending 12.1 percent more in Q1 2012 than one year prior.” It’s easy to see that the web will eventually overtake TV, simply by looking at the direction in which it’s headed. Society loves the internet, meaning that advertisers do as well.

Facebook’s advertising seems to be all we hear about these days, probably because people are expecting so much potential to come of it. The thing is, according to a recent survey, Facebook may have more to offer in the line of advertising than many people think, just in a different way. Since many peoples’ opinions toward the new advertising network that Facebook planned have been tarnished by an unsuccessful start, these new statistics could mean good news for Facebook. Those interested in creating an online awareness rather than obtaining leads could see significantly sufficient results when putting their advertising needs in the hands of Facebook.

A recently published survey performed by Ad Age, it is apparent that more advertisers are buying Facebook not to generate leads, but rather to create an awareness of their product or brand with a wide range of demographics. They write that 45.9% of advertisers included in the survey, when asked about why they purchased advertising space on Facebook, responded by saying their number one use for it is, “building awareness and sentiment for their brands.” Next was driving traffic to brand websites, at 17.6%. In the small percentages were things like keeping in touch with customers, building fans, and, at a lower percentage, generating leads.

Now, the results may seem weird, since the Like button has created many of the marketing strategies in action right now, but it isn’t that hard to believe that Facebook is mostly used to raise awareness. Facebook is a place where people go to be social, not so much to shop around. However, if there is an advertisement on Facebook, people will notice it even if they have absolutely no intention on clicking it. Therefore, the goal of those using Facebook for awareness is always satisfied, where it is a guessing game for those looking for leads or increased website traffic.

In an article on Ad Age, Cotton Delo writes, “Facebook’s pitch to the world’s biggest consumer marketers is that it’s a branding platform like TV, and it’s been urging them to focus less on metrics such as click-through rates and more on reach and ‘resonance.’” Facebook knows that they have one of the biggest numbers of users on the web, but they also know what their network is used for. Facebook users are less interested in clicking on the advertisements that appear beside their News Feeds than they are simply browsing. With a simple goal of raising awareness, achieving it is possible even if a Facebook user is just browsing.

So, maybe it is a good idea to stop focusing on getting things from Facebook that it just isn’t made for. It seems the most successful Facebook advertisers are those looking for nothing more than a glance at their advertisements, possible peaking interest in those who view it. It may be true that the Like button isn’t the best thing Facebook has to offer for brand marketing, especially those with the goals outlined by AdAge’s survey.

 clickTRUE, an online marketing and advertising agency in Singapore and Southeast Asia specialising in Search and Conversion strategies to help brand owners strategise, design and build compelling web experiences, recently expanded into Indonesia, and has received a boost in confidence through substantial funding via Series A financing, led by Nusantara Ventures.

clickTRUE Indonesia operates under its parent company, clickTRUE Pte Ltd, headquartered in Singapore, and is set up by the founders of HardwareZone.com.

“Our vision is to differentiate ourselves as a top specialist in the search marketing space in Southeast Asia, and the expansion into Indonesia propels us toward becoming a regional brand and agency to better support our multinational clients and partners,” stated Jackie Lee, CEO of clickTRUE.

With a 240 million strong population, and approximately 40 million internet users, Indonesia is an important market for clickTRUE as digital market penetration and patterns are just emerging. The current internet penetration rate is at 17% and it is rapidly growing but her digital ad spends only averages a mere 2%. Earlier in March 2012, Google set up office in Indonesia – a strong indicator that Indonesia has untapped market potential.

He added, “We’re at the forefront right now, and are committed to establishing ourselves steadily and gaining a strong foothold in Search and Performance Marketing in Indonesia to become a trustworthy partner for companies to work with and capture the increase in digital expenditure when online consumption grows.”

At the same time, clickTRUE also wishes to welcome Shinta W. Dhanuwardoyo, founder of Bubu.com and Managing Partner at Nusantara Ventures, who will sit on the Board of Directors of clickTRUE Indonesia. A veteran in the digital industry in Indonesia, Shinta would be no stranger to any Indonesian who’s been in the online business.

“There is so much potential for growth in Indonesia. clickTRUE has the expertise and tools to help businesses in Indonesia click their way to success. With the evolving internet landscape, it’s still very exciting for me to be a part of this even though I’ve been doing this for years. This is exactly what we need for Indonesia to move forward in terms of performance marketing in the digital space,” Shinta remarks.

Not one to rest on its laurels, clickTRUE was also awarded the Yahoo! Platinum Search Marketing Agency Ambassador for Southeast Asia region not too long ago, in its efforts to grow itself as a reliable consultancy that clients are able to trust to achieve the best results for their business in the region.

It is also the 1st Google Analytics Certified Partners in Southeast Asia, and aims to provide clients in Indonesia with the best practices to grow their business, whether it is in optimisation, conversions or social media. clickTRUE Indonesia will be offering the full suite of online marketing and advertising services.

clickTRUE is held by Kyosei Ventures which is an associate of the Singapore Press Holdings and currently has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

As if they need it, Facebook has found a way to get more money out of their advertising methods. Facebook, one of the wealthiest internet companies around today, has released a new form of advertising for their media network, which is particularly focused toward mobile app developers. Facebook has recently moved their advertising network from only desktop formats to both desktop and mobile. Now, they are incorporating advertisements for apps into their desktop and mobile versions of Facebook. People will now be able to find out about mobile apps by simply browsing their news feeds and perusing the many different pages of Facebook.

Simply, all this means is that Facebook is trying to reach out to every possible advertiser that is out there, and give them a chance to utilize Facebook’s new advertising techniques. They hope that with good results, they can build a good reputation with marketers, brands, and now, app developers. The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook will provide advertisers with a way to, “place as for apps directly in a users’ News Feed on their mobile devices.” Putting ads for apps in mobile News Feeds will inform people of the apps while they are on the very devices where they can download them. The Wall Street Journal also reports, “Facebook would charge companies every time an app is installed on users’ smartphones, one of the people said. Facebook can charge significantly more for an app installation than it can for the traditional cost of every one thousand people who have viewed an ad.”

Say you’re a frequent user of a certain app and you are very satisfied with that app. What Facebook would be doing is suggesting other apps, developed by the same app developer, that you may also be interested in, but wouldn’t really hear about otherwise until possible weeks down the road. App developers haven’t really ever been given a proper way to advertise other than in other apps or on display banners in desktop platforms. By paying Facebook per download of an app, their apps would appear in the News Feeds of potential customers. It’s really an optimal setup for app developers to advertise.

The Wall Street Journal has reported rumors that Facebook will launch this new advertising platform for app developers on July 16, 2012. Some of Facebook’s executives have concern about a repercussion related to privacy, due to the fact that the advertising technique relies on information about what apps users have downloaded on their mobile devices. It’s true that this will probably be an issue for some, but not too many will be very concerned about tracking app downloads, especially if it is only Facebook doing it to figure out their interests.

So, Facebook is trying to perfect advertising, despite the hard time they’ve been having lately in doing so. They have the potential to be a great advertising option for brands and advertisers, but they just haven’t grasped a way to advertise in a way that is ideal for both the consumer and the advertiser. When they figure that out, they have a good shot.