Marketing Day: October 31, 2012

Here’s our daily recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

From Marketing Land:

1. Facebook Update Status Box Now Prompting Users With Halloween-Related Questions

“Describe your Halloween costume.” That’s just one of several Halloween-related questions that are now appearing in the Facebook Update Status box, apparently as a way by Facebook to get its users talking about the holiday. Here are just a few of what we’ve been seeing: For those without images, these are: What’s your favorite Halloween […]

1. The Rise Of The Search Butler

Let me start this month with the following disclaimer: I despise humble bragging in all its forms. I find the whole process nauseating — so much so that I have taken to parodying my own tweets that even remotely smell like a humble brag. That stated with the utmost sincerity, I can tell you I […]

1. Marketing Land’s Social Media Show Has Twitter Keynote On Rights & Wrongs Of Twitter Marketing

Just over a month away, Marketing Land’s SMX Social Media Marketing event comes to Las Vegas this Dec. 5 & 6. As part of our great agenda is a keynote from Del Harvey, director of trust and safety at Twitter. Del’s talk is one any social media marketer will want to hear. She oversees all of what’s considered […]

1. Non-Social Facebook Ads Begin Creeping Into The News Feed

As Facebook’s continued quest for revenue continues, the News Feed relevance appears to be declining. Under immense pressure to generate meaningful ad revenue, Facebook has begun sponsoring stories and pages and, most recently, suggesting posts. The key? These new ad units have been intrinsically social — promoting a Facebook post or page. Now InsideFacebook reports that Facebook […]

1. How Google’s New Search App For The iPhone Might Steal Searchers Away From Siri

Google’s new Google Search app for iOS is now out, bringing with it a Siri-like quality of speaking to get answers and having them read back. The app is cool, but it can’t do all the “assistant” things that Siri can. Then again, for many searches, the Google Search app can be much faster than Siri. […]

1. Facebook Questions Is Finally Dead

Talk about stringing something along: Months after removing its dedicated Questions app, Facebook has finally removed the “Ask Question” option from the status update text box above the News Feed. That currently leaves users with two options: Update Status and Add Photo/Video. Facebook Questions first launched in July 2010 and was thought to be an […]

1. Google+ Bug Sharing The Wrong URLs?

There appears to be a bug with Google+ that’s sometimes causing the wrong URLs to appear when sharing pages. At first, I thought this was something happening just with me as an odd glitch. I was on Google+ today, entered a URL I wanted to share, and the wrong page title and description came up. I […]

Recent Headlines From Search Engine Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Search News & Information:

1. Google Loses Australian Defamation Case, Awaiting Decision On Damages

2. Paid Search Study: Yahoo/Bing’s Click Share Grows, But Google Still Tops

3. Google Updates Earth With “Tour Guide” & More 3D Imagery

4. Google Adds AMBER Alerts Atop U.S. Search Results

5. Making The Case For Native Mobile Landing Pages

6. Boo! Are You Unintentionally Scaring Your Customers?

7. For Halloween, Google Makes Bats Appear For Horror Movie Searches

8. Google’s Interactive “Happy Halloween” Logo For 2012

9. What’s The Best Smartphone? Google’s New iOS Search App Says Decide For Yourself

Online Marketing News From Around The Web:

Affiliate Marketing

1. 6 Ways Coupon Affiliates Can Make Your Holiday Sales Bigger, www.revenews.com

Analytics

1. Majority of consumers ignore privacy and cookie info: stats, econsultancy.com

2. Properly Attributing Email Campaigns in Analytics, Search Engine Watch

3. Recap of Google Analytics Summit 2012, Day 1: What Matters, www.analyticspros.com

Blogs & Blogging

1. 5 Terrific Things Your Business Should Be Blogging About, pushingsocial.com

2. Four New Charts That Show the Value of Small Business Blogging, www.smallbusinesssem.com

3. How to Find Hyperlocal Bloggers on Twitter, weblogbetter.com

4. Make the Most of Guest Blogging: Second-Tier Link Building, KISS Metrics

5. Should Your Business Start a Blog?, bestbloggingtipsonline.com

6. Your Blog is the Ultimate "Know, Like and Trust Generation Machine", www.rightmixmarketing.com

Business Issues

1. Facebook shares fall as lock-up period expires, Reuters

2. Facebook Sued as Social Game Monopolist, www.courthousenews.com

3. Groupon shares drop after Sandy hit U.S. merchants, Reuters

4. Instagram Makes Landfall as Major Social News Player in Its Own Right, socialtimes.com

5. Patent troll claims it invented the Windows 8 and Windows Phone “tiles”, Ars Technica

6. Yahoo Wenner Media Make US Weekly, Rolling Stone Traffic, Content Deal, All Things D

7. Yahoo’s Ex-Chief Levinsohn Says Mayer Needs Years for Turnaround, Bloomberg

Content Marketing

1. Blogging vs. Podcasting: Which is Better for Building Brands, Followers, and Trust?, www.thesaleslion.com

2. How to Build a Lean but Effective Content Marketing Team, www.copyblogger.com

3. SearchLove: How to Create Infographics that aren’t Sh*t, www.vervesearch.com

4. What’s the biggest copywriting / content writing mistake you see websites make?, HighRankings Forums

Conversion Optimization

1. The Easiest and Most Valuable Way to Improve Conversions, HighRankings Forums

2. Zen and the Art of Website Conversion, www.socialmediaexplorer.com

Copywriting, Design & Usability

1. Why Every Company Should Have a Marketing-Focused Webdev Team, moz.com

2. Why Should Web Design Be A Profession?, Smashing Magazine

Display & Contextual Advertising

1. BuzzFeed adapts its branded content approach to political advertising, and Obama’s in, Nieman Journalism Lab

2. Fanboy Targeting: Facebook Advertisers Can Now Choose What Mobile Devices Their Ads Appear On, TechCrunch

3. Ghostery Data Reveals Surge in Online Ad Targeting Being Utilized by Presidential Campaigns, www.businesswire.com

4. Key Issues to Consider When Using Page Post Ads, fbppc.com

Email Marketing

1. How I Grew My Email List 20% in 20 Days, waldowsocial.com

2. Obama vs. Romney: Asleep at the (Transactional Email) Wheel, blog.returnpath.com

General Internet Marketing

1. Scary Online Marketing: 33 SEO, Social Media & Content Marketing Horror Stories For Halloween, Online Marketing Blog

2. Seven big in-house marketing challenges, econsultancy.com

Other Items

1. E-retailers roll with Sandy’s punches, Internet Retailer

Social Media

1. Growing and Maintaining a Strong Group on LinkedIn, linkedintobusiness.com

2. Six Ways to Check If You Have ‘Like’ Integrity, www.mpdailyfix.com

3. Don’t fall for the Facebook Interest List rumor, raventools.com

4. How Sandy Slapped the Snark Out of Twitter, New York Times

5. Pinterest Holiday Marketing Guide, www.97thfloor.com

6. Viral Content Buzz: The new Social Media sharing Platform, www.msocialh.com