Martin Beck says, “E-commerce and social media have been flirting for years with little to show for it, but the courtship is heating up. Both Twitter and Facebook are engaging in high-profile tests to bring the shopping experience directly into social streams. Many third-party vendors already offer ways to plug e-commerce into the social media environment, mostly driving users to online storefronts with links in social posts. Now Facebook and Twitter are both working to make the experience more seamless, each experimenting with a Buy button that allows consumers to complete purchases with... [...]

Jason Abbruzzese says, “When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012, the price tag came as a shock to many. A little more than two years later, Citigroup said Instagram is worth $35 billion, a number that the bank called “conservative” in a research note on Facebook issued Friday. It is another piece of good news in what has been a stellar 2014 for Instagram. The photo-sharing app recently hit 300 million active users, putting it ahead of Twitter. At $35 billion, Instagram would also be worth more than Twitter, which currently has a market cap around $23.3 billion”. Instagram... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook announced today that it’s adding a second day to its F8 developers conference, which will return to San Francisco March 25-26. The company, which rebooted the conference last April after a three-year hiatus, said it is adding the extra day because its developer community is rapidly growing. From the email announcing the dates: Facebook’s developer community is bigger today than it ever has been. The scope of the company’s products has broadened, and there’s more content to share than can fit into a single day. The additional day means double the number... [...]

Jason Del Rey says, “The hottest e-commerce market in the world isn’t in the U.S. or China. It’s in India, and that poses a big challenge to Amazon and Alibaba as their global ambitions grow. On Saturday, Flipkart — perhaps the most popular online shopping site in India — announced a massive $700 million investment. This would be a crazy enough sum on its own, except the company had just unveiled a $1 billion investment in the summer and, earlier, a $210 investment in the spring. Not to be outdone, Flipkart’s big rival Snapdeal landed a $600 million-plus investmentexclusively from... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “What’s in store for marketers next year? To help prepare for 2015, we asked sixteen of today’s leading CMOs their predictions for the new year. From Taco Bell CMO Chris Brandt who forecasts mobile’s ever expanding role in the consumer experience, to Salesforce Marketing Insight VP Jeff Rohrs’ prediction that 2015 will be the year of collaboration, marketers have much to look forward to during the next 12 months. While everyone would like a crystal ball to forecast the future, the following CMO insights very well may be the next best thing.”. What Does The... [...]

John Tackett says, “Discounts can be tempting to use as a tool to increase your sales volume. There are plenty of cases where incentives have been successful; however, one caveat to consider is they also come with their own set of consequences. When the dust settles and the results are in, every marketing team has to determine one thing: Are discounted product offers always the optimal choice for a price point strategy? That’s a question one large media company recently posed in their testing efforts that I wanted to share in today’s post to help you learn more about the potential impact... [...]

Gina Broom says, “When you go shopping, whether it be online or in the “real world” (I know, that’s sooooo last century), you browse to see what’s on offer before making a decision. Did you know that 90 percent of customers say that their decisions about purchasing products are influenced by online reviews? Marketing Land wrote a blog post about it: So why not do the same with affiliate networks? This is the place to get the inside scoop on two of the top-rated networks around: Rakuten LinkShare and ClickBank”. Affiliate Network Battle: LinkShare vs. ClickBank Mark... [...]

Amy Gesenhues says, “Social media analytics company SocialBakers is throwing more fuel on the fire that is the Facebook video versus YouTube video showdown. Two months after forecasting the number of videos uploaded directly to Facebook would exceed the number of YouTube videos, SocialBakers says its prediction has come to pass. SocialBakers evaluated 20,000 Facebook pages belonging to brands, media outlets, celebrities and entertainment companies to determine how content marketers are implementing video content on the social media site”. More Brands Uploading Video Directly To Facebook... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Instagram’s surge past Twitter in active users — 300 million to 284 million — was big news last week, even sparking discussion about whether Instagram could eventually unseat Twitter as the top social news service. That’s a battle that won’t be settled soon, but this week social analytics firm Socialbakers chimed in with a reminder to marketers that in terms of engagement Instagram is already blowing Twitter away. Socialbakers compared the top 25 brands in Instagram engagement with the top 25 on Twitter and found per post engagement rates nearly 50 times higher... [...]

Lara O’reilly says, “APTwitter CEO Dick Costolo’s Twitter feed may be packed with autoplaying videos soon. Twitter is debating internally whether to launch a feature that would see videos begin to automatically as users scroll through their timelines,sources have told Adweek. One industry insider called the debate “a tug of war.” It’s a move that would no doubt please advertisers, as more people’s eyes would be attracted to their branded content and ads, but could send users running as videos begin to clutter up the feed. Twitter autoplay video would build... [...]