Martin Beck says, “With user growth stagnant, Twitter is hoping to sell a new feature with old-school marketing. The social media network is launching a national TV advertising campaign tonight during the World Series. The first ad, called “Post-Season,” is a 30-second spot to introduce Twitter’s new Moments feature to sports fans. The ad highlights scenes from the Major League Baseball playoffs — Jose Batista bat flips, cursed Chicago Cub goat GIFs, spectacular catches in the outfield — as they appeared within tweets. It’s not the first Twitter TV ad campaign, but it’s a crucial... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “In its ongoing efforts to attract more advertising dollars from big brands, Twitter has launched Brand Hub social listening analytics. Brand Hub is meant to give companies a centralized place to get insights on share of voice trends and the people and audiences talking about their brands on Twitter. Most big brands already use various third-party analytics tools to capture share of voice, sentiment and other social signals. Twitter’s Brand Hub is an extension of its existing analytics suite for advertisers and is anchored by a measurement metric called TrueVoice. TrueVoice... [...]

Mike O’Brien says, “Brands tweet about trending topics all the time, but they don’t always use the platform’s powerful reach in order to promote themselves beyond a Twitter conversation. Brands tweet about trending topics all the time – we write about it every Friday. If something gains enough viral traction, like the dress that was definitely blue and black or the UNIQLO fitting room sex tape incident, we’ll even write about it on a different day of the week. But all too often, brands let their contributions to the conversation live and die on Twitter. They... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Last week two Twitter accounts, Deadspin and SBNationGif, were taken down after the NFL reported them for sharing its footage. The footage was, of course, in the form of Vine video, that most popular format for ‘real-time’ sports clips. With many sports fans now accustomed to searching Twitter for ‘Vine Rooney goal’ or similar (insert joke here, UK soccer fans), these DMCA takedown notices are a big deal. So what does this mean for publishers and users? And has the NFL just blocked its own punt? Are Vines/GIFs not free marketing for NFL? This was... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “On Monday, Twitter announced that it has named Jack Dorsey its permanent CEO. Although Dorsey, the company’s co-founder, has been serving as interim CEO for months, the move is not without controversy because Dorsey also serves as CEO of another company, Square, which is expected to go public soon. The stakes are high for Twitter, which many observers say is struggling with an identity crisis. The stakes are also high for marketers, many of whom have invested heavily in Twitter. Here’s what new leadership could mean for them. The good scenario While Twitter... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Twitter has announced more platform partners to enable its ‘Buy’ button within shared or promoted posts. Demandware, Bigcommerce and Shopify will both be offering clients the option of adding commerce functionality to their tweets, but are users really that interested in buying directly from Twitter? China presents a precedent… Social proof and user generated content is massive in China. There are a rumoured 200m bank accounts linked up with WeChat. Social media plays a huge part in validating purchases through peer review and if social networks globally... [...]

Martin Beck says, “It’s a buyer’s market for Twitter Buy Now buttons. Twitter announced a big rollout of its e-commerce effort today, partnering with Bigcommerce, Demandware and Shopify in integrations that will greatly increase the number of merchants who can sell directly within user timelines. Twitter has been testing its Buy button for more than a year, tinkering with ways to entice people to make purchases directly from tweets. Facebook is also testing an in-feed buy button and Pinterest rolled out Buyable Pins in June. Now Twitter is hitting the accelerator. Bigcommerce and Shopify... [...]

Eric Enge says, “Social networks have different capabilities and focus, and this shows itself in the way people use them. One big mistake brands and people make when they engage in social media efforts is that they treat all the sites the same. As a result, most of that effort ends up being wasted.  For that reason, it’s important to understand what the differences are between the various networks, and then you could use that information to better tune and optimize your overall efforts. At Stone Temple Consulting, we have done detailed studies on what drives engagement on both Twitter and... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook’s native video momentum has been documented widely. The social network sees more than 4 billion video views a day — a number first reported in April and almost certainly much higher now. And lured by those eyeballs, brands have shifted their video posting on Facebook from YouTube to native, passing the tipping point last December, according to social analytics company Socialbakers. Now the same trend is hitting Twitter, albeit at a smaller scale. Recent data from Socialbakers shows that brands will soon be sharing more native video on Twitter than YouTube content.... [...]

In the last week we have had a focus on Periscope, Twitter’s new live streaming video service. If you haven’t read the introduction to Periscope we placed in the Curmudgeon’s Corner, I urge you to do so, because Periscope is the best friend a marketer has acquired in a long time. For a marketer, the most important facts about Periscope are: 1. Periscope lets marketers (and users, in general) broadcast live, for free, with nothing more than a smartphone. 2. These broadcasts are automatically recorded but the recordings are destroyed after 24 hours. 3. The direct integration of... [...]