Archives: February 2010

The Social Games industry had a flurry of news this week. A report indicated Zynga could be worth more than $3 billion, Playfish announced that players sent 60 million valentine’s day virtual goods across Pet Society, Zynga confirmed that there will be no subscription for Farmville, WildTangent entered the advertising game with BrandBoost, we talked [...]

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

The team over at JESS3, the company which originally designed Social Times, have released a new video with statistics about the internet. Whether it’s the 400 million Facebook users, or the billions of youtube videos streamed every day, the internet is a global phenomenon. As the internet grows, so too do the spectacular statistics about [...]

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics ends Sun Feb 28th, but if you’ve missed the televised events, you can keep up on results, photos and video clips through social media. One such source is The Associated Press, who has covered every Summer and Winter Olympic Games since the revival in 1896. They’re offering premium multimedia coverage, [...]

Nick Ascheim, who was promoted at the end of January to the newly created post of vice president, new ventures at NYTimes.com, didn’t stay in his new post for long, as Silicon Alley Insider reports that he will join Associated Press as general manager at AP Gateway, AP’s new business unit focused on mobile and electronic-reader applications.

Ascheim, who had been with The New York Times since June 2004, will report to AP chief revenue officer Jane Seagrave, according to Silicon Alley Insider.

Seesmic will debut an updated BlackBerry app that adds features including multiple-account support, Ping.fm integration and the option of choosing between different photo-uploading sizes, TechCrunch reports.

The new BlackBerry app allows users to easily switch between Twitter accounts, cross-post messages between different accounts, and choose a default account to be featured each time the app is opened, and it supports up to 10 accounts, according to TechCrunch.

Users with Ping.fm accounts can post updates to 50 social networks simultaneously, and users can choose between Tweetphoto, which is the default, and yFrog for photo uploads, TechCrunch reported.

This week was abuzz with social networking news from Canada. Several Canadian politicians appear to have embraced the simple, direct communication found in Tweets as part of their plans for engaging citizens in politics. A recent study examining Canadian Members of Parliament use of Twitter comes on the heels of the announcement that the budget [...]

The much-discussed upcoming ads on Twitter will conform to the microblogging service’s limit of 140 characters or fewer, and they will be served via third-party software and services using Twitter’s application-programming interface, sources told AllThingsD.

The ads will function similar to ads on Google, AllThingsD added: They will only show up during searches, and a search for “laptop” may result in an ad from Dell.

Twitter will work with ad agencies and buyers, but its goal is to create a self-serve model, again, like Google, according to AllThingsD.

According to Hitwise, ABC reclaimed its position as the top-ranked broadcast-network Website for the week ending Feb. 20, dropping CBS to second place.

The top three broadcast-network-show Websites were unchanged from the week of Feb. 13: Fox’s American Idol, ABC’s The Bachelor, and CBS’ Survivor.

Comedy Central’s South Park maintained its grip on the top spot for cable networks (adults only), with Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club moving up to No. 2 and ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager settling in at No. 3.

When combining broadcast and cable networks, the top three were unchanged from the week of Feb. 13: Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park, and Idol.

There were no fast risers on the broadcast list.

Cable’s fast risers were MTV’s 16 and Pregnant (to No. 7 from No. 22) and Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins & Dives (20 from 32).

Fast risers among the top 25 Websites were Nickelodeon’s The Penguins of Madagascar (8 from 19), Fox’s America’s Most Wanted (9 from 20), Nickelodeon’s iCarly (10 from 22), and 16 and Pregnant (17 from 50).

Click here to see the report.

While big businesses such as Target, Coca-Cola, and Dell are already using social media effectively, small business owners are just starting — often “because they should,” not necessarily because they have a plan for generating business leads. Other owners who do have a plan don’t necessarily know how to measure social media ROI. If you’re [...]

TheAtlantic.com rolled out a site redesign Friday, dividing content into seven topics — politics, business, culture, international, science/tech, national, and food — and introducing new features including “Other Works of Genius” and “The Interns Recommend,” as well as new commenting technology and rollover navigation previews.

The new design also allows easier integration with the site’s content through RSS feeds, email newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, iPhone applications, and e-readers.

TheAtlantic.com said advertising revenue grew 69 percent in January versus January 2009 and traffic rose 60 percent to 21 million page views and 3.7 million unique visitors for the month.

TheAtlantic.com editorial director Bob Cohn said:

Our main goal is to better organize the vast amount of quality content we’re producing each day. Now users will be able more easily to access all the journalism we produce — blog posts, online dispatches, magazine stories, videos — on one of our seven subject-matter channels.

The Atlantic and TheAtlantic.com vice president and publisher Jay Lauf added:

TheAtlantic.com’s sustained growth is fueled by demand for sharp, credible analysis and opinion that helps readers understand a complex world and by our rapid-fire, Web-speed take on that world. With our improvements to the site’s navigation, accessibility, and infrastructure, we expect TheAtlantic.com to enhance its position as a must-read site; it increasingly is becoming a must-buy for advertisers.