Tweet

Younger viewers have less video ad recall than their older counterparts

Are millennials online video viewing habits substantially different than those of older viewers? Data from a November 2013 survey of online adults in the US conducted by YuMe and IPG Media Lab seems to indicate the answer is "yes."

The survey found that millennials, defined in the survey as those ages 18 to 34, were more likely to watch digital videos in almost all content categories than their older counterparts. While 37% of millennials watched TV shows online frequently, only 26% of Generation Xers (those ages 35 to 54) and a mere 16% of baby boomers (those age 55 or older) did the same. The gap in watching user-generated content was also dramatic, coming in at 33% for millennials, 21% for Gen Xers and 15% for baby boomers. The only content category for which millennials did not lead other age demographics was online news.

Tweet

2013 has been a banner year for social media.

Twitter went public.

Google+ broke 1 billion users.

Vine, Instagram Video and Facebook hashtags hit the scene.

And there were tons of notable social media moments from brands around the world – both epic wins and total fails. As 2013 comes to a close, let's take a look at some of the best social media success stories of 2013.

Best real-time response: Oreo

Football fans everywhere panicked when the lights went out during Super Bowl XLVII. The game resumed quickly, but one brand took advantage of the 35-minute power outage: Oreo.

Tweet

In his book Tweet Naked, online marketing expert Scott Levy provides the critical information entrepreneurs need to craft a social media strategy that will boost their brand and their business. In this edited excerpt, the author discusses how to choose which is best for you, a personal or a business brand.

Before you can launch your brand, or take your current brand onto social media, you need to determine which direction you want to take; a personal brand or a corporate image. In some cases, you'll have both. If you have the opportunity to build a personal brand, you should do it. A lot of businesses fail for reasons beyond their control; people sell or move on to new projects or companies. If you have a personal brand, your followers will be with you, eager to see what you do next. Your personal brand follows you to your next endeavor.

Tweet

Your profile picture is an important tool. It is likely the first thing someone is going to see on any of your social media accounts. Some types of profile pictures an actually sink you and your company at a steady rate instead of helping to boost views and engagement. The sad thing is that many people have taken their profile images in the wrong direction.

You Are Selling Yourself

Every professional is actually selling themselves. Whether you own a business or simply work for one, you can have a huge impact on the way your business is perceived by the general public. Business owners often realize this eventually, but start ups may not have yet. The idea is that you are representing your business. If you act unprofessional, your business will be viewed as unprofessional. You must be above reproach at all times, even in your personal life.

Tweet

Any user who has spent more than a minute on Facebook knows that bragging to your friends about where you are is one of the site's signature activities. Now the social networking giant has crunched its 2013 data to reveal the world's most popular spots for check-ins.

Given the enduring dedication of its fans, it's no surprise to see Disney theme parks — in Anaheim, Calif., Orlando, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo — pop up all over this report. Sports arenas are a recurring popular venue, with four baseball stadiums in the top 10 for the USA, plus Vancouver's Rogers Centre (home of the NHL's Canucks) and the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.

Tweet

Twitter has been putting a lot of effort into its advertising business, which today is the newly public company's primary strategy for generating revenue. But it turns out that one of its earliest, lean-back efforts has not proven to be its most fruitful: Promoted Trends generated less than 10 percent of the company's revenue in the three months ended June 30, 2013.

The detail comes by way of correspondence between Twitter and the SEC, made in the weeks leading up to its first public S-1 report on October 3 ahead of its November IPO. The social networking startup had initially made a private filing with the SEC, courtesy of the JOBS Act, which lets companies with revenues of less than $1 billion file without immediately exposing details of its finances. (Twitter says in its S-1 that revenues for the first nine months in 2013 were $422.2 million.)