Tweet

The popular music streaming service Spotify is planning to launch a free mobile music service, ad-supported version and has already reached licensing deals with three major recording companies (Universal, Sony and Warner) according to a The Wall Street Journal report.

Spotify sent out invites for an event next week, but didn't say what would be launched. The invitation said "We're having a media event. Like to come? There will be donuts." But according to rumors the Sotify free mobile music is a big part of the event.

The company already has a similar free access offer for desktop users, although it doesn't include unlimited music streaming. The mobile users who sign up for the free option will also have some limitations in place – while they will be able to choose what music tracks to listen to, they'll only be able to play a limited number of songs on-demand each month.

Until now, Spotify has only allowed premium subscribers paying $10 a month to stream music from mobile devices. The free, ad-supported service was available for desktop and laptop computers, and for $5 a month users could remove the ads from those devices but not listen on mobile.

Tweet

1. A Guide to Holiday Shopping & Marketing: The holiday season is, undoubtedly, an essential time of year for businesses. But in order to see real results from your holiday marketing, you'll need to find ways to put your buyers' actual needs and desires at the center of your marketing efforts. Download this free guide to learn tips & best practices on how to make the most of your holiday marketing.

Get your free guide here: http://bit.ly/1k6JLIO 

2. Determine Your 2014 Marketing Goals [Free Template]
Do you have your 2014 goals in order yet? Planning out your marketing goals for an entire year can be a daunting task. Grab this free template to help you calculate your marketing needs and set priorities for 2014, so you can simplify the planning process and start off the year strong.

Get your free template here: http://bit.ly/1auRL0D 

3. 101 Examples of Effective Calls-to-Action
Improving the look and feel of your calls-to-action helps you convince your website visitors to take action. Flip through these 101 examples of successful call-to-action design to see how top companies have gotten more visitors clicking and converting – and learn how you can do the same for your own marketing.

Tweet

One of the most effective ways to market on Facebook is through the proper usage of images. Images receive more likes, more comments, and more engagement in general. They are also more likely to convert, which is extremely important if you are trying to sell something. Using images also offers you a wider variety of posts you can use, which keeps your audience not only engaged but also entertained and informed. If you aren't sure how to properly execute this technique take a look at these eight great ways to market on Facebook using images.

1. Offer Promotional Codes During Sales

Tweet

"With increases in fan/follower engagement nearly three times that of other networks studied, Instagram is the clear winner for 2013," SumAll CEO Dan Atkinson said. "If a company has a visual product to sell and it's currently not on Instagram, that company is missing out on significant brand awareness and revenue."

SumAll, a business analytics tool, currently tracks over 100,000 businesses on social networks, analyzing over 290 billion social actions per year.

Across businesses that are on all four networks, SumAll says that Instagram resulted in the most new followers in 2013 — and significant revenue. Brands on Instagram saw an average of 7 percent growth in both followers and engagement. And while U.S. brands saw a nice little revenue lift from Instagram — 1.5 percent to 5 percent — businesses in the U.K. reported more, up to 3.6 percent.

Tweet

HootSuite announced this morning that it is partnering with IBM to integrate with big blue's Connections product suite, which IBM calls "a leading social software platform" which makes "everything social."

On first glance it looks like a competitor — as if Hubspot was integrated with Marketo, or Google and Bing announced a partnership.

First glances are often deceiving.

"When we look at Connections, IBM uses the word social a lot, but they mean internal," HootSuite's Kevin Zellmer, a company director, told me this afternoon. "They've done a good job inside the organization, but they haven't done a lot to share that externally ... and they haven't given a lot of consideration to how my internal world at work and my external world of social blend."

Tweet

Instagram has invited members of the media to an event in NYC on December 12 to "share a moment" with Kevin Systrom and the Instagram team.

It's unclear what this event is in reference to, but considering that the invitation was sent in the mail, on paper, the photo-sharing app could be hinting at a future in print. Other invites were a block of wood with pictures printed on them, with a hanger on one side to hang on the wall. If that isn't a hint toward printing, I don't know what is.