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In South Africa, Habari Firms Combine for New Digital Agency

mrweb.com reports: In South Africa, Adrian Hewlett [pictured], the CEO and founder of media and marketing business Habari has combined the group’s below-the-line (BTL), market research, digital, and social media businesses to launch a new integrated ad agency called Machine.

Taking the role of CEO of Machine, Hewlett plans to reposition his firm as a more integrated agency with a key digital competency. A new senior client services team will oversee the various specialist units - such as research, digital, and BTL - and work across channels, with specialist project teams below them.  More…

In US, Webtrends to Invest $7 Million in 2012, Enjoys Astounding Growth of 418 Percent

Webtrends Expanding IP Footprint in Pacific Northwest by Adding 35 Engineers

02/03/2012 | Portland, OR - Webtrends, the global leader in unified mobile, social and web analytics and engagement, announced today that it is taking aggressive steps to foster IP growth and innovation by adding dozens of talented engineers to the company roster. Over the course of 2012, Webtrends will put $7 million dollars toward the hiring of more than 50 new positions, including 35 in engineering and four in marketing, and significantly increasing program spend.

“Over the last three years Webtrends has focused aggressively on out-innovating the market, particularly in rich and emerging media channels,” explains Alex Yoder [pictured], Chief Executive Officer of Webtrends. “We are the natural pure play in analytics and personalization, providing real time relevance to our customers and driving remarkable ROI. As such, we are excited to extend our commitment to accelerating our leadership position and remain in the driver’s seat of change within our industry. We will be adding more of the best and the brightest people, ranging from seasoned executives to recent graduates. Top tier talent is and will always be the cornerstone of Webtrends’ success.” More…

In US, Ogilvy & Mather launches Social@Ogilvy

NEW YORK, NY, February 13, 2012 – Ogilvy & Mather announced today the launch of Social@Ogilvy, a worldwide practice connecting all of the agency’s social media experts to deliver solutions across all areas of business.

“Now, no matter which door clients walk through at Ogilvy, they will connect with the Social@Ogilvy team to deliver agile and measurable solutions. That’s access to social experts deep in every marketing and communications discipline,” says John Bell [pictured], Global Managing Director of Social@Ogilvy. “We have worked hard over the last seven years to define and apply ‘best practice’ use of social media to business. The real power of social media for business in 2012 and beyond lies in fully integrated solutions, not stand-alone social programs.”  More...

How would Klout Mobile shake up 'mocial' marketing?

Lauren Johnson at Mobile Marketer writes: Mobile marketing and social media are continually being linked to each other with more consumers accessing social media sites on their mobile devices.  Klout, which keeps a score of social media users’ activity, recently announced that a new round of funding is expected to be used to help the company develop a mobile product.  Combined with increased social mobile activity, a Klout mobile product is proof that marketers need to bridge the two when working on campaigns.  More...

Influence Is More Than A Score

Peyman Nilforoush [pictured], co-founder and CEO of NetShelter Technology writes at Online Media Daily: There is no denying that brands will continue to invest in influencer marketing programs; however, they must realize that influence goes beyond a score. It is about using content to establish a deeper and more intelligent connection with an audience. And it is those authors who are the true influencers that deserve attention. More…

Hong Kong’s Digital Landscape is Dynamic and Evolving

Posted on Nielsen Wire: Internet access in Hong Kong has become near-ubiquitous, as 87 percent of consumers there have used the Internet in the past year, outpacing neighboring markets like Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Internet usage in Hong Kong is particularly high among 12- to 44-year-olds with over nine-in-ten accessing the Internet on a monthly basis. While Internet usage is moving toward maturity and online activities are ingrained in consumers’ everyday lives, a new dimension is rapidly expanding—that of Internet-capable mobile devices, including smartphones, tablet computers, eBook readers, connected games devices or other hybrid forms likely to emerge in the near future.  More...

In US, Thismoment Acquires Position2 Brand Monitor

Thismoment Adds Social Monitoring and Engagement to Market Leading Social Content Management System for Brands

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 9, 2012) - thismoment, Inc., a provider of social content management software for brands that want to rapidly and effectively engage consumers across social and mobile platforms, today announced that it has acquired Position2 Brand Monitor, a leading social media monitoring and engagement platform. Position2 Brand Monitor will rebrand as thismoment Brand Monitor.

Vince Broady [pictured, left], CEO and Founder, thismoment said: "We are thrilled to acquire such an advanced technology platform and team as we continue our drive to provide the strongest, most powerful brand management solution available to enterprise customers. As we look to expand internationally, Brand Monitor also provides us with close to 500 customers around the globe, with a particularly strong footprint in Asia. With the addition of Brand Monitor, thismoment DEC customers will now, better than ever, listen, discover and engage with their audiences on social media networks, and have an enhanced understanding of marketing campaign performance with conversation metrics, including volumes, sentiment, and share of voice."  

Rajiv Parikh [pictured, right], CEO, Position2 adds: "We think our customers will significantly benefit from this acquisition and we couldn't be more pleased about this acquisition by thismoment, one of the fastest growing social content management firms for brands. With our technology, DEC will now be the most complete social media marketing solution on the market. Enterprise customers will now have a better understanding of marketing campaign performance, can move more quickly to leverage trends, can track conversations to better understand market sentiment and can drive higher message retention."  More...

In US, Socialbakers Launches, Catapults Momentum With Major American Partnerships and Billions of Social Interactions Analyzed

Social Analytics Leader Hires Team of Tech Veterans, Hits Ground Running After Massive Unveiling of its Political Social Analytics on Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 9, 2012 -- Socialbakers, the world's most cited source and fastest growing social media analytics company, today announced the launch of its U.S. headquarters in San Francisco. The company also announced its new U.S. leadership team based in San Francisco, which includes veteran technology executive Martin Huml [pictured, left] as President and Chief Operating Officer, and Katrina Wong [pictured, center] as Vice President of Marketing. Socialbakers' global expansion follows rapid demand from many of America's most recognized brands.

"Companies can no longer expect or assume that online users will engage with their Facebook or Twitter content. Our clients increase social media relevance and build their social community faster because we show what is working, what doesn't work and how they compare against competitors. Companies can build tremendous communities by using our technology to understand which content is most and least engaging and viral," said Jan Rezab [pictured, right], Socialbakers CEO. More...

Connecting and Engaging with Digital Indian Consumers

NielsenWire: With 50+ million active social media users, Indians spend more time on social media than on any other activity on the Internet, according to Nielsen. But is this audience engaged?

At the Nielsen Consumer 360 Conference in New Delhi, India, Farshad Family [pictured], Nielsen Managing Director of Media, discussed how brands can effectively break away from the pack in order to differentiate and improve social media engagement levels. More...

Google Search Plus Your World: Monitoring Your Reputation Just Became Even More Important

Janet Driscoll Miller [pictured], President and CEO of Search Mojo writes for MediaPost: GSPYW offers both opportunities and challenges to search marketers.  While you may not have monitored your brand closely on Twitter or Facebook, they haven’t had the immediate impact on search results to date that Google+ has.

Just doing brand searches on Google won’t be enough; you have to see inside the social circles to understand what is being said about your brand that “may” rank for your brand keywords. More...