Google And Magna Global Deal

Alistair Barr says that Google struck an "upfront" deal with Magna Global, one of the world's largest advertising buyers, the latest effort by the Internet search leader to win more of the marketing dollars that traditionally pour into TV each year.

Magna Global, a unit of Interpublic Group that oversees $37 billion in annual ad spending, committed about $100 million of client marketing money to Google properties, including YouTube, its online display ad network and mobile platform.

The deal lasts a year and may be renewed if the partnership goes well. This is the first time Magna has struck such an agreement with Google. For its part, Google signed similar deals last year with other agency ad buyers MediaVest and Publicis Groupe's DigitasLBi and Razorfish.

In return for Magna's financial commitment, the agency gets access to Google ad inventory and data, along with the chance to work more closely on client marketing campaigns with the Web giant. This is similar to the way TV upfront advertising deals are put together each year.

"There's the notion of being able to tap into scarcity around inventory, which is critical and underpins the upfront model in TV," said Torrence Boone, managing director of agency business development for Google in the Americas. "That model is porting over to digital."

Google is trying to win more business from big brands by making the process of creating, buying and monitoring ads similar to the way these things are done in the TV business.

A group of technology firms, including Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft, created the NewFronts event a few years ago — a digital version of the TV industry's annual upfronts, where billions of dollars in ad slots for popular programming are purchased ahead of time.

In the context of this year's NewFronts event, which kicks off in New York City in late April, Google will unveil a new class of scarce, premium ad inventory, Boone noted.

"Each player will partner with us to access that premium inventory and work with content creators in new and innovative ways," he added.

Magna Global probably spends more with Google than any other partner, so this upfront deal cements the relationship in a way that lets both sides work more closely together on bigger projects, Chris Williams, president of Magna Global, explained.

Magna Global made the upfront commitment partly to improve its access to some of Google's ad inventory, Williams added, noting that YouTube pricing has become more attractive in recent years.

"Advertisers are going to need home page takeovers on YouTube for key launches, and we need to be able to deliver that to them," Williams said. "An ad hoc relationship with a media owner can restrict your chances of securing inventory when you need it. It certainly improves your chances when you're in this closer type of relationship."

However, both Williams and Boone said the deal is not just about access to inventory.

Williams expects to get more data from Google that will help Magna target ads more precisely and make the planning and buying process more seamless and automated.

Google and Magna will also work more closely on creating content that works well on YouTube and other Google properties.

Boone cited the example of Project Elevate, which is helping a Magna Global client, health care giant Johnson & Johnson, create interesting video content on YouTube.

"This upfront investment provides the air cover for these more strategic projects," Boone said.

Twitter CEO Making Growth Promises

Rachel King says when Twitter published its first earnings report as a public company last week, shareholders were immediately spooked by lower growth for the user base rather than revenue or sales figures.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference on Thursday, Twitter CEO Dick Costelo aimed to put those fears to rest by offering a glimpse at the social network's game plan for 2014.

The strategy, according to Costelo, is based upon a combination of things, including a "tremendous amount of field research" about users, coupled with data about how users actually use the product.

That combination has informed this roadmap for the kinds of capabilities that Twitter plans to introduce, which Costelo promises will result in growth.

Costelo emphasized that Twitter is more than just a product or even a social network, but a "medium."

"Twitter is this indispensable companion to life in the moment," remarked Costelo, citing its relevance and use in major events ranging from the current Winter Olympics to the day Boston was shut down last April during the search for the Marathon bombers.

Costelo emphasized a few times over the course of the discussion that the roadmap is already being driven by bringing the content and actions taken on Twitter forward and pushing the "scaffolding" of the infrastructure to the background.

For example, Twitter is making alterations in the way it suggests users and brands to follow to new sign-ups, such as drawing suggested contacts from a user's mobile device rather than just the most-popular accounts of the moment. Costelo revealed that new Twitter users are much more likely to engage in the platform when they connect to at least three other people who also follow them back.

Costelo cited that changes like these have already resulted in a 35 percent increase in interactions, such as Retweets, since the IPO.

But, he warned against expectations of a single new product, feature or date in the calendar that would result in a "quantum" change in growth, but rather look for a cumulative effect over the year.

For advertisers, Costelo instructed simply, "Be patient," adding that Twitter will continue to roll out new features and upgrades soon. He also listed some recent updates that have already taken place, including online conversion tracking during the fourth quarter as well as new analytics for the Cards dashboarda few weeks ago.

Costelo boasted that a "hallmark of the company" up until now has been being patient in rolling out new revenue opportunities and understanding the efficacy of them before launching them more broadly.

"We're this complimentary experience to all other forms of media," Costelo asserted. "That affords us and our partners in these other forms of media to take advantage of both what's on our platform and on their platforms."

New Gender Feature On Facebook

How do I edit basic info on my Timeline and choose who can see it?

Editing Info

To edit your basic personal info (ex: gender, contact info, relationships, work and education):

1. Go to your Timeline (which we sometimes refer to as your profile)
2. Click Update Info at the bottom of your cover photo
3. Click Edit in the top right of the section you'd like to change
4. Enter your new info and click Save

Selecting an Audience

While editing each section, you'll see an audience selector next to most pieces of info. Select an audience to choose who you share this info with.

Custom Gender

If you set your gender to Custom and select one or more genders, you can also select an audience for your custom gender. In addition to your custom gender, you'll choose a Preferred Pronoun. The preferred pronoun you select is public.

Note: Your email address has additional settings.

To edit the basic personal info on your Timeline (which we sometimes refer to as your profile):

1. Go to your Timeline
2. Tap About under your profile picture > About again at the top
3. Find the section you want to edit and tap the icon

To choose who can see your info, use the audience selector in each section.

Custom Gender

If you set your gender to Custom and select one or more genders, you can also select an audience for your custom gender. In addition to your custom gender, you'll choose a Preferred Pronoun. The preferred pronoun you select is public.

Twitter Redesign

Twitter is testing a major profile redesign that's very reminiscent of Facebook and Google+.

Mashable assistant features editor Matt Petronzio spotted on Tuesday a huge update to his Twitter profile page, with the main picture and bio scaled to the left and significantly more real estate dedicated to the header photo.

The revamped tweet stream is also a departure from its signature look. There is a greater focus on photos and content cards. It moves away from a strictly vertical timeline too. Click the image below to enlarge.

It's common for Twitter to quietly test new features and design updates before tweaking or rolling it out to a larger user base. Experiments typically go out to a small, random pool of users.

Under the header photo in the test is the count for tweets, photos/videos (a new category called out on the profile), who you are following, followers, favorites and lists. Although Petronzio isn't verified on the site, there's an option for the stream to show "Tweets" and "Tweets and replies" for every user — a feature typically reserved for those with the blue check mark.

Other profile pages viewed from an account with the new design are automatically made to look like this too. This means that even if your Twitter page isn't a part of the test, Petronzio can see what yours will look like.

The recommended header photo size in the test version is 1500 x 500 pixels, up from 1252 x 626 in the current design, so users with the new design will want to switch their picture so it doesn't look stretched.

LinkedIn passes 50 million Asia Pacific Users

LinkedIn announced that they crossed the 50 million member mark in the Asia Pacific region. Here is their blog about it.

As we celebrate this milestone, I am humbled by the success of our members who are using LinkedIn to build their professional identities, networks and knowledge, and whom we proudly serve.

It’s remarkable that our member base across the region has nearly tripled in a span of less than three years. Last year, we welcomed 7+ million new members in India, while 2+ million new members joined our network in Australia and New Zealand. In Southeast Asia, our member base jumped more than 50% to reach 9+ million.

Today, nine countries in the region have more than a million members each – India (24+ million), Australia (5+ million), China (4+ million), Indonesia and the Philippines (2+ million each), Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and New Zealand (1+ million each).

Our members represent a broad cross-section of industries across the Asia Pacific region. In particular, the top five industries on LinkedIn are IT & Services, Telecommunications, Oil & Energy, Banking & Financial Services, and Hospitality. As the region increasingly consolidates its position as a key driver in the global economy, our aim is to help professionals and businesses here become even more successful at what they do. Whether it’s expanding professional connections, tapping critical talent or marketing their brands and winning new businesses, we are excited to be able to help connect the dots and create economic opportunities for everyone.

Diversity is a defining characteristic of this region, and it’s something we continue to address. For example, members can now choose between six Asian languages when engaging in professional conversations on LinkedIn, in addition to English. To enrich the professional knowledge available to our members, we also recently added to the growing list of Asia-based influencers. These influencers include Tony Fernandes (Group CEO, AirAsia), David Thodey(CEO & Executive Director, Telstra), Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon) and Nobuyuki Idei (Founder & CEO, Quantum Leaps, and Former Chairman & CEO, Sony).

I would like to thank our members, clients, partners and employees for making LinkedIn a part of your daily professional lives. This milestone was only achieved because of your support. I am looking forward to growing with you as we introduce more exciting features on LinkedIn.

Minor Change To Facebook Admin Pages February 20th

If you have ever managed a Facebook page with multiple people you might not know which person posted what well that is going to change.

On a Page post, the name of the person who posted will be listed below the name of your Page next to Posted by. On a Page comment, the name of the person who commented will be listed below the comment next to Commented on by. Keep in mind that only people who help manage your Page can see this information.

You can also see who posted or scheduled posts in your Page's activity log. Learn how to remove yourself or another person who has a role on your Page.

Note: This information will only be visible on posts or comments created on or after February 20, 2014. This feature isn’t available to everyone right now.

Twitter Analytics And Ebay

Twitter Cards give users a taste of what to expect when they head to your site. The added context makes for a richer experience by offering ways to interact with your brand beyond retweets, faves and replies.

@ebay, for example, one of the world’s largest online marketplaces, recently implemented Product and Player Cards across its site to give users more information about items being shared. Many Tweets from eBay’s site, posted by eBay or others, now include specifics such as the product name, price and an image (as shown below).



Sites like eBay that have implemented Cards now have access to Twitter Card analytics, a new product that offers related insights into how content is being shared on Twitter.

Analytics for Twitter Cards provides both aggregate metrics (total Tweets, retweets, impressions and clicks relating to your site’s pages) as well as more granular information (top links, influencers and card type performers) that can be used to inform your social strategy. And personalized insights and best practices are shared throughout to help you become even more effective.

“Twitter Card analytics help us measure how different card types are performing on our site, so that we can optimize accordingly,” said John Bodine, Senior Manager, Social Content and Insights at eBay. “The dashboard is also useful for helping us identify what specific products or influencers are driving spikes in social traffic from Twitter on any given day or week.”