WebProNews

Using Facebook Traffic to Drive Brand Loyalty

WebProNews recently covered a study from Chitika, which found that Facebook was the most valuable social media tool for driving repeat readers to content sites. The study was based on 33 million unique users across Chitika's publisher network in September. It compared the number of visitors coming from major traffic sources Digg, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter, to the number of times those visitors came back to the referred site.

Majority Of Consumers Want To Interact With Brands Online

The majority (78%) of new media users interact with brands via new media sites, an increase of 32 percent from 2008 (59%), according to a new report from communications firm Cone.

Facebook Tries Harder at Page Verification

Facebook has gotten tighter with its policy on page verification. There is now a form that Facebook requires page-owners to fill out in order to verify that they are indeed the rightful owner of a branded page. They have even been sending the form around to some of the larger page owners. The new form asks users to verify that they are an "authentic representative of the entity" the page represents. Here's a look at the form itself.

Brands Can Still Do More With Social Media

When it comes to social media, about 33 percent of consumers are not connecting with brands on social networks, according to a new report by interactive marketing firm Razorfish. For the report, Razorfish surveyed 1,000 consumers who reported both social media and ecommerce activity with the goal to find out how social media influences purchasing decisions. Overall, 80 percent were members of at least one social network and 40 percent were active in two.

Bing-Related Statistics Continue To Rise

Bing is - at least at this early point in its existence - starting to look somewhat like the Energizer Bunny.  New stats regarding both click shares and brand recognition are in, and they seem to just keep going and going (up).

Do You Think Google Favors Big Brands?

As you may know, Google's Matt Cutts regularly answers user questions in the form of YouTube videos at Google's Webmaster Central channel. One recent question he took on goes: As far as big brands go, why is it that they seem to do well irregardless of relevance, content or links when analyzing keyword placement in search engine result pages?

Online Brand Fraud Poses Challenge To Marketers

Marketers say they are seeing an increase in online brand attacks driven by the down economy, according to a study by the Chief Marketing Office Council. The study of 306 markets, sponsored by MarkMonitor, found that 29.5 percent of marketers are reporting a greater number of incidents of online brand fraud. Study respondents said brand value, trust, integrity and reputation are being significantly damaged because of gray market knock-offs, phishing attacks, cyber squatting, email scams, trademark abuse and copyright/patent infringements.

Are Brands Really the Solution to the Internet "Cesspool?"

In 2008, Eric Schmidt called the Internet a cesspool and said that brands were the way to sort it out. Popular blogger Michael Gray aka Graywolf says that big brand media sites are "the real cesspool of the Internet."

Top Web Brands and Parent Companies

Earlier, we looked at the top domains and pages in terms of linking popularity among different linkers. Collectively, they are referred to as the most important domains and pages on the web. Nielsen Online, however, has looked at the top online companies and brands for the month of March. This data looks at unique audience and time per person spent with each. Take a look at these charts from Nielsen:

Google Wants To Accelerate Brands

Even though Google doesn't want to be an advertising agency, the goals they have for their clients mimic what Madison Avenue tries to accomplish each day.