Top Internet Strategy, Marketing & Technology Links – Jan 19, 2009

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According to an image used by Mark Cowan of Facebook during a recent presentation in Poland, Facebook will soon improve their insights product to enable Page administrators to “track impressions and interactions against each post”. Additionally, Facebook is testing out new real-time ad targeting features. – Facebook Presentation Reveals “Post Analytics” And Real-Time Ad Targeting (All Facebook)

Measurement and ROI are becoming important for marketing departments who need to prove the worth of social media (whether or not it can be measured). Facebook recently changed their privacy policy in an effort to provide more real time search results. Providing more measurement for engagement and interactions of stories is a necessary step to becoming an even more important social media tool for businesses.

Sometimes the smallest changes in the status quo can have the greatest impact on the world. So while Foursquare may appear to be nothing more than a mobile application getting excessive buzz, it’s actually fueling the location-based mobile space with unique creativity that competitors can’t copy fast enough. – 5 Ways Foursquare is Changing the World (Mashable)

Foursquare has been in the news quite a bit lately. I’m not sure if it’s changing the world, but it certainly is helping bring mobile & local to the forefront. A local library (@CantonLibrary) rewards their mayor with a weekly prize. Rewarding patrons is one of the most interesting aspects of Foursquare and other local mobile apps.

I have noticed four major types of marketing styles emerge among those using Twitter as a marketing platform, each with examples of large followings, audiences and (probably) successes..That said, consider these as styles you may choose to use in your Twitter marketing efforts. – Four Styles Of Marketing On Twitter (Social Media Explorer)

I agree that I’ve seen these four types of styles on Twitter as well. However, I think that the last two – The Salesman & The Broadcaster – can only be successfully be used by people/companies who have already built up a loyal following for the brand and are offering something that their audience legitimately wants. The rest of us should stick to the first two styles – Conversationalist or Conversational Marketer.

After more than a year of discussions and months of delays, theNew York Times finally may be on the verge of announcing—not of implementing, mind you—a metered system that would allow registered users to read some stories free every month while limiting full access to subscribers. – New York Times Leaning Toward ‘FT’ Metered Model; Announcement Finally On Way? (paidContent)

The New York Times has experimented with paid content off and on for years and has yet to find a successful model. This one seems strange to me. Let people read a few articles for free every month and then start charging for access after that. So, you’re charging your most loyal readers while everyone else reads for free. Charging your loyal readers might seem like a good idea, but unless they’re super loyal, it seems like it would just convince people to read less. This has yet to be officially announced, so we’ll see what they end up doing.

According to a report released last week, the 100 top online retailers in the US sent an average of 132 promotional emails to each of their subscribers. – Are US retailers sending too many emails? (Econsultancy)

Yes! I have a separate email account I use for shopping online. One, to keep spam in one place that I’m not reading very often. Two, some retailers sell your information, so I’m not giving out my main email. An average of 132 promotional emails is crazy! Who really wants to get all that information? If you send out that many emails, what happens when you have something you really want to promote?

What do you think? How are these stories important to you?

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