Twitter have released a brand new homepage which consists of a large real time search box. See below for a quote from the Twitter Blog:

“Today we’re trying a redesigned front page for folks who are new to Twitter.com. If you’re a regular around these parts, then you won’t notice the new look unless you sign out of your account. Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer and presents the service more consistently with how it has evolved.

Twitter began as a rudimentary social tool based on the concept of status messages but together with those who use it every day, the service has taught us what it wants to be. From features invented by users to applications built on the platform, we’re still discovering potential. Twitter has moved from simple social networking into a new kind of communication and a valuable source of timely information. Also, it’s fun….”

Read the rest here.

Twitter have launched a new business section under the sub domain of business.twitter.com, on the new sub domain is a section titled “Twitter 101 for Business – A Special Guide”. The new section has guides, case studies, best practices and resourses for businesses looking to get into Twitter. Could we soon see a new sub section for advertising on Twitter?? Below are a few small quotes from the new section:

“Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter…. “

“Twitter connects you to your customers right now, in a way that was never before possible. For example, let’s say you work for a custom bike company. If you run a search for your brand, you may find people posting messages about how happy they are that your bike lets them ride in the French Alps—giving you a chance to share tips about cyclist-friendly cafes along their route….”

Read more at the New Section.

Federated Media have launched a new website called BingTweets in partnership with Microsoft Bing. Bing Tweets integrates Twitter Results and Bing Search results into one easy to use website. TechCrunch have reported on this new website, below is small quote from the article at TechCrunch:

“The resulting site could prove useful, but it’s a little cluttered, with a scrolling list of constantly updated Tweets on the left side and your standard Bing search results on the right. This would be fine, were it not for the large ‘trending topics’ section and ’sharing’ sections in the header which should probably be tucked along the side. My biggest gripe, though, is that the Bing search results are in a frame — I’d much rather just have the whole page dedicated to the results, even if I had to sacrifice the nice blue border….”

Read the rest here.

NMA report that Facebook are to again sell some more stock, reportedly to the same Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies. This time they are looking to purchase $100m for a 1.96% equity stake, which values Facebook at $6.5 billion.

In a statement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said, “This is recognition of Facebook’s growth and progress towards making the world more open and connected.”

Read the original article at NMA.

NMA reports that the mobile provider, O2 are to allow subscribers to recieve updates from Twitter completely free of charge.

Antony Douglas, head of content at O2, said, “We believe mobile will soon become the most popular way of accessing social networks, giving real-time access to tweets and status updates wherever you are.”

Vodafone became the first UK operator to give its subscribers free updates in March.

Read the original article at NMA.

Revolution Magazine report that Social Media Spend is set to explode to £1.9bn in 2014, below is a quote from the article:

“Forrester Research has thrown some figures behind what everybody already knows, that social media marketing budgets are set to explode over the next five years, predicting average spend to grow at an annual rate of 34 per cent, faster than any other form of online marketing. The company’s newest Interactive Marketing Forecast estimates US social media spend to blow past the $3 billion (£1.9bn) mark by 2014, eclipsing both email and mobile, but remain a fraction of what is spent on search and display campaigns…”

Read the full article here.

As you may have noticed by now, Microsoft Bing have started including Tweets from Twitter in search engine results. This is another new addition to the Bing Search Engine and its great to see Bing keeping upto date with new developments. See below for a quote from the Official Bing Blog:

“We’re not indexing all of Twitter at this time… just a small set of prominent and prolific Twitterers to start. We picked a few thousand people to start, based primarily on their follower count and volume of tweets. We think this is an interesting first step toward using Twitter’s public API to surface Tweets in people search. We’d love to hear your feedback as we think through future possibilities in real time search.” Read the original article here.

Facebook have launched a new external website widget known as a Fan Box, this will allow fans of celebrities or organisations to follow their Facebook updates and pictures on an external website. This will also allow users to become fans of people they aren’t already fans of directly through the widget. Below is a small quote from the blog by Mark Kinsey:

“Now, when I visit the websites of Kings of Leon, Lenny Kravitz or Roger Federer, I not only see their exclusive content but also the personal updates they’re posting directly on Facebook including status updates, photos, videos and much more. You’ll be able to access Fan Boxes — not just from your favorite celebrities and musicians but also from media outlets and news organizations like ABCNews, NPR and Newsweek, in addition to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund and (RED) and your favorite products such as Coca-Cola, Tide, Herbal Essences and Blackberry…” Read the full article here.

Just 37% of businesses have someone who actively manages their online reputation, despite the majority of companies recognising a strong need for a social media strategy.

The findings, from research by digital communications company Quba, reveal 68% of senior marketers and online professionals think their company should have a blog, while 66% say they should have a presence on social networks.

But there’s a gap between recognition of the importance and practicalities of social media. While 56% of businesses employ someone to monitor what’s being said about the company on the web, just over a third have someone to actively manage their reputation online…..read the rest at NMA.

NMA have reported on a new Twitter Marketing Campaign which was implemented to promote the companies 10th Birthday; in which they offered 10 MacBook Pro Laptops to people who tweeted their company name. This has resulted in upto 400 Tweets a minute with the Moonfruit brand name and over 23,000 followers.

Wendy Tan White, marketing director at Moonfruit, said, “The campaign has only been running for two days and after day one visits to our site were up 50%. By day two they were up 600%. The numbers of people trialling have also doubled.”

Read the original article here. If you would like Tug to take a look at putting together a Twitter marketing campaign for your company, Contact Us Today!