Net Briefs - October '13

Google Gets Tabbed

In a move that has email marketers in a huff, Google has introduced a new tabbed-style inbox, which automatically separates and sorts messages into five different sections - primary, social, promotions, updates and forums. While this new format is welcomed by some users, email marketers are fearful that it will negatively impact their campaigns. The layout makes it easy for subscribers to ignore the promotions tab (where most marketing messages end up) if they decide to, or even worse, start unsubscribing from senders if the influx of messages within a certain tab gets out of hand.

DON'T MISS: From Promotions to Primary in Gmail
Learn how to get your emails in front of Gmail users.

Serve Local Ads on Google Maps App

More than 1 billion people use Google Maps every month, and the majority of these users are searching for local businesses. Thanks to a recent update to the popular map service's mobile app, local businesses can now reach mobile consumers via in-app advertisements. The updated experience displays relevant advertisers at the bottom of the screen after a consumer conducts a search. The ads include a title, text and link to get directions. In order to show up on the Google Maps app, however, advertisers need to add location extensions to their existing search campaigns or create a new ad with AdWords.

PINTEREST COZIES UP TO MERCHANTS

Pinterest has its sights on the ecommerce industry. Not only did the pinboard-style social network launch rich pins back in May (which include the price of products from certain websites), but it recently introduced a feature that alerts Pinterest members via email when the price drops on products they've pinned. In addition to being convenient for users, this feature provides merchants with increased visibility and another incentive to have a presence on the image-based social network.

Twitter Tracks Brick-and-Mortar Sales

In order to show the effectiveness of its ad platform, Twitter has partnered with Datalogix to measure the offline results of online ads. The capability, called "offline sales impact", quantifies the impact of promoted and organic tweets on offline sales for consumer packaged goods businesses in the United States. According to Twitter, initial tests of the capability reveal that although both organic and promoted brand tweets increase conversion rates, promoted tweets (unsurprisingly) seem to have the edge. In fact, followers who are exposed to promoted tweets purchase 29 percent more from that brand than followers reached by organic tweets alone.

A Surplus of Social Ads

One of the only ways for social networks to monetize their services is by selling advertisements, which is why it's not a surprise that Foursquare and LinkedIn have both juiced up their ad options. For starters, Foursquare has begun rolling out a self-serve ad solution for local businesses. The ad service leverages Foursquare's targeting technology that powers its 'Explore' recommendation engine, and requires advertisers pay only when someone visits their business listings or brick-and-mortar stores. Conversely, LinkedIn has incorporated Sponsored Updates to its primary newsfeed. This program has already been leveraged by big names like Adobe and Mercedes-Benz, and is open to any company with an official page and an account representative. Plus, the service can be used to promote updates in 20 languages across 200 countries and gives advertisers the choice of either a CPC or CPM pricing model.

Pro's to Take Over Instagram Video

It is now harder to outshine the competition on Instagram, because the popular image-based social network has added video functionality to its service. 'Net professionals can steal the spotlight by shooting and editing their videos off the social network, and then uploading their masterpieces onto the social network for the whole Web to see. This update is actually good news for brands who can now use some of their professional video clips as content on the social network. Coincidentally, Instagram's maximum length of 15-second videos matches up with the length of shorter TV commercials.