Websites, especially ones that only provide content, have to constantly find new and interesting ways of ensuring that users click on their display advertising. This is the only way that they can stay in business. But where do you draw the line between objectivity and "advertorial"? The Next Web is a four-year-old online publication that is focused on spreading the latest news about internet technology, business and culture. Boasting an average monthly audience of around 5.1-million (absolute, not unique) and around ...

The quiet moments between a company’s hyped marketing and communication campaigns are overlooked and under-valued marketing opportunities. Before the rise of social media it was acceptable to ignore these moments, but we now have the tools and the techniques to convert this ”downtime” into an opportunity to build loyal communities. Companies plan out their annual marketing campaigns with the focus of their budget spend on creating big spikes in interest and awareness. The size of the budget determines how many spikes ...

Space: the final frontier, one small step and whatever other clichéd expression you might care to think of. Little by little though, it’s becoming something that could be within the reach of ordinary people. You’ve probably heard of Virgin Galactic. After all, it’s been kicking around for a few years now. Hell, you might have forgotten about it, or dismissed it as one of company founder Richard Branson’s pipe dreams, never to be realised. Thing is it’s closer to making its ...

Most of the time, return on investment (ROI) on a digital campaign can be measured through factors that are fairly quantifiable and direct. When it comes to the measurement of social media marketing and ROI, though, many businesses find it very difficult to connect returns with their social media investment. Social media marketing requires planning, scheduling, time, and organising of resources. Whatever you share online with your social media campaign needs to be organised and produced behind the scenes in ...

It seems FHM model, Jessica Leandra dos Santos got a little too vocal on Twitter recently. The self described "glamorous blonde of Mediterranean nationality" opened the floodgates to a Twitter storm of note. The Twitter furore was caused by a series of tweets: Would u all stop! These are the kinds of people that land up raping young girls of our country! I wasn't going to let him get away with it.— Jessica Leandra (@JessicaLeandra) May 3, 2012 When dos Santos' followers ...

When I first saw the Motorola Defy+, it was sitting in a glass of water. The poor phone hadn’t even been in the office for five minutes and it was already being tested to see if all of this “water tight” PR propaganda was true. It wasn’t immersed a meter deep for half an hour -- its advertised tolerance threshold -- but it survived nonetheless. Considering the fact that I’m still a bit upset that my last laptop was fatally ...

Professional social network LinkedIn has bought out slide-hosting service Slide Share for a just under US$118.5-million. In a release to investors, LinkedIn confirmed the acquisition saying that the deal would be a “combination of approximately 45% cash and approximately 55% stock”. The professional network appears to have made the purchase in a bid to get hold of some of Slide Share’s features, particularly considering the release highlights the “nearly 7.4-million presentations hosted by Slide Share are embedded across more than ...

Mobile web usage looks set to overtake desktop usage in India by the end of the year. Source: StatCounter Global Stats - Mobile vs. Desktop Market Share THe latest numbers fromStatcounter show that online desktop usage is plummeting at almost exactly the same rate as mobile web usage is surging. That large numbers of Indians are using their phones to go online isn’t surprising when you consider the prohibitive cost of broadband, and the relative affordability of phones in ...

As if Yahoo didn't have enough issues. The internet company released a statement staying that its board will be "reviewing" why inaccurate educational information was included in CEO Scott Thompson's bio, reports AllThingsD. On Yahoo's website and the company's regulatory filings, it is stated that Thompson has a degree in both computer science and accounting from Boston-based Stone Hill College. It has been revealed however that Thompson doesn't have a degree in computer science from Stone Hill just a Bachelor’s of ...

Look, as much as we'd like to pretend that Star Wars is still a geeky niche franchise, it's become a cultural phenomenon. Nonetheless, there are still a whole host of geeky things related to the space epic. One of those is deeming 4 May "Star Wars Day" (if you don't understand it, you're not a real fan). In celebration of Luke, Yoda, and Darth, we decided to grab some of our favourite tweets: Death Star PR can always ...