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Tag: SocialCode

  • Marketing Tools Get Instagram Ads API Integration

    Marketing Tools Get Instagram Ads API Integration

    In June, Instagram announced it would make advertising available through an Ads API and Facebook ad buying interfaces in the ensuing months, in an effort to open up ads to businesses of all sizes. It said it would open API access to a select group of Facebook Marketing Partners and agencies first, and would expand it globally throughout the year.

    On Tuesday, the API Partner program launched. Whereas in the past, advertisers would have to work directly with Instagram sales people. Now, they don’t. They can start advertising on Instagram as they’ve been able to do on Facebook and Twitter.

    Make no mistake. This is big. In fact, it’s even been referred to as “one of the most anticipated moments in the evolution of advertising.”

    Business Insider shares a statement from Instagram: “”The Instagram Ads API will help us make ads more relevant to the community, serve more diverse business objectives, and make buying on the platform easier for advertisers. We started working with a group of Facebook Marketing Partners a few weeks ago and they’ve brought great experience and technological savvy onto the platform. We’ll continue to build upon the Instagram Ads API in the coming weeks and months.”

    Third-party API partners already on board include Salesforce, Hootsuite, Kenshoo, Ampush, Nanigans, SocialCode, Brand Networks, Unified, and 4C.

    “The integration allows marketers to use Social.com for managing advertising campaigns at scale, Active Audiences to unlock and sync CRM data in Salesforce to optimize advertising and Social Studio for publishing, engagement, customer service, and analytics,” a spokesperson for Salesforce tells us about its us of the API.

    “Instagram is the mobile marketer’s platform of choice for a highly engaged and growing audience,” says Jesse Pujji, CEO and co-founder of Ampush. “It presents a great opportunity to deliver in-feed, mobile advertising at true scale with its user base of over 300 million monthly active users. AMP’s integration with Instagram will allow our customers to advertise across a visually dynamic environment for consumers with a highly active community. Our strategic and in-house creative expertise, paired with our marketing solutions, delivers a unique ability to bridge audience engagement with revenue.”

    Instagram has over 300 million monthly active users. Beyond the API, Instagram has been doing more to improve its ad offerings including direct response that enable users to buy products or download apps, and expanding targeting options. More on all of that here.

    Image via Instagram

  • Digg Engineers Join Washington Post and SocialCode

    At the beginning of the month we reported that there was some type of deal going on with Digg’s tech and engineering team and the Washington Post. If you remember there was some debate about what exactly the deal was, an acquisition or a highjacking, or whatever. There was no official word from Digg at that time.

    Today the Digg Blog reports that indeed Digg’s engineers have left to join a subsidiary of the Washington Post. They will be working on projects at SocialCode, a site dedicated to helping advertisers build communities and get more value from social media.

    Here’s what they had to say on the Digg Bog:

    “At Digg, we have been studying social media since its inception. From Digg Social Reader to Digg Ads, we established a new paradigm for content and advertising on the web. Joining SocialCode felt like a natural next step.”

    The Digg engineers will be joining with the existing SocialCode team and be working out of their offices in San Francisco, Seattle, and D.C., but there’s still no official word on what will happen to the Digg site. We’ll keep you posted as new things happen over at Digg.

  • Social Networks Playing Big Role in Holiday Shopping

    The holiday shopping season is in full swing, and this year, trends show that consumers are heading to social networks to shop. For the past several years, we’ve seen a growing shift to online shopping, so it’s not really surprising that social networks would be the next stop for gift ideas.

    Are you utilizing social networks to gather gift ideas this holiday season? Let us know.

    According to a GfK survey released in October, 39 percent of consumers plan to look to social networks before they make purchases. Laura O’Shaughnessy, the CEO of Facebook advertising agency SocialCode, told us that social networks played a large role last year but were expected to play an even bigger role in this year’s shopping season.

    “What we saw last year, and we expect even more of a bang this year, is that social networks are really just key to holiday shopping,” she said.

    As a result of this trend, marketers have another area in which to reach consumers. In order to leverage social networks, O’Shaughnessy told us that marketers should have a clear goal for social networks whether it be to introduce a new product, to purchase a product, or to increase brand awareness.

    Secondly, she said marketers should be very specific in identifying their target audience. As she explained, social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn make it very easy to target particular groups.

    Thirdly, O’Shaughnessy advises marketers to drive an action through their social media effort. Marketers should, however, make sure that they are taking advantage of the social power of the networks in order to encourage sharing.

    If marketers can integrate a gaming aspect to their campaign, the results can be powerful in this way as well.

    Once these elements are implemented, O’Shaughnessy said that marketers need to have tracking tools in place so that they are making the most of their marketing dollars.

    Are you utilizing these opportunities this holiday season, marketers? We’d love to know.