Don't Let Twitter and Facebook Lead to Compliance Challenges

	Financial services firms face social media compliance challenges
	Marcia Savage, Site Editor Brokerages and other financial services firms turning to sites like Facebook and Twitter for marketing and customer outreach face a number of thorny social media compliance issues. Earlier this year, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which oversees U.S. securities firms, released Regulatory Notice 10-06.  The notice provides guidance on how FINRA rules governing public communications apply to use of social media sites by financial firms and their employees for business purposes. Read the full story

Twitter is Top Vestibule for Veteran Social Marketers

www.Twitter.com/HomeATM

For Veteran Social Marketers, Twitter Is Tops



According to eMarketer, Facebook is the top social site for marketers just getting started in the space, but as they gain knowledge and improve techniques the social marketing mix changes.



Full Article



To follow the Payments Industry News Blog on Twitter, click the following link:



www.Twitter.com/HomeATM

Twitter is Top Vestibule for Veteran Social Marketers

www.Twitter.com/HomeATM

For Veteran Social Marketers, Twitter Is Tops



According to eMarketer, Facebook is the top social site for marketers just getting started in the space, but as they gain knowledge and improve techniques the social marketing mix changes.



Full Article



To follow the Payments Industry News Blog on Twitter, click the following link:



www.Twitter.com/HomeATM

PayPal Sees Surge in Online Shopping on Cyber Monday

Image via Wikipedia

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Shoppers seeking great deals on holiday gifts took advantage of yesterday’s Cyber Monday offers and paid safely with PayPal. For the third consecutive year, PayPal saw double digit growth in online sales, or total payment volume (TPV), on Cyber Monday.



PayPal’s Cyber Monday results of approximately 20 percent year-over-year growth were preceded by higher TPV throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. On Thanksgiving Day 2009, TPV increased by 25 percent year-over-year compared to Thanksgiving Day 2008. Black Friday 2009 TPV also increased by approximately 20 percent from the year before. Mobile payments through PayPal also jumped 140 percent on Black Friday and 190 percent on Cyber Monday compared to that of an average Friday and Monday respectively. This supports an ongoing trend in shopping on mobile devices.



“The higher PayPal volumes show that consumers are taking advantage of the convenience of online shopping and the great deals offered on eBay and on the thousands of PayPal merchant sites across the Web,” said Amanda Pires, senior director at PayPal.



Holiday Deals through Bill Me Later



Bill Me Later is hosting an Outstanding Offer program for the holiday shopping season featuring daily exclusive, limited quantity offers available only to Bill Me Later customers. Participating online stores include MacMall, Bluefly and Overstock. Additionally, Bill Me Later is featuring the run up to Toy Tuesday on December 8, with exclusive deals from drugstore.com, Little Tikes, Step 2, and other online merchants. For more information on these deals, please visit www.ToyTuesday.com.



Regift the Fruitcake with PayPal to Benefit Charity



Today PayPal launched its 2009 “Regift the Fruitcake” campaign. To participate, go to www.paypal-regiftthefruitcake.com, make a virtual fruitcake, and donate to one of 25 charities. Then use Facebook Connect to “regift” the fruitcake to friends around the globe. As a bonus, participants are eligible to win a $5,000 grand prize, as well as weekly prizes. More information is available at www.paypal-regiftthefruitcake.com.

HomeATM on Facebook, Other Retailers Too

More retailers have fan  pages/applications on it than on other social media sites including HomeATM:

http://apps.facebook.com/homeatmptop/

Facebook is the social media site of choice for many US online retailers, judging by an August 2008 study by Internet Retailer and Vovici.

Nearly one-third of responding businesses said they had a Facebook page, compared with 27% that had a MySpace page and just over one-quarter that had a page on YouTube.

A September 2008 study by Rosetta (formerly Brulant) that focused on the top 100 online retailers in the US found that 59 had a fan page on Facebook, up from 30 in May 2008. Among the 29 who added Facebook pages since that time were Best Buy, Toys “R” Us, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart.

“Social media sites continue to be an important source of community connection, and savvy retailers are reaping the benefits of Facebook’s rapid extension into new demographics, such as Gen X and seniors,” said Adam Cohen, partner with Rosetta’s consumer goods and retail practice, in an interview with eMarketer.

However, Mr. Cohen said that retailers should guard against casual attitudes toward their Facebook presences.

“It’s important that retailers don’t just slap up a page because everyone is talking about Facebook. An effective presence requires that you carefully consider what your customers are looking for, what you would like to communicate, and what role a fan page should play in your overall online strategy.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Imagine how much better shopping online can be
• Should Companies Interact with Consumers on Social Networks?
• Social Network Advertising: Annoying or Effective?
• Why Social Media Marketing?
• Throwing sheep in the boardroom, society's answer to online social ...

Let's Get Those College Students a Wedgie!

College Students Lead the Way Online
SEPTEMBER 17, 2008

Today's college students are digital natives—they have grown up with technology and Internet access at their fingertips. But what does that mean for the future? eMarketer estimates that this year 95.7% of college students—17.4 million strong—will go online at least once a month.

Note: (eMarketer defines a college student as anyone ages 18 or older who attends college full-time or part-time, including undergraduate, graduate-school and professional-school students.)

"College students are the most digitally connected demographic group in the US," says Debra Aho Williamson, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, College Students Online: Driving Change in Internet and Mobile Usage. "They have grown up with technology and it is a seamless part of their lives.Marketers looking for the next big trend online can learn a lot from college students.

"Students have played a prominent role in some of the biggest developments in the Internet and technology in recent years," says Ms. Williamson, "from social networking to the iPod."

In fact, entering college freshmen have already lived through a series of Internet-era milestones...often themselves created by college students:

• 1990: The World Wide Web was born.
• 1994: Two Stanford University students launched a site called "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". It later became known by its acronym, Yahoo!. In the same year, the Mosaic Internet browser—precursor to Netscape—was created.
• 1996: Two other Stanford students began collaborating on BackRub, which eventually became Google.
• 1999: Northeastern University student Shawn Fanning created music file-sharing service Napster.
• 2001: The first entry was posted to Wikipedia.
• 2004: Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg and a few classmates launched Facebook.
• 2007: Apple introduced the iPhone.

"The college market is basically the testing ground for all technologies," Matt Britton, chief of brand development for youth marketing agency Mr. Youth tells eMarketer. "If it takes off there, it’s going to take off in the mass market."

"In addition, the college market is one of the most-attractive demographic groups for marketers because of students' discretionary budgets," says Ms. Williamson.|

According to a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey, conducted by BIGresearch, the back-to-college season alone is a huge purchasing occasion. Students and parents were expected to spend an estimated $11 billion on electronics in 2008.

"In so many areas, students are key drivers of change in technology usage," says Ms. Williamson. "They brought social networks into the mainstream, and such sites remain hugely popular with them."