Mediaboss Marketing

In the past three years, the average budget spent on social media marketing has grown 133%. In an effort to transform social media from a promotion and engagement tool to one more focused on lead generation and closing, HubSpot and HootSuite have joined forces to close the loop on social media marketing efforts.

The partnership is focused on a central idea that, they should make it easier for marketers to generate, nurture, and manage leads via social media, so they can finally close the loop on their social media marketing efforts (what theyre calling closed-loop social for short).

At the heart of the partnership is an app which allows integration into the HootSuite app directory. It automatically puts HubSpot lead and keyword data into HootSuite. The beta app allows users to monitor their leads tweets in HootSuite to identify opportunities to follow up on their leads with a tweet back. Using the app to monitor their best-performing keywords in HubSpot, users can identify leads through relevant conversations.

It may sound complex in theory, but through what could be the worlds largest webinar, and a series of ebooks to go along with their closing the loop initiative, its easy to start making their partnership work for you.

Also, HootSuite will present at HubSpots three-day marketing conference in Boston running from August 27th through the 30th entitled, Inbound 2012. You can download the beta app. and take advantage of a series of educational resources by following this link. Take a look at the tools available to guide you:

* A white paper on closing the loop for social leads. Download now.

* A HootSuite University Lecture Series led by HubSpot Social Media Scientist about the Science of Social Media, Dan Zarrella. Watch today.

* The Science of Inbound Marketing A world-record breaking webinar hosted by HootSuite and HubSpot. Register here!

Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite Media, Inc. comments on the sheer utility of partnering with HubSpot:

Social media spending is on the rise. We watch as companies invest significant dollars into driving marketing campaigns using social networks as the next marketing platform,

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HootSuite & HubSpot Announce Partnership to Close the Loop on Social Media Marketing

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA and CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS--(Marketwire -06/06/12)- Editor's Note: There are four pictures associated with this release.

HootSuite, makers of the market-leading social media management system, have entered into a strategic partnership with HubSpot, the world's only all-in-one marketing software platform. This partnership will directly connect social media to generating, managing and nurturing leads for the first time, finally "closing the loop" on social media marketing. Joint efforts include an app integration in HootSuite's App Directory, plus educational content and presenting sponsor of HubSpot's Inbound 2012 Conference - follow hashtag #closedloopsocial for details. The companies will also join forces to break the existing Guinness World Record for world's largest webinar with The Science of Inbound Marketing July 12 at 1:00pm ET.

Click to tweet: Teaming of @HubSpot and @HootSuite finally allows marketers to use social to drive direct revenue #InboundSci http://ow.ly/biK7G.

Driving the partnership is the app integration, currently in beta, which automatically pulls HubSpot Lead and Keyword data into HootSuite providing an opportunity for social engagement with leads and those mentioning top performing keywords without leaving the HootSuite dashboard. This powerful integration breaks ground on lead management by closing the loop on social media and inbound marketing. Interested customers are encouraged to apply to participate in the beta program which will run for two weeks prior to the public launch at the end of June.

Click to tweet: Breaking: @HootSuite and @HubSpot tie social to lead gen with first lead-focused social app #closedloopsocial http://ow.ly/bhtgU.

Be part of marketing history: The World's Largest Webinar

HootSuite will also co-host HubSpot's 2012 World's Largest Webinar, going after the Guinness Record of 31,000 registrants set by HubSpot in 2011. All marketers are invited to be part of marketing history by registering for The Science of Inbound Marketing, taking place on July 12 at 1:00pm EST. and hosted by HubSpot's Social Media Scientist, Dan Zarrella, and HootSuite's VP of Marketing, Ben Watson. Together, the two companies will demonstrate the important role real data, facts and science play in inbound marketing. Follow hashtag #InboundSci for the latest on this groundbreaking webinar event.

"Social media spending is on the rise. We watch as companies invest significant dollars into driving marketing campaigns using social networks as the next marketing platform," says Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite Media, Inc. "Through this partnership, the professional marketer can finally follow up with social media leads, nurture relationships in real time, and close deals easier than ever before."

"We built HubSpot software to make marketing easier, and then expanded it by launching the world's largest marketing software marketplace just under a year ago," said Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot, the all-in-one marketing software provider. "Of 60+ apps we've seen, HootSuite is building one of the most exciting. Plugging social media management into HubSpot's end-to-end marketing software makes social accountable for generating leads, customers and true ROI."

HootSuite Goes Big at HubSpot's Inbound 2012 Conference

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HootSuite & HubSpot Announce Partnership to Close the Loop on Social Marketing & Lead Management #ClosedLoopSocial

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Mercent, a leading technology company that enables retailers to profitably reach and convert more shoppers online, and Moontoast, a leading provider of social activation applications and analytics, today announced a partnership that integrates Moontoasts Social Activation Engine with Mercent Retail. Through the partnership, Mercent and Moontoast will provide leading brand name retailers with the ability to drive online sales and profits through robust social media, interaction and commerce.

Moontoasts Social Activation Engine will be integrated with the award-winning Mercent Retail platform, enabling leading retailers to drive lead generation, email acquisition, and product sales through social networks, ad networks, and affiliate websites.

Mercent is a trusted, leading technology company that enables retailers to profitably reach and convert more shoppers online, said Blair Heavey, CEO of Moontoast. We are pleased and excited to help Mercent customers to be able to seamlessly use Moontoasts Social Activation Engine and social apps to improve their social reach and engagement while delivering meaningful customer acquisition and sales through social networks, including sites such as Facebook, ad networks, and affiliate sites.

According to Mercent CEO Eric Best, Were excited to partner with Moontoast to offer Mercent clients a dynamic, proven and revenue-generating social media platform. This partnership expands channel reach and product capabilities Mercent offers to its portfolio of brand name retailers and we look forward to driving even greater revenue and profits for this growing base.

Moontoasts platform is based on four stages of fan activation discovery, interaction, transaction, and endorsement to give fans relevant content while giving online marketers the ability to interact and transact with consumers through a series of powerful apps distributed to engage users on social networks, ad networks and websites. Moontoasts Social Analytics provides online marketers rich intelligence on the relationships between social reach, engagement and transactions with fans, enabling marketers to achieve meaningful business results. Retailers will have direct access to Moontoasts patent-pending Social Analytics Suite, which provides rich data that ties social activity to interaction and revenue, improving social performance and measuring Return on Fan. Moontoast Social Analytics delivers critical insights to help better understand relationships, relevancy, and results.

Mercent optimizes retail product and offers visibility across leading shopping destinations that include online marketplaces Amazon.com and eBay; paid search platforms Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter; product ad platforms Google Shopping, Google Product Listing Ads (PLA) and Amazon Product Ads; comparison shopping engines (CSEs); affiliate networks; and social and mobile shopping channels. The Mercent Retail platform complements product ad placement with deep retail analytics and business intelligence tools that highlight the products, categories, brands, promotions, ads, and channels contributing most to online performance and ROI. Mercents proprietary tools allow retail marketers to take action on these real-time insights.

Moontoast and Mercent are attending and exhibiting at Booths #132 and #529 respectively, speaking and blogging at the worlds largest eCommerce tradeshow in the nation - Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE), which is being held at the McCormick Place West in Chicago June 5-8, 2012.

To learn more about Mercents complete product portfolio, or for an in-person demo of Mercent Retail for Google Shopping at IRCE, please contact Mercent at206-832-3900or hello@mercent.com. Information regarding Mercent Retail shopping feed management technology, Mercent Performance marketing services, and the complete list of online marketing channels in the Mercent Shopping Network is also available atwww.mercent.com.

To see Moontoast in action or schedule an in-person demo of the Social Activation Engine and Social Analytics Suite at IRCE, contact Moontoast at sales@moontoast.com. To learn more about how Moontoast helps brands activate their fans, please visit http://www.moontoast.com or contact Mercent.

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Mercent and Moontoast Partner to Provide Powerful Social Marketing Solutions for Leading Retailers

PHOENIX, AZ--(Marketwire -06/06/12)- In 2012, the business benefits of social marketing have, to a large extent, been well-documented. Most business owners, of companies big and small, are at least aware of some of the potential perks that come from maintaining a strong presence on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. Even so, new uses of social marketing avenues are being discovered all the time; a recent Huffington Post article cites one surprising example, specifically noting the ways in which a social media presence can attract the attention of more traditional media outlets, leading to a wealth of positive publicity. Despite the myriad uses of social networks, however, many owners of small businesses struggle to use social networks effectively -- but an educational company called Logix9 is seeking to change that.

Logix9 is a company devoted to providing educational services to small business owners, typically in the form of Web-based tutorials and videos. The company has long provided a wealth of tutorials, all focusing on different facets of digital marketing technology. As Facebook, Google+, and Twitter become more and more prevalent in the marketing community, however, Logix9 is focusing more of its tutorials on the savvy implementation of social marketing practices.

The company has just unveiled a new set of classes, solely devoted to the use of Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ for small business purposes. The classes are designed to teach small business owners how to efficiently and strategically use social networking to boost their sales and improve their bottom line, while simultaneously enhancing their online image.

Though Logix9 is focusing much of its attention on social marketing principles, it has not abandoned the other tutorials that have proven so essential to its curriculum. Logix9 clients can still obtain lessons in Web design and HTML. They can also learn about affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing, forum marketing, and more.

Logix9 is a company with small business owners as its core demographic, and as such the company seeks to make its services accessible to small business owners. The online tutorials can be taken according to the small business owner's own schedule.

Additionally, the new social marketing classes are designed to be beginner-friendly. The company has long prided itself in being accessible to novices, and the same holds true with its latest round of tutorials. Even those with no prior experience in online marketing can benefit from these new Logix9 offerings.

ABOUT:

An Internet-based educational resource, Logix9.com provides instruction to small business owners. This program offers a variety of videos that individuals can view on their own time, allowing them to fit learning into their already busy schedules. The training modules presented cover a variety of topics, including web design, Internet marketing (including social media marketing), ecommerce, and more. To benefit users, each skill presented by the Logix9.com system is developed in an effort to improve the bottom line of small businesses.

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Logix9 Helps Small Business Owners Leverage Social Media for Maximum Results

Software as a service provider Salesforce.com announced plans June 4 to acquire Buddy Media, a provider of a social media marketing platform, for $698 million in cash and stock, but a stock analyst warns that Salesforce faces formidable competition when Oracle unveils its cloud service offering later this week.

The Buddy Media platform allows customers to create and execute social media-based marketing campaigns that publish content, place social advertising in the right places and measure the effectiveness of those marketing programs. The Buddy Media acquisition, which is expected to close sometime in the third quarter of 2012, followsSalesforces acquisition of a similar company, Radian6, for $326 million in March of 2011.

In a conference call announcing the deal, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said Salesforce looked at 10 different companies, but chose Buddy Media because it is the top performer in the social media marketing space.

Buddy Media is the No. 1 provider in this area. The more time I spent [with them], the clearer it was to me that we needed to buy No. 1, Benioff said.

As social media marketing gains traction, chief marketing officers (CMOs) are getting IT budgets that rival those of CIOs to spend on this new marketing approach, said Marcel LeBron, senior vice president of Salesforces Radian6 business.

Social has gone from this thing that [CMOs] are experimenting with to now being the central core of their marketing strategies, LeBron said. The big transition is that rather than focusing on how do I get impressions and reach and eyeballs and that kind of traditional view, its now all about engagement, about how you build relationships and connections with your customers.

But Trip Chowdry, a senior analyst at Global Equities Research, is quite bearish on the deal, writing in a research note that acquiring Buddy Media wont helpSalesforce compete against Oracle, which is set to announce on June 6 its own public cloud service offering.

The fundamental challenge for Salesforce is the multitenant architecture of its database cloud service, said Chowdry. In contrast, Oracles cloud is based on a virtual machine architecture, in which each client will have their applications running in their own VM. The virtual machine approach lets customers move their workloads back and forth between public cloud and private cloud environments as needed.

This is not possible in a multitenant database architecture. This feature is only possible if you have a VM-based architecture, he explained. The ability to move the data back and forth back and forth between public cloud and private cloudis a feature that large enterprises need, and they are asking for that.

As many as one-third of Salesforces customers, primarily the larger enterprises, may switch to Oracle to get that flexibility, Chowdry said.

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Salesforce to Buy Social Media Marketing Firm Buddy Media for $698 Million