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LeadSift Raises $500,000 to Help Businesses Mine Social Networks for Sales Leads

Canada-based LeadSift raised a seed round of $500,000 from Omers Ventures, a fund that has invested in other Canada-based startups like Hootsuite. LeadSift is a startup aiming to help businesses mine social media sites like Twitter and Foursquare for sales lead generation. The company plans to add Facebook and LinkedIn to the mix in the…

The Top 10 Trends Lead-Generation Marketers Should Know About in 2013

Depending on where you live, there are 33-34 days until 2013 arrives. That doesn’t leave much time to dawdle as 2012 draws to its close, but marketers still have plenty of time to read up on the key trends that will affect their industry next year. To that end, below are 10 important trends lead-generation…

Calling a Lead Within the First Minute Increases the Likelihood of Conversion

Speed, perseverance and timing are all key factors when it comes to converting leads with phone and email contact. A new study from Leads360 looks at best practices for marketers using phone and email correspondences to convert their leads. Among the findings is that the sixth call might be the charm that closes the deal.…

Pew: 56% of Cellphone Owners Access the Internet, 43% Download Apps

According to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 85 percent of American adults own a cellphone. Of this segment, 82 percent use their cellphones to take a picture, 80 percent use them to send or receive text messages, and 56 percent use them to access the Internet. Additionally, 50 percent send or…

Time Spent per Day With Mobile Is Growing 14 Times Faster Than Desktop Use

According to eMarketer, the growth of average time spent per day with mobile (nonvoice) by U.S. adults is 51.9 percent this year, which dwarfs the 3.6 percent growth of time spent with traditional online. Research from Net Marketshare found that mobile’s share of global browsing traffic was 10.3 percent in October, marking the first time…

Facebook’s Lack of ‘AdChoices’ Icons Makes Industry’s Self-Regulation Easy to Criticize

Facebook has been the noticeably absent giant from the online advertising’s effort to regulate itself as an industry. More specifically, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), an association of ad trade groups, is placing Ad Options icons on its members’ ads to inform consumers about the kind of data advertisers and ad-related firms are collecting to…

Ad Targeting’s Big Growth in 2012

Ad targeting has had a big 2012 so far, and all signs are pointing to a continuation of its momentum in 2013. Facebook going public in May highlighted data and inventory, two advertising commodities that became hot topics in 2012. “The recent introduction of the Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX) represents a huge opportunity for advertisers…

Facebook and Apple Get Cozier: iTunes Credit and Recommendations Added to Facebook Gifts

Facebook Gifts is now selling iTunes digital gift certificates. When a Facebook user purchases an iTunes gift card, they will be able to set the amount put on the card ($10, $15, $25 or $50) and attach recommendations for what the recipient should spend their iTunes credit on. Recommendations can be categories, like “Top Albums,”…