To build upon their “Bing Is For Doing” philosophy, America’s second largest search engine has decided that it will follow in Google’s footsteps and provide social integration.  More information about the merger of social and search platforms across the web can be found in a previous 90blog post.  Bing will attempt to do what Google has decided against and use Facebook (among other social networking sites) as its primary tool to get answers for its users.  As Bing says, “Recent attempts at social search haven’t unlocked the full potential of tapping our social networks.”  Through an integrated format called the Sidebar, users will be able to get the opinion of friends, family, and colleagues online, much as you would in person.

Image Credit: Barrera Search Marketing

Google recently updated its Display Network settings within the AdWords interface to report performance information at the keyword level, rather than at the AdGroup level as it did previously. Performance information includes everything from the number of clicks and impressions a keyword receives to the number of conversions it generates, and at which display position it performs best. For advertisers, this means optimization for keyword-targeted Contextual campaigns will be far more granular.

Many brands have rushed to adapt to one of the latest trends in social media – brand pages on Pinterest. Many brands are seeing results in the form of referral traffic to their site and high-engagement with their community. Here are some tips for optimizing your brand page on Pinterest.

Even though the Washington Capitals eliminated them in this year’s NHL Playoffs, the Boston Bruins would likely win the Stanley Cup of Social Media if such a thing existed.  

With the onset of globalization, the importance of advertising in the international space is becoming increasingly apparent. In a recent article by Search Engine Land, linguist Andy Atkins-Kruger discusses several tips to help international marketers achieve success with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which I’ve summarized below.