Facebook is trying a new advertising technique, requiring the user the fill out a form to receive free sample, says Inside Facebook.

Justin Smith of Inside Facebook reports that this is “the most integrated leadgen-style home page ad unit we’ve seen Facebook launch." He continues,

«Facebook has allowed third party researchers to place survey ads in the home page ad slot before, but with the new 'free sample' ad, the response form is presented in a popup over the News Feed, and users can easily propagate information they enter in the form to their profile and share their action with friends as well.»

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ReTweeting or RT offers immense potential for businesses. With its rising popularity, ReTweets have captured the imagination of Twitterers.

Tweets are the status updates posted by Twitter users. When another user likes the status and wants to share it with others, they use the same update and ReTweet it by adding the user’s name. As RT is done for Tweets containing links, it offers a viral means of link exposure.

The idea of RT was started by someone who wanted to use another user’s tweet. As more and more users started (mis)using tweets for their own gain and posting RT as their own, the idea caught on like wildfire. Now there are services that use RT as a backdrop to gain advantage.

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In the conference held at San Jose, a session was devoted entirely to the topic ‘How can SEO save publishing industry?’ Here are some excerpts from the session.

With the online publishers suffering set backs recently, the session concentrated on educating participants on using SEO to attract traffic and thereby increase the revenue of publishers.

Some of the tips given by Liesel Kipp, VP Global Head of Product Management, Thomas Reuters are
1. Show the value of SEO
2. Data is the key to your success

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This question has come up several times, usually in the context of brand re-development: Do we invite customers to participate in our re-branding process? That can be a tricky proposition for two reasons: First, customers are busy, and if they are great customers, they probably appreciate that you respect their time and treat it with efficiency. When approached with questions about a supplier’s brand, they may be quick to offer “get-me-off-the-phone” responses like, “They service us well and their pricing is good... Have to run.” Click. Answers like these offer little insight when it comes to understanding a brand’s true unique value.

Also, if approached in the wrong manner, customers might find the inquiry a little weird, or perceive it as a lack of confidence or conviction in your brand: “Why on earth are YOU asking ME who YOU are? That’s up to you to figure out.“

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