Shazam Apps Enables People in the U.S. to Engage with Any Show at Any Time

News on social marketing according to Yahoo!: to support TV programming on any channel, anytime of day, Shazam®, the world’s leading media engagement company, has expanded its Shazam for TV(tm) second-screen service in the U.S. It has also announced that it has surpassed a quarter of a billion users globally.

People in the U.S. using the Shazam App, while watching television, can now easily access featured music, cast information, learn and read more about trivia feature, celebrity buzz, social sharing and learn more information at IMDB, Wikipedia, and the official site for the show with its convenient links.

Andrew Fisher, Shazam CEO said that “With more than a quarter of a billion people who have used Shazam worldwide, no other app has our scale when it comes to offering the opportunity to engage with the media that interests them the most, whether it’s music or television. And now, that experience is even better than before, enabling people in the US to engage with any show at any time.”
Social features for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices are also being developed by Shazam. People can now comment on what their Facebook friends are tagging once the Shazam Friends feature in the app is activated. And with the activation, they can now discuss with their friends in Facebook what they are watching or listening to since people’s tags will appear on their Facebook profile in their timeline.

“We think that broadening our television service and offering more comprehensive social features will continue to drive activity and engagement,” said Fisher.

Read more at Shazam Exceeds a Quarter of a Billion Users Worldwide and Expands Shazam for TV in the U.S. to Include Any Show, Any Channel
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400 Million Users Have Upgraded to Google+


News on Google marketing according to Marketing Land: for the first time, data on plus.google.com and Google+ mobile usage o active monthly users has been released. Vic Gundotra, Google’ Senior Vice President, Engineering released the current update on its Google+ stats. Since the public sign up was opened to all, Gundotra revealed that 400 million users have upgraded to Google+, with 100 million being active users of either plus.google.com or the Google+ mobile app.

Gundotra stated that “While Google+ is all about creating a better experience across Google, it’s also a destination. And here too, I’m happy to report that we have just crossed 100,000,000 monthly active users on Google+ (plus.google.com and mobile app).”/” He also said that active users today are derived from both mobile app users and those who visit plus.google.com.

Google+ had only 10 million users in July 2011, which increased to 40 million in October. When users where forced by Google to create Google+ enabled accounts in January, the number of users jumped to 170 million by April.

Now, the biggest question with Google+ 400 million “upgraded” accounts is: Are these users actually using the service? Are they performing actions +1’ing, sharing, posting? Are they just somehow hitting the plus.google.com domain? A large number of these 400 million upgraded accounts had no idea that they were even upgraded. Earlier this year, a report by Danny Sullivan stated that, Google+’s reporting on usage numbers is frustrating to say the least.

Read more at Report: Google+ Hits 400 Million Upgraded Accounts

Custom Google+ URL Simplifies the Finding of Brand Pages on the Platform and Through Search


News on social marketing according to Brafton: as Google begins the rollout of a custom Google+ URL, some users and marketers on Google+ received the option to create the feature. Earlier this month, Google announced the capability of the feature, but only verified users and select brands were able to change their URLs at that time.

If they choose to, these verified users will have the option to change to custom URLs once they see a black bar atop their profiles.

However, the number of users or brands that will receive the option for custom Google+ URL has not been specified by Google during the roll out.

For user and page that receives the capability, the notification comes with a suggested URL, Marketing Land said. Although, it is not quite clear if users should follow Google’s suggestion or if they can create own URLs. Users may need to get approval from Google for any alternative request, even with the presence of the “Request a Different One” option.

Developing custom URLs for brand pages will have an implication on a marketer’s social media marketing and SEO strategies as this will shorten the procedure of finding brand pages on the platform and through search. Also, with the creation of a URL, marketers are guaranteed that their branding strategies on the web will be more successful.

Read more at First wave of users, Pages get option for custom Google+ URL

Other Social Marketing Articles of Interest

How Google Builds Its Maps — and What It Means for the Future of Everything
Improving the quality of conversations in hangouts