Facebook may be expanding from a social website where users share photos of their favorite sandwiches and pets, to a network focused on business users.

Snapchat just recently started to include advertisements in its popular ephemeral messaging app, but its advertising strategy is notably different than its competitors' strategies. Snapchat says it has no interest in tricking its users into clicking ads by blurring the line between advertising and organic content created by actual users.

Marketing is sometimes considered a niche form of storytelling, but its stories mean nothing if they don't make brands resonate with potential customers and ultimately lead to sales. Many modern marketers view the people who connect with their brands on social media as potential leads that could become customers.

Amazon has ranked number one in a list of the top 50 global brands with the most social influence and engagement.

There are right ways for companies to use social media, and there are wrong ways. These 12 horror stories, spotlighted by a set of digital marketing professionals, are perfect examples of what organizations should never (ever) do on social sites.

IBM and Twitter have announced a partnership that will merge Twitter's massive flows of social media data with Big Blue's analytics software, including Watson.

If you're like me, you might stroll past a local coffee shop or book store numerous times before you notice it's there or go inside. Facebook thinks an ad might give that extra nudge.

A new social network is generating buzz for its hard stance against paid advertising and data collection. But how the site really works, when it comes to privacy, is a little more nuanced.

Twitter is testing a way for its users to purchase digital music and other products through the social networking application, with the goal of making mobile shopping easier, the company said in a blog post.

After years of cajoling their users into sharing every thought, emotion and selfie, online firms are seeing that providing more private online spaces might also be profitable.

Facebook sparked criticism over a study in which it manipulated the feeds of some of its users, but the dating site OkCupid says what Facebook did is normal, and that in fact it has run its own user-behavior tests.

Facebook is testing a "buy" button that lets users make purchases directly from their news feeds.

Yahoo has released an Android personalisation app that could give the company a stronger foothold in mobile contextual search.

Facebook has launched a new photo- and video-sharing app called Slingshot that's aimed squarely at popular cool-kid Snapchat.

Facebook is moving to offer users a familiar trade-off: their browsing privacy in return for more targeted advertising. Those who find that no deal at all will be able to use opt-out tools, but all users will be given a little more control over the ads they see.

A stronger set of features, possibly including payments, might be coming to Facebook's messaging properties now that former PayPal president David Marcus has come to work for the social network.

Although the memory of a bad date can take a lot longer than 24 hours to truly fade, the dating app Tinder has decided that's plenty of time for its users to share photos with their matches.

acebook will soon be listening to its users -- literally -- but some of them wish it would cover its ears.

Facebook users annoyed with posts from their friends about what songs they're listening to or which earrings they want will soon have less to complain about.

It might be time to change the adage "the customer is always right" to, "the customer with the most followers is always right."

SAP is scooping up SeeWhy, maker of real-time targeted marketing software, in a bid to flesh out the omni-channel commerce platform it gained through last year's acquisition of Hybris.