While critics of Web 2.0 predict a new Internet bubble, online companies continue improving their services, offering functional tools for e-commerce and online marketing to companies that want to increase their visibility and commercial transactions on the net.

The web is a new advertising channel, and Twitter, the microblogging social network, adds a new format for its sponsored links: Timely Tweets.

Although Facebook made its appearance 7 years ago, many companies still haven’t been able to make the most of its promotional advantages. To remedy this, the social network makes available Facebook for Business, a tutorial on creating a Fanpage to reach a finely targeted group. Responding to new e-commerce trends, Google launches In-App Payment, a simple service for online sales.

Timely Tweets or “Smart” Tweets

According to official data on blog oficial de Twitter, Timely Tweets is a new ad format to provide higher visibility to sponsored tweets.
How does it work? First, the user must follow a company, brand, celebrity, or organization on Twitter; this enables messages to be published on the user’s timeline. Whenever the user logs in, the sponsored tweet will appear. The message will follow the natural scroll of the timeline and, like regular tweets, it will appear only once.
The benefits for the user are receiving institutional information directly and being the first to learn of special announcements, exclusive content, or special offers.
The Timely Tweets trial mode started on Thursday, July 28. For the next few weeks, companies including Dell, Gatorade, Groupon, JetBlue, Red Bull, and several others will send sponsored tweets through this new system.
For advertisers, the benefit is clear; they can be sure their tweets reach an interested audience. The challenge will be to increase the number of followers.

Facebook for Business

To protect its leadership as a marketing medium, the 700-million-user social network presents a tutorial for companies wishing to increase their Facebook visibility.
The guide shows how to create a business page, make announcements, launch sponsored histories, use social plug-ins, and increase interactions with users.
With many brands, companies, institutions, and professionals encouraged to set up social networks and create Fanpages, Facebook for Business is intended to help them achieve the desired visibility and reach their target audience through online marketing.
Source: RedWriteWeb

In-App Payments

In-App Payments is the new Google approach to making Internet financial transactions simple and automatic.
To use this system, a company must register on the service page and design its own marketing strategy.
In-App Payments collects payment for digital or virtual goods that are exchanged on websites, online games, applications, and social networks without leaving the site.
The application is the result of an online market trend toward low-cost purchases of virtual goods and the need to integrate methods of payment for purchases, games, and applications from computers and mobile devices. Google charges the vendor 5% of the cost of the transaction, a small percentage in view of the potential for increasing conversion and profitability for companies using the service.
In-App Payments is available in the United States and the United Kingdom, and there are plans to expand the system worldwide in the next couple of months.
Source: Undernews