Deal For Awesomeness TV Is Evidence That YouTube Is Growing Up

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Deal For Awesomeness Is Evidence That YouTube Has Grown Up (All Things D)
DreamWorks Animation is in talks to buy Awesomeness TV, the YouTube channel aimed at Tweens and Teens. The channel has 500,000 subscribers and generated 80 million views last month. The deal shows that YouTube is increasingly a viable platform for delivering video to certain audiences. YouTube channels rely on social media and word-of-mouth buzz to draw viewers and build scale. In the past, scale has eluded many online-only video channels. But some, like Machinima and Awesomeness are breaking through. The scoop was Peter Kafka's at All Things D. Read >

Facebook Reports Earnings Today: Six Key Stats To Look For (Forbes)
Among the key points are signs of Facebook fatigue and dips in active use in developed markets like the U.S. and UK, and the success of mobile advertising products. Facebook's Ad Products Director Gokul Rajaram, meanwhile, said yesterday social media ads should be measured according to impressions, not clicks. Read >

Digg Plans To Release Its Google Reader Replacement In June (Marketing Land)
Digg has offered some relief to all the RSS reader addicts who were up in arms about Google's decision to sunset Google Reader. In its build-up to the launch, Digg surveyed thousands of respondents about how they prefer to share links online. The top responses were Email, followed by Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Tumblr. Read >

Twitter Has Opened Up Its Ad Platform To Any U.S. User (Twitter)
Previously, it had been invite-only. Mobile accounts for 70% of Twitter's usage in the U.S., according to comScore. Read >

Path App Sees A Backlash For 'Spammy Tactics' (The Verge)
This earned Path a lot of unwanted attention on Twitter, on the same day that it was celebrating a milestone: the 10 million user mark. Apps need to realize that Twitter's anti-spam vigilantes will give them a bad name if they don't rein in their promotional tactics. Read >

Back When I Thought Vine And Pinterest Were Stupid Ideas (Dustin Curtis)
Dustin Curtis, creator of blogging platform Svbtle, recalls when he was pitched the ideas for Pinterest and Vine in their very early forms and thought that there wasn't much to the ideas. He reveals details from his meetings with Pinterest's creator, Ben Silbermann, and Vine's creator, Dom Hoffman. Now, writes Curtis, "I am kind of disgusted by my reactions." The moral: don't dismiss first versions of ideas immediately. Read >

After Hack, Twitter Sends News Outlets An Email On Security Guidelines (BBC)
The hacks of Twitter accounts like the AP's which sent out a devastating fake tweet saying that President Obama had been hurt in explosions at the White House, have prompted a scramble to safeguard social media against hackers. Read >

Google Plus Is Outpacing Twitter To Become The Second Social Network (Reuters)
More news on the gains being made by Google Plus. Read >

Who Are The Most Creative People In Social Media Marketing? (Business Insider)
We're compiling our annual ranking, please help us out by submitting nominations. Read >

Should Social Casinos And Online Gambling Be Regulated? (VentureBeat)
What happens when consumers become confused over what is a real-money gambling game and what is not? Online gambling company executives convened for a debate about "fair" games and how the industry — one of the more lucrative spaces in the fast-growing social gaming ecosystem — should take on more social responsibility in order to avoid regulation. Read >

Altimeter's Brian Solis: Resources For Becoming A Social Business (Spredfast)
Like most jargon in social media, "social business" is a term that has become so overused as to become emptied of meaning. What exactly is involved in incorporating social media dynamics into the workplace? Brian Solis is a leader in this space and Spredfast has put together their favorite six posts from his website. Read >

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