Despite the Association of National Advertiser's (ANA) protests, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is expected to issue a new batch of domain names at the end of the month. While the initial thought of being able to have a branded top-level domain seems exciting - and a marketer's dream - the threats that could come with this expansion could (and really should) stifle a majority of that excitement.

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Moving the opposite direction of typical digital platforms that practice "web first, mobile second", Instagram announced yesterday that users can now browse and interact with their photo feeds on the web just as they can from a smartphone.

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The below is a guest blog post from our intern Tyler. IIf you’d like to inquire into an internship opportunity with Studiobanks, let us know. Here's Tyler!

In October of 2012, Facebook reached a cool one billion users. Twitter has continued to grow as well, showing an increase in active users by 40% from September 2011 to March 2012. Unless you’re still driving cars with your feet (The Flintstones), it’s likely your business is using at least one of these platforms. You have invested time, internal resources and—most importantly—raw capital. The real question is, however: Is your company actually gaining a return on this social media investment?

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The below is a guest blog post from one of our interns, Tony Maciolowski. If you’d like to inquire into an internship opportunity with Studiobanks, let us know. Enter Tony.

Chances are that while you’re camped out on your couch watching the latest episode of that must-see show (Mad Men anyone?), you’re also twiddling away on your smartphone updating your Facebook status or asking Google who the actor is that plays the character you can’t get enough of (Don Draper is, without a doubt, the man). You’re not alone.

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Nielsen, which is solely responsible for getting your favorite TV show cancelled because they let the networks know how few people were watching, have increasingly focused their hard-hitting data collection on social networking. Check out their State of the Media: Social Media Report for Q3 2011 for the latest research confirming everything you suspected all along. It's both eye opening and informative, though it will do nothing to bring back Arrested Development.

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While reading The Charlotte Observer the other day, I came across an article about a respectable doctor in Charlotte who did a not-so-respectable thing. (I’m not naming any names as I enjoy my current status as a lawsuit-free citizen.) As I’m shaking my head in disbelief, I notice that 23 people have clicked the Facebook Like button. I am then left to wonder, what exactly do these people like about this? Do they like this doctor? Do they like what he did? Do they like that this controversy was brought to light? Or is it possible that we, a socially-connected society, are becoming addicted to Like .

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When Florida-based Cornerstone Community Bank decided they needed to redesign their website, they started their search where most people do: Google. Search “web design for banks” and it’s not hard to see what happened next. One community bank in search of a company who could help them redesign their website and one guy who happened to be named Banks running his own digital agency. All it took was Google to bring us together.

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“Words are not much valued on the Internet, perhaps because it features so many of them.” So says the New York Times in a quote I took somewhat out of context. The Gray Lady, of course, has spent nearly a decade trying to navigate the relationship of words and the Web (not to mention how you actually manage to make money off them). While newspapers and other publications haven’t fared so well on this front, there are a number of companies who have figured out how to make words pay. It turns out, when you have a distinct, recognizable brand voice and you match it with copy people actually want to read, it’s suddenly a lot easier to sell them a garage door opener or half-priced yoga sessions.

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