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Food for Your Brain.
Latest Trends and Best Practices from our Thought Leaders and Industry Experts.

Going for the Gold at the ADDY Awards

It’s that time again — the ADDYs are upon us! 2012 was full of groundbreaking projects for us and accordingly, we went big and entered twelve of our finest into ten categories. Although we know for sure we won at least something (thanks for the heads up, Ad Club!), your guess is as good as…

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San Diego Does a Double-Take for Parachute Factory

Many of you Mindgruve followers were lucky enough to attend Parachute Factory on February 16. The innovative art and culture event, which was held in the East Village warehouse that housed the Pacific Parachute Company during WWII (and will be Mindgruve HQ come summertime), played host to the works of over forty local artists, live…

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Twitter’s New Service is Di-Vine

Social video sharing is gaining new traction thanks to Twitter’s brand new service, Vine. The app’s users (iOS-only, at least for now) can create and share looping videos that span six seconds or less. But don’t let Vine’s size fool you — already sending the tech and social world atwitter, we have a feeling this…

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[INFOGRAPHIC] How Users Interact with Google+

Did you know that there are 625,000 new users on Google+? Some may think Google+ doesn’t compete with the social media powerhouses (read: Twitter and Facebook). However, that stat alone says that the user base is growing and happy to try out a new social media platform. To learn more about how users actually utilize…

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Mastering the Art of Localized Marketing

On my latest trip to San Francisco, I discovered that the major Japanese fashion retailer, Uniqlo, recently opened a store in San Francisco. With only four other stores in the US, the popularity of this clothing store was highly noticeable: 9 out of 10 people* walking along the streets of SF were wearing the signature…

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Facebook Bug Affecting Brand Page Insights for Up to Six Months

On February 22, Facebook announced that a bug has been affecting Page Insights reporting since as far back as August 2012. Announced on the same day a major security loophole was revealed and just a month after the company fell victim to a “sophisticated” attack on their internal systems and devices, the bug caused brand…

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Re-marketing Gone Wrong: Don’t be an Online Stalker

Everyone knows the saying, “too much of a good thing,” but lately, I’ve noticed many brands that should be taking it to heart. When it comes to customer targeting, a vast number of brands are re-marketing with no strategy, and it needs to stop. There is an effective way to do re-marketing, and then there…

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[INFOGRAPHIC] Behind the Facebook “Like” Button

Facebook’s “Like” is one powerful little button, especially when it comes to marketing on social media. Although savvy marketers know it’s not all about the “Like,” there’s no question it still has a big influence over everything we do. Want to dig deeper into this enigmatic Facebook feature? Take a browse through the below Boostlikes.com…

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Online Marketing Summit Recap

Last week, Online Marketing Summit came to San Diego, and much of the Mindgruve team headed out to check out some of the sessions over the conference’s three-day stint. I went on the first morning to sit in on “Driving Qualified Audiences Into the Funnel Using Rich Media and Distribution Networks,” led by PRNewswire’s VP…

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My Geeky Valentine

Happy Valentine’s Day to all you (digital) lovers out there. Whether you’ve got a hot date planned or are staying single this year, we collected the best geeky memes and e-cards the web has to offer to suit any Valentine state of mind. Did you forget a card for your Valentine? They’ll be none the…

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Mindgruve’s New Office Lends Itself to a Unique Art Event

While we aren’t moving into our new office until summer, we’re already making use of the new building by playing venue to a unique art and culture event. Happening on Saturday, February 16, Parachute Factory will feature live music, local bites, and amazing works of art from over forty artists, including our very own Michael…

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SnapChat Hack Lets Sneaky Snappers Steal Screenshots

Rapid-fire photo sharing app SnapChat is no stranger to controversy— in its relatively short life, it’s been dubbed “the sexting app”— but on January 22, things got a little bit more tangled when an everyday college student broke through its seemingly secure privacy barriers.

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How to NOT Spend $5 Million on One User

Earlier this week, I learned about the University of California’s increased marketing efforts to promote their available online courses. Here is an excerpt: “In an effort to show off its array of online courses, the University of California has poured millions of dollars into promoting its UC Online system. But as the San Francisco Chronicle…

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Facebook “Graph Search” Continues the Move Toward Social Search

On January 15, Facebook held a media event to announce the release of its latest development: Graph Search. Created as an answer to Facebook’s existing search function, Graph Search promises to revolutionize the Facebook search experience with visually pleasing, intuitive results based on your friends’ connections, likes, and habits.

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The Instagram Terms Debacle: The Good, the Bad, and the Sketchy

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Instagram— beyond being flooded with a slew of carefully filtered holiday shots, the recent Facebook acquisition has been caught in the middle of a firestorm of criticism and outrage over newly-proposed (and now defunct) Terms of Service.  The new terms created a near-instant Internet uproar that eventually…

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U-T San Diego’s New Website Primes the County’s Oldest News Outlet for Digital Success

Digital agency of record Mindgruve leads the transition from traditional newspaper to multimedia powerhouse SAN DIEGO, CA—January 8, 2013— Mindgruve today launched a revamped website for client U-T San Diego, developed to further propel the news outlet to the forefront of its industry. The digital marketing agency worked to transform the U-T from a traditional…

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