Social Media

Omnichannel beauty brand Julep has tapped former Blue Nile executive Dwight Gaston as chief delivery officer. In his new role, Gaston will oversee Julep's operations, customer service, fulfillment and product development teams to ensure efficient delivery of products to its customers.

The company develops more than 300 new products each year for its Maven subscribers and e-commerce customers, and shipments are growing exponentially, it said.

San Francisco – The Levi’s brand is launching a new omnichannel global brand campaign, "Live in Levi's," developed out of a creative collaboration with FCB (Foote, Cone & Belding) and The House Worldwide.

Smith Micro Software has unveiled its new AniMates mobile messaging app that lets users personalize voice messages with talking characters, scenic backgrounds and voice effects.

Built using Smith Micro's animation software, AniMates offers a wide range of content from digital artists, allowing users to express themselves through multiple personas.

Triscuit and Martha Stewart have entered into an exclusive partnership with the launch of the Triscuit Summer Snackoff, a series of four recipe challenges.  

Every other week, from now until Aug. 24, Stewart will debut a new recipe featuring a different seasonal ingredient on www.triscuitsummersnackoff.com, encouraging fans to develop and submit their own Triscuit creations using Martha Stewart's seasonally inspired selection.

St. Louis -- Schnuck Markets announced that Robert Hardester has been appointed the company's new CIO. Hardester succeeds Mark Zimmerman, who recently announced that he would be leaving the company.

Hardester most recently served as a VP corporate systems at Express Scripts, where he was responsible for application development. He previously held the position of CIO at Furniture Brands International and at General Electric.

Jeffersonville, Ind. - Almost three-quarters (72%) of consumers only want to socially interact with a brand when they first comment on social media channels. Findings from a new customer survey from Accent Marketing Services LLC also show that 75% of Millennials find it helpful when other customers/followers respond to a question or comment posted on a brand’s social media channel, compared to 55% of Baby Boomers.

In an effort to find homes for pets through its new pet adoption service, online retailer Overstock.com has launched a new video featuring animal advocate Jill Rappaport.

Rappaport is a former “Today Show” correspondent, reporting on entertainment for 17 years before turning her attention to animal issues with her segment “Bow to Wow,” which gave shelter dogs a makeover.

San Francisco - Salesforce.com has released Salesforce1 for Retail. Retailers can now leverage Mobile Clienteling and Salesforce Communities for Retail to help build one-to-one relationships with shoppers anytime, anywhere and on any device.
 

Pedigree has launched its 50-state animal shelter renovation project with the help of Miranda Lambert in Tishomingo, Oklahoma, the country singer’s hometown.

“I started supporting this shelter to ensure every dog in my hometown would have a safe place to stay and enough food to fill their bellies. And Pedigree has helped me deliver on both those promises,” Lambert said at the event, where she and several community members and Pedigree employees cleaned the shelter and erected agility courses.

Waban, Mass. - After a drop in daily Facebook usage on computers in 2013, U.S. consumers increased their daily use of Facebook, from 42.5% of the population in 2013 to 46.5% in 2014, according to new research by the Temkin Group. The "Social Media Benchmark Study, 2014" examines 10,000 U.S. consumers' use of several different social media sites, on computers and mobile devices, and compares the results to previous studies from 2012 and 2013.