In today’s Signal, conflicting reports on Facebook’s efficacy; Ross Levinsohn leaves his office at Yahoo empty, but his pockets full; Microsoft’s new business plan is, well, familiar; Time Inc.‘s Laura Lang has a theory inspired by Silicon Valley; Google agrees to acquire Wildfire; are the new Mac ads that bad?; and more.

To the links…

Firm Ditches Facebook for Twitter, Claims Clicks are Bots (CNET) Limited Run, a service that hosts stores for artists, labels, designers and others who create unique products, announced its plans to drop Facebook after experimenting with FB ads and allegedly discovering that 80 percent of the clicks it was paying for were coming from bots. They also weren’t happy with FB’s reply to a request to change their FB page name, and they let all their fans know it. On its FB page, Limited Run asked current fans to follow the company on Twitter instead, a place, they said, “where we don’t get shaken down.”

Exclusive: Ross Levinsohn Departs Yahoo! (AllThingsD) As expected, Levinsohn is leaving Yahoo. He and Marissa Mayer have been negotiating his exit for several days, and it looks like he’ll receive a severance that totals in the millions. Now, the question everyone is asking is, who will Mayer pick as his replacement?

Microsoft’s Radical New Business Plan Is Hidden In Plain Sight  (ZDNet) Microsoft is re-imagining its entire business model, and the details are all laid out in its annual report. But we’ll save you reading time and just posit that, in short, Microsoft is running Apple’s playbook.

Laura Lang Rethinks Magazines for Time Inc.’s Digital Audience (NYTimes) Laura Lang, Time Inc.’s CEO and the first chief executive from outside the industry, managed to stay under the radar since taking the job early this year. Her first order of business was to talk to employees to assess their needs, because Lang not only has big plans for Time Inc., but also a theory: if users’ personal information is a treasure trove for Silicon Valley businesses, it should be equally valuable to traditional media.

Google Snaps Up Wildfire (NYT Dealbook) With Wildfire, Google intends to create new opportunities for clients to engage with people across all social platforms. Plus, an added bonus is that this new acquisition could bolster Google’s own social network, Google Plus, and provide insights about rival platforms, such as Facebook.

New Mac Ads: Landing With A Serious Thud (Ken Segall/Observatory) Ken Segall is not a fan of the new Mac ‘Genius’ ads: “With the Mac vs. PC campaign, Apple created fictional characters who together told an engaging story,” he writes. “There seemed to be infinite ways to keep the stories fresh. This is different. The idea of creating a “character” from an Apple employee is… well…. damn, I can’t even say this without feeling awful… it feels like something Best Buy would do.” Ouch.

Twitter Driving Most Online Conversations About Fortune Global 100 Brands (MarketingProfs) On average, the companies listed on the Fortune Global 100, an index of the largest corporations in the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America, generate a total of 10,400,132 online mentions per month, mostly via Twitter. Plus, The average number of followers per corporate Twitter account nearly tripled in the previous year, from 5,076 in 2011, to 14,709 in 2012. Twitter’s on (brand) fire.

Is the Internet Killing Advertising Creativity? (AdAge) The advertising industry is, and likely always will be, guilty of using the work of others as inspiration — and there’s nothing wrong with that. But while it’s legal to share an Idea, it’s illegal to copy the way the idea was creatively expressed. Brian Heidelberger examines some of the myths and truths about the legalities of advertising on the Internet.

IAB Pushes For DIY Ad Units, Modules (MediaPost) In an effort to encourage desktop publishers to ‘de-clutter’ the page, Peter Minnium, head of brand initiative at the Interactive Advertising Bureau wants tech companies to build “do-it-yourself ad-maker kits,” so those who build brands can concentrate on the design.

The Meaning of Joel Ewanick (AdExchanger) Joel Ewanick, GM’s ousted feather-ruffler, didn’t have the sales touch that higher-ups had banked on. As reported by the L.A. Times, in the first six months of 2012 GM sold somewhere north of 1.3 million vehicles in the U.S., a mere 4% gain, compared with industry-wide sales growth of 15%. And its share of the U.S. market fell nearly two percent, to 18.1%.

Irreducible (TechCrunch) Imagine an app that knows when you need it. Oh, wait. David Lieb, co-founder and CEO of Bump, already has. He believes that apps shouldn’t force us to add new behaviors. Instead, they should strip away needless, interruptive steps from themselves and the way we live our lives, until the solutions to our problems become irreducible.

Alcohol Brands See Growth in Engagement on Facebook (eMarketer) Keeping in line with their collective reputation for promoting socialization offline, alcohol companies are turning to Facebook to raise brand awareness and build community with fans online. Dare we say it? Oh, what the heck?: Comment responsibly, folks!

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