Facebook, Social Media News & Practices

There was an interesting article in the NextGen Journal earlier this month.

It argues that every social media manager should be be under 25 years of age. As one might expect, it has stirred up its share of attention (7.5 k Facebook “likes,” 1727 tweets and 872 Google+) and controversy (especially from those of us who are over 25).

Embattled Facebook stock, which has wavered in value since being released in a May 2012 IPO at US$ 38 per share, took another blow yesterday when the share price of social game provider Zynga dropped 40 percent to about US$ 3 in after-hours trading.

Is there no such thing as a free lunch? Oh, but if you consider free lunch supported by brand advertisements on the menu and on the main entree, then we may just have ourselves a winner. Gartner says social media will be a US$ 16.9 billion industry this year, with more than half of revenues coming from advertising. Are our favorite networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ earning their billions at our expense?

Customer relationship management (CRM) provider SugarCRM is taking a larger role with the OpenSocial Foundation, boosting that organization's focus toward the enterprise. The company announced that two of its executives have taken leadership positions to further the development of social business open standards.

Facebook is upping its range of advertising possibilities. The popular social media site is testing Sponsored Results, which are ads that show up in the Facebook search area.

Start off Summer with a new gig -- we've got a shopping list of hot jobs for you to browse. Our featured jobs list is a great collection of opportunities spanning specialties and continents. Here's who's hiring this week (and if you're hiring, post your open jobs here).

 Apple's shunning of Facebook from the native OS feature set was never going to last. And, it looks like everyone has kissed and made up, as the latest Facebook API beta integrates at the OS level for iPhones and iPads, letting app developers have greater levels of social interaction in their products. 

Could the way Facebook measures engagement be improved? The folks at Ticular think so. They expressed their suggested improvements in what has become standard format these days -- an infographic.

Customers are responding to Facebook’s new mobile ads with the equivalent of “likes,” according to data from two new studies. As reported by MobiADNews, initial figures on clickthrough rate (CTR) and effective cost per mile (eCPM, with “mile” meaning a thousand views) give mobile advertisers plenty to like, as well.

Facebook and Yahoo announced Friday they have settled their major patent dispute. The settlement will result in an expanded relationship between the companies, including a new advertising partnership and an agreement to extend and expand their distribution arrangements.

There seems to be a lot of chatter around Microsoft's purchase of Yammer. There is clearly much to talk about here especially what it means for the addictive business narcotic known as SharePoint. This topic is not that interesting to me as I find this acquisition to be one more step towards the inevitable demise of licensed application software for businesses.

Your photographs may well be all over Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr and on Twitter. But Microsoft still wants to be the center of your digital world, as it shows off an improved app for Windows 8 that will help manage all those snaps and images. 

Facebook has found a new way to make money. The company has announced a subscription pricing model that may create a recurring revenue stream.

Facebook has a new Face -- and it can recognize yours. On Monday, the social networking giant announced that it had agreed to acquire Face.com, which provides the face-recognition technology used by Facebook.

I’ve had conversations with representatives from major brands and agencies who will tell me they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a national ad campaign, but then balk at spending $30 a month on their social media efforts. Companies seem to have no problem spending money on traditional methods like coupon books, newspaper ads, mailing lists, radio and television spots, etc., but when it comes to social media, they somehow can’t get their wallets open. While you may be able to use Facebook or Twitter for free -- advertising, engaging, and tracking are not.