Yesterday was the one year anniversary of Facebook's public offering. It has arguably been the most volatile and momentous period in the company's roughly eight-and-a-half year history. Facebook went public in May of last year at $38 and closed Friday at just over $26. The low, last September, was $17.55. The volatility of the stock and the fact that it hasn't fully returned to its offering price may give many institutional investors reason to complain but most other statistics and metrics are up from a year ago. For example, Facebook has impressively been able to grow its mobile revenue [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Home | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Statistics | Top News

Nearly two years after its launch, Google is still dealing with people who question why they should bother with Google+. But in recent weeks, the company has released what it considers "game changing" features that it feels will better enlist both marketers and developers to embrace its platform. "You're now seeing us put out, on a constant drumbeat, tools and capabilities for developers and marketers that I think are game changing, that they may not get anywhere else," said Seth Sternberg, product management director for the Google+ Platform, when meeting yesterday with a small group of re [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+ | Top News

Yahoo is trying to buy social blogging platform Tumblr for $1 billion (or more). That would represent about a third of the company's existing cash -- though it stands to make more cash from its remaining Alibaba stake. It's a big bet and the type of high-impact acquisition that Marissa Mayer has wanted to make since becoming CEO of Yahoo. Why buy Tumblr? The reasons are almost self-evident. Yahoo is a media/content company whose primary revenue source is display advertising. Tumblr is a massive user-generated content machine with a huge audience and page views (read: inventory). It's a t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Top News | Tumblr | Yahoo | Yahoo: Business Issues

Time for the Grow Your Audience With Google+ session at Google I/O 2013. We get underway at 3:30 pm PT to hear what tips Google+ product marketing manager Amy Walgenbach has to share. Live blogging is below: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Google+ | Social Media Marketing

In an effort to get more app developers on board using sections, the Facebook Developer blog released a list of best practices for creating customized sections and added section timeline analytics to their App Insight tool. After replacing aggregations with app sections last month, Facebook has rolled-out sections to everyone, and according to the blog post, "...are seeing almost 200 million items added daily." With sections, users can rate movie, TV show and book content directly on their timeline, as well as include ratings from apps. By highlighting a number of apps already using section [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook: Apps & App Center | Facebook: Insights | Facebook: Open Graph | Facebook: User Interface | Social Media Marketing

What's going on with Google+ as a platform? That's what today's "Fireside Chat" session is about. We're live blogging it from Google I/O. Let's see what comes up! You'll find a livestream here, and the live blog gets going at 10 am PT. Speakers are: Seth Sternberg, David Glazer, Sandy Jen, Jennifer Lin, chee chew, Vic Fryzel. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google: Google+

Word-of-mouth marketing at scale has been one of the Internet's greatest -- and most elusive -- allures for brands. Through a new partnership announced today, social rich media platform Moontoast and user-generated video platform VideoGenie are aiming to make it easier for brands to achieve that scale through Facebook. In a first, marketers will be able to feature and promote user-generated video testimonials and stories from brand advocates within native ad units in users' Facebook newsfeeds. VideoGenie's video platform enables easy user-generated video creation and sharing, while Moont [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: Advertising | Top News | Video

When it comes to social media marketing, many brands and organizations have staked claim to various hashtags. Yet by their nature, hashtags can't be owned. They can’t be wordmarked or copyrighted, either. The reality is that many hashtags are started organically, not by brands themselves but by their customers. Hashtags were once the sole domain of Twitter. Over the years, other social properties began incorporating them as well. Google Plus and Instagram recognize them. Earlier this year, LinkedIn started using them. And soon, they'll become part of Facebook as well. Hashtag Bombs Are S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Social Media Marketing: Hashtags | Twitter | Twitter: Marketing

The new look for Google+ is rolling out now, and with it, the new "related hashtags." These allow you to see other posts that are related to the one you're reading, if that post uses a hashtag. The New Hashtag Tab For example, consider this: In this post, it made use of the #io13 hashtag. With today's design update, that hashtag in turn is now used in a new tab along the top right of the post. Related Posts If you click on that hashtag button, a new related area appears above the post box, while the post itself "flips" to show the first related post. You can continue to flip through m [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+

Google announced a number of Google+ upgrades during the keynote presentation at today's Google I/O, including a new responsive, multi-column layout for Google+ Stream. Now, users will see one, two, or three columns of content depending on their device's screen size and orientation. Photos and videos have been enhanced as well, fitting the entire width of the stream. According to the Google+ blog, the new media sizes make images and videos, "...easier to scan and nicer to look at." Users will also notice new animations in their stream with a bouncing sharebox, cards that "flip and fade" an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Featured | Google: Google I/O | Google: Google+ | Google: User Interface | Top News

Buffer has quickly become one of the most useful social scheduling tools, thanks to constant innovation and affordable price points. Over the past year, Buffer has released a handful of updates including design & app changes and social analytics. Today, Buffer has announced the ability to schedule official retweets with the software. Previous to this update, users were required to add the RT symbol in-front of the user's text when scheduling retweets. The new changes will feature the "true" retweet where the actual Tweet (along with the author's icon and timestamp) will be shared dir [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing

  More than one in three large social media advertisers are not satisfied with their efforts from both paid and organic social media strategies. Those marketers that are satisfied with their social efforts are happiest with the results they achieve from paid social advertising than from using organic tactics alone. These are conclusions of a study published by Kenshoo Social today called "The Key to Successful Social Advertising." Kenshoo Social commissioned the study from Forrester Consulting to look at the strategies and tactics used by marketers in the U.S whose companies spe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

The folks from sketch comedy group Extremely Decent  have personified the frustration many users have felt upon seeing yet another update to the Facebook UI. Ready for your friends and friends-of-friends to have access to your music and photos? Want to find out about all the events you've been invited to? Take the tour! Here it is: A Facebook Update In Real Life [youtube]http://youtu.be/JvQcabZ1zrk[/youtube] [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Facebook | Facebook: User Interface

While Google+'s numbers continue to grow, it appears that brand engagement has faltered, at least according to a new article from Reuters. Of the top 100 brands that Reuters analyzed, 72 had a Google+ page, but roughly 40% of brands have never posted content or have done so infrequently. McDonald's, one of the largest advertisers hasn't even made a single post on Google+ to date as they are "not active" on Google+. One of the biggest arguments that brands are making as to why they aren't participating as much on Google+ is that their customers are all on Twitter and Facebook. Accord [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Featured | Google | Google: Google+

Less than two days into my Google Glass ownership and I'm already getting a software update. As Phandroid first reported, the Google Glass software is getting the "XE5" update -- XE stands for "Explorer edition" -- and I'll be able to check it out as soon as I get a chance to plug the device into its charger. (That's the only way to receive Glass software updates from the mothership.) One of the bigger aspects of this software upgrade appears to be a wider and tighter integration of Google+. As I mentioned yesterday in my Google Glass diary, day one article, the ties between Glass and G [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Google | Google: Glass | Google: Google+

Watch out Quora; Klout is coming. The popular social influence tool, Klout, is launching a new product that is geared to help provide human answers from the Web's top influencers - 'Klout Experts.' This product will allow users to answer questions in 300 character responses on topics that they are deemed to be influential in. As of today, 15% of Klout users will have access to the Klout Experts questions as they will be rolled out to those influential in travel, movies, music, cooking and technology. Answering questions will have a direct contribution on one's Klout score. A series o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Klout | Top News

To celebrate its 10th birthday, LinkedIn has created an infographic with interesting stats about the service, including membership growth by year, by country, and the most popular company pages. Want the infographic for yourself? You'll find it here: LinkedIn Celebrates 10 years of Brand Relationships. LinkedIn also created an interactive "gallery" timeline that offers a brief history of the service. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Infographics | LinkedIn | Statistics: Social Media

I hadn't seen my old high school pal in about 20 years. As we sat at a bar overlooking Grand Central Station in New York, he told me that he, too, was in social media -- something involving sentiment analysis. “Oh, sure,” I said, “many social media tools use sentiment analysis -- and it’s always a big topic at digital marketing conferences.” “No,” he said, “we analyze Twitter for changes in sentiment that might affect stock price. Then computer trading can kick in for transactions that might only be fractions of a penny per share.” Twitter As An Economic Predic [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter

On the heels of announcing record level financial results and member engagement numbers for the first quarter of 2013, Linkedin is celebrating their 10th anniversary with more than 3,700 employees and 225 million members worldwide. Started in May of 2003 by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant, the founders initially set their goal on growing their member base to make Linkedin a valuable site for searching and networking with other professionals. According to an interview in June 2009 on CNN Money, Hoffman admitted that the first challenge for Link [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing

Crafting a content strategy for social media is just as important as developing a strategy for what is published on the company blog and website. Social media is one of the main megaphones that a company uses to create its overall online presence, which in turn shapes brand recognition and sentiment. Social media has developed to the point that it is now more than putting a message out online and hoping for the best. Because the users are smarter and have made social media a part of their lives, it is up to companies to make the most out of every post and update they publish. Social med [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | Channel: Strategy | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column