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FB May Push Most-Blabbed-About to Top of Brand Pages November 13, 2012 Facebook is testing a new version of its comments feature that elevates the most-engaged remarks on brand pages to the top of the list. The new format appears on the pages of celebrities and public individuals such as journalist Fareed Zakaria and quarterback Tim Tebow. "We are testing a new format for comments on Page posts," said Facebook spokesperson Jessie Baker.

Sensewhere Goes Hyperlocal With Social Advertising November 09, 2012 There's no better time to get an offer than a few steps into a store -- or so believes Sensewhere, a company focused on hyperlocal interactions with consumers. It just released Adwhere, a location-based mobile application that can position consumers who are indoors and otherwise out of reach of GPS.

Dotcom Loses Dominion Over Me.ga Domain November 08, 2012 Kim Dotcom, founder of the now-defunct file-sharing site Megaupload, has long been in hot water with the big, huge United States. Now he's irked the tiny, little nation of Gabon. Gabon has reportedly blocked the Megaupload successor, which Dotcom announced last week, and which is supposed to launch on Jan. 20. The URL that Dotcom had tabbed for his new site, Me.ga, seemed a logical one.

Google Maps Loses Its Way in China November 06, 2012 Google Maps' mobile app reportedly is losing market share to local competition in China. Statistics from the third quarter show that Google Maps has lost almost half its market share since the second quarter -- from 17.5 percent to 9.5 percent -- and fell to No. 6 from No. 2 among mobile map apps.

Facebook Welcomes Newbies With Privacy Grand Tour November 05, 2012 Facebook has rolled out a round of security features intended to better educate new users about what information they can keep private and how. Now, when new users sign up for the site, they will have the option to take an online privacy tour to get information on its privacy policies.

The New Marketing October 31, 2012 I spent a day last week in Boston attending a conference called the "Inbound Marketing Summit" organized by my friend and former analyst Allen Bonde. Inbound marketing IMHO is taking off in some important dimensions. Inbound marketing is a cool idea that's been pushed by multiple companies recently. For instance, HubSpot held its user meeting early in the summer, and it was all inbound marketing all the time.

Feds Collar Would-Be Facebook Fraudster October 29, 2012 Federal authorities arrested Paul Ceglia on charges of mail and wire fraud last week. Ceglia is accused of tampering with, destroying and fabricating evidence in a scheme to defraud Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of billions of dollars. Ceglia originally filed suit in 2010, claiming that while Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard, the two signed a contract giving Ceglia at least a 50 percent share in the project that would eventually become Facebook.

Companies Quake Under Social Sword of Damocles October 29, 2012 Forty-seven percent of all social media users have used their networks to get customer service from a company, with usage as high as 59 percent among 18-24 year olds, according to a new study from NM Incite. Almost one in three social media users said they preferred to contact a company that way, and companies have learned to respond in kind.

Facebook Gets Its Mobile Mojo Working October 24, 2012 Facebook delivered a double whammy with its third-quarter earnings report: It came in slightly above Wall Street analysts' expectations, and it illustrated that, yes, it can deliver on its mobile promise. Although it recorded a net loss of $59 million, revenue reached $1.26 billion, a 32 percent year-over-year increase.

Social Marketing: Right Idea for the Times October 24, 2012 You might be tempted to consider social marketing just another idea in an endless stream of things dreamed up by the software industry -- and pundits like me -- to generate more business. Well, you'd be right about some of that, but I'd like to argue that the idea is more than hype and is, in fact, in sync with the times. Conceptually, marketing and sales have not changed for a very long time.

Social Sites Encourage Political Punditry October 22, 2012 Social media has become a channel through which many Americans participate in politics. Sixty-six percent of social media users -- or 39 percent of all American adults -- have engaged in some form of civic or political activity via social media, suggests a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

Nimble CRM 2.0 Adds to the Social Whirl October 22, 2012 The name of the product is "Nimble CRM," but the "CRM" part is almost a misnomer -- if you accept the traditional sales-marketing-service definition of CRM, that is. A startup that launched early last year, Nimble CRM chooses to embrace a morphing view of CRM. This is a view of CRM driven by social media, by mobile computing -- and most of all, by savvy contact management and networking.

Twitter Grapples With Wiggly Censorship Line in Germany October 18, 2012 Twitter on Thursday blocked tweets from the accounts of a neo-Nazi group that is in violation of German law. The ban is effective only within Germany. This is the first time Twitter has acted on its "country withheld content" policy, which it first announced in January. Twitter enacted the policy in an effort to balance freedom of expression with compliance with local laws.

More Polished, Pictorial LinkedIn Draws No User Wrath October 18, 2012 LinkedIn, the social network geared toward professionals, has unveiled a major revamp of its site design. The changes began rolling out this week and will continue throughout the next few months. The new LinkedIn places a greater emphasis on photos -- they are larger, serving as focal points on the page. The design is more streamlined, with new fonts and more intuitive administrative features.

Silicon Valley Goes to Washington for Anti-Huawei Campaign October 12, 2012 Cisco Systems was among the "array" of American tech firms lobbying against Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE. Huawei and ZTE -- which were recently dubbed security threats by the House Intelligence Committee -- were targeted in a lengthy "marketing campaign" designed to discredit Chinese firms by insinuating -- or outright saying -- that they are engaged in overseas spying on behalf of the Chinese government.

Lithium Social Web Nudges Customers in the Right Direction October 12, 2012 Lithium Technologies acquired Social Dynamx this week and moved immediately to bring a combined product to market: Lithium Social Web is available now. The two companies offer complementary functionality, which made the acquisition a natural fit, said Rob Tarkoff, CEO of Lithium. "They are aimed at the agent-based workflow, and we are aimed at the customer generated workflow."

At a Billion, Facebook Is Still Figuring Things Out October 05, 2012 This week CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook has reached 1 billion active monthly users. The number is a nice round one for the firm to publicize -- especially in light of the past few rocky months. However, like anything Facebook these days, the announcement was accompanied by a healthy dose of skepticism on Wall Street.

Facebook Scans Private Conversations to Pad Likes October 05, 2012 It isn't too hard to see what Facebook users Like, but on Thursday reports surfaced online about something few if any users would find likeable. It appears that sending links via private messages through the social network results in extra Likes for the link targets -- never mind that the link you're sharing may concern something you abhor. Call it a case of Like fraud.

Grumbling Begins Over Facebook's Promoted Post Scheme October 04, 2012 Facebook has a new offer for users with $7 in their pocket -- they can use that cash to pay to promote their own posts on the social network. The social network already uses a complex algorithm to determine which posts appear on any given News Feed. With Facebook's new feature, though, users can pay $7 to ensure the posts they consider most newsworthy, such as news about a charity, big announcement or significant life event, will get more eyeballs.

LinkedIn Hitches Fortunes to Cadre of Super Influencers October 03, 2012 LinkedIn took the first step toward opening up its walled garden with the introduction on Tuesday of a feature that lets members follow 150 of the most influential thought leaders on its network. These super-influencers include President Obama, Mitt Romney, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, British mogul and daredevil Richard Branson, and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark.