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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 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.

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.

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.

Zuckerberg Tests Russian Waters October 02, 2012 Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met Monday with Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev in Moscow. Russia is something of a "test case" for Zuckerberg and Facebook: a country that is commercially significant but nonetheless tightly regulates -- and censors -- its media. With more Internet users than Germany, Russia is the largest Web market in Europe.

Facebook, Twitter Poke Holes in China's Great Firewall September 28, 2012 Despite government-imposed bans, Facebook and Twitter have tens of millions of users in China. Facebook use in China has reportedly swelled to 63.5 million people, a roughly eightfold increase over the 7.9 million who used the site two years ago. Twitter, meanwhile, has nearly 36 million users in China.

MySpace Seeks Return to Glory Days With Edgy New Design September 25, 2012 MySpace is rolling out a sleek, media-centric new version of its social network in an effort to restore some of its Web popularity. MySpace was once one of the hottest online social networks, but it declined with the rise of Facebook and Twitter. MySpace posted a video this week previewing its new look, along with a message from its owners teasing a second coming for one-time social networking giant.

Facebook's Poor Aim May Cost It Display Ad Lead September 20, 2012 Google is poised to climb past Facebook and be this year's top earner in display ad revenue, according to new research from eMarketer. Google is expected to earn $2.31 billion in display ad revenue this year, a 38.5 percent jump from last year, just ahead of Facebook's expected $2.16 billion in earnings, up 24.4 percent from a year ago.

Twitter Sports More Mobile Style September 19, 2012 Twitter unveiled a new design for its iPad, iPhone and Android users this week, offering a more streamlined look on its mobile apps and asserting more control over how its mobile users interact with the social network. Twitter's revamped apps are now common across Apple and Android phones. The iPad app gets a makeover that adds the Home, Me, Connect and Discover categories to the left hand side of the page.

Google Plants Snapseed in Its Garden September 17, 2012 On Monday, news that Google had purchased Nik Software triggered speculation that the Internet giant was following in Facebook's footsteps. Nik is the maker of the Snapseed photo editing app. Facebook in April purchased Snapseed competitor Instagram for $1 billion, and Monday's announcement was seen as a continuation of the rivalry between the social networking giant and Google.

Twitter Fought the Law and the Law Won September 14, 2012 Despite pending appeals, on Friday Twitter handed over an Occupy Wall Street protester's tweets to a New York criminal court judge. The capitulation comes after months of attempts by the social networking company to fight a subpoena from prosecutors by claiming that micro-blog posts were private conversations.

Wall St. May Give Zuckerberg Another Chance to Make Good September 12, 2012 Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company Tuesday and outlined plans for growth in the mobile space in his first public appearance following Facebook's botched IPO and stock plunge. Since Facebook's debut on the public market in May, its value has halved and investors have worried the world's most popular social network can't sustain growth without more concrete business goals, particularly in mobile.

Twitter Flutters Above Facebook in Mobile Ad Income September 07, 2012 Twitter is ahead of its social networking competitor Facebook in mobile advertising revenue, but that lead could reverse given Facebook's recent ad initiatives, according to new research from eMarketer. The study includes a tally of U.S. mobile advertising revenue for major companies including the competing social networks, and offers projections for future revenue.

Twitter Helps Advertisers Home In August 31, 2012 Twitter is rolling out new ad-targeting capabilities that will allow marketers to identify and send messages to consumers based on their interests or likes. So, a consumer who has indicated an interest in gardening would be shown ads for gardening and outdoor-living products.