'Net Features : social network

Chirpify Brings In-Stream Commerce to Facebook

Michael Garrity — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:00:00 GMT

For in-stream commerce platform provider Chirpify, it’s time to leave the nest and venture out into the great, big world of social media. That’s right, it’s finally bringing its service to Facebook, so now users can buy products on the world’s largest social network with just one comment.

Until now, Chirpify was only available on Twitter and Instagram, but by inserting its social commerce product into the Facebook news feed, it has brought its capabilities to an average of more than 618 million daily active users. Now, businesses, non-profits and consumers can buy, sell, donate or raise funds from within their news feeds without ever having to leave Facebook.

This could be beneficial, of course, to some of the nearly 80 percent of American businesses that have a presence on the social network, especially if they have an active and engaged collection of “fans” on the website.

To use Chirpify on Facebook, a customer simply has to create a listing in the Chirpify dashboard and include various important details, such as item, dollar amount, shipping time and price, as well as indicating whether the product is digital or physical. Once that’s done, they simply need to click on the “Facebook” button to turn the listing live. From there, the post will show up (and work) in both consumer and brand page news feeds.

Consumers will then buy, donate or enter a giveaway on a posted listing by commenting with either “buy,” “donate” or “gimme,” respectively. From there, Chirpify takes over and makes a payment happen automatically, before sending the consumer a secure download or receipt via email. Chirpify customers can manage all transactions and data from their Chirpify dashboards.

Facebook Graph Search Secrets Revealed

Michael Garrity — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Late last week, the Facebook team wrote a blog post that let users “under the hood” to show them how Graph Search goes about indexing and ranking search query results on the social network.

Knowingly or not, what Facebook really did was reveal the secrets of social media optimization. Since "knowing" how things work is half the digital battle, let's dig into the details to accelerate your future Facebook (and more specifically Graph Search) success.

Graph Search and You
Of all of the information released in the blog post (and there is a lot), perhaps the most important and useful of it all is that Facebook is not only going to use Graph Search to find data, but also to build upon it and include new features that will quantify important elements of a search query to provide the most relevant information based on factors unique to a particular query. This includes the distance between a searcher and a place, how close a searcher is from user results in terms of friend connections and the amount of overlap a query may have with an entity name, among others. In other words, naming things right and having many friends are both great ways to improve your Facebook page’s performance when it comes to graph search results.

If you care about social media optimization at all, use this information as a digital blueprint for a successful Facebook presence in Graph Search results.

In the future, this could mean that an entity (person, place, etc.) will have several different scores assigned to it, and Graph Search can select the top results based on those score. So, for instance, there could be three different scores for a “nearby” search that account for overall popularity, social bias and distance, thus allowing for greater diversity and more relevance in search results that are, ultimately, more useful for those searching, as well as those being searched for.

Let's Get Technical
It appears that Facebook uses a blending of data-driven techniques and “intuition” to rank the best results for a query by coming up with an idea for a ranking change (based on information from both ranking engineers and user feedback), implementing it, testing it and then launching it to a small fraction of users before measuring the impact it has on ranking changes. And it all starts with Unicorn.

Unicorn is an index framework and in-memory database that lets users (Facebook, in this case) create various vertical databases to house specific information, and then use a query language to retrieve that information later. However, before Facebook could begin to utilize Unicorn for Graph Search, the company had to add to its search ranking capabilities by adding things like query rewrites, forward indexing, A/B testing and extended retrieval operations with weak “and” and strong “or” recognition, in addition a number of other changes.

The Graph Search Lifecycle
All of these modifications serve Graph Search at different points throughout a query’s lifecycle, which largely takes place in two distinct phases: the query suggestion phase and the search phase. In the query suggestion phase, the query that a user types into the search box is parsed based on grammar by a Natural Language Processing (NLP) module, which then identifies the query for potential entities, before sending them along to Unicorn to conduct a search for them.

This is perhaps the most important step in the whole process, as it defines what type of entity the searcher may be looking for, thus signaling where Unicorn should look for the information, as Facebook altered the index framework to keep different entity types in separate verticals. In other words, it tells Unicorn what kind of results to present. For example, if a user types in “people who live in Sri,” the query will be sent with a strong bias toward cities and places, meaning location-based results will be more likely to appear because of the particular grammar qualifications of the query.

The search phase begins after a user had made a selection from Graph Search’s suggestions. Again, all of this new information is sent back to Unicorn via the “Top Aggregator,” which takes in raw query and user metadata information and then represents it at the end as the blended and rescored search results. This is where Graph Search is able to narrow down the original query to provide only relevant results unique to a user’s search. In addition, Graph Search is able to rewrite queries into a social context to bias the results socially, as every user is indexed with his or her friends.

Pinfluencer Gets a New Name and Social E-Commerce Product

Michael Garrity — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:15:00 GMT

Pinfluencer literally made a name for itself by providing marketing and return-on-investment (ROI) analytics to brand’s using the Pinterest social network. However, as the company begins to move away from only using information from Pinterest and Facebook to incorporating image-based sites like Twitter, Tumblr and Polyvore into its platform, it felt like maybe a name-change was in order.

From now on, Pinfluencer will be known as Piqora, a marketing suite that will include analytics, promotions, content management and even social e-commerce.

“We have changed our name to Piqora, because it is an elegant blend of piquing one’s curiosity and inquiry about products,” explained the company’s CEO, Sharad Verma. “The new name also implies pictures and the IQ lends itself to deep analysis. This encompasses the essence of what we do.”

As mentioned, the new moniker isn’t the only big news to come from Piqora; the company is also launching a new social e-commerce product for brands on Pinterest and Facebook known as Gallery, a tablet-optimized and automated visual feed of a company’s current stock and top trending products on social media. Not only will this establish a social commerce experience for consumers, but (more importantly), it helps marketers turn their social traffic into conversions.

Since Pinterest is such a visual discovery experience that promotes browsing, pinning and purchases, it seemed like a natural choice to the folks at Piqora that they should find a way to turn these users into customers. Naturally, the best way to do that is by offering visually compelling product options on channels like Pinterest and Facebook. The Gallery landing pages for Pinterest-driven traffic promote on-site product browsing, pinning and purchases.

“Our new Gallery product gives brands a way to nurture their discovery traffic from social networks and tablet users,” said Verma, adding that it can also “showcase what is most popular and offer customers a rich, boutique-type browsing experience.”

In addition, Piqora will also monitor the social “pinning” activity on Facebook and Pinterst and examine search queries, traffic and purchase data from Google Analytics, Omniture and Coremetrics.

In-Stream Transactions Come to Instagram

Michael Garrity — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:21:00 GMT

Social commerce payment system Chirpify is no longer just looking to monetize content on Twitter. In fact, it seems to be banking on the hope that a picture can be worth a thousand dollars, as the company recently expanded its platform to include in-stream commerce from Instagram.

At present, approximately 40 percent of the world’s largest brands have a presence on Instagram, but until now, they never had any way of turning that directly into dollars. Chirpify for Instagram is now the only way for businesses and consumers to either buy, sell, donate or otherwise exchange funds on the social network by turning comments on the site into real-time in-stream transactions.

Sellers (or fundraisers) can create a listing from within the Instagram application; all they have to do is post a photo and make sure that the initial comment reads, “#InstaSale $amount” (with “amount” actually being the price of the item being sold). Once this is done, Chirpify automatically creates a listing, and buyers can make a transaction by simply commenting.

Once a buyer comments, Chirpify will post another comment with purchase instructions. The shopper’s Instagram account will be securely connected to his or her PayPal account, and then they just have to leave a comment that says either “buy” or “donate” (depending on what they’re doing). It’s as easy as that, and then Chirpify will email them a secure download or receipt.

There are already many notable names using Instagram commerce, including Bogs, Fearless Records, Invisible Children, Kat Von D and many others.

The Ripple Effect: Track Trends & Find Friends on Google+

Michael Garrity — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:53:00 GMT

Google+ has had its fair share of problems differentiating itself from other, more established social networks, and because of this, it hasn’t exactly skyrocketed in popularity. However, it turns out that by ignoring Google+, marketers are actually missing a great opportunity to find out what content is most likely to trend and how that happens, as well as identify the biggest influencers in their niche.

This ability is presented by a rarely discussed (and probably even less utilized) feature known as Google+ Ripples, an interactive graphic visualization attached to content or a URL posted on G+ that charts the series of a events that take place after it’s shared (in other words, it shows the post’s viral ripple effect – get it?). The chart follows the post from person-to-person, displaying all of the shares and illustrating who shared it and where they found it.

What makes Google+ Ripples neat is its visually appealing, zoomable and interactive interface that lets users quickly scan and study the life cycle of a viral post. By hitting the “Play” button at the bottom of a Ripples page, users can see an animated version of the same graph and watch the post get shared from the time it was first posted to the present, which lets them see the scale and speed of how it spread.

Every public post on Google+ that has been shared will feature its own Ripples page, which can be accessed by simply clicking on the arrow in the top right of a post box to bring out the drop-down menu. From here, you can just click “View Ripples” and it will open a new page with the visualization of the post’s share history.

Benefits for Marketers

This sounds interesting and all, but what’s the real benefit of actually bothering with this feature?

Well actually, there are two. See, Google+ Ripples is a quick and easy way to spot what type of content in your niche is most likely to foster engagement, and who the most influential people are in terms of getting it seen (and shared) by the most users. Basically, it presents a visual representation of the life cycle of content in your niche, and the people who interact with it.

While simply looking at the number of shares can give marketers an idea of what topics or types of content are most popular within their niche, Ripples can help them visualize how quickly and among what type of users it is shared. What they may find is that some posts spread fast, but die down after a few hours, while others take off more slowly and thrive a lot longer. Or, they could discover that some topics are more shared among business professionals, while others are all the rage with consumers. All of this information can give marketers a better idea of what kinds of content to post (both on Google+ and other places that they reach their niche audience) and who to target with that content.

But the real beauty of Ripples is that it shows which users were most influential in helping to spread it across the social network. Those users who shared the content from the original poster, and then saw a lot of other users share the content from them, are more than likely going to be important, major players in that niche. And Ripples not only helps to identify these folk, but also provides users with an easy way to automatically connect with them. Marketers can use this information to network and get their name on the radar of these key people in their industry.

Who knows? If you impress them enough, they may even start sharing your content. So the next time you’re on Google+, it might be worth it to check out Ripples.

Twitter Ups Relevancy of Targeted Ads

Michael Garrity — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 13:20:00 GMT

After a significant amount of time spent testing and tweaking, Twitter has finally rolled out a new feature to all of its advertisers that may dramatically improve the relevance of targeted ads on the microblogging social network.

See, before, Promoted Tweets or Trending Topics were displayed without taking into account how relevant or useful the ads were to a given individual user. This was largely because the site, by its nature, isn’t able to cull the kind of personal information about its users as Facebook can, since they don’t specify their interests on their profiles.

Twitter is now developing a way to glean this information from what users are actually saying on the site, as well as who they follow and some of their other activities. Unfortunately, that’s about all of the information the company has given up so far.

These changes will also allow advertisers to specify the specific @handles of users, but rather than only target those individuals, Twitter will show ads to all of their followers who share interests with them. So, for instance, if you wanted to target people who like a certain type of food, a marketer can use this feature to target people who follow a restaurant that serves a similar menu.

Create Your Own Private Social Network

Michael Garrity — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 17:30:00 GMT

For the general public, social media seems to have exhausted much of its potential (for now, at least). Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and other sites have allowed users and businesses to connect, communicate and share content and links, and for the most part, that is primarily all that they’re used for. (Well, that and advertising, of course.)

Likely, the next major wave of social innovation will come from private social networks designed to enhance communication among smaller groups. Services like Yammer cut directly to the chase, allowing users to engage and share with one another on the pressing topics of the day within their private network, without being bogged down by unnecessary content or advertising.

Hot off the heels of its Buddy Media acquisition, Salesforce has announced Salesforce Communities, a new social media platform for “enterprise and social communication” that allows users to connect with partners, coworkers and customers by creating private branded social communities that utilize traditional social media features. This includes user profiles, real-time news feeds, a trending topics section, recommendations and influence measurement scores.

This new service is meant to help Salesforce customers collaborate better with one another, but also to monitor how well a brand or marketing campaign is resonating with consumers.

Combining “knowledge-driven, peer-assisted and agent-assisted customer service” into a single experience allows Salesforce Communities users to provide their customers with quicker, more efficient service and support, as well as immediately create various marketing communities around events, campaigns or focus groups as needed.

Companies can also use the platform to connect with their partners, suppliers and distributors to establish customized communities for increasing sales through seamless deal registration, access to proven sales tools and collaborations with industry experts.

And, of course, Salesforce Communities comes with the trusted service of the Salesforce brand and its cloud-based business processes and database services, which will allow customers to build and deploy branded communities in minutes, move seamlessly across multiple communities under a single identity and instantly scale their communities to support anywhere from just a few users to millions of members.

The limited pilot version of Salesforce Communities will launch this fall, and the product is expected to see general availability in the second half of 2013.

Best Practices for Instagram Inspiration

Allison Howen — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:51:00 GMT

Even after it was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion, many businesses are still unsure of how valuable the photo-sharing social network Instagram can be in their online marketing efforts.

That is quickly changing, thanks to a recent report from Simply Measured, which states 40 percent of the world’s top-100 brands now have a presence on Instagram. These major brands taking to Instagram seems like a natural choice in a day and age when the Web is increasingly social and interconnected. It’s no longer enough to just put your marketing message out there to be absorbed; these days, consumers want to connect with your brand, and photos are a great way to do that (after all, each one is worth at least a thousand words, which is a huge relief to your copywriters).

Instagram allows companies to share even more of themselves with their customers. It also provides greater opportunities to extend their reach and influence across the social Web, thanks to the ability (and desire) of users to share content on and across social networks.

In order to help you find sepia-filtered success with this relatively uncharted social channel, we’ve mined some of the top brands on Instagram to determine three best practice strategies, and then looked deeper into three different business sectors (retail, services and content publishing) to show you how different brands are using the service.

Best Practices:

#1 Be Consistent: The key to building a successful brand has always been to provide a clear and consistent tone or theme across your marketing channels. Keep this in mind with Instagram. While it may be fun to upload various types of content, you should keep your message consistent so that your followers know what to expect. One way to ensure you do this is to regularly post something specific on a daily or weekly basis that is unique to your brand and message, and can help consumers get a sense of what you’re all about. That being said…

#2 Keep It Interesting: Establishing a tone for your brand is essential, but that doesn’t mean that your followers have any interest in seeing you post basically the exact same picture all day, every day. Make an effort to mix things up. For example, don’t always just post pictures of your latest products, but also include images of your employees, industry events you may be attending (e.g. trade shows), people using your products, general lifestyle photos related to your business and anything else you can think of that is in line with the tone of your brand. In other words, keep things interesting to keep consumers engaged, which leads us to…

#3 Post Engaging Content: Success with social media has always been directly related to how well you’re able to engage your followers, and it’s no different on Instagram. Actively using hashtags to tag photos is a great way to get them noticed and generate user interest, and asking questions in your photo captions can help create discussions among your followers. Also, liberally respond with @replies to foster conversations directly with users. And don’t forget to take advantage of Instagram’s ability to allow users to publish their own content and interact with your brand by uploading photos and tagging them with a unique themed hashtag.

Examples:

Retailers

Many types of merchants are currently on the image-based social network – from apparel retailers like H&M to fast food companies like Taco Bell. However, it is important for these companies to not only use this social network to upload pictures of their latest products or promotions, but also to engage their audience. For example, Starbucks offers an interactive way for consumers to participate with its brand on the social network by telling consumers in the company’s “about” section to tag their photos with “#Starbucks!”. The coffee specialty retailer also makes their posts interactive by asking questions on the posted photos, such as, “loving the lighter #blonderoast. Have you tried it yet?”

Service Providers

Service providers may need to plan out their strategy a little more than the aforementioned merchants, but this industry can still take full advantage of Instagram’s image-packed social network. It is important for professionals within the service industry to provide a consistent tone on Instagram, so their audience can know what kind of content to expect. For example, The Knot’s Instagram profile not only offers wedding inspiration ideas, but also provides audience members with insight into the company’s staff. This means that brides can view floral photos for insights on bouquet arrangements, while also relating to the company’s employees by checking out a photo from the staff’s summer outing.

Content Producers

For content producers, the biggest challenge is turning content, which many times is in the form of written articles or blog posts, into interesting and engaging images. The best way to do this is to repurpose content, especially content that is visually appealing. ESPNSports does a great job at providing interesting and relevant content to its Instagram audience. The company has taken snapshots from memorable moments in sports – such as Felix Hernandez’s recent perfect game or Michael Phelps’ Olympic accomplishments – and posts them as Instagram photos that include hashtags, as well as attract a lot of comments and likes.

Timeline Extends the Life of Facebook Posts

Michael Garrity — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:45:00 GMT

Facebook’s Timeline update has been available for brands long enough now that we’re finally able to gain some useful data about the effect they have on marketing efforts, and the initial information seems pretty positive.

Most notably is a recent report from social media analytics firm Sotrender, which says that Facebook posts now live longer on Timeline that that did before the format change. Before, half of the comments made on a brand’s Facebook post were made within the first hour of it being put up, but since the Timeline switch, that average has increased to 2.5 hours.

Unfortunately, the study was fairly limited. The London-based company only looked at 130 U.K.-based brands and about 5,000 Facebook posts, giving them a usable but ultimately limited sample.

Still, this is the first such study since the big move to Timeline, and it does present some very interesting information that could interest companies on the social network.

For instance, the report shows a 13-percent increase in the average number of users that interact with a post. Plus, about 80 percent of comments are now made within 8.5 hours of a posting, a two-hour extension over the previous average.

But the more things change, the more they stay the same. Timeline hasn’t contributed to a significant hike in a brand’s overall number of fans, nor did it improve the average number of “likes,” posts and comments per user or cross-page engagement.

Growing Pains for Facebook?

Michael Garrity — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:30:00 GMT

The good news for Facebook is that it officially surpassed the 900 million-user mark earlier this year. The "bad" news is that the social network is growing slower than in years past.

While it’s hard to undermine just how monumental a figure 900 million users really is, it’s also important to know that rapid growth has heretofore been Facebook’s primary means of generating revenue. And while it only took the site about five months to go from 800 million to 900 million worldwide users, it took just three months to expand from 700 million to 800 million.

Facebook is still the top dog in terms of social networking and, really, a lot of other things on the Internet.

Each of the 901 million Facebook users is worth $1.21 for the company, which shows a 6-percent increase from this time last year. Moreover, 532 million of them are considered “daily active users,” which is up from just 372 million a year ago.

Plus, the site is still valued at more than $100 billion, and Q1 revenue was up from this time last year, although it did see a slight net income decrease due to additional operating costs.

Pinterest Announces Vimeo Integration

Michael Garrity — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:50:00 GMT

Back in August, Pinterest rolled out YouTube support to allow users to pin and share videos from the site on the pinboard-based social network. Still, despite that addition, the focus of Pinterest (and reason for its growth) has remained pretty consistently rooted in photos.

However, as the site continues to grow in popularity, the company probably realized that it will have to broaden its horizons to hold the interest of new and old users, alike. Thus, Pinterest announced integration with Vimeo, which, like its YouTube deal, will allow users to pin Vimeo videos on the site.

Some are speculating that this move is just what Pinterest needs to expand its content reach, since Vimeo’s fanbase tends to be more art and design focused than YouTube’s things-on-cats loving crowd. This means these younger, hipper users may be more interested in sharing viral content on the site, so this new deal could help spur video usage on the social network. Or that's the theory, at least.

If nothing else, it’s clear that Pinterest is interested in evolving beyond its current format.

Google+ Makes Waves with Massive Redesign

Michael Garrity — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 19:30:00 GMT

Did you just love Facebook’s Timeline update so much that you wished another major social media site would adopt something similar? Well, Google apparently did also and has included a conspicuously Facebook-like redesign of profile pages among its many recent (and major) updates to the Google+ social network.

In addition to the redesigned profiles, the big G+ update is rife with new features in addition to a drastic overhaul of its general look, most designed to improve navigation and functionality.

Looking at the new News Feed and profile page designs, it’s clear that Google was attempting to play off the minimalist style it adopted for most of its other Web properties. Notably, the icons that once rested atop G+ pages are now conveniently located on the left-hand side of the page and feature tabs for Home, Profile, Pages, Photos and more (see example below).

And the location of these different tabs can now be customized to the preference of the individual user, including a More tab that will house all of his/her lesser-used icons.

Also, evidence of Pinterest’s growing influence on the Web is apparent in Google+’s emphasis on photos and sharing. Photos on the site will now be displayed more prominently and take up more space on a browser screen with a layout reminiscent of Tumblr.

A big part of the redesign has also focused on improving conversations, making discussions and comments more visible to improve participation. Users have a new Explore button to highlight specific activity and posts on the site as a stream of trending activity (see example below).

All told, this will make it much easier for G+ users to find and participate in conversations outside of their Circles, a commonality that has heretofore been an issue for the social network.

Hangouts, meanwhile, the most successful part of Google+, is getting its own space on the site. All Hangouts will have their own dedicated Web pages with a sleek design. Users will be able to both view their own Hangout sessions and track their personal invites more easily. The biggest change, however, will be the ability to scan for open public Hangouts that they can join or watch.

The design updates are already live, and other features will be unveiled throughout the week.

Public reaction
So far, the changes have been met with praise, which is certainly not always the case with regard to Google+. Though users aren't necessarily in agreement about the conspicuous reliance on white space in the redesign, they do generally seem to be pleased, specifically with the new look of profile pages (including the addition of the Facebook Timeline-esque cover photo) and the relocation of and ability to customize icons.

However, this major overhaul does make one curious about whether or not this redesign was part of the plan from the beginning. After all, Google isn't exactly known for making drastic changes to its products in such an unexpected and sudden way. Typically, the company is more comfortable unveiling its properties slowly and making minor tweaks along the way to improve user experience, which seems like it would be especially true for important properties that the majority of its other services rely on.

In this case, the Google+ updates, which in some cases dramatically alter the user experience, came with little foreshadowing and caught most users by surprise. And people seem to love them. Of course, it shouldn't be any surprise that Google has likely been closely monitoring user activity and reactions to its social network since its initial private launch, but the real question is whether the company always anticipated a massive redesign around this time from the very beginning.

Covert operation?
If that's the case, it would explain the curious silence on the part of Google concerning the majority of complaints about G+ that most Internet users weren't shy about airing. Rather than address each issue individually, especially when they concerned subjects as meticulous as page design, its probable that Google spent the last few months collecting anecedotal and more scientific data and fixing things behind the scenes.

This means that the "old" Google+ was probably never meant to be a final product, but rather a starting point in Google's seemingly never-ending quest to create the perfect social network. It also means that the social network may not be done changing just yet, and it's definitely going to be something that users and Web businesses alike are going to want to keep on their radars in the coming year.

It’s a Social World After All

Allison Howen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:00:00 GMT

What is the most popular content category on the Web? Social networking of course.

Social networking sites now reach 82 percent of the world’s online population, which represents 1.2 billion users according to a recent study from ComScore.

In fact, social networking accounted for 19 percent of all time spent online in October – which is almost 1 out of every 5 minutes. This is a steady incline from 2007, when social networking only accounted for 6 percent of time spent online.

The most popular social site, Facebook, now reaches more than half of the world's population, and accounts for about 3 in every 4 minutes spent on social networking sites and 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world.

However microblogging has also gained momentum in the social space. Twitter grew 59 percent over the past year, and now reaches 1 in 10 Internet users across the world. But other microblogging services are also gaining traction, such as Tumblr and Sina Weibo. Sina Weibo is the leading Chinese microblogging site, and is ranked as the tenth social network globally, while Tumblr ranks twelfth globally and has recently seen a growth rate of 172 percent.

So aside from being everyone’s favorite past time, what is driving the popularity of social media? The answer could be mobile devices, which allow users to update statuses on the go, check-in with location-based services, redeem coupons or deals and more. According to the ComScore report, 32 percent of the total U.S. mobile population reported accessing social networking sites on their phone in the month of October, while 24 percent of the mobile population from the five leading European markets also claimed to have engaged with a social network via their mobile devices.

And although people use social networking for many different reasons, it continues to be an affordable and effective marketing avenue for businesses, especially since it reaches such a large audience.

A noteworthy statistic from the study reveals that social networking leads all content categories in the number of display ads delivered. In October, 28 percent of U.S. display ad impressions came from social media, and 5 percent of all ad impressions viewed in the U.S were socially enabled. Facebook is currently the largest publisher of U.S. display ad impressions, delivering 28 percent of display ad impressions in the third quarter of 2011 – which is more than the other four major portals combined.

MicroSOCIAL

Allison Howen — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

It's true! There is another social network out there, and this one is brought to you by Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, So.cl (pronounced social) is an experimental research project developed by Microsoft’s FUSE Labs, and it focuses on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning. In other words, it is a social network for students - sound familiar, anyone?

With the focus on students, the website combines social networking and search to help people find and share interesting Web pages. It also features montages, which are rich posts that are assembled with visual Web content.

All searches in So.cl are public since many students work together or often search for the same items. This aims at creating more viral content, by letting users share links as they search.

Additionally, So.cl features video parties, which makes sharing videos easy. Users can view movies with friends, and view existing video party collections that were created by other users.

Sign-up for So.cl can be done through Facebook, and although So.cl’s focus is on students, anyone is welcome to participate in the FUSE Labs research community.

Has Google+ Become a Competitive Social Alternative?

Michael Garrity — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 19:00:00 GMT

A lot has been discussed about in the tech industry concerning the potential (and necessity) of the upstart social network Google+.

In recent months, questions have been raised about just how successful Google's foray into social will actually be, but the unveiling of a host of new features and changes yesterday may finally position G+ to give Facebook and Twitter a run for their money.

What's Hot
Social network users will probably find the new "What's Hot" feature a little familiar; designated areas (below new posts in the main stream and in the Sparks section on the left sidebar) will allow Plussers to quickly discover a diverse variety of popular content from the farthest reaches of Google+. This new feature ties in nicely with their recently implemented real-time search tool, and does a great job of combining the best of Facebook's updated news feed and Twitter's trending topics section.

Creative Kit
A big part of Facebook's appeal is that it is a great place to house and share personal photos in one convenient location. And though this is also an option on Google+, it hasn't yet infringed on Facebook's photo sharing dominance. Now, Google has introduced the Creative Kit, a "collection of powerful tools and effects" that builds on the site's old photo editing capabilities and allows users to add filters, text and other effects to their photos before sharing them with their circles. Heretofore, Facebook has yet to integrate a strong photo editing suite, so this development gives Google+ a distinct edge in the photo sharing department.

Ripples
Ripples is an interesting new feature rolled out by Google+ that gives Plussers the opportunity fo "visually follow the flow of a conversation" by looking at data gleaned from analytics. This lets G+ offer regular users much more information about the history of their posts than other social networks present, and it comes in an attractive and visually-stimulating package on the Googleplex. All one has to do is click the "View Ripples" button on any of his or her public posts to instantly watch how it "flows" across Google+.

Google Plus for Apps
The biggest news of the day, however, was that Google+ will now be available for Google Apps customers, allowing administrators to manually integrate G+ into their organizations. When developers utilize Google Plus for Apps into their organizations, they will be able to use all of the same features as the public version of G+, and those on the team who are already "personal Plussers" for work will be able to migrate their circles and friends over to their new accounts, though the migration tools won't be released for a few weeks. Finally, app development organizations (who pay Google to use its Web services) will be able to use Google+ features for work, such as employing Google Docs in Hangouts to collaborate on projects.

These various changes to Google+ are exactly what the social network needs to focus on. As the newest major player in the social realm, Google+ has a special opportunity to take the best features from industry leaders Facebook and Twitter and retool them for their own platform. By adding their own unique flare and options, as well as focusing on Google Plus for Apps as a business development tool, G+ is finally carving out its own space on the Web.