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Facebook’s New Sponsored Stories: Brilliant Advertising Tactic or Just Plain Foolishness?

This article was originally published on Smedio.

Even as the public outrage over the newly introduced ‘frictionless’ sharing refuses to die down, Facebook is introducing another major change – the world’s leading social network is now listing sponsored stories in their recently introduced News Ticker. While it may be a blessing in disguise for advertisers, Facebook users have every reason to be worried if this be the first step towards having Sponsored Stories show up in the main news feed?

On its part, Facebook says Sponsored Stories are an extension of News Feed, so it’s natural that they appear in Ticker. Unfortunately, the majority of 700 million plus Facebook user community would beg to differ.

There’s no doubt that Facebook currently rules the roost in social media advertising and this move is aimed at expanding its impressive ad portfolio, however it must throw caution to the wind as too many changes too fast are likely to irk most users.

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Is Facebook Forcing Us To Share Too Much?

This article was originally published on Smedio.

While it’s true that a social network is all about collaboration and sharing, it still needs to comply with the golden rule that states excess of anything is bad. Till date, Facebook has served as a modern age example of how to get sharing right in a social network – just the right amount of information, presented in an easy to user manner and simple controls to turn things on/ off.

Recently, Facebook launched ‘frictionless’ sharing – a feature that simply allows you to read a story that one of your friends is reading. However, there’s a catch – if you’re not judicious, you may unintentionally end up letting others see what you are doing. Some users complain that it’s cluttering the site and diminishing the overall user experience of Facebook. Other simply say it’s creepy and should be rolled back ASAP.

While I’m all for sharing, I strongly believe that Facebook needs to do a better job of managing such changes. And here’s why.

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Facebook Says The Degree of Separation is Only Four, Not Six

The theory of six degrees of separation may be false. It may only be four.

According to a massive study conducted by Facebook, the social network's 800 million users—a truly titanic sampling size for research—are seperated by just four degrees. Published in a blog post titled The Anatomy Of Facebook, the results are remarkable.


We found that six degrees actually overstates the number of links between typical pairs of users: While 99.6% of all pairs of users are connected by paths with 5 degrees, 92% are connected by only four degrees.

When considering even the most distant Facebook user in the Siberian tundra or the Peruvian rainforest, a friend of your friend probably knows a friend of their friend. When we limit our analysis to a single country, be it the US, Sweden, Italy, or any other, we find that the world gets even smaller, and most pairs of people are only separated by 3 degrees.

 

Social Media Tips For B2B Technology Marketers

B2B Social WorldThis morning, Environics Communications hosted a panel discussion at MaRS in Toronto entitled “The B2B Social World.” Digital B2B marketing experts from Backup Heros, Wave Accounting, Sequentia Environics, and MaRS sat on a panel to discuss the successes and failures that they’ve faced when using social media to promote their businesses.

The conversation started by identifying the best channels to use for B2B social media marketing. The panellists agreed that Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and online communities are some of the most effective tools for reaching potential customers and building relationships.

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Is Facebook About to IPO Out of Nowhere?

LinkedIn and Zynga were decently large tech IPOs this year. But Mark Zuckerberg's multi-billion social networking empire going public would make those headlines microscopic.

An inside source cited in a recent Business Insider article suggests that Facebook is on the brink of an IPO—"possibly as soon as next month."

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PayPal's new Facebook App for Sending Money to Friends was built by Canadian startup

Social media blog Mashable got the "exclusive" story on PayPal's new Facebook App for Sending Money to Friends this morning but Techvibes has an angle that Canadian tech fans may find interesting.

Social payments are taking a giant leap forward. PayPal has unveiled a Facebook app that lets you send money to friends.

The app, simply titled Send Money, is just as straightforward as its name. You have the choice to send either an ecard with money or just money with no card. You select a card, choose a friend to send it to and then select how much money to send.

If you log-in to your Facebook account and navigate to the Send Money app you'll find "PayPal Send Money operated by ConnectionPoint" in small type in the footer of the page. Vancouver's ConnectionPoint Systems is responsible for the popular FundRazr app which allows anyone to fundraise on Facebook.

Last month when Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg was randomly spotted in Vancouver, Techvibes named five reasons why he might be in town. One of them was to acquire FundRazr.

While that rumour hasn't come true yet, if it does we now know how they're going to send ConnectionPoint CEO Daryl Hatton the money.

Guess What? Facebook and Twitter Are Both Better Than LinkedIn at Finding You a Job

LinkedIn, the business-oriented social network, seems like the perfect place to job hunt. Profiles feature resumes, employable skills, references, and it's easy to search for people by company and rank.

So who'd have thought that Twitter, the microblogging real-time information network, and Facebook, the place where you do stupid $#!% and get fired, are both better than LinkedIn at landing you a job?

A new Jobvite study reveals that 16% of Americans got their most recent job because of social media—and of those people, 78% credited Facebook, 42% credited Twitter, and 40% credited LinkedIn.

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Facebook Hacked ... The Geeks Inherit The Earth

Facebook Hacked

Notice that I removed the word “Shall” from the title of this blog post

After I caught the news about the Facebook hack, I meandered around the internet, thought about some recent events and am connecting loose dots for those that haven’t heard about the goings on. Hell, maybe I'm way behind the eight-ball on this stuff, but it's worth noting. It all could be a “Blair Witch Project” or “Joaquin Phoenix” type hoax, so please take this lightly. Or, not.

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Google+ Joins Twitter In Saying That It's Not a Social Network. But Isn't It?

This article was originally published on Smedio.

There’s no doubt that Google+ started on the right note – it came, saw and conquered the hearts of people all over the world. It had the wow factor and it hit other social media networks where it hurts the most.

And then Facebook hit back in style, launching one innovative feature after the other. Google+ responded back by opening itself to the enterprise with the launch of Google+ Pages and critics were back to their usual best – pitting Facebook Pages against Google+ Pages.

But now it seems Google’s had enough of Facebook vs. Google+ comparisons. Google, the world’s leading online search giant, has now changed its standard pitch and is saying that Google+ is not a social network that competes directly with Facebook.

As expected, people have interpreted this announcement in their own ways. Some believe Google is afraid of pitting Google+ against Facebook while others say the online search giant is now planning to market the broader Google+ ecosystem rather than just the social networking aspect.

In my opinion, it’s fair to say that Google+ is much more than being just a social network and here’s why.

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Toshiba Wants You to Be a Holiday Hero This Season

Finding the perfect gift for all your friends and family can be a tough task. It helps to know that Canadians are hoping for lots of tech toys this season, but we need specifics!

That's where Toshiba comes in. Toshiba wants you to be a Holiday Hero—that girl or guy who gets everyone the best gift. And Toshiba makes this possible via their Facebook page. Click on the Holiday tab, then click Get Started, and you're well on your way. 

Next, choose your target: the student, the gamer, or the sports and movie fan. Then you make sub-selections, like "Watching HD movies on the go." Finally, Toshiba connects you with ideal gift options and the ability to purchase them online then and there.

Pretty cool, huh? Indeed, Toshiba is excited about the holidays and so is Techvibes. We suggest you come back soon because there's a lot more up our sleeves.