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The Facebook tidal wave seems to be unleashing across the social gaming ecosphere. The latest extension of Facebook’s social connectedness comes from none other than Zynga itself which today unveiled Zynga Direct, an extension of its ZLive platform that will serve as a new discovery and distribution channel for the social gaming powerhouse. More after the jump.

Get the future of Facebook right from the horse’s mouth

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.

Facebook isn’t as successful as you think. And, investors will find this out soon enough. Let’s take a look at how Facebook can fix its financials.

Fortune Magazine annually tracks America’s largest corporations due to their influence in the business world. For this study, Academics from Center For Marketing Research Dartmouth examined the social media activity, specifically blogging, of various organizations, concluding that the biggest companies have slowed down their social media efforts and appear to be hitting a plateau. More after the jump.

It’s no longer a mystery: CrowdStar’s entering the midcore market with a strategy game for social gamers on Facebook called Wasteland Empires. The social gaming company’s MAU count fell from 20M at the beginning of the month to 12M in mid October, with Facebook’s changes in how it counts active users accounting for a rough 3M count loss. More after the jump.

Facebook’s mobile announcement is spawning an army of games with Facebook tie-ins. Social gaming company Wooga is leaping into the HTML5 frenzy by launching its first mobile game Magic Land Island that can be accessed on almost any device. More after the jump.

Storm8, one of the premier mobile game developers for iPhone and Android has just launched 3 of its popular mobile titles with Facebook connectivity. This announcement comes in lieu of Facebook’s recent announcement to support third party mobile apps with its social infrastructure from within its own mobile apps.

The Facebook tidal wave seems to be unleashing across the social gaming ecosphere. The latest extension of Facebook’s social connectedness comes from none other than Zynga itself which today unveiled Zynga Direct, an extension of its ZLive platform that will serve as a new discovery and distribution channel for the social gaming powerhouse. More after the jump.

Social Game publisher, RockYou, has joined forces with Sony Home Entertainment to incorporate the hit movie, Zookeeper into the popular social game Zoo World 2. The promotion includes favorite characters from the film found in-game, Zookeeper-themed activities to complete, and special edition animals to buy. If that wasn’t enough, fans who purchase the DVD will receive 12,500 free Zoo Bucks($10 value) to spend in Zoo World 2.

We know that 0.5% of players statistically account for 75% of a game’s revenue, but is that the upper limit of game monetization? It doesn’t have to be if you adopt casino management techniques for your game portfolio.

Social game developer, RockYou, and the marketing research firm, Interpret, announced the latest findings of their ‘Social Gamer Thought Leadership Study’. The study is the first-of-its-kind as it analyzes behaviors, motivations, and purchase intent among the US social gaming demographic. The results both reaffirm existing assumptions and provide some insightful information about social gamers. More after the jump. Read more