Social Media

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Massachusetts Joins Growing Crowd Probing Facebook IPO (PC Magazine)
Massachusetts regulators on Tuesday issued a subpoena to Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter for Facebook’s initial public offering, in an effort to get answers about reports that some investors and not others were informed of earnings revisions for the company ahead of the IPO. The highly publicized IPO is facing scrutiny from several quarters for possible irregularities that may have occurred before the stock was floated and continued through the first day of trading. AllFacebook The hopes of collectors who sought to own one share of Facebook stock from its initial public offering last week were dashed, as paper stock certificates will not be made available, after all. CNNMoney reported that Computershare, which handles shareholder records for the social network, alerted GiveAShare.com and OneShare late last week that there would be no paper stock certificate. Reuters Facebook has agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged the site’s “Sponsored Stories” feature publicized users’ “likes” without compensation or the ability to opt out, according to a court document filed on Tuesday. The proposed class action lawsuit, filed in a San Jose, Calif., federal court, could have included nearly one of every three Americans, with billions of dollars in damages, court documents say. PCWorld Facebook’s Timeline profiles may be getting a redesign, but this one probably won’t trigger a backlash. The new Timeline design, spotted by TPM Livewire, condenses the biographical information at the top of the page, so it’s nested within the user’s banner image instead of appearing below. Links to the user’s friends list, photos, locations and likes are tucked neatly underneath the banner, next to the user’s profile picture. Alongside those links, a new button called “Summary” leads to a list of major life events. CNET A federal judge has refused to order a Norwegian website that describes itself as “the number one socializing porn and sex network” to turn over its name to Facebook. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White last week ruled that the court had no jurisdiction because Facebook, which sued in California, had failed to show that the owner of website Faceporn had targeted residents of the state. Read more

Brian Wong never imagined he would become the world’s youngest venture-funded entrepreneur when he founded Kiip in 2010. Nineteen years old and newly laid off from Digg, Wong was in a plane when he noticed that the other passengers were happily playing games on their smartphones. Seeing a potentially “huge market for advertising” through games on mobile devices, Wong decided to create a rewards system for gamers. Eighteen months later, the mobile app dispenses 5 rewards every second from brands like Pepsi and Best Buy, and Wong is building a brand of his own.

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Who are the big players in social shopping?  How about social referral?  Which companies are involved in external facing social business software vs. internal facing social business software?  A new infographic from Buddy Media helps light the way, and also reveals just how large the social networking landscape has become.  Far from the days of just a few social networks, we live in a world where everyone is relating to social in some way, so a handy visual map is useful to keep track of everything.

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Webby Awards: Steve Jobs Gets Honored, Full List of Winners (CBS News/techtalk)
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored Monday with a Webby award for Lifetime Achievement for his work with the Bloomberg media corporation. The award was presented by Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp, who reminded the audience that if it wasn’t for Bloomberg’s contribution to financial technology, we wouldn’t have found out the cost of Facebook stock shares until Monday. CNET Nearly a dozen celebrities, politicians and tech luminaries paid tribute to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs at The Webby Awards show. A video featuring president Barack Obama, former president Bill Clinton and others expressing admiration for Jobs, who died last October, was shown to attendees and streamed over the Web. The Verge Actor Richard Dreyfuss gave a strange and oftentimes discursive speech that began with a jab at Facebook and Google. “If you’re going to take our privacy away from us, why don’t you tell us something private about yourselves,” Dreyfus said to an awkwardly hushed reception. “And if you’re going to change our world, why don’t you pay for it, because it’s theft.” USA Today Instagram won Webby Breakout of the Year, Pinterest took home a social media award, and Facebook scored the People Special Achievement for Social Change honor. In addition, Skype won for Best Social Mobile & Apps. For the complete list of winners, visit WebbyAwards.com Read more

Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit is headed to San Francisco in five short weeks on June 26, 2012!

With the continued rise of the iPhone, iPad, and Android, 2012 will be a defining year for the world of smartphone and tablet games. What does this mean for the mobile and gaming industries? Where is the future of gaming headed on established and emerging smartphone and tablet platforms? No matter the size or scope of your current game efforts, at Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit you’ll learn successful game design tactics and monetization strategies from industry leaders who will share their collective wisdom on what’s working today and where the future of gaming is heading next.

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Zuckerberg Weds Longtime Girlfriend, No Word on Prenup (Reuters)
Details of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg’s surprise wedding trickled out on Sunday, but mysteries remained, not least whether there was a prenuptial agreement in place that could affect Zuckerberg’s large stake in the company. Zuckerberg wed his longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, on Saturday in the backyard of their modest home in Palo Alto, Calif., with fewer than 100 people in attendance, a Facebook spokesman authorized to speak on behalf of the couple said. CNET However, a woman in India is reportedly divorcing her husband because he committed the cardinal 21st century crime: he didn’t change his Facebook status when they got married. How can a woman trust a man who doesn’t whip out his cell phone the minute the marriage ceremony is over and declare himself to the world? VentureBeat NASDAQ chief executive Robert Greifeld admitted Sunday that the exchange was at fault for some glitches in early trading of Facebook’s IPO but said it had nothing to do with the stock’s uninspired performance. Facebook expected trading to begin at 11 a.m. on Friday, but it did not begin until about 11:30. GigaOM Catching the last five minutes of the Boston University commencement speech by Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt on WBUR, I was struck by the veiled swipes (pokes?) he took at Facebook. You know, the company that last week launched the most anticipated IPO in years, and that despite NASDAQ glitches and a disappointing finish, wiped Google out of the record books? Yes, that Facebook. CNET A mother wanted to share a picture of her son on Facebook. He lived only eight hours. Facebook removed the image, deeming it “too graphic.” Much later, the company offered an apology and admitted it erred. Read more

It was a big week for social media. On today’s Morning Media Menu (MP3 link), GalleyCat editor Jason Boog shared his thoughts on Facebook’s long-awaited IPO, speculating on how today’s results will affect the larger social media ecosystem.

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Facebook hit the stock market this morning at $42.05 a share, sparking debate all across the Internet on how the rest of the day will go. On StockTwits, a social network for the investing community, more than half of today’s conversations are devoted to that very subject. Some of these people might even know what they’re talking about.

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LinkedIn currently connects 161 million professionals around the world. Are you one of them? This latest installment in the Complete Idiot’s Guide series by Susan Gunelius offers a comprehensive tutorial for companies, recruiters, and job seekers who want to use LinkedIn for both professional networking and B2B marketing. Practical, concise, and easy to implement, LinkedIn users of all levels will want to have this book handy while they’re setting up their pages or trying out new features.

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Characters will meet character limits at this year’s O Music Awards, MTV’s Webby Award-winning show that celebrates all things “offbeat, outrageous, and online.”  Because there’s no soap box quite like social media, the television network has announced a brand new category, “Most Intense Social Spat,” to reward the awful things celebrities write to their fans, their moms, and each other.

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