Gnip, which licenses so-called firehose data from Twitter, Tumblr, WordPress and Disqus to report to brands how they are being discussed on social media, will add data from several other major social networks, the company said today.
We're kicking off our upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp with a special keynote presentation by Ella Chick (left), the digital producer at Anderson Cooper 360°. She'll discuss how the network uses social media for breaking news and leverages social media to draw attention to organizations and causes. Learn more about our program and register here. 
Fox News Facebook Page is Most Commented On Brand Page in the World (TVNewser)
Fox News has just shown that it’s a force not just on TV, but in the social sphere as well. AllFacebook reports the Fox News Facebook page was the most commented on brand page in the world last year.
Bitly launched a trio of social data APIs (application programming interfaces) today that will allow their users to track which links being shared socially are garnering the most clicks.
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Introducing the App Center (Facebook Developer Blog)
Facebook has announced the launch of the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful. In the coming weeks, people will be able to access the App Center on the Web and in the iOS and Android Facebook apps. CNET The App Center is designed to push the best social apps through a personalized discovery page. So, if you’re a person who likes word games — something Facebook would know from your Facebook behavior — the App Center will surface those sorts of apps for you. AP The company is betting that by personalizing recommendations to users, people will find new types of applications beyond games, along with games that are more interesting to them. There are all sorts of social apps that use Facebook, from music-listening services such as Spotify to what-you-just-ate tools such as Foodspotting. AllFacebook Two topics that have been top-of-mind at Facebook the past few weeks, mobile and security, were combined in the social network’s announcement Thursday of three mobile security updates: code generator, the ability to report unwanted content, and improved mobile recovery flows. The New York Times/Bits Blog The Internet — and particularly, Facebook — is playing a critical role as the police in Montreal build their case against Luka Rocco Magnotta, who is accused of killing Jun Lin, a Chinese student, and then dismembering his body and mailing parts to the offices of political parties here. Investigators have been somewhat taken aback by the extent of Magnotta’s Facebook activity, they said. Cmdr. Ian Lafrenière, a spokesman for the Montreal police, said Magnotta had maintained at least 70 accounts. Read more
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Salesforce Set to Snap Up Facebook Friend Buddy Media for More Than $800 Million (AllThingsD)
Cloud-computing pioneer Salesforce.com is close to a deal to acquire Buddy Media, the five-year-old company that helps brands manage their Facebook presence. Sources say the two companies have agreed to terms that will value Buddy Media at more than $800 million, but that the transaction hasn’t closed yet. Fast Company Founded a little more than four years ago by Michael Lazerow, Buddy Media has raised $90 million in venture funding from the likes of Peter Thiel, Ron Conway and Institutional Venture Partners. VentureBeat Presumably, Salesforce could add Buddy Media to its long roster of services targeting the enterprise like Chatter and Force.com. It’s unclear how much crossover there would be with Salesforce-owned Radian6, another social media management service. BetaBeat An acquisition for Buddy makes sense. After Facebook’s bungled IPO, there was little room left for companies with offerings reliant upon Facebook to go public themselves. And judging from Buddy’s hiring of an “IPO-ready CFO” last August, an IPO was its preferred route. Forbes The deal would be a major validation for social media marketing, a still nascent but fast-growing segment of the online advertising market. A number of startups are in this field, such as Wildfire Interactive, Hearsay Social, Lithium and Vitrue, which was acquired last week by Oracle for $300 million. Last year, Salesforce bought Radian6 for $326 million. Read more
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Facebook to Set Final IPO Price Later Today (CNN Money)
Facebook’s long road to an initial public offering is coming to an end. Late Thursday, it will fill in one last piece of the puzzle: Its final IPO price. Mashable On Wednesday, Facebook announced that an extra 84 million shares will be added to its stock pool for sale. The extra shares will come entirely from insiders and early investors, according to the AP. Reuters But investors who want Facebook shares when the No. 1 online social network goes public later this week may have lost the opportunity. TD Ameritrade and Fidelity’s brokerage arm both stopped accepting orders of Facebook shares as of Tuesday evening, according to representatives for each of the companies. CNET Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who is simultaneously becoming one of the richer and more reviled people around, wants to set the record straight. Saverin, who is now a citizen of Singapore after renouncing his U.S. citizenship, said his decision has nothing to do with taxes. Forbes All eyes are on Facebook this week in the lead-up to the social network’s initial public offering, but Google did all it could to steal back a little bit of glory on Wednesday. One of the biggest pieces of news was the search company’s addition of “Knowledge Graph” to its core product, a way to find answers without ever clicking a link and leaving the search results page. Read more
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Facebook is Getting its Own App Store for All Devices, All Platforms, All Prices (VentureBeat)
Facebook is launching a new App Center, “a place to find social web, desktop, and mobile apps” — and not just Facebook apps. The App Center will bring Facebook’s 900 million users all the best in iOS apps, Android apps, web apps, mobile web apps and even desktops apps. Facebook Developer Blog Many developers have been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps. This is a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com. CNET The challenge, for a platform like Facebook, is that it has to build a store on top of other existing stores. It is especially tricky to build on top of the Apple App store, which remains the only legitimate channel for users to get apps onto iOS devices. AllThingsD Ironically, on Wednesday, the company submitted another amendment to its S-1 filing to the SEC, further outlining its weaknesses in the mobile realm. The company’s daily active users has grown fast over the past year. But the corresponding number of ads delivered isn’t matching the pace of the daily-active-user growth. CNN Money Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg won’t be the only one collecting billions from Facebook’s initial public offering: Uncle Sam and the state of California are also poised to cash in big. Tax collectors will be taking a giant bite out of the paper millions that thousands of Facebook employees will soon gain. The average tax hit: $1.1 million per employee. Read more
