How the Inauguration Played Out on Social Media (The Wall Street Journal/Washington Wire)
President Barack Obama’s second inauguration was scaled back from his first in terms of cost and scale. But it outshined his 2009 inauguration in one major way: how it played out on social media. There were 1.1 million inauguration-related tweets sent during the ceremony, up from about 82,000 in 2009, according to Twitter’s Government and Politics Team.
Find out how to use Google Tools to manage social media content and campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an interactive online event starting June 6. Monica Morse (left), head of social & SMB solutions at Google, will familiarize you with a wide range of Google tools such as trends, Google+ and Hangouts. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
Tumblr Analytics Now Available for Enterprise (SocialTimes)
After a months-long private beta, Union Metrics publicly launched its Tumblr analytics service for enterprise users. Union Metrics runs the analytics, who licenses the data from Gnip and has access to all of Tumblr’s “firehose” data.
Facebook Test Makes Comments on Page Posts More Like Web Plug-in (Inside Facebook)
Facebook has given us an update on its latest test for page post comments: in addition to a new option to reply to specific comments, the entire thread will be sorted by an algorithm to put the most engaging comments higher. Page administrators are also able to reply directly to comments via a “reply” option.
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Brazilian Judge Orders Arrest of Google Executive Over YouTube Videos (The Daily Dot)
A judge in Brazil has ordered the arrest of a Google executive after the company refused to remove two YouTube videos last week allegedly slandering a mayoral candidate in the city of Campo Grande. Judge Flavio Peren placed the order on Fabio Jose Silva Coehlo, Google’s president of operations in Brazil. AP The videos on YouTube make incendiary comments about an alleged paternity suit aimed at Alcides Bernal, who is running for mayor of the city of Campo Grande. Google said in a Tuesday statement that it rejected the decision by Peren, which included an order for a statewide, 24-hour suspension of Google and YouTube. The Financial Times The order, which Google is appealing, is the second time this month that an electoral court in Brazil has tried to arrest a top executive at the company for failing to delete YouTube videos attacking a mayoral candidate. While Google frequently faces challenges worldwide over videos or images uploaded to its websites, especially in the Middle East, Brazil is among the top sources of requests for content removal. Reuters In the second half of last year, Google removed four Orkut social network profiles after an electoral court order, the company said on a portion of its website called the Transparency Report. The Verge The controversy over these ads echoes that over the trailer for “Innocence of Muslims,” an anti-Islam piece that has sparked protests worldwide. If popular outcry exists in this case, it’s much more muted, and the video below has gotten only about 8,000 views since late August. Read more
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Mark Zuckerberg Discusses Mobile, IPO, Search and Facebook’s Future (AllFacebook)
At TechCrunch’s Disrupt SF event in San Francisco Tuesday, Facebook CEO and co-Founder Mark Zuckerberg — dressed in a grey shirt, jeans and tennis shoes — kept a happy tone as he discussed his company’s focus on mobile, the brain drain, its initial public offering, search and his vision for the future. This was Zuckerberg’s first public address since Facebook’s IPO in May. AP He emphasized that Facebook cared about making money as well as pursuing his mission to make the world a “more open and connected place.” Zuckerberg also repeated his belief that the company would figure out numerous ways to profit from the growing number of its 955 million worldwide users who visit the social network through mobile applications instead of Web browsers on desktop computers. ZDNET Zuckerberg identified what he called Facebook’s biggest strategic mistake in the last few years: “The biggest mistake we made as a company was betting too much on HTML5 rather than native.” A large portion of the audience seemed to be in accord with Zuckerberg on this one (or at least fans of native apps) as his ensuing explanation garnered a bit of applause. San Francisco Chronicle One rumor that has echoed for two years is that Facebook is building its own smartphone, but Zuckerberg said that as juicy as those reports may sound, they are off base. “It’s so clearly the wrong strategy for us,” he said. The New York Times/Bits Blog Zuckerberg’s remarks seemed to have a positive effect; immediately after he spoke, Facebook shares rose about 3 percent in after-hours trading. Still, Facebook shares are now worth roughly half of the public offering price, and Zuckerberg is under intense pressure to restore its credibility among investors, a problem he acknowledged. Read more
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Exclusive: Microsoft Tie-Up, Network Sale Among RIM Options: Sources (Reuters)
Research In Motion Ltd’s board is under mounting pressure to consider unpalatable options such as selling its network business or forming an alliance with Microsoft Corp after the Blackberry maker again delayed the release of its next-generation smartphones, said three sources familiar with the situation. RIM said the launch of BlackBerry 10 mobile devices has been postponed to early 2013 — more than a year later than initially promised — because the development of its new operating system had “proven to be more time-consuming than anticipated.” CNN Money The company reported a first-quarter loss of $518 million, or 99 cents a share. Overall sales came in at $2.8 billion, down 43 percent from $4.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago and considerably lower than analysts’ expected first-quarter revenue of $3.1 billion. Gizmodo The worse news: It’s now letting 5,000 employees go, on top of the 2,000 cuts that had been previously announced. Wall Street Journal According to interviews with more than a dozen former RIM executives and industry executives who worked closely with the company, it was a blinding confidence in the basic BlackBerry product that was at the root of RIM’s current troubles. Read more
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Report: RIM May Be Selling Handset Business To Facebook Or Amazon (Business Insider)
According to a report in the British paper The Sunday Times, Facebook and Amazon are two potential buyers for RIM’s handset business. RIM would keep its enterprise services if such a deal went through, according to the report. Fair warning though, the report does not cite any sources, so treat the news with some skepticism. The Verge As part of this plan, RIM could keep its enterprise-friendly messaging and data network (including BBM, BIS, and BES) in-house and license them out — a move championed by former co-CEO Jim Balsillie prior to his departure from the company. Alternatively, RIM may sell the network services division, too. Another option, short of splitting the company in two, would be to sell a large stake to a corporation like Microsoft. GigaOm On the surface that may not sound like a bad play, since RIM’s hardware sales growth has lagged the competition as both iPhones and Android devices have invaded the enterprise. The problem is: Selling off the hardware unit will also rid RIM of the majority of its revenue stream. AllThingsD Such a consideration is said to be part of an overall strategic review by the beleaguered Canadian company that will be concluded in July. Before that, though, expect financial news — likely bad — this week when RIM announces its first-quarter earnings. 9to5 Mac Any way you look at it, on the fifth anniversary of iPhone, Blackberry — as we knew it — is almost over. 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
So, it was all for nothing? After weeks of speculation that the U.K government would ask social media sites to participate in shutdowns during times of crisis, the government seeks no special powers.
I almost stopped reading RIM’s announcement of their BBM Music service after reading this line: Build a personal music profile with 50 of your favorite songs. Fifty songs? As in half of 100? Really? Well, actually, RIM has a social aspect to BBM Music that is quite clever. However, it may still not work out for them. Read on.
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