All in Social Media

Facebook and Social Plugins

Don Martelli

When Facebook launched Social Plugins most would think that it was yet another attempt for the company to spread their reach past simple social networking.

Of course, this was exactly what the company seems to be doing and it's proof positive that Facebook is the main point of content digestion for millions of consumers around the world. With Social Plugins, that domination is only going to grow.

Facebook is becoming the social hub for consumers online lives. They connect with family. They share photos. They provide product reviews. They share company news. 

YouTube's 5th Birthday and Elephants

Don Martelli
, Video, YouTube

First video posted to YouTubeIt took a 19-second video that consisted of a young guy talking about elephants at the zoo that kicked off a revolution that changed the way the world creates and digests video content online.

That revolution was YouTube, which officially kicked off with a video post titled, "Me at the zoo," on April 23, 2005.

While the domain name, Youtube.com, was registered on February 14, 2005, the video phenomenon kicked off five years ago today when Yakov Lapitsky posted footage of one of YouTube’s founders, Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo, talking about elephants.

Google Buzz 90% Rehash

Don Martelli

Google Buzz is the social media echo chamber...chamberWhen Google launched Buzz, there was a sense of excitement and the unknown. What was it? What will it do? How will it be different from other social media channels? 

The answers are: it's nothing special; it doesn't do anything else other services do; and it's different from other social media channels mostly because it's a big echo chamber.

Promoted Tweets Could Change Real-Time Consumption

Don Martelli

With a lot of hubbub and some fanfare, Twitter rolled out their "Promoted Tweets" program today, i.e. advertising.

In articles from AdAge and The New York Times, the Promoted Tweets platform will enable businesses to inject their messages into the Twitter stream without getting lost in the constant stream of information. The service rolled out first with search results, and will later, according to reports, enter both Twitter.com streams and third-party apps such as TweetDeck and Tweetie, which was snatched up by Twitter last week.

Twitter's User Base 60% International

Don Martelli
, Technorati

Twitter GermanIn a blog post today, Twitter announced that more than 60% of users reside outside of the U.S., mostly due in part to the service being launched in other languages last year.

That expansion took place in October of 2009 and in November, the site became available in Spanish and shortly thereafter, French. December was when the site was available in Italian and German. However, Japan has been online for just about two years.

Twitter’s lead engineer for the international team, Matt Sanford, wrote today:

Facebook and Google Lead Social Logins

Don Martelli

Google and Facebook are favs of interwebbers to login sociallyEver since Google and Facebook launched services that would allow users to log into other sites with their respective credentials, life has become slightly easier in terms of remember a zillion passwords.

And, in a recent study by OpenID company JanRain, results show that users undoubtedly prefer to use their Google and Facebook logins on websites that offer third party sign-in options.

According to the study, Facebook has significantly out-paced competitors in areas such as media, retail and technology. However, JanRain’s entire client base is roughly 170,000 and among them, it appears that Google is the most popular login service overall, with about 38% of all user authentications.

Foursquare Goes After Cheaters

Don Martelli

No one likes a cheater and most of the time, they get caught. With the explosion of location-based social games such as Foursquare and Gowala, the cheaters have found their way around the loopholes to rack up points and badges like they were going out of style.

Today, Foursquare via their blog, announced today that checkins outside the immediate vicinity of the venue in question will no longer net points, badges or mayorships.

Influencers are the Media

Don Martelli
PR, Reputation Management,

Influencers are the new mediaIf you've ever worked in the PR, marketing or advertising business, you know that the media industry isn't the same as it used to be. Yes, everyone knows about newspapers closing, smaller staffs and dwindling advertisers numbers.

However, when you work in the business, there is a noticeable dynamic shift in the value placed on media coverage by both clients and agencies.

I'll admit, securing a positive piece in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe or a trade magazine gets clients excited still. Afterall, those are top tier publications. However, do "clips," as they called in the business, really move the needle? Do they help sell product or service?

Adelson Out, Rose in as Digg CEO

Don Martelli

News outlets are reporting that Jay Adelson, CEO of Digg for the last five years, is stepping down and Kevin Rose, founder and longtime public face of the company, will become chairman and acting CEO

"After five years, 40 million users, and an amazing ride, I've decided to step down as CEO of Digg," Adelson wrote in a post on the company blog. "With the new Digg getting ready to launch, Digg Ads doing well, our sales force growing, our hiring ramping, and the company maturing well beyond its start-up phase, I feel that now is the right time."

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