Jo Shaer Social Media Solutions

Twitter may further separate itself from the social media crowd by doing something that some might think is anti-social media (at least from a business point of view). That something is allowing users to opt in to a ‘Do Not track’ mode when using the Firefox browser.

The New York Times Bits blog reports

It’s no secret that Facebook is worth about $100 billion because it collected personal data about its users. A lot of data.

Although Twitter tracks its users too — albeit in a much less aggressive way — the company has decided to take a different route. It announced Thursday that it is joining Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox Web browser, and giving its users the ability to opt-out of being tracked in any way through Twitter.

Twitter is doing this by enabling the Do Not Track feature in the Firefox browser that enables people to opt-out of cookies that collect personal information and any third-party cookies, including those used for advertising. The Do Not Track functionality will only work if a Web site agrees to acknowledge it.

Couple this action with Twitter’s recent vigorous resistance to turning over information about a user who was part of the Occupy Wall Street ‘movement’.

Because Twitter’s focus is more about the news and information that a user passes along vs. the user itself, they can play thins kind of user friendly game MUCH more easily than Facebook can. Facebook is completely dependent on

Read more at: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/05/twitter-allows-firefox-users-a-do-not-track-option.html

Ecommerce shop Fab.com is an industry game changer, deeply integrating social media into its unique way of selling tech gadgets, tailored dresses, innovative kitchenware and extraordinary home decor.

Fab.com rolled out a website redesign, called Fab 3.0, introducing new social shopping features on Wednesday. Updates include a Facebook integration that creates a real-time text-and-photo stream on the site of what friends are buying, sharing and liking.

The update also allows users to filter products by color, price and category. Individual items showcase prices as well as the number of social shares onto Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Fab.com is reaping the benefits of connecting to social media. So far, 4.25 million consumers have logged into the free online storefront since its June, 2011 launch.

Half of its userbase came to Fab.com from social sharing, according to VP of communications Melissa Klein. Every 30 seconds, there is a tweet on Fab.com.

“By the nature of what Fab is,” Klein says. “People want to talk about it.”

Share buttons allow that interaction. The site’s Live Feed displays updates across the site as they happen. The Pinterest-like feed displays pictures of purchases, customer tweets and Facebook shares. From here, customers can buy products, heart or comment on the posts.

“We’ve seen 15% of all visits to the Live Feed result in a purchase,” Fab co-founder Jason Goldberg wrote in

Read more at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/3EeOm-Iljdg/

In a shocking development, a research company has chosen this particular week, of all weeks, to post their forecast for what is in store for social media ad spending in the US over the next several years. Do you think it was just dumb luck that it coincides with Facebook’s IPO ?

Hey, who can blame BIA/Kelsey for jumping on the train that is the Facebook IPO Express? Here is the picture version of this predicted US social media spend through 2016.

Let’s consider the whole Facebook IPO thingy in light of these numbers. In 2011, Facebook did somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 billion in revenue. That revenue is in total, not just in the US. What percentage of revenue is international I don’t know. Right now US users number somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million which would be about 17% of Facebook’s total user base.

It is likely that the US market spends more than most, however, and it is fair to think that the US proportion of revenue contribution is higher than that 17% of total users. With the US numbers for ad spend which are projected here, one wonders where all the revenue will come from in the future to support the reported valuation Facebook will receive this Friday.

Let’s compare this to Google whose market cap sits just below $200B but did just under $38B in revenue last year and is tracking

Read more at: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/05/study-says-social-media-ad-spend-us-will-hit-almost-10b-by-2016.html

Twitter used to be one of my favorite web destinations but in recent months I’ve nearly walked away from it thanks to the overwhelming overflow of information. It’s what happens with social media, you start following a few people you really enjoy then you add the obligatory follows and work follows and brand follows and soon it’s too much to handle.

I only follow 126 people and I get a new tweet every minute. What about the people who follow 300 accounts? Keeping up is impossible.

(Cue the trumpeters) Announcing the new Twitter Email Digest!

The digest is broken into two parts. The top features the most Tweeted stories from your followers. Below that are the hottest Tweets according to your followers. Meaning, you may not follow the Tweetee but someone on your list does.

The good news here is that an email like this is easier to take in at a glance. If it works right, you’ll be up on the hottest stories flying around Twitter.

The bad news is that it’s more of a “discovery” digest than a summary digest. It feels like it’s designed to link you to new people instead of keeping you up on the top Tweets in your group. I haven’t seen one of the digests personalized with my Tweets yet, so it’s hard to gauge the usefulness.

If you want to try the new Twitter digest, just go to the Notifications tab in Settings and check the box.

Read more at: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2012/05/twitters-new-email-digest-makes-top-content-more-visible.html

Mitt Romney has the Republican presidential nomination more or less in the bag, but primary season lives on. Voters in Nebraska and Oregon are headed to the polls Tuesday, with 63 delegates up for grabs. Romney’s collected approximately 973 delegates, so even if he cleans up Tuesday’s voting, he’d still be shy of the “magic number” — 1,144 — needed to formally secure the nomination.

Two of Romney’s opponents, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, have suspended their campaigns. Libertarian Ron Paul, who has about 104 delegates, sent an email to supporters this week saying he would no longer campaign in states that haven’t yet voted, but rather he would focus on amassing delegates in other ways — a sign that he’s bowing out of the race but wants to boost his own level of political influence.

There’s other voting happening in both states, too. In Nebraska, parties are holding primaries for an open seat in the U.S. senate, while an Ohio Democrat in the House of Representatives is facing a primary challenge.

Throughout the night, politicians, journalists and voters will use social media to rally support, tell the story of the evening and discuss the night’s events. Follow along as Mashable collects the best examples of social media use throughout primary night in Nebraska and Oregon:

[View the story "The Nebraska and Oregon Primaries on Social Media" on Storify]

Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, Henrick5000

Read more at: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Mashable/~3/fgKLZ-f-V6I/