WebProNews

20 Goals for Business Social Media Use

I probably don't have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can't find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can't find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they're just using social networks because they feel like they're supposed to. They just want to keep up.

Facebook User Count Now 325 Million (Or More)

On September 15th, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook "now serves 300 million people across the world."  It seems the site's growth hadn't exactly come to a stop, either, as about a month and a half later, stats indicate the number of users has risen to at least 325 million.

Nearly Half Of Consumers Would Recommend A Product On Facebook

Consumers are more willing to engage with and buy from brands on social networking sites, according to a new study by Performics and ROI Research. The study found thirty-four percent of respondents who have used a search engine to find information on a product/brand after seeing an advertisement on a social networking site. In addition, thirty percent have learned about a new product, service or brand from a social networking site.

Facebook Most Widely Used Network Among Businesses

Webinars and podcasts are the most popular social media resources for business people, used by 69 percent of those who turn to such channels for business information, according to a new study by Business.com. Facebook is the primary social network on which consumer-focused companies maintain one or more profiles, cited by 83 percent of respondents compared with 45 percent for Twitter. Business-to-business companies maintain a presence on both social sites with 77 percent maintaining a profile on Facebook and 73 percent on Twitter.

Social Networking Donation Cause Leaves MySpace For Facebook

Causes is a social networking donation platform that uses MySpace so that people can raise money for causes or issues that they believe in. Generally these kinds of activities help provide a community around issues like Breast Cancer, or stop smoking, or other issues that are part of our daily life.

Facebook Blocks More Ad Networks

Back in July Facebook updated policies for third-party ads on Facebook Platform. The company disabled two entire ad networks and over 100 more apps were suspended or brought into compliance over ad-related violations. Half of those had over a million monthly active users.

Thinking Beyond Facebook and Twitter for Social Relevance

Update: Ford announced profits o nearly $1 billion between July and September. This is attributed to increased market share and a successful cost-cutting program. I wonder if the company's social media strategy played a significant role.

Using Facebook Traffic to Drive Brand Loyalty

WebProNews recently covered a study from Chitika, which found that Facebook was the most valuable social media tool for driving repeat readers to content sites. The study was based on 33 million unique users across Chitika's publisher network in September. It compared the number of visitors coming from major traffic sources Digg, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Twitter, to the number of times those visitors came back to the referred site.

CNN.com Launches News Trivia Quiz

CNN.com said Thursday it is introducing a new interactive online news trivia quiz called the CNN Challenge. CNN Challenge will focus on both historical news events and the top stories of the week. New quizzes about historical events will be available every Tuesday and Wednesday, and a new current news quiz will be available every Thursday.

Facebook/Twitter Use May Now Mean More for Google/Bing Rankings

Disclaimer: This article was originally written before Google made its announcement, and has been updated to reflect that. Google and Microsoft have both inked deals with Twitter and Microsoft has also inked one with Facebook to integrate Twitter and Facebook updates into Bing search results. Google will be adding tweets to search results.