Fresh off its first day on the Nasdaq, Facebook has acquired another company: Karma. An app for “in-the-moment gifting,” Karma lets you send everything from a bottle of wine to a fuzzy teddy bear to friends via SMS, email, and Facebook.

The way Karma works is pretty simple. Using the app, you can browse through a virtual storefront to pick out a gift. Karma has partnered with companies including with Hulu, Gund, MoMa and Spotify –- so there’s a pretty decent selection of gifts.

Once you’re found the perfect gift, you can create a virtual card and send your present to your recipient via text, email, or a message on his or her Facebook wall. As the person receiving the gift, you can choose to accept it -– and provide Karma with an address where you would like your gift shipped -– or you can trade the gift in for something else in Karma’s store. You can even choose to give the monetary value of the gift to charity.

Mashable met with Karma CEO Lee Linden in March. At the time, Linden said that the majority of the gifts sent from the app were actually done via SMS.

“The average response rate for an SMS gift is less than 60 seconds,” said Linden. “Email is four to five hours. On Facebook, it’s a day.”

SEE ALSO: Need to Send a Gift But Don’t Know the Address? Karma App Can Help

One interesting aspect of the app is its Facebook integration. Karma reads through messages on your Facebook wall, and alerts you to specific events where you might want to send a gift. For instance, if a friend was receiving several “Congratulations!” messages on his or her wall due to the birth of a new child, Karma will let you know so you can send a gift. Karma also stays on top of things like birthdays and new jobs.

“We’re thrilled to announce that Karma has been acquired by Facebook.” Karma execs said in a blog post. “The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force. By combining the incredible passion of our community with Facebook’s platform we can delight users in new and meaningful ways. As we say…only good things will follow.”

More About: App, Facebook, facebook ipo, karma

Original Source

Carrying on in the esteemed tradition of Facebook hackathons, there will be an all-nighter on Thursday at the company’s Menlo Park headquarters that culminates with CEO Mark Zuckerberg ringing in the NASDAQ bell ahead of the company’s much, much, much anticipated IPO.

There is an internal event page for the big day that has about a thousand Facebook employees RSVP-ing for the bell ringing early on Friday morning. We can’t tell if there are any other big festivities prepared ahead of time. It’s all up in the air. Some people may dress up though. We don’t know if the gong will be used. Zuck will probably give some remarks as he has ahead of other hackathons.

“We want to get everyone together and remind ourselves that this company is about building things,” a source says.

Facebook has long emphasized the “Hacker Way,” which is about building things fast and constantly iterating on the status quo. Zuckerberg argued in Facebook’s original IPO filing that the word ‘hacker’ has long been misconstrued.

“The word “hacker” has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers,” he wrote. “In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done. Like most things, it can be used for good or bad, but the vast majority of hackers I’ve met tend to be idealistic people who want to have a positive impact on the world.”

In the tradition of other hackathons, expect some interesting product ideas to get fleshed out. Facebook Hackathons are a chance for employees to work on half-baked ideas and turn them into real products that eventually get shipped. Everything from Facebook’s chat system to an early version of Timeline called ‘Memories’ have come out of Hackathons. Even the famous ‘Fax’ button that Facebook once pranked Jason Kincaid with also came out of a hackathon.

In the meantime, while you’re in between reading all of mainstream media and blogosphere’s senseless blathering about what Facebook is really worth, enjoy these photos of Facebook employees sleeping at headquarters.

Update: Facebook engineering manager Pedram Keyani complains in the comments that we are not showing enough people hacking and are perhaps giving a misguided impression that people sleep at Facebook hackathons. So correction: They do not sleep. They rage.

Original Source

Original Source

With the Engagement Optimization API, Involver apps can pass optimization data to the customer’s ad platform of choice. We’ve seen a number of ad providers and app management companies partner to create unified products that enable this type of optimization, but it often requires brands and agencies to change their software or service providers. Involver says it can provide the same optimization features while being agnostic to which ad provider a customer wants to use. Facebook ad partners Marin, Unified and SocialCode have already integrated the new API.

“We want to change the way this market operates,” Involver VP of Marketing Roland Smart says. “We believe things need to become more technology-driven and [social marketing tools] should interoperate with each other.”

When businesses develop applications using Involver’s Social Markup Language, they can get parameterized URLs so each Facebook ad can include unique click tags. Involver assigns a score to every interaction within an app — watching a video, filling out a form or claiming a coupon, for example. Involver’s system tallies that score and returns anonymized, aggregated data for each ad so that ad platforms can make decisions accordingly.

“We’re not telling ad platforms how to optimize,” Smart says. Involver simply delivers the data in a way that is Facebook-compliant.

Smart says the Engagement Optimization API can also be used beyond ads to provide insights for email marketing campaigns or posts across different social networks.

Facebook Preferred Marketing Developers with access to the Ads API can enter into a referral agreement with Involver for access to the Engagement Optimization API. This move could serve Involver well if more ad providers sign on. Instead of investing in acquiring a single ad company as Buddy Media and others have, Involver can work with several at a time. However, it remains to be seen whether the market will continue to consolidate as it has been or if Involver’s API approach can disrupt that.

Original Source

Now that Facebook has entrenched itself it can be difficult for smaller social networks to gain momentum. Pinterest has grown like crazy and proven that many internet users prefer a visual interface to lines and lines of text. The webapp Rummage takes advantage of this by letting you view eBay results in an interface that’s nearly identical to Pinterest. More »

Original Source

Klout unleashed Brand Squads, its version of brand pages, into beta on Tuesday with Red Bull as its sole launch partner.

The startup — which measures influence on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Foursquare to assign Klout users scores from 0 to 100 — will gradually roll out more Brand Squads in the coming weeks and months.

Each Squad will feature the brand’s logo, the list of the top 10 and top 100 influencers about the brand, an activity stream and any brand-specific deals offered through Klout’s Perks platform.

Top influencers are the users who receive the most +K‘s within Klout’s Topics feature (see gallery below).

“The bottom line is that we are creating a place where influencers can be recognized and have an impact on brands,” Klout spokeswoman Lynn Fox told Mashable.

Companies have had success engaging with consumers and promoting products or services via brand pages on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.

Now, Klout wants to jump in the game to empower everyday brand advocates. For example, instead of Red Bull talking to fans or touting things as it does across social networks, it’s the other way around on its Klout page.

“With Brand Squads, you will see a dynamic list of top influencers for each brand, watch conversations flow across social media, monitor information about a brand’s recent developments and earn access to special Perks,” Klout product manager David Temple said in an announcement.

“If you’re one of Red Bull’s top advocates, they’ll keep you informed with a subscription to The Red Bulletin and make sure that you’ve had a chance to try their new Red Bull Total Zero by sending you a 4-Pack,” Temple says. “The very top influencers will get some sweet merchandise or even a VIP Red Bull experience, like a behind-the-scenes look at the X-Games.”

How important do you think Klout’s Squads will be for brands? Sound off in the comments.

BONUS: What Else Does Klout Have in Store for 2012?

Looking ahead, Klout is still building scoring models for seven more services (YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress.com, Last.fm and Flickr) that have already been integrated onto Klout users’ dashboards. Klout also plans to add Quora, Yelp, Posterous, Livefyre, Disqus, bit.ly and BranchOut.

SEE ALSO: Klout Mobile App Is One Step Closer With Acquisition of BlockBoard

Klout likely will continue improving its Topics feature (see screenshots below) and Klout Perks platform. The Topics feature, which rolled out in September and lets you gain insights on top influencers and +K recipients for specific content areas, got a visual update in December with a “sashes” and an “Add a Topic” button.

Clickable Topics on Your Dashboard

On your Klout dashboard, you can click on a topic to open its Topic Page.

In December 2011, Klout rolled out sashes and an “Add a Topic” button. A blue sash goes to users with the most +Ks for any topic, while a gold sash is given to influencers based on Klout’s algorithm. People who fall into both categories receive a blue-and-gold sash.

Click here to view this gallery.

More About: Brand pages, brands, Business, klout, red bull, Social Media, trending

Original Source

Over the past three years, the Preferred Developer Consultant (PDC) program and Marketing API Program (MAP) have connected brands with developers to help them build apps on Facebook Platform, optimize social plugins, manage ad campaigns, and develop strategies for Facebook Pages. Today we’re announcing that these two programs will merge to become the new Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) program. The goal of the PMD program is to bring developers to the right clients and make it possible for any brand or company to find consultants who can work with them to build comprehensive Facebook campaigns and presences.

This year we saw our largest application round to date. The first new class of PMDs includes 141 companies from 20 countries that were not previously represented in the PDC or MAP programs. With these changes, there are now 232 PMDs headquartered in 35 countries.

The new PMD program will enable developers to:

• Connect to leads via a new lookup tool that replaces the PDC and Ads API directories. Clients can find developers by geography and expertise and read case studies and feedback.
• Show specific expertise with Pages, Ads, apps, and Insights that they can display on their websites. These qualifications will also appear alongside PMD company names in the lookup tool, making it easy for potential clients to locate PMDs by focus.
• Gain a deep understanding of the program’s goals and processes from a revamped developer website
• Save time in the applications process by using our new unified submission form. Now, developers can apply whenever they are ready, instead of through periodic rounds.

Since the PDC and MAP programs launched, the ecosystem has grown, as companies such as Vitrue, Adobe, and KRDS have found tremendous success creating businesses serving these needs.

• Vitrue grew from 66 employees in 2010 to 180 in 2011. The company also opened five new offices and expanded internationally.
• Earlier this year, Adobe acquired Efficient Frontier and Context Optional and recently announced Adobe Social to help customers manage their Facebook investments across Pages, Ads, apps and Insights with a single solution.
• Since 2010, KRDS has grown from 10 to 95 employees and has opened five new offices in France, Germany, and India. KRDS has handled 350 Facebook campaigns for 160 brands in 13 countries, accounting for triple-digit annual growth.

We look forward to continued growth in the ecosystem as the next wave of companies support ongoing innovation across Platform, Pages, and ads experiences on Facebook.

Original Source

The upcoming social graph “place” feature will allow third-parties to push information, offers and messages based on that data. For example, an application could inform you where your Facebook friends are or alert you when you are in the same location. Merchants and promoters could also use the service to deliver location-based offers.

In the same way that Spotify pushes information about what it’s users are listening to onto a linked user’s page, developers will now be able to push place information into users’ facebook page. This could include concert venues, merchant offers such as coupons, or personal location status.

While it is possible to provide similar functions today, once the ‘place’ object is added to the Open Graph API, it will be much easier for third developers to link their location data and perhaps more importantly, to integrate that with other social graph features.

For example, a purchase made at a store, a meal ordered at a restaurant or your attendance at a movie could be passively included as a status update to your Facebook page and shared with your friends.

Facebook already supports location services that allows certain posts and status updates to include place information. However, today the inclusion of location data is pretty much restricted to the facebook interface.

Along with the growing interest and investment in location-based applications are concerns around privacy. Personal location information broadcast via third-party applications could be used by law enforcement or individuals in ways that are not intended by Facebook users.

Just last month the application Girls Around Me, which broadcast personal information about women based on proximity, was dubbed a “stalker” app and provoked not only a consumer outrage but also prompted the app store to pull the application.

Sponsored by

Original Source

The Facebook Timeline that brand pages were forced to switch over to last week is “flawed,” according to an eye movement study of six brand pages by SimpleUsability, with many of the new features going unnoticed or being misunderstood.

“The average user doesn’t fully understand the new layout, or interact with it in the way intended,” said Guy Redwood, managing director of SimpleUsability. “This will likely change over time, but as the mechanics of obtaining ‘Likes’ has become more difficult for brands, they now need to drive engagement more than ever.”

The study tracked user eye movements when visiting the Web-based brand pages of American Express, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola, Gap, Coldplay and Manchester United. In addition to pointing out problems with brand pages, the study found certain features on the pages as currently designed were more important.

Sponsor

What follows are the six big takeaways from the study for brands still working on configuring their timelines.

Cover Photos Aren’t As Important As You Think

Facebook has made a point of insisting brands can use their cover photos as opportunities, and a whole cottage industry is springing up on helping companies design cover images. But users in the study either ignored the cover images entirely or disregarded it as “advertising space.”

They also didn’t pay much attention to the profile picture or apps directly beneath a cover page. In most cases, a user’s first action when landing on the page was to scroll down and get themselves oriented with what they were viewing.

Timeline is Actually a Valuable Feature

Timeline’s biggest benefit for brands, according to the study, is the ability to tell a brand’s story. The Timeline design is particularly effective in accomplishing this online, but users also liked the ease of finding the “About” button on brand pages. In many cases, users said it was easier to learn about a brand than it was on a corporate Web site.

The Timeline Only Works if It’s Current

Users got confused if a timeline appeared to be outdated. While there is benefit in going back and filling in a corporate history, most users in the study did not look beyond one month in the Timeline’s reverse chronological hierarchy.

Users Notice When Their Friends “Like” or Interact With a Brand

The best way to get a user to interact with your brand is to get that users’ friends to interact with your brand. Users are more likely to interact with a friends’ comment about a brand that they consider timely.

More Data Needed to Measure the Effectiveness of Pinned Posts

Brands can get around the problems presented by Timeline’s reverse chronological hierarchy by “pinning” a post to the top of their Timeline. But so far, few brands are using the pin feature and, when they do, they have little impact on users, according to SimpleUsability.

Users Rarely, if Ever, Interact With Apps

That could change over time, as users get more familiar with the Timeline layout. But for now, very few users are even noticing the customizable app buttoons. When they do, it’s almost exclusively to look at photos.

Discuss

Original Source

Those CEOs routinely tell the state-controlled Chinese press that they’re beating Facebook, Twitter and Google+ in growth among Chinese users – never mentioning that Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and most other foreign social networks are banned from operating in China.

Sponsor

“It’s always interesting when the CEOs of Chinese social media companies tell the press that they are beating the foreign companies in China,” said a member of a U.S. communications firm that has offices in China. “Not exactly difficult when your competitors are blocked. The press, both local and foreign, tend to stay away from the story. Nobody wants to lose access.”

Zuckerberg has been traveling to China since 2010 in an effort to improve relationships and explore business opportunities. Not only would Facebook like to offer its service to the increasingly connected country, but the company has been forging relationships with Chinese software and app developers.

While some Chinese Internet users are able to circumvent the so-called Great Firewall and access U.S.-based social networks, most are blocked and forced to rely on government-approved platforms.

“We continue to evaluate entering China,” Facebook said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its initial public offering. “However, this market has substantial legal and regulatory complexities that have prevented our entry into China to date.”

Earlier this year, China launched a pilot program in five cities requiring users of Twitter-like microblogging sites to register their real names. Known as “weibo” sites, about half of China’s 513 million Internet users access the sites, and their use has quadrupled in the past year.

China has given no time frame of when or even if it will open up to U.S.-based social networks, but the pilot program seems to favor a social network that requires users to register with their real names. Twitter famously allows people to sign up anonymously, and Google+ was banned in China one day after it was launched last summer. But Facebook has tight rules on users registering their real names, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly planning another trip to China.

Despite the restrictions on free speech, which also prohibit Internet users from saying anything negative about the ruling political party, China remains the world’s second-biggest economy and a largely untapped market for major U.S. tech companies. Last year, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told Time “it’s impossible to think about connecting the whole world right now without also connecting China.”

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Discuss

Original Source