• Ten Comebacks I'd Like To See
    It could be the Olympics, or the fear of another early ending to the Mets' season, or Ben Folds reuniting with the other two guys as they ironically tour again as Ben Folds Five. Whatever the reason, I've got comeback fever. While I try to find the cure, I keep thinking about social media. Here are 10 social media comebacks that I'd love to see:
  • Facebook's Q2 Earnings Report -- Or, It's Complicated
    So here we are on the day after Facebook's first earnings report, and, once again, investors are dismayed. The stock seems to have steadied at this writing, but in after-hours trading after yesterday's release, Facebook stock went to its lowest in its brief history. Clearly, it's time to start calling Facebook over and find a new bright, shiny object. Or maybe not.
  • Is This The Murderer's Motive?
    I woke up yesterday morning to a report from NY1 that it could take months before we learn the motive of the Aurora, Colo. murderer. Then I arrived at the office, logged into Facebook, and saw that youthful face with the shock of flaming red hair all over my feed. Could that be his motive?
  • As Facebook Prepares to Face Its Earnings Music, It's Sounding Pretty Good
    As far as digital is concerned, this is Marissa Mayer's week, but let the Social Media Insider get your mind off that. For a few minutes, let's not worry about whether a pregnant Silicon Valley superhero can really run a struggling Internet concern, and worry just a little bit, about Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, not to mention thousands of down-in-the-dumps Facebook shareholders. Yes, let's talk (again) about Facebook. A week from now, Facebook will announce its first earnings as a public company, and the Social Media Insider, along with all those bitter Facebook haters, will be out in force. …
  • Getting Lost In Social Discovery
    "Social discovery" is one of the hotter buzzwords these days, referring to how people can tap friends' implicit and explicit recommendations to experience something new. At first, it sounds like more jargon, but when you experience it firsthand, you can get a sense of what it really means.
  • NBC's Olympics Deal With Facebook -- Or, The Deal That Wasn't
    The line that stood out to me in Tuesday's New York Times write-up of NBC's Olympics deal with Facebook was actually the sentence that declared it wasn't a deal at all. It read: "Facebook and NBC Olympics executives said the arrangement was not an advertising deal, and they indicated that no money was changing hands." It's enough to make the Social Media Insider ask, "What's the point of that?"
  • Is Experimentation Innovation?
    Are experimentation and innovation one and the same? The two words were initially used interchangeably during MediaPost's recent Brand Marketers Summit, until some panelists sorted it out. For many marketers, one isn't innovating until they're trying something new. Trying something new is the essence of experimentation. Innovating and experimenting feel like they have a lot in common. Yet experimenting doesn't just mean doing something new.
  • On Vacation -- And Channeling My Inner Madonna
    I'm posting today from Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Island, Michigan, where the smell of horse manure or fudge fills the air, depending on which direction you turn. If you've never been - and, really, you should go -- it's an island that has committed to forgetting time, despite the Wifi access at the hotel. No cars are allowed here, so people get about either by taking a horse-drawn taxi, walking, or biking, mostly on single speed bikes, known affectionately as "cruisers." At times, over the last few days, I've felt like I was channeling Almira Gulch from "The Wizard of Oz."
  • The Interest Graph Vs. The Knowledge Graph
    What's more valuable: your interests or what you want to know? The difference between the Interest Graph and the Knowledge Graph will shape the direction of two major technology companies in the years ahead, and this will in turn impact billions of dollars of marketing spending.
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