Mediocre Facebook IPO Forces Us to Question Material Reality by Erik Sass

Bloggers and reporters who write about social media have often been accused of overstating its importance relative to other things like food, water, and shelter. But the widespread angst provoked by Facebook's somewhat-lackluster initial public offering confirms that we were right all along: Facebook is at least as important as all of human civilization, if not more so. ...Read the whole story

  • Facebook Ads Need Traditional Measurement Tools To Determine ROI by Laurie Sullivan

    Finding the return on investment from Facebook ads is a continuing source of concern for advertisers that are looking for answers on what they get in return for spending millions of dollars to advertise on the site. It has become clear through General Motors' decision to pull ad funds that the industry must stop inventing new metrics and turn toward traditional tools. ...Read the whole story

  • Hex Factor: ARF Forum Showcases New Social TV Analytics Platform, Offers Brand Insights Too by Gabe Samuels

    In what might be described as media's long-tail wagging its biggest dog, researchers are tapping social media to help television programmers better understand viewer reaction to and experience with TV content. During a demonstration at an ARF Thought Leader Forum in New York, Crimson Hexagon demonstrated a new platform capable of mining more than 100 billion social media data points to provided detailed -- and sometimes surprising -- insights into the way people watch television. ...Read the whole story

  • Viacom Leverages Social Media To Aid TV Experience by Wayne Friedman

    A new Viacom study on social media says viewers engage around seven different types of social TV activities -- online or offline -- a week. The No. 1 request for content via social TV services is full-length episodes (88%), followed by sneak peeks of new episodes (75%). ...Read the whole story

Is Social TV a Gimmick or a Must-Have? by Daisy Whitney

There's no question that social video, social media and social TV are hot. Nearly every network has some sort of social media tie-in for a show, be it USA Network's recent work with Viggle for "To Kill a Mockingbird," or Discovery integrating tweets into shows. Are social tie-ins like this a gimmick or do they last? ...More

  • On The Street: Wal-Mart's Up; Facebook's Out There by Thom Forbes

    The bribery investigations at Wal-Mart headquarters may be widening, as the "New York Times" reports, but the results at Walmarts' stores certainly cheered up executives in the C suites and boardroom yesterday. Profits rose 10.1%, beating analyst's estimates. They credited its low-price promotions with luring "thrifty shoppers back into its U.S. stores," as Shan Li puts in the "Los Angeles Times." ...More

  • Social Media Buzz For Showrunners And Stars Drives Interest by David Goetzl

    Is social media chatter, opinion and condemnation enough to gain insight into the success rate of a new fall show? Can social media activity make or break a show? It's hard to say the TV business knows the answer yet -- it probably never will -- but it is increasingly clear that the more endorsements that trickle through blogs, forums, Facebook and Twitter, the better. ...More