Putting sexy pictures of yourself on social media is an easy way to get attention, but it may not always be the kind of attention you want, according to a new study which found that young women who post sexy or reveal photos on Facebook or other social media sites tend to be viewed as less competent, as well as less physically and socially attractive, by their female peers.

Nielsen is finally realizing its dream of tracking mobile TV metrics, and Facebook deserves much of the credit. As part of a larger shift, the media measurement giant is matching user information -- "in a privacy safe way," of course -- from Facebook and other data providers, and then calibrating it with data from its National People Meter panel.

We savor the irony when tech giants -- which only exist because of people's willingness to bare all (or at least babble ad nauseam) -- cry foul when a secret or two spills into the public sphere. Twitter is reportedly taking away data privileges from any developer who dares to disclose the size of the social network's user base.

Interesting interview with Walmart CMO Stephen Quinn in Advertising Age this week. In it, he discusses the logic behind WMX, or the Walmart Exchange, a new digital media-buying platform utilizing data to target audiences. The reason for the interview were some meetings Walmart held with 200 of its biggest suppliers -- you know, brands -- and the role WMX is playing in their mix. I only know what I read in the Ad Age piece, but a couple of things struck me about the story that have significant bearing on the social media marketplace. One is that the data informing …

The headline kind of says it all, but just in case I'll put it another way: we are totally in the middle of a social media bubble. This amusing tale of mass idiocy comes from the Wall Street Journal, citing an earlier report from the investor blog zerohedge.com, which stumbled upon a social media company, CYNK, that trades in the penny stocks based solely, it would appear, on some SEC filings.

While some professions are basically shoo-ins for social media (journalists and Twitter, for example) others have been much slower to embrace the online universe, especially in cases where using social media might run afoul of legal and regulatory constraints and incur liability. That's clearly the case with the medical profession, as physicians remain leery of using social media for professional purposes.

The Amazon has nothing on the river of tears unleashed by Germany's systematic demolition of Brazil in their World Cup semi-final on Tuesday, which the football-obsessed host country lost 7-1 in an unprecedented blowout, making it the worst defeat both in Brazil's history and the history of World Cup semi-finals. The one-sided rout also set social media records for a live sporting event, according to stats from Twitter and Facebook.

While music videos played a major part in my childhood entertainment universe -- thanks for all the memories, Biz Markie and Whitesnake -- I kind of assumed that kids nowadays are totes over the genre. But it turns out I was mistaken, though some things have indeed changed: instead of assiduously compiling VHS libraries categorized alphabetically by "artist" (I use the term broadly), they are sharing their fave vids online via social media.

While Facebook apparently experiments with our emotions from time to time, most of the psychological damage we incur by using social media is probably self-inflicted. As evidence for this claim, I would draw your attention to new research that shows Facebook use is correlated with a number of "bad outcomes" for married couples, including a greater likelihood of infidelity and divorce.

You know those people who follow everyone they can on Twitter, solely in the hope that these other users will reciprocate, all so they can amass the biggest number of followers who know nothing about them, in a totally meaningless act of self-aggrandizement? Yeah, turns out those people may be ruining Twitter by turning it into a spam-fest, according to a new study titled "Identifying the Community Roles of Social Capitalists in the Twitter Network."