Employers can require workers to post disclaimers on social media stating that their views are their own and not their employers', if they have also identified themselves as working for a specific company, according to a new memorandum from the National Labor Relation Board's Division of Advice. Employees who don't disclose where they work can't be required to post such a disclaimer.

OMG, get ready for the Wal-Selfie. Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom, 30, is joining the board of directors for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the retail leviathan announced Monday, reflecting the company's keen interest in ramping up its efforts in e-commerce and social media engagement, with a focus on mobile.

Social media has little influence on consumers' digital shopping behaviors, lagging behind other forms of digital media, according to a new report from global technology and research consultant Capgemini, titled "Digital Shopper Relevancy Research Report 2014."

After just a few years of delay, the FDA issued draft guidelines for pharmaceutical marketers using social media back in June, but -- surprise, surprise -- pharmaceutical companies aren't happy with the proposed rules. This week The Hill reported that pharma groups are complaining the FDA's suggestions would have a "chilling" effect on their social media interactions with consumers.

Social media is one of the main sources of news for American adults, and Facebook is easily the most popular social media venue for getting news, according to Pew Research. However, visitors who are referred by social media tend to be significantly less engaged with news sites than people who visit them directly.

The proportion of corporate directors who say their companies are monitoring social media for "adverse publicity" (a gentle euphemism) has increased from 32% in 2012 to 41% today, according to the latest Corporate Directors Survey from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Just over half of the U.S. population (52.8%) is on Facebook, and on average these Facebook users spend 39 minutes per day on the social network, according to the latest stats from eMarketer. If you average this figure out across the entire U.S. population, the average American adult still spends 21 minutes per day on Facebook. That represents one third of time spent by U.S. adults on social networks, 6% of all time spent with digital media, and 2.8% of time spent with all forms of media.

They've got friends in low places, and now they have a better idea what they're saying. Universal Music Group Nashville has chosen NetBase Live Pulse to monitor the real-time social performance of dozens of its top country singers, including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, George Strait, and Scott McCreery, as well as a number of rising stars, the music publisher announced this week.

Roughly three out of four big companies (73%) plan to invest in big data technologies over the next 24 months, according to a new survey of 302 organizations by research outfit Gartner. That figure is up from 64% in the 2013 survey. Meanwhile the number of companies with no plans to invest in big data fell from 31% to 24% over the same period, with the balance in both cases undecided.

YouTube leads other social media platforms as a channel or paid social media advertising, measured in terms of introducing consumers to new products and then converting them into actual paying customers, according to a new study by AOL Platforms and Convertro.