Facebook Tests Deals Program in Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego & San Francisco
Posted by: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
According to an article from http://news.cnet.com, Facebook launched its social-buying program today. Facebook Deals offers members local deals they can buy and also share with their friends on the network. The test launched in Austin, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco, but may be expanded to include other cities.
Facebook Begins Testing Social-Buying Program
Facebook announced this evening it is ready to begin testing its new local deals offering–the social-networking giant’s effort to cash in on the feverish interest in social buying.
Users in the five test cities will be able to learn about offerings through e-mail and notifications, by clicking on the Deals tab on their Facebook home page, and through their News Feed when friends like or buy a deal.
Facebook is working with a passel of other deals sites in the venture, including Opentable, Gilt City, Tippr, PopSugar City, Plum District, ReachLocal, Zozi, Home Run, KGB Deals, aDealio, and ViaGoGo.
With 500 million members, Facebook brings a sizable user base in its challenge for dominance in the deals market, which brought in $873 million in revenue last year and could bring in $3.93 billion by 2015, according to a projection from consulting firm BIA/Kelsey.
Chief among those competitors is Groupon, which has been riding meteoric growth with half-price massages, discounted restaurant meals, and travel bargains. Chicago-based Groupon, with 60 million users and more than 39 million deals sold in its two years in business, is expected to beef up its muscle with an initial public offering later this year.
Twitter Looks To Buy TweetDeck for $50 Million
Posted By: Micah Pratt, Social Networking R&D
Twitter has recently been in talks to buy TweetDeck, a third-party client of Twitter that allows users to connect with contacts across a variety of social networking sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more. According to an article by Chris Taylor on mashable.com, Twitter does not know the exact number of TweetDeck users, but believes it includes the most obsessive power users in social media.
Twitter In Talks To Buy TweetDeck [REPORT]
Twitter is in talks to purchase TweetDeck Inc. for $50 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TweetDeck is one of the most popular third-party Twitter clients, available in desktop, iPad, iPhone and Android versions. It displays your Twitter news feed, @mentions and direct messages, along with your Facebook feeds — all on the same screen, all updating in real time. TweetDeck can also support updates from MySpace, LinkedIn and Foursquare.
The 15-person company, based in the U.K., has never revealed how many users TweetDeck has. The number may be small — but it is also likely to include the most obsessive power users in social media.
Jennings Social Media Marketing Celebrates Earth Day With a Billion Acts of Green Pledge & Provides Tips to Promote Green Brands
Posted By: Jamie Sutera, VP of R&D
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Jennings Social Media Marketing is celebrating Earth Day by making a pledge to the Earth Day Network (EDN) campaign: A Billion Acts of Green and providing tips to promote green brands.
Valerie Jennings, CEO and founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing, said that Earth Day is a great way to review sustainability practices. “Jennings Social Media Marketing committed to replacing its hazardous cleaning products with more eco-friendly cleaning supplies this year. Next year, we hope to have everything toxic removed from our office,” said Jennings.
Jennings added that the office is always trying to improve, however, it is a constant challenge. “We have been providing eco-friendly social media marketing advice to businesses since 2008 and are currently working with many companies that are making green commitments.”
Here are a few tips-
1. Be transparent and use the brand to advance education, awareness, media exposure and promotions.
2. Do use social media to promote green messages, connect with green bloggers, tweeples, social networks and press.
3. Reach out to the Earth Day Network.
4. Marketwire, a PR distribution platform, works. Green reporters are researching subject matter experts online. Use this tool to connect.
5. Monitor success via Google search results, media coverage, Twitter followers, blog traffic, contests, Web video views, Facebook likes, email opt-ins and leads.
6. Reach out to green bloggers who are appropriate for the brand. The greenest environmentalists may not want to hear about a medium-green product, company or expert. Stay focused on where the key listeners are around the product.
Jennings Social Media Marketing is a full service company that utilizes the art of online storytelling with the science of measuring quantifiable results. Jennings creates comprehensive social media marketing and Web advertising strategies from website design and development to viral videos. The company represents publicly traded to medium-sized businesses across the U.S. and overseas including technology, sports, sustainability, entertainment, travel, financial, health care and real estate (www.jenningssocialmedia.com).
Jennings Social Media Marketing Commits to Replacing Toxic Cleaning Products: A Billion Acts of Green
Posted by: Valerie Jennings, CEO & Founder of Jennings Social Media Marketing
Each year companies, consumers and media organizations promote green awareness for Earth Day. This year, the Earth Day Network (EDN) is promoting A Billion Acts of Green to secure a billion commitments to the planet by 2012. The campaign is known to be the largest environmental campaign service in the world; striving to build commitments by individuals, corporations and governments in honor of Earth Day. This is an easy way of anyone to participate in the environmental project. Please make a commitment to the earth. Thank you to the Earth Day Network for its hard work!
Go to http://act.earthday.org/leaderboard to join the project.
Valerie Jennings 
Cassie Stubs
Katie Stumpf
