Digital River gets serious about social media tracking

InternetRetailer.com reports that companies looking to streamline their social media reporting now have a new way to track and manage their social media reach. According to the report, Digital River is debuting is SocialStream technology that can send any product promotion or other announcements through their Facebook and Twitter accounts and receive reports on how much traffic and revenue they generated, conversion rates, and other metrics such as revenue per visitor, says Jim Wehmann, senior vice president of global marketing at Digital River. The company may add other social media sites, such as YouTube, to SocialStream in the future. Digital River would not reveal the cost of the tool and said it is based on negotiations with each client. Experts say this kind of tracking capability is likely to become a standard feature in e-commerce systems.

Although we don't know the costs involved - do you think its is a viable way to track and measure ROI on social media? Would you or your company consider investing in this service? Let us know @community20

Study: 0% of users would pay for Twitter

The popular micro-blogging network, Twitter is currently free for anyone to use - and users like it that way. According to the 2010 USC Annenberg Digital Future Study, 0% of respondents claimed that they would be willing to pay for the service.

From the report:

"Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users," said Cole. "Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free."

The report goes on to stay that users are okay with web advertising in lieu of paying for the service.

Is this a shock to you?

The British Royal Family -now on Flickr!

The British Royal Family has released hundreds of candid and professional shots on the official Royal Flickr page. According to The Daily Mail, the online photograph album will provide a unique glimpse into the life and work of the modern Monarchy and will allow Flickr users to use the photographs in blogs and other social media.As well as recent photographs of the Royal Family at work and play, the site will include more historical material drawn from the Royal collections.

What do you think of the Royal's social media presence?

Facebook Hits 500M Users

Today is a huge milestone Facebook. Now at 500M users, Facebook is the largest social network, with the closest runner-up, Twitter only at 100M users. With 400M people separating the first and second social networks; is Facebook simply too big? Telegraph.co.uk has some interesting statistics on the site's usage:

People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the site.

An average user has 130 friends.

There are over 900 million objects in total that Facebook users can interact with, such as community pages.

The average Facebook user is connected 80 pages, groups and events.

The average member creates 90 pieces of content each month.

More than 30 billion pieces of content, like photos, web links and news stories, are shared each month.

About 70 per cent of Facebook users are from outside of the US.

It took five months for Facebook to attract an extra 100 million users, from 400 million to 500 million.

Last January Facebook only had 150 million members.

So what's the secret? We'd like to hear what you think.

Free Webinar – These Insidious SEO Myths Are Costing You Money

Here’s an SEO webinar from one of our sister events Performance Marketing Expo that I thought our community 2.0 readers would be interested in. Stephan Spencer, VP, SEO Strategies for Covario and PME speaker, will be presenting an hour long web seminar on Thursday August, 5th from 2-3pm EDT.

Here’s a quick recap of what the webinar is all about:

Myths are prevalent in the SEO industry, in part because someone’s job or reputation is tied up with a myth that may have been at one point true. It’s time to squash these persistent pesky myths. The misinformation and disinformation are doing everyone and the industry as a whole a disservice. Join SEO expert Stephan Spencer as we crank through a collection of the most costly myths and put them to rest once-and-for-all. The mythology Stephan will address spans everything from SEO automation to meta tags, keyword density, Flash, forms, CSS, “free” traffic, and much more!

Register below for the webinar, hope to “see” you there!
http://bit.ly/9kl65h

Some doctors connecting to local community through Facebook

Last week in USA Today, Rita Rubin looked at how some doctors are using social media to connect with their patients. An OB/GYN in Texas has replaced their babies wall in the office with a Facebook Fan Page, where pictures of the babies are now displayed. These fanpages have also become places where people come to ask their questions and look for information. While many doctors choose to remain anonymous, others have found it as a way to connect with their patients. Rubin relates this to how doctors used to make house calls and join the community of the towns they served. Read the full article here.

What do you think? Should doctors be connecting with their patients via Facebook? What privacy risks can Facebook Pages bring?

This blog is co-posted with the ePharma Summit.

Are Women are "Addicted" to Facebook?

The Guardian reports that one third of women check Facebook when they first wake up. Other reports tout that 39% Of Young Women Are Facebook Addicts and Study: More Than One-Third Of Women 'Addicted' To Facebook. Is this surprising?

The reports go in detail to discuss how women use Facebook for not only relationship but as a way to find out news and information about products that they like. Mediapost.com reports that, according to a recent study from rich-media provider Unicast, women age 18-24 are more receptive to online advertising in various formats than the overall population -- and are particularly interested in localized information, surveys, social media formats and downloadable content.

ShinyShiny.tv asked it's audience if they are really "addicted" to Facebook like the news outlets claimed in their reports. The responses are still pouring in by the leading response is, "My Facebook consumption is moderate and nicely under control thank you."

Even if women are "addicted" to Facebook - is it such a bad thing? We'd like to hear your thoughts.