Facebook’s Timeline Embraced by Obama

Obama’s use of Timeline (click to enlarge)Facebook’s Timeline feature is getting a plug from President Barack Obama.

Obama converted his Facebook home page to Timeline on Thursday after Facebook extended the feature as an option for branded home pages. The social network has been converting its consumers’ home pages to Timeline since January.

Obama posted a bar chart on his new home page of net jobs created from 2007 to the present.

Along the side of the bar chart, as is standard with the Timeline format, is a column of dates that you can click on to see events in the president’s life during those years. Clicking on “born,” for example, displays a coffee cup with a facsimile of Obama’s birth certificate on it, an obvious poke at the contingent of Americans who have questioned whether Obama was born in the U.S. Courts have consistently rejected legal challenges to Obama’s right to be president.

Romney’s site (click to enlarge)Santorum’s page (click to enlarge)Other events on the president’s Timeline include his moving to live with his grandparents in Hawaii in 1971, his first job behind the counter at a Baskin-Robbins in 1978, and his marriage to Michelle Obama in 1992.

Leading Republican contenders Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum haven’t embraced Timeline yet.

Romney’s home page has a custom look to it with a set of tabs — Featured, Latest, Mitt on the Road and Stand with Mitt — over an online video titled “In America: Anything Is Possible.”

Santorum’s home page is all about fundraising or campaigning, with links for creating your own fundraising page for the candidate, volunteering for the campaign, making phone calls from home for the campaign and downloading campaign literature to pass out to friends, neighbors and strangers.

While Romney and Santorum are critical of just about everything Obama has done while in office, they will have to follow his lead to Timeline at the end of the month when Facebook forces them and the rest of its business users to adopt the mandatory redesign of their home pages.

Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.

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Article source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/251170/facebooks_timeline_embraced_by_obama.html

Facebook Adds Citi, Credit Suisse on IPO

Facebook Inc. (FB) hired Deutsche Bank
AG (DBK), Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) and Citigroup Inc. (C) to work on its $5
billion initial public offering and give it access to more
credit, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Facebook’s new and existing banks will grant the company an
additional credit line of more than $2.5 billion, said the
person, who declined to be identified because the decision isn’t
public. Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase Co., Goldman Sachs
Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Barclays Plc and Allen Co.
were the previously hired on the IPO.

The move would give the social network, whose sales almost
doubled to $3.71 billion last year, a pipeline of more than $5
billion in possible borrowings. That compares with a $3 billion
credit line for Google Inc. (GOOG), the most valuable U.S. Internet
company. While going public with debt is unusual for a Web
company, the move by itself may not damp demand for Facebook
shares, said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley Co.

“The demand for Facebook’s stock is going to be so high
that I think most investors are just going to overlook this
aspect,” said Sinha, who is based in San Francisco. “I don’t
see it impacting the overall valuation.”

Facebook, led by co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, filed for the
IPO last month, pursuing what may be the largest Internet
offering on record.

Tax, Legal Bills

The expanded credit line will help Facebook (FB) pay post-IPO
taxes and the potential legal costs of patent litigation with
Yahoo (YHOO)! Inc., according to the person. Yahoo (YHOO), based in Sunnyvale,
California, asked Facebook this week to license technologies
covered by its intellectual property, and threatened to take
legal action if no agreement is reached.

The additions will be disclosed in a new regulatory filing
in a couple of weeks, the person said. The first group of banks,
excluding Allen, have already pledged $2.5 billion through a
revolving credit facility to the Menlo Park, California-based
company, according to a filing last month.

Citigroup and Credit Suisse representatives declined to
comment, as did spokesmen for Facebook and Deutsche Bank. A
representative at Morgan Stanley (MS), which is leading the offering,
also declined to comment.

Facebook filed to raise $5 billion in its IPO, though the
amount may change. It had been discussing raising as much as $10
billion, a person with knowledge of the matter said late last
year. At that size, Facebook’s IPO would be the biggest ever by
an Internet or technology company, data compiled by Bloomberg
show. Facebook’s implied market value stood at about $93
billion, based on an auction this week via SharesPost Inc.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Serena Saitto in New York at
ssaitto@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jennifer Sondag at
jsondag@bloomberg.net

An employee at Facebook’s new headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Jan. 31, 2012. Photographer: Peter DaSilva/EPA/Landov

Facebook’s new corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Photographer: Peter DaSilva/EPA/Corbis

The Facebook Inc. ‘like’ logo is displayed on a sign at the entrance to company headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Article source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-03-02/facebook-adds-deutsche-citi-credit-suisse-on-ipo

Penske supports Keselowski’s use of Twitter

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Roger Penske said Thursday he had no issue with Brad Keselowski using Twitter during the Daytona 500.

“I think that social media is here to stay. All of our businesses are involved in Twitter,” Penske said. “Brad is a creative young guy. I take my hat off to him and I think the … followers he picked up liked it and, to me, our sponsors were excited about it.”

Keselowski began tweeting during the two-hour red flag in Monday night’s race. He posted a picture of his view from his race car of the jet fuel fire that stopped racing.

He also answered fans’ questions, posted updates on the delay and let other drivers check the weather radar. He also tweeted minutes after wrecking out of the race.

Keselowski’s use of Twitter pushed his followers from roughly 65,000 at the start of the race to more than 200,000 by the end of the night.

Penske, who turned 75 last week, joked that he might even have to join the Twitter craze.

“I don’t Twitter myself,” he said, “but I guess I’m going to have to, maybe.”

He also speculated that NASCAR will likely create a rule to “maybe eliminate” Keselowski’s use of Twitter during a race. Keselowski had his cellphone in the pocket of his firesuit at the start of the race.

NASCAR officials said earlier this week Keselowski can keep his cellphone, and all drivers are encouraged to use social media.

Teams are prohibited from having recording devices in the car that are not for competition purposes, and two-way communication devices are supposed to be analog only. But NASCAR determined Keselowski did not violate any rules.

“NASCAR will not penalize Brad Keselowski for his use of Twitter during last night’s Daytona 500,” NASCAR said in a statement. “Nothing we’ve seen from Brad violates any current rules pertaining to the use of social media during races. As such, he won’t be penalized. We encourage our drivers to use social media to express themselves as long as they do so without risking their safety or that of others.”

Article source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57389470/penske-supports-keselowskis-use-of-twitter/

Facebook, Twitter Play Space Invaders

BY ROLFE WINKLER

To justify their huge valuations, Facebook and Twitter are trying to turn up the revenue dial. The risk is that this causes some users to tune them out.

Advertising on both sites has always been easy to ignore. Facebook’s ads have been relegated to the right side of pages, Twitter’s mostly to the left. Meantime, users’ news feeds—the real-time updates that stream into the middle of pages from friends or those being followed—have been largely free of advertising. Until this week, Facebook hadn’t put paid ads there; Twitter had only experimented.

…

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203986604577257443547384450.html

Twitter turns over Occupy user’s data to police

4 hrs.

Suzanne Choney

Twitter has turned over data for one of its subscribers involved in the Occupy movement to the Boston police, who are investigating tweets associated with the hacking of the department’s website last fall.

An administrative subpoena was issued to Twitter in December to turn over the information. The ACLU, representing the subscriber, contested the subpoena in court, but the appeal was shot down by a judge last week.

Twitter’s growing importance as a tool for communication — whether it be for the Arab Spring or for playing a role in Britain’s riots last summer — is increasingly putting it in the crosshairs of the authorities.

“The ACLU challenged the lawfulness of this administrative subpoena and
was told by the Superior Court that we did not have standing,” said Peter Krupp, cooperating attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts, in a statement. “As a
result of these various proceedings, the Superior Court ordered the
documents produced.”

Twitter spokesman Matt Graves told the Boston Globe that the microblogging site provided subscriber
information for “@p0isAn0N,” an account associated with the name
of Guido Fawkes. The newspaper said Graves declined comment when asked how Twitter responded to the court’s order
requiring the company to hand over information linked to hashtags and
@OccupyBoston,” said the Globe.

“I can confirm that we were ordered to provide account information on a single user, @p0isan0n,” he told msnbc.com Friday. “We did not give information on any other account.”

The ACLU says the case cannot be challenged any further.

“Twitter’s recent communication with our office gave both parties a
clear understanding of what information was relevant to our probe,” the spokesman, Jake Wark, said in an email to the Globe. “We
requested and received only that information. This is a focused investigation, not a fishing expedition.’’

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Close post

Article source: http://www.technolog.msnbc.msn.com/technology/technolog/twitter-turns-over-occupy-users-data-police-293786

Zynga branches out from Facebook to make new ‘friends’

Zynga may not exactly be integral to the survival of Facebook – which recently revealed it derived 12 per cent of its 2011 revenue from the online gaming outfit – but the fact that the company behind Words With Friends has built its own network might make IPO-ready Mark Zuckerberg a bit twitchy.

A “platform for play” has been created by Zynga in an effort to bring its games to a wider audience. What this really means it that the firm doesn’t want to just rely on Facebook for its users.

“It’s our hope that our Platform partners, and eventually anyone in the industry, can extend the reach of their games and connect to even more players on Zynga.com. Later this year we’ll make our platform available for all social game developers through a Zynga API,” wrote boss Mark Pincus in a blog post yesterday.

He then tried to sugarcoat the move for Zuck by adding: “In 2007 Facebook changed the game with their courageous move to open their platform to us all.

“We’re proud to be a part of Facebook’s ecosystem and we built Zynga.com to complement their pervasive social graph. Zynga.com will be one of the first sites completely integrated with Facebook which has become the world’s social dial-tone.”

Up until now, Facebook has been essential to Zynga’s biz strategy with the company, creaming 93 per cent of its revenue from the dominant social network.

But now it wants to be a destination site, too. Users can log in with their existing Facebook IDs, said Zynga. But the company is clearly keen to see how many people it can attract from outside of Zuckerberg’s locked-down silo. In other words, it wants to make new “friends”.

Here’s what Facebook said in its initial public offering filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month:

Zynga’s apps generate a significant number of pages on which we display ads from other advertisers. If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected.

Facebook has an agreement with Zynga until May 2015 that states that the social network retains a fee of up to 30 per cent of the face value of user purchases in Zynga’s games on its network.

Zynga’s decision to exert some independence with its own platform cheered Wall Street. Shares in the gaming company rose 10 per cent to $14.48 on Nasdaq following the announcement. ®

Article source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/02/zynga_platform_facebook_fear/

Exclusive: Facebook seeking bigger credit line

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO |
Fri Mar 2, 2012 10:10am EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc plans to increase its $2.5 billion credit line to help cover a major tax hit when employee stock awards vest shortly after it goes public, according to two sources familiar with the company’s plans.

The world’s largest social media network, which boosted its borrowing capacity by two-thirds just six months ago, is taking advantage of its strong position to get more financing for its phenomenal growth, the sources said.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about such plans.

A spokesman for Facebook declined to comment.

“All these tax obligations are being created and you need cash to take care of it. You see this all the time but in this case it will be substantial,” said Michael Moe of GSV Capital, which owns Facebook shares. “Having the cash to be able to take care of that makes a lot of sense. That would be the motivator of a larger credit facility.”

Facebook has said it plans to pay taxes on its employees’ restricted stock units, or RSUs, when they vest six months after the company’s initial public offering. The exact amount is likely to total billions of dollars, based on Facebook’s stock price at the time.

Helping employees cover tax on RSUs is relatively unusual and leaves the employer with a “very expensive obligation” that could increase if Facebook shares climb, said Bart Greenberg, a partner at law firm Haynes and Boone LLP who advises start-up tech companies.

“It could create such a large cash obligation that it eats up most of the credit facility,” Greenberg added. “That facility may have been originally set aside for acquisition opportunities or working capital.”

Facebook said it may sell equity securities, tap its credit facility, use cash or a combination of these options to meet its tax obligation, according to its IPO filing.

In February 2011, Facebook set up a $1.5 billion credit agreement with affiliates of Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch and Barclays Capital, the leading underwriters of the company’s IPO. In September 2011, the borrowing capacity was increased $2.5 billion.

“The golden rule of finance is that you get the money when you can, not when you need it,” said Moe, who co-founded investment bank ThinkEquity. “Creating maximum flexibility will allow you to be efficient with your use of capital but also opportunistic when appropriate.”

Some other tech companies that recently went public have also arranged similar credit facilities. Zynga, the social games giant, set up a $1 billion facility with some underwriters of its IPO, which happened late last year.

Facebook and Zynga generate substantial profits, but the companies have big credit facilities because it is good corporate finance strategy to line up back-up cash from a position of strength, Moe and others said.

The months leading up to an IPO are a good time for companies to arrange credit facilities because they have the most negotiating power with banks vying for lucrative roles in equity offerings, according to the chief financial officer of a large private tech company who asked not to be identified.

(Reporting By Alistair Barr; Editing by Richard Chang)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/02/us-facebook-exclusive-idUSTRE82027V20120302

Analysis: Facebook seeks breakthrough in mobile ad market

An illustration picture shows the log-on screen for the website Facebook in Munich
(Michael Dalder Reuters, REUTERS / February 2, 2012)

Article source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-facebook-mobile-advertisingtre8210ph-20120302,0,3416917.story

Rihanna & Chris Brown Gain Twitter, Facebook Fans After Release of Remixes

It is no surprise that both Rihanna and Chris Brown both made moves on Billboard’s Social 50 chart this week after releasing two new collaborations, with Chris Brown being featured on a remix of Rihanna’s “Birthday Cake” and Rihanna appearing on a remix of Brown’s “Turn Up The Music.” Rihanna rises 4-3 on the tally, while Brown flies 10-5.

 

The Social 50 chart ranks the most popular artists on YouTube, Vevo, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and iLike, using a formula that blends weekly additions of friends/fans/followers along with weekly artist page views and weekly song plays.

 

After rumors surrounding the two artists had been furiously circulating over the past few weeks, on Feb. 20 the public saw its first evidence of contact between Chris Brown and Rihanna as Brown tweeted “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROBYN,” to which the singer, born Robyn Fenty replied, “Thanks!”

 

 

The most-viewed “Birthday Cake” remix on YouTube has garnered over 4 million views and elicited over 11,000 comments. All of the buzz generated a week-over-week gain of 427,000 Twitter followers for Rihanna (in the week ending Feb. 27) and a gain of 483,000 Facebook fans. Overall, she earned a 19% increase in her overall follower base.

 

 

Chris Brown, meanwhile, snared a 28% increase in Facebook fans and a 23% jump in views to his official YouTube channel as well as a 23% climb in Twitter followers.

 

Meanwhile Bow Wow makes his Social 50 debut at No. 33 after receiving nearly 1,476,000 Vevo views this past week. Bow Wow’s video for “Sweat” featuring Lil Wayne has received nearly 1,650,000 views. The track is from his upcoming album “Underrated” (out March 13) — his first release for Cash Money after signing with the label in 2009. A tour is scheduled to launch later this year.

 

Other notable chart movements include Whitney Houston’s drop from No. 2 to No. 12 after experiencing a 70% decline in YouTube video views and a 40% decline in Facebook fan acquisition over this past week. A drop on the tally was expected, following the surge of social activity following her passing on Feb. 11.

 

As for the rest of the top 10 this week, Adele holds at No. 1 while birthday boy Justin Bieber climbs 6-2. The latter artist turned 18 on March 1. Nicki Minaj falls a slot to No. 4, Michael Jackson is also down a rung to No. 6 and David Guetta is stationary at No. 7. LMFAO shuffles 13-8, Katy Perry is steady at No. 9 and Eminem rounds out the top 10, up one position to No. 10.

Article source: http://www.billboard.com/news/rihanna-chris-brown-gain-twitter-facebook-1006338352.story

Vitrue Offers Brands New Twitter "Gate" Feature to Screen Followers; Allows …

ATLANTA, GA, Mar 02, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Vitrue (
www.vitrue.com ), the leading social marketing platform,
today announced that the company is giving brands the ability to
screen or “gate” potential Twitter followers, before authorizing them
to follow their stream. This new feature is designed to allow alcohol
brands to restrict followers that are underage and ensure promotions,
interactions and engagements are with age-appropriate audiences. At
the same time, the functionality can also be extended to other
tactics and campaigns.

Vitrue will be rolling out this feature with several spirits clients
within the next 10 to 20 days.

This latest enhancement to Vitrue’s Social Relationship Management
(SRM) platform offers brands a solution to authorize access for
Twitter stream followers through a seamless and instant screening
capability. Vitrue clients that deploy this solution are able to
request potential followers to provide additional information before
continuing as a follower. The experience is completely customizable
but could include specific questions like “what is your date of
birth?” as a method of validating age-appropriate followers before
allowing users to subscribe to their stream. The feature was
initially designed for wine, beer and spirits brands that embrace a
socially responsible digital presence but can be expanded for
additional functionalities. This age validation feature is on par
with other age validation features such as those found on brands’
websites.

“Our new Twitter functionality was designed for our clients who want
to take a measure towards ensuring their activity online is occurring
with the appropriate audience, as social responsibility matters to
our clients,” said Reggie Bradford, CEO Founder of Vitrue. “As
social continues to evolve and becomes more ingrained in the
mainstream, technology like ours will allow brands to more easily and
seamlessly adapt with the ever-changing social landscape.”

“The social Web has never been one-dimensional and with this rollout,
we see the potential for additional opportunities for brands to
interact with audiences via Twitter and we’re looking forward to
offering brands new functionality to build the most engagement with
their followers,” said Bradford.

The new Twitter feature is integrated within the Vitrue SRM Platform,
giving brands the tools to publish, monitor, identify and engage with
key influencers in Twitter streams. Vitrue has been providing Twitter
publishing capabilities since 2009 and currently manages almost 1,000
Twitter streams for its stable of global brands and agencies.

About Vitrue
Vitrue (
www.vitrue.com ) is the leading social marketing
platform, offering software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to help
brands and agencies harness the marketing potential of social and
manage their expanding and sophisticated social communities on
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and emerging platforms. The
industry-leading Vitrue Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform
is collectively managing its clients’ more than one billion social
relationships in more than 100 countries across more than 4,500
Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts.

        Contact
        Marissa Arnold
        LaunchSquad
        vitrue@launchsquad.com
        212.564.3665

SOURCE: Vitrue

        mailto:vitrue@launchsquad.com

Copyright 2012 Marketwire, Inc., All rights reserved.

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vitrue-offers-brands-new-twitter-gate-feature-to-screen-followers-allows-alcohol-brands-to-validate-consumers-age-on-twitter-2012-03-02

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