Pandora offers new music sharing tool for Facebook and Twitter

Pandora users can now share the music they discover on the site with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. While users have had the option to send an email or embed a widget on MySpace for quite some time, the company has expanded this feature to include a sharing toolbar above the player so users can easily share a song or station with their friends on popular social networking sites.

In order to share on these networks, users will need to go through a series of pages that will connect their Pandora account with their Twitter and/or Facebook accounts. Once connected, a simple click will post songs to these networks. For example, when users post a song on Facebook, friends will be able to listen to samples right in their news feed. On Twitter, followers will see a shortened link to a page featuring just the song or station shared.

Ford offers Fusion drivers chance to participate in Facebook rally

In an effort to increase interest in the 2010 Fusion, Wired reports that Ford Motor Company is engaging in a social media campaign and contest that will lead to some Fusion drivers getting the remaining payments on their car made for them.

According to Ford, Fusion drivers with “a minimum of 100 Facebook friends and an active photo collection” will be able to enter the Fusion 41 contest, a cross-country relay race named after the Fusion’s highway fuel rating of 41 mph. Ford says that they will choose winning teams “based on their ability to complete the activities and provide proof by uploading photos and videos to various social media sites, including Facebook.”

“Fusion 41 is a fun way to engage customers and get them talking about the all-new 2010 Fusion,” Ford Experiential Marketing manager Jeff Eggen said in a statement. “There’s no better way to spread the word about our new products than by putting them into the hands of prospective customers and enabling them to experience our vehicles firsthand.”

MySpace launches new music products for artists and fans

MySpace has announced the next phase of the company’s music offering with new products and tools available to artists and fans. The social networking site has unveiled MySpace Music Video, MySpace Artist Dashboard and the ability for users to purchase music on iTunes.

MySpace Music Video offers users a large collection of online music videos, including fully-licensed video content from both major and independent label partners. Users can browse videos based on what their friends are watching or search alphabetically.

In addition to MySpace Music Video, the social networking site also unveiled the MySpace Artist Dashboard in beta. This offers artists unlimited access to charts, graphs and snapshots of MySpace Music data, including fan geography, song plays, profile views, friend count and profile visitors.

“Whether you’re a small town garage band, an emerging indie, or a well-established act, our ultimate goal is to provide the right mix of tools and real-time data to help you gain a deep understanding of who your fans are and how best to reach them,” said Courtney Holt, president of MySpace Music. “We’re committed to providing the most comprehensive ecosystem of services for artists in an effort to deepen their connection with the most important influencers – their fans.”

Finally, MySpace users can now purchase and download music on iTunes in addition to Amazon MP3 and MP3 ringtones via Jamster.

Is CIA snooping on social media overseas?

Will the CIA be spying on social media? That’s the question that CNET News is raising after learning that the Central Intelligence Agency‘s not-for-profit investment arm In-Q-Tel has forged a “strategic partnership” with Visible Technologies, a company that “monitors online social activity and packages the findings for clients.”

CNET News believes that In-Q-Tel is interested in accessing Visible Technologies’ ability to provide clients “with actionable insight into social-media conversations,” meaning the monitoring of social media overseas. In-Q-Tel spokesman Donald Tighe told Wired that the organization would use the services to provide “early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally.”

According to Wired, Visible Technologies “crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.”

Facebook Top Social Networking Site in September

Facebook came in as the top social networking site among a custom category of 155 social networking Web sites in September 2009, according to Experian Hiwise. At 58 percent, U.S. visits to Facebook increased 194 percent this year compared with September 2008. MySpace came in as the second-highest market share of U.S. visits for the month, followed by Tagged, with 30 percent and 2.38 percent.

Among the top give visited Web sites, Twitter had the largest percentage gain in market share of visits, increasing 1170 percent compared with September of last year. Overall, U.S. visits to social networking sites increased 62 percent year-over-year among the custom category of 155 of the leading social networking sites.

Are Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers on a social media ban?

Much as leagues and teams are attempting to control athletes’ uses of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, CNET News is reporting that many movie studios are now trying to do the same thing with the stars of their movies.

Many studios are requiring their stars to sign anti-social networking clauses as a prerequisite to taking a movie deal. Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers are allegedly two of the first stars to be hit with a Twitter ban, in their case from Dreamworks in order to avoid them accidentally divulging any secrets from the upcoming Shrek sequel.

These moves are an attempt by Hollywood to curb leaks on the Internet – many of them coming from talent and executives. For example, Paula Abdul surprised Fox executives by announcing her decision to leave as a judge on American Idol on her Twitter account, leaving the network scrambling for a response.

Facebook cracks down on online bullies

As part of its efforts to make Facebook a safe and trusted environment, the social networking site has announced today a new way for users to send more specific and detailed information of abuse, such as online harassment, unwanted contact or offensive behaviors from others.

“Specifically, we created much more granular reporting categories for you to classify the issues you may come across including bullying or unwanted contact from other people on the site,” said Jessica Ghastin, specialist on the Facebook user operations team.

In addition, the company has created new fields where users can detail the location of abuse that occurs in videos or text. For example, if a user wants to report offensive content in a video, they can now tell Facebook the specific time during the video when the abuse occurs. Similarly, if reporting an offensive note, users can copy and paste the offensive text directly from its source.

To report abuse on the site, users will need to select the “Report” link located near photos, videos, notes and other content. From there, users will have the option to select from a set of categories to classify the content.

Facebook does point out, however, that it will not remove a photo or video just because it is unflattering. Rather, users can select from the following reasons why the photo or video may violate the company’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities: nudity or pornography, drug use, excessive gore or violence, attacks on individuals or groups, advertisement or spam or infringements on intellectual property.

Small businesses not jumping on social media bandwagon

Few small business owners and managers are joining the consumer trend toward increasing use of social networking sites and services, according to a new Citibank/GfK Roper survey.

The survey revealed that 76 percent of small businesses have not benefited from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn when it comes to generating business leads or for expanding their business during the last year, while 86 percent say they have not used social networking sites to get business advice or information. In addition, the survey found that traditional search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo! overshadow small business-focused sites. Sixty-one percent of respondents say they rely on these search engine sites.

“Our survey suggests that small business owners are still feeling their way into social media, particularly when it comes to using these tools to grow their businesses,” said Maria Veltre, executive vice president of Citi’s Small Business Segment. “While social media can provide additional channels to network and help grow a business, many small businesses may not have the manpower or the time required take advantage of them.”

Instead of social media sites, 42 percent of small business owners and managers said that in the past year they have made greater use of their company’s Web site to bring in business leads and sales. This percentage rises among companies with 20 to 29 employees, with 57 percent saying they have used their Web site. In addition to using their Web site, the survey revealed that small businesses are also using email marketing (28 percent) and online advertising (25 percent) to generate business leads and sales.

Facebook and MySpace users show demographic differences

CNN.com reports that a recent study by market research firm Nielsen Claritas confirms what many social media users already suspected – there is a distinct difference between users of MySpace and Facebook. However, while most people would suspect that the difference would be primarily age-based, with MySpace users tending to be younger than Facebook users – the research shows that the divide runs deeper.

The research showed that affluence is a major factor in which social media network people use. Specifically, more affluent social media users tend to flock to Facebook, while less affluent people tend to use MySpace.

Almost 23 percent of Facebook users earn more than $100,000 a year, compared to slightly more than 16 percent of MySpace users. Meanwhile, 37 percent of MySpace members earn less than $50,000 annually, compared with about 28 percent of Facebook users.

Digg tests new ads

In an effort to improve ads on Digg, the social bookmarking site has launched new ads to a small percentage of its users for testing. The new ads, called Digg Content Ads, are basically widgets that feature previous Digg homepage stories that are relevant to the industry or company that is advertising on Digg.

“At Digg, we think ads will feel more relevant (and thus work better for brands) if they feature the kind of content we look for online,” said Chas Edwards of Digg, on the company blog. “One way to do this – one that’s very native to the Digg experience – is to encourage advertisers to re-aggregate stories that have already been popular on Digg. The stories might be about a brand’s products or services, or they might be stories of general interest to that brand’s customers.”

Edwards also points out that advertisers cannot promote stories that haven’t already been promoted to Digg’s homepage organically. However, stories that have passed the age of promotion eligibility can still be featured. This means that although Digg Content Ads allow advertisers to re-publish existing stories into ad banners, and give those stories additional exposure with paid media, advertisers are not allowed to use this method to artificially boost stories into Digg’s homepage.

Digg plans to launch additional ads in the coming weeks.

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