Facebook launches Facebook for Business
Last week Facebook revealed “Facebook for Business,” a how-to guide to help businesses set up their company page and use it to its full advantage. More of an educational tool rather than a new feature, this guide encourages businesses to start and maintain an advertising presence with the social media giant — a venture not yet available to social newcomer Google+. This online tool is straightforward and well rounded with step-by-step instructions on how to set up a page, build your strategy, build and target your ads, and drive buzz around your page through Sponsored Stories as well as open your page for purchases  of digital content with Facebook Credits. After a month of “oohs” and “aahs” over Google+ which included companies being kicked out of the site in anticipation of an official business offering, Facebook has reassured businesses that they are the venue for tapping the consumer in the social world. Source

LinkedIn debuts job application tool
Just one click of a button — that’s all you have to do to launch the new job application tool on LinkedIn. The “Apply With LinkedIn” button can be embedded on a company website and allows the job seeker to submit their LinkedIn profile as an application. With the use of the this button and the “Saved Jobs” tab, the job seeker can apply and manage their applications all through their LinkedIn account. As for the company, it seems to be a very streamlined option for screening viable candidates with easy access to recommendations and integration with a number of existing Applicant Tracking Systems. Could this possibly be the end of resumes? Source

Twitter allows flagging NSFW tweets
Have you ever clicked on a link from your Twitter feed only to find yourself looking at something you shouldn’t be looking at on your work computer (or any computer for that matter)? Twitter has now devised a way to prevent this potentially embarrassing situation. Twitter developers announced last Thursday changes to the API that will allow users to tag tweeted links as “possibly sensitive” content. This new feature only pertains to tweets with links as it does not censor the tweet itself, but rather the content it links to. Users will be able to flag the linked content in both their own tweets and other users’ tweets. I am personally excited about this feature as I plan to flag the bejezus out of those darn spammers! Source

Twitter rolls out brand promoted tweets

The Twitter gang must have had one crazy week because they also announced on Thursday their latest ad product, “Promoted Tweets.” This new service will display ads as tweets at the top of your timeline according to the brands you follow. This tweet will only show on your timeline once and can be easily dismissed with one click. In addition to brands like Gatorade and Dell, nonprofits such as the American Red Cross and Water.org will also be releasing Promoted Tweets. Source

An example of a Promoted Tweet from Nike Soccer that came up on my feed this morning.

Google+ is running out of steam?
It looks like the Google+ has hit a traffic lull. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that according to web market researcher Experian Hitwise,  the number of user visits fell 3 percent from the previous week and users have been spending less time on the site. This comes after reports of Google+’s user base jumping to 20 million in just three weeks after its launch. But I wouldn’t worry because this plateau is to be expected. Google+’s membership has yet to be open for public registration and I bet you all the change in my pocket that membership will shoot up once it becomes available to everyone with a Google profile. Plus, this site has only been around for four weeks. Users are still figuring out what to do with it — at least I know I am! So I wouldn’t count out G+ just yet. I’d say this is the calm before the storm. Source