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But the fascination with Google+ as a would-be Facebook killer obscures the larger story about what Google+ offers.

Google+ is really two things. One is a destination for connecting with friends and subjects that interest them. When the press writes about Google+, it's usually in this context. But Google+ plays a second role, as a product that improves other products. Google tends to talk about this in abstract terms -- it's "a social spine;" it's a "fabric;" it "weaves" Google products together. Let's try to be a little more concrete about what Google+ is doing besides giving people a Facebook alternative.

Google+ is a single sign-on system. Until the social network launched in June 2011, users of various Google services used different identities for each.

For now, the deals will be limited to a percentage off and will only be good in store -- Target is hoping Cartwheel will serve as a traffic driver. That also allows the marketer to offer a variety of deals for groceries, which are only available in store.

part of the retailer's new digital savings program, built with Facebook and dubbed Cartwheel. The program, with the tagline "A whole new spin on saving,

faintly similar to Facebook's early commerce foray, Beacon, where users automatically shared their purchases on Facebook.

More than a quarter (27%) of Facebook users plan to spend less time on the site this year, with 38% of those ages 18-29 planning to cut back, according to a new study by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

28% of users say the social network has become less important to them than it was a year ago, and 34% say the amount of time they are spending on Facebook has decreased over the past year.

Marketers are siphoning budgets from display campaigns on Twitter to its video ads, which when synchronised with TV media buys can lead to a 10 per cent lift in their return-on-investment from the legacy medium.

To propel its own video offering, Twitter is working on features such as demographic targeting and validation, gross rating point and target rating point as well as reporting.

We are focused on live premium content in all sports, news and politics as well as entertainment to bring together for our users what they are already talking about, what they already care about," added Bain.  The company will be hoping live streaming help lift its monthly active users. It’s been an ongoing problem for the social network and while it moved up slightly in the quarter, up to 310 million compared to 305 million in the previous one, growth has been fairly stagnant for the last year.

With Facebook's new Open Graph applications, you're not just limited to other people's apps -- you can also create your own apps that support your very own marketing initiatives! The new and improved Open Graph allows third-party developers to create 'frictionless' apps that, after a user provides permission once, automatically share users' engagement with the app on Facebook.

Use Facebook at the speed of light with Facebook keyword shortcuts for Google Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. Access Facebook's keyword shortcuts here.

PTAT brings everything together by measuring all of the individual Facebook users who have engaged with a page’s content and created a “story” in their News Feed and their friends News Feeds in the past seven days.

Prior to the introduction of PTAT in the Fall 2011, most marketers relied on a mashup of metrics – including the number of Likes, active users, comments and other performance indicators – to measure the health of their page.

According to Facebook the different types of stories measured in your PTAT score include: Liking your page Liking, commenting on, or sharing your page post Answering a Question you’ve asked Responding to your event Mentioning your page Tagging your page in a photo Checking in or recommending your place

"Four out of five U.S. adults are involved in a social network," Band adds. The result: Businesses are increasingly trying to follow their customers' social networking updates. It's a logical extension of CRM, which is designed to help businesses broaden their understanding of customers' interests, needs, and concerns. Many business relationships today begin on the Internet, as customers increasingly find businesses from Google searches, Facebook fan pages, and Website visits, adds Brent Leary, a CRM and small-business technology analyst. So it makes perfect sense to track and build those relationships using cloud CRM services, especially if they offer social network monitoring.

• Highrise is a cloud CRM system that many small businesses like. Along with its CRM features, the system provides various third-party customer service applications, such as MailChimp, an e-mail marketing campaign service. Highrise offers a free plan for two users with up to 250 contacts. Beyond that ceiling, monthly plans start at $24 for up to six users.

Over the past year, he's noticed more friends subverting Facebook's real name policy. "I have seen a growing trend of people who will shut down one page, let you know that they're opening a new one, and then they'll use an alias,"

acebook has known for a while that the things its users talk about are supremely interesting and relevant for advertisers. Twitter proved that basing an advertising model around brand mentions really works; Facebook is bound to follow suit. Already, we are seeing Facebook taking steps into Twitter’s territory by showcasing which topics and brands are trending in users’ News Feeds, and by aggregating hashtagged terms

Offline conversion for retailers. Speaking of consumers’ path-to-purchase on Facebook, the ability for retailers to track offline sales conversions from ads viewed on Facebook is another critical step Facebook is taking to give advertisers deeper insight into how their ads actually drive some type of consumer action.