The rule does NOT apply to standard images you upload to your page, but only images you promote in the newsfeed Thumbnail images for videos or links that you promote in the newsfeed as ads are subject to the 20% rule As of this week, announced in a tiny update on Facebook’s Developer Blog, the rule applies to application icons (which includes timeline tab images too) ***UPDATE***: Facebook reps have indicated that the text rule does NOT apply to the thumbnail icons, but they still recommend using images with little to no text.

Product shots (i.e. real life photos of a product) do not count against the rule. This means name tags, stop signs, text on the actual product, etc. – that’s all good to go and does not count towards your 20% text allotment “Tune-in” images for TV shows or movies have leeway as the title of the show/feature, the tune-in info, and the names of the actors and actresses involved do NOT count towards the 20%

Having Google Authorship allows the original author to claim dibs on original content; however, according to Mark Traphagen the acclaimed Google+ guru (he really is), there is nothing in place with Google + right now that protects any writer from content scraping.

it doesn’t prevent someone from copying your content, just wouldn’t allow them to outrank you for it. I suspect we will have to wait for implementation of Author Rank for that to be fully in effect,” said Mark in a Google+ thread with Neal, Frank Strong, and me.

Neal said in a recent G+ thread, ” I still recommend every blogger to at least include one internal link in each of their blog posts so that if their content does get copied, and it’s often copied as part of blogs automatically importing content through RSS feed manipulation, that at least you get a back link.“

51 percent of consumers want to talk about companies without being listened to, 58 percent want companies to respond to their complaints shared on social media.

32 percent of consumers of all ages and 38 percent of Millennials (18-24-year-olds) have no idea companies are listening to what they say in social media.

43 percent of consumers think listening online intrudes on privacy, even though this is "social" media. Boomers put up the biggest fight (36 percent said they don't want brands listening to what they say about brands online), while only 17 percent of Millennials said the same).

Twitter not only was best for generating leads, but it also showed the highest conversion rates. Compared to the 1.22% average for social media (which was below the 1.6% average for all site sources), Twitter had a 78% higher conversion rate (2.17%), easily outperforming LinkedIn (0.8%) and Facebook (0.74%). That’s despite LinkedIn having the highest engagement rate by pageviews per visit (2.5), and Twitter the least (1.5).

That all makes sense given separate results from the same survey indicating that 71% of company marketers plan to increase their digital marketing budgets this year.

Content marketing edges SEO (65%) and email marketing for engagement/retention (also 65%) as the most popular digital channel tabbed for a budget increase.

Other digital channels and disciplines to get a budget hike this year include social media investment (for engagement/retention – 62%), mobile marketing (for acquisition – 61%), and social media investment (for acquisition – 61%).

Only 28% saw their budget increase this year, while 69% stayed the same. Prospects were only slightly better for 2013, with 62% of budgets remaining static

top salaries, which hover above $125,000. A lot of people are still figuring out social media. Only 13% describe their efforts as advanced. Slightly more than half agreed with the statement, “We keep our heads above water, but not by much.”

“Ownership” of social media is murky, and the question may even become passé as numerous departments within organizations jump in

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.