Today Facebook debuts on the Nasdaq stock market in the US at $38 a share and will be valued at $104bn, netting Mark Zuckerburg $19bn. Yesterday we heard that Pinterest could be valued at $1.5bn. Recently, iPhone app Instagram was bought by Facebook for $1bn.

Social media has become embedded into our everyday lives, into business, the media and Government. It’s why the companies behind the technology are deemed such prized commodities at the moment. While the disruption that social media services have caused is indisputable, whether these services are so deeply meshed into our existence that they really are long term financially viable propositions is less clear. Is the age of sharing going to finish as quickly as it started?

To coin a phrase, if looks like a bubble, and acts like a bubble, it probably is a bubble.
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The number of tweets posted by journalists from UK media outlets fell by almost 25%, according to the latest NewsTweet Index from PR firm Portland, with big falls at Sky News, which could be linked to its controversial social media guidelines introduced earlier this year.

Overall apparent changes in the tweeting habits of some of the UK’s top journalists saw 80,000 fewer tweets sent in the last three months compared to the previous quarter despite the ongoing economic turmoil, elections, big tax (and pastie) stories, the government’s problems and the on going Leveson inquiry, which all featured heavily. Read More »

It’s the question on everyone’s lips today – would you invest in Facebook? As the company finalises its IPO price ahead of its market debut on Friday, the general consensus is a positive one – early reports show a huge amount of interest in owning a tiny piece of Facebook’s 900-million-user success story. Predictions suggest that the share price could push valuation up to $104bn – according to the Telegraph, this makes it more ‘valuable’ than both Disney and Ford.

So, for Facebook’s early investors, payday has arrived. But surely the fact that so many of them are cashing in should be a warning to wannabe buyers? If you invested in 2004, you’re laughing – the social network’s value has exploded to such an extent that even someone like U2’s Bono, who owns fewer than 2% of the shares, is set to be a billionaire and the world’s richest rock star by the weekend. Read More »