The FT reports that Facebook is launching a new system for measuring the impact of advertising on the social network as well as giving agencies the chance to buy premium ad slots in the news feed section for the first time.

News that Facebook is attempting to shore up confidence in its advertising platform comes after General Motors pulled its advertising and that Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook and several banks, including Morgan Standley, are to be sued by shareholders over concerns that they concealed information about “a severe and pronounced reduction” in Facebook revenue growth forecasts ahead of its disappointing IPO. Read More »

This is a nice idea from the Wall Street Journal. It has created a wealth-o-meter to track Facebook chief executive’s real-time worth.

Facebook’s performance in the few days since its IPO has been disappointing to say the least. It’s shares are down by $7 on the IPO price and are currently trading at $31. Read More »

This post is provided by our partner Headstream, the social brand agency behind the Social Brands 100.

Chiltern Railways has been shortlisted in the Social Brands 100.  Find out the results on Tuesday, 29 May on The Wall. Follow the conversation #sb100.

With 1.34 billion rail journeys taken in the year before March 2011, it’s fair to state that rail companies play a particularly prominent role in the lives of UK citizens. Read More »

Facebook shares are continuing to sink today and are currently almost $6 off of their IPO price of $38 having fallen as low as $31.03.

As they continue to perform in a lacklustre fashion people are starting to ask what went wrong with one of them most anticipated IPOs in years? Read More »

While doubts circle about advertising on Facebook WPP Group has pushed ahead with a deal with social software firm Buddy Media and chosen it as its preferred social ad management partner for handling Facebook advertising across its various media agencies.

The news comes on the heels of General Motors and others last week raising doubts about the value of advertising on Facebook. Read More »

Jean Jacques Rousseau’s classic work of social and political philosophy – The Social Contract  (published in 1762),  starts famously with the words – Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Although it may not seem immediately apparent, there is a direct link between this philosophical work of the 18th Century and Facebook.

The central tenet of Rousseau’s work, is that all individuals must enter into a social contract with others in order to create a free and equal society. Rousseau believed that liberty was possible only where there was direct rule by the people as a whole, and where ‘popular sovereignty’ was indivisible and inalienable. Read More »

UPDATE: Facebook shares failed to bounce back last night and ended up down by almost 11% or $4 on their $38 IPO price.

The Rupert Murodch-owned New York Post gave its view of the Facebook IPO with this Monday front cover as it dubbed investors “ZUCKERS!”.  Read More »

Remember how we scoffed at those hapless souls who put their bank details up on Facebook when the social network first became popular?  It now looks as though this was a misguided but ultimately accurate premonition of a future development in social media.

Whispers abound that Facebook is moving towards becoming the first social network to offer its customers banking services, and research and advisory company Gartner suggests that a social network, most likely Facebook, will rollout this service within the next two years.  Read More »

How complicated exactly is social media marketing? If you look beyond Facebook, Twitter and Google+ the sea of social media sites, tools and platforms makes for a dizzying sight as this infographic highlights.

Not only that but it has become seriously more busy in the the last year alone. You get a really good idea of that from this “Social media map of the world” we published back in 2010. Read More »

The Pakistani government yesterday blocked access Twitter after accusing it of being responsible for promoting what it said was a blasphemous cartoon contest on Facebook.

Pakistan has previously blocked Facebook and YouTube as well as hundreds of web pages over what it deems “sacrilegious content”. Much of that happened two years ago during the ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!’ group on Facebook. Read More »