Yes, we are all on Facebook. We all on Facebook so much so that I regularly communicate with my mother, sisters, cousins and even grandfather that way. For a lot of my friends and far-flung family, having an email address is almost silly now, as we interact regularly through status updates and photo comments. (For everything else, we have BBM, but that is another story).

With what seems like a zillion connections and not very much time, I’ve optimised my news feed to weed out those pesky Facebook game requests. It was Mafia Wars and Farmville requests, but now it seems to be all Cityville and updates on everyone’s Words with Friends scores. It sometimes feels like I am the only one not playing, but some of our recent research has shown that just over a quarter of those who use Facebook from a computer in the UK are playing Facebook games. While it isn’t everyone, it’s still a huge number of people.
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Facebook has chosen Morgan Stanley as the lead investment bank on its initial public offering and will file plans with the US Securities and Exchange Commission today. It is being reported that Facebook intends to raise around $5bn although that could rise to $10bn, which will value it at between $75bn and $100bn.

The appointment of Morgan Stanley means a considerably payday for the bank in what will be the biggest and most talked about IPO since Google in 2004. Read More »

One of social media’s greatest benefits to brands is the ability to scale up customer engagement for value creation. The most intimate and valuable type of interaction was until recently facilitated mostly by one on one engagements that demanded extensive human resources and expenditures. Now, powered by digital platforms, engagement reaches scale. Engagement via social media has more to offer than recruiting customers and driving sales.

It can help extend the customer life-time by creating loyalty, as well as optimise it by turning customers into advocates and enjoy additional leads and sales. And –finally, but potentially most importantly, engagement through social media can generate insights from customers, which can lead to better products and services. Read More »

Online social games company Zynga has said it plans to raise $1bn through an initial public offering, but also warned that a potential falling out with Facebook could derail its float.

If Zynga falls out with Facebook or Mark Zuckerberg & Co decide to grab a larger slice of the social games market for themselves, what happens then? Understandably some analysts are worried by this. Read More »

The big message coming from Facebook is that companies that manage to put what they call social design at the heart of their business will beat those that don’t.

Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, talked about this at length in her recent speech at the London School of Economics (LSE).  While her talk failed to answer many of the questions Facebook faces (leading many to focus instead on Sandberg’s superb delivery), social design was one concept that was communicated eloquently and, more importantly, carried intellectual weight. Read More »

Social gaming firm Zynga is to file for its initial public offering as early as next week, according to a report on AllThingsD.

The marker of Farmville and Petville will follow LinkedIn whose IPO last week saw the business social networking site valued at more than 500 times its earnings at around $8.5bn. Read More »

Music used to be MySpace’s strong suit, but Adweek reports that some in the music industry are now abandoning the social network.It carries a report about music ticketing startup Ticketfly. A natural fit for the News Corporation (for now) owned social network, but the site has almost zero dealings with MySpace. Its founder says the music business is now all about Twitter and Facebook.

The story comes in the same week when social gaming firm Zynga is also reported to be pulling some of its games from MySpace as well. Read More »

While the fate of MySpace remains undecided Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is preparing to take another crack at social media.

It is reported to be looking at building its own social-gaming business as it looks on at the success of companies like Farmville and Petville firm Zynga, which is now valued at around $10bn. A price tag that means it is way too pricey to acquire. Read More »

You’ve probably read the articles here and there about how social commerce is set to be one of the big trends of 2011. I’ve heard from lots agencies who are working on projects with clients to try Facebook stores.

So far this year we’ve already seen fashion brands Asos.com and French Connection open stores on Facebook and now FMCG giant Heinz is getting in on the action selling Ketchup on Facebook. Read More »