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Welcome to our weekly edition of what’s hot in social media news. To help you stay up-to-date with social media, here are some of the news items that caught our attention.
What’s New This Week?
Google+ Hangouts On Air Now Available Worldwide: Google+ Hangouts On Air was launched last September to a limited number of broadcasters and is now rolling out to the rest of the world. This means “you can now go live in front of a global audience.” Here’s a reminder of what you can do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pmSWh2BQco
Facebook Announces The App Center: The App Center is a new place for people to find social apps. “For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps”
What You Need To Know About Facebook’s IPO: Facebook’s initial public offering is expected to take place on May 18.
Discussion from our Networking Clubs: Thousands of social media marketers and small business owners are asking questions and helping others in our free Networking Clubs. Here are a few interesting discussions worth highlighting:
- Do you think of your blog as a social network?
- What are your favorite productivity apps?
- What’s your experience with Facebook Offers?
Google+ Notifications in Gmail Get More Interactive: You can now view, comment on and +1 Google+ notifications from your Gmail inbox. These updates will appear in your Google+ stream in real time and responses from others will appear in Gmail.
Google Offers Get Closer to Your Business: Android users in the U.S. can now find Google Offers from nearby businesses using the latest release of Google Maps. You will be able to “see all the Google Offers near you in list or map form, making it easy to get great deals from local businesses on the go.”
Twitter Tweaks the Tweet Design: “Now, when you hover over the newly redesigned tweet, you’ll always see options to reply, favorite or retweet in the lower-left corner against a grey background.”
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Tumblr Introduces Storyboard: Storyboard is Tumblr’s “new hub for in-depth conversations with Tumblr’s creative community.”
Foursquare Adds a History Page: With the “new, fully searchable history page, you can easily jump to all your past check-ins from any month or year, and even filter them by who you were with, what type of place you were at, or which neighborhood, city, or country you were in.”
Groupon Rewards Launches Nationwide in the U.S.: “When you visit a participating Groupon Rewards merchant and use the credit card saved in your Groupon account, Rewards are unlocked after you’ve spent a certain amount predetermined by the business.”
Here are a few useful social media tools worth noting:
WP Pinner: A WordPress plugin that lets you manage your Pinterest account. “With this plugin you can easily auto-pin WordPress posts, schedule your pins throughout the day, auto-follow users to get noted and keep track of your account (CTR, clicks, likes, repins, reach, etc.).”
Lujure: An easy tool for businesses to customize Facebook fan pages.
Curate Me: A tool to help you stay current, find good things to share and get content ideas.
And don’t miss this:
Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Success Summit 2012 (online conference) just started. It’s not too late to join!
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What social media news caught your interest this week? Please share your comments below.
