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CBS Embraces Social Media For Fall TV Launch

September 12, 2011 By Christina Warren Leave a Comment


The Fall TV season officially kicks off this week — and CBS.com is celebrating with two weeks of social media events for fans.

Starting Monday night, CBS.com will be running an online introduction to CBS’s fall schedule, called the Fall Premiere Show. After watching a set of 15-minute online previews, fans of CBS series — such as Hawaii Five-0, NCIS and CSI — can join live online chats with the shows producers. Each night this week, fans can login using Facebook or Twitter, ask the producers questions and discuss the show in real-time.

The chats, with the exception of CSI, are scheduled to coincide with the East Coast re-runs of each show’s season finale from last spring. Here’s the schedule and official Twitter hashtag for each show:

  • September 12 – Hawaii Five-0 at 10pm ET (#H50)
  • September 13 – NCIS at 8pm ET (#NCIS)
  • September 14 – CSI at 7pm ET (#CSI)
  • September 15 – The Mentalist at 10pm ET (#TheMentalist)
  • September 16 – CSI:NY at 9pm ET (#CSINY)

Tweet Week Returns

Live chats are just the start. From September 19 through September 26, CBS is bringing back its online Tweet Week promotion. Each night, CBS fans can follow along on Twitter or at CBS’s Tweet Week page to interact with actors and producers during the season premiere of some of CBS’s existing shows.

Fans can follow the hashtag #CBSTweetWeek, or follow the Twitter accounts of each show’s actors or producers.

These are the shows that will be live-tweeting their premiere’s during Tweet Week:

  • September 19 – Hawaii Five-0
  • September 20 – NCIS: Los Angeles
  • September 21 – Survivor and Criminal Minds
  • September 22 – The Big Bang Theory
  • September 23 – A Gifted Man
  • September 26 – The Good Wife

As Bravo’s Lisa Hsia noted at Mashable Connect, getting talent actively involved with a social media strategy is essential to building greater community engagement. And of course, CBS isn’t the only network that is embracing social media this year. Fox, ABC and NBC are also actively courting their audiences using social channels. We look forward to looking at the ratings to see what impact social media has (or doesn’t have) — and what shows hit it big and what shows fizzle out.

Does social media enhance the network TV experience? Let us know what you think in the comments.

More About: cbs, facebook, social tv, tweet week, twitter

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, cbs, entertainment, Facebook, News, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, Social Networking, social tv, tv, tweet week, Twitter

Facebook Begins Testing Friend Filters in News Feed [PICS]

September 8, 2011 By Ben Parr Leave a Comment


Facebook has begun testing a slew of changes to News Feed, including friend list filters and smart lists that automatically categorizes your friends.

The changes seem to be aimed at making the content within News Feed more relevant. These changes, as far as we can ascertain from screenshots sent to us, show that Facebook is dividing News Feed into lists, much like Google+ has done with Circles. “Feed filters make it easy to see a selected set of friend’s updates in one place and share exclusive with them,” Facebook’s guide to the new feature states.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment on this story.

One of the most interesting aspects of the revamped News Feed is the addition of Smart Lists. Smart Lists automatically sort your friends into a work list, a list for classmates and a list for friends who live within 50 miles of your current city. This makes it easy to post updates just to your college friends or to talk about a local party with just your nearby friends.

The changes are likely to be construed as a response to the rise of Google+, whose Circles feature makes it easy to share content with smaller groups. Facebook has always had Friend Lists as a feature, but less than 5% of users utilize them in any meaningful way. These changes are designed to fix that.

Check out the screenshots below, and let us know what you think of revamped Facebook News Feed in the comments.


Facebook List Feed Filters




Facebook's List Feed Filters let you filter your news feed by specific groups of friends, much like Google+ Circles.


Friend List Explanation




Facebook explains Friend Lists.


Facebook Smart Lists




Facebook automatically organizes your work friends, school friends and nearby friends into lists.


Facebook Sharing




Facebook explains how users can share posts with just close friends or other friend lists.


News Feed Organization




Facebook explains how to organize your News Feed.

Hat tip to Nick Starr.

More About: facebook, Facebook news feed

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: *Sub-Channels*, Blogging, Facebook, Facebook news feed, News, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, Social Networking, Top Stories

Facebook Adds Clinton’s Former Chief of Staff to Board

September 7, 2011 By Ben Parr Leave a Comment


Facebook has announced that former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles has been added to its board of directors.

Bowles served as Bowles served as President Bill Clinton’s head of the Small Business Administration in 1993 before becoming deputy White House chief of staff in 1994 and chief of staff in 1996. Before that, Bowles founded his own investment bank and co-founded venture capital firm Kitty Hawk Capital and private equity firm Carousel Capital.

Bowles is also the president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system and is currently co-chair of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

“Erskine has held important roles in government, academia and business which have given him insight into how to build organizations and navigate complex issues,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement. “Along with his experience founding companies, this will be very valuable as we continue building new things to help make the world more open and connected.”

Bowles will join an all-star board of directors that includes Peter Tiel (PayPal, Founders Fund, Clarium Capital), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Donald Graham (Washington Post), Jim Breyer (Accel Partners), Marc Andreessen (Andreessen Horowitz, Netscape) and Zuckerberg. Hastings joined the board in June to guide the company as it prepares for its highly-anticipated IPO.

More About: erskine bowles, facebook

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: *Sub-Channels*, Blogging, business, erskine bowles, Facebook, News, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, Social Networking, Top Stories

Google Offers Goes Live in Five More Cities

September 7, 2011 By Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment


Google Offers, the search giant’s daily deals competitor to Groupon, is going live in Austin, Texas; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Denver; and Seattle on Wednesday, bringing the total number of markets for the service to eight.

In Austin, Google is offering $5 for $10 worth of food and drink at Juan in a Million, a Mexican restaurant. In Boston, there’s a similar deal for $10 worth of gourmet ice cream at Toscanini’s Ice Cream in Cambridge. The full list of deals is outlined on Google’s Commerce Blog.

SEE ALSO: Are We Approaching the End of the Daily Deals Era?

Google unveiled Google Offers in January. Since that time, others have jumped into the space, including Amazon, which is also a major investor in LivingSocial. However, the segment seems to have cooled off some, with both Facebook and Yelp shuttering their daily deals offerings. Even Groupon, the pioneer in daily deals, may be feeling the strain; the company is reportedly delaying its IPO until market conditions improve.

Image courtesy of Flickr, joi

More About: amazon, facebook, Google Offers, groupon, LivingSocial

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: amazon, Blogging, business, Facebook, Google Offers, groupon, LivingSocial, Marketing, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking

Keep Your Online Friends in Line With Social Media Citations

September 7, 2011 By Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment


We all have friends or friends of friends in our social networks who just don’t know the rules. Now there’s a way to gently educate them and bolster your self-regard at the same time.

A company called Knock Knock is offering Social Media Citations, modeled off the ones cops distribute in real life. The citations include social media faux pas such as “poking,” ”’Liking’ your own status,” “lurking” and “oversharing.”

For $4.50, you can get a pack of 50 note pad style citations. Interestingly, there’s no online version so it’s unclear how you’re supposed to give them out. (Snail mail? Leave them on a colleague’s desk?)

Of course, social media etiquette is still a work in progress. But if you want to single out those egregious offenders — like the FarmVille addict or friend who posts inspirational quotes on a daily basis — these might do the trick.


[Via All Things D]

More About: etiquette, facebook, Social Media

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Facebook for iPhone Gets Big Privacy Upgrade [PICS]

September 6, 2011 By Christina Warren Leave a Comment


Facebook has updated its iPhone app with a slew of new features and privacy controls, many of which mirror recent enhancements to the website.

Facebook for iPhone 3.5 [iTunes link] now lets users tag friends and places in posts and share external links from the web view. It also makes it easier to control who can see what posts, matching the enhanced controls now available on Facebook.com. The app also features redesigned Profile and Group walls, making both more streamlined and clean.

Additionally, Facebook fixed a number of bugs and made some performance enhancements. We really like the update and are especially impressed with Facebook’s new privacy options tour that accompanies the app the first time it is launched.

On the downside, 9to5 Mac reports that Facebook has taken this update opportunity to remove the Facebook for iPad code that accidentally leaked out in July. An official iPad app remains missing in action.

Let us know what you think of the new update in the comments.


Update Notes





New Privacy Controls




This pop-up guide launches when you start Facebook for iPhone after installing the update.


Tour: Tagging





Tour: Location





Tour: Groups Control





Updated Status




A status update tagging a person and a location.


Status Privacy Options




You can select the audience and/or friends list for your post controls.


Status Privacy Selection





Status Messsage





Profile Wall View




The layout and "About" section are slightly modified and more streamlined.


Groups Wall View




The wall view for Groups is more streamlined as well.


Share External Links




External links can now be shared within Facebook.


External Link Preview




A preview of an external link share.

More About: facebook, iphone, iphone apps

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Apps & Software, Blogging, Facebook, iphone, iphone apps, mobile, Mobile Apps, News, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, Social Networking, tech

Google Considers Suggested User Feature for Google+

September 2, 2011 By Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment

Google is mulling a Twitter-like suggested user feature for Google Plus.

Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product at Google, floated the idea via a tweet Friday afternoon:


A Google rep confirmed that the search engine giant is “exploring suggested users” and wants to start a dialog with people who have big Twitter followings. The tweak would be just the latest to Google+, which also got a Chrome-based translation feature this past week and an “ignore” option for annoying people in the network.

Twitter introduced a suggested user list in 2009 and then scrapped it later that year, though the company introduced a more personalized list in 2010. Facebook also experimented with a suggested user list last year.

More About: facebook, Google Plus, Suggested User List, twitter

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Filed Under: Facebook, Google, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, google plus, News, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, Social Networking, Suggested User List, Twitter

Storyteller App Turns Facebook Posts Into Sponsored Stories [PICS]

September 1, 2011 By Ben Parr Leave a Comment


Social brand marketing service Wildfire has launched a Facebook App focused on creating better content for Facebook’s Sponsored Stories.

Facebook launched Sponsored Stories in January and pitched it as a more social and engaging ad format. Brands can turn user activity such as checkins, wall posts and likes into a small advertisement that appears to the right of the Newsfeed. If your friend checks into a Starbucks via Facebook, his or her checkin could make an appearance as a sponsored post the next time you open up your Facebook account.

We’ve heard good things about Sponsored Stories, but it does come with issues. The biggest one is that advertisers don’t control the content that appears in an advertisement. The problem is that most Sponsored Stories are boring. Seeing someone “like” the Starbucks Facebook Page is far less engaging than a Facebook status update talking about how much he or she loves the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte.

We suspect that’s why Facebook asked Wildfire to develop an app to make Sponsored Stories more engaging. The result is is the Wildfire Storyteller App, a Facebook application focused on turning user feedback and opinions into not just Newsfeed stories, but Sponsored Stories as well.

The application allows brands to add a new tab to their Facebook Pages. On this tab, brands can ask their fans to answer a question or provide an opinion (e.g. What’s your favorite thing about Mashable?). Users can then share those answers with their Facebook friends and post it onto their walls. These wall posts can be customized to include images, videos and descriptions the brand wants to include. A film would be able to share a promotional poster and a description in every single wall post generated from the app.

That’s not what makes this app special, though. The app’s real purpose is to generate engaging Sponsored Stories ads from all of those user responses. By asking the right question, brands can create far more engaging social ads. My friends are more likely to click on a Starbucks Sponsored Stories ad if it says “I love the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte!” than if it just says I checked into my local Starbucks franchise. Storyteller also comes with filtering options so negative comments don’t appear in Facebook ads.

Wildfire Interactive CEO Victoria Ransom says that ads generated via the Storyteller app are four times more effective than traditional Sponsored Stories. While the traditional Facebook had has a 3.3% conversion rate, Storyteller-generated ads have a 17% conversion rate. Ransom warns that Sponsored Stories are more effective with larger brands, since smaller brands simply don’t have the reach to make Sponsored Stories effective.

What do you think of Wildfire’s new Storyteller app? Is it something your company would use? Let us know your opinions in the comments.


Storyteller Tab




The user will see something like this when he or she clicks the Storyteller tab. It lets users post feedback, reactions or opinions to their Facebook walls.


Storyteller Admin Panel




Managing a Storyteller campaign is relatively straightforward.


Storyteller Sponsored Stories




Storyteller syncs up with Sponsored Stories. This makes it possible to run ads with engaging content from users, which increases the conversion rate of the ads.

More About: facebook, facebook stories, Storyteller App, wildfire

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, facebook stories, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, startup, Storyteller App, wildfire

Storyteller App Turns Facebook Posts Into Sponsored Stories [PICS]

September 1, 2011 By Ben Parr Leave a Comment


Social brand marketing service Wildfire has launched a Facebook App focused on creating better content for Facebook’s Sponsored Stories.

Facebook launched Sponsored Stories in January and pitched it as a more social and engaging ad format. Brands can turn user activity such as checkins, wall posts and likes into a small advertisement that appears to the right of the Newsfeed. If your friend checks into a Starbucks via Facebook, his or her checkin could make an appearance as a sponsored post the next time you open up your Facebook account.

We’ve heard good things about Sponsored Stories, but it does come with issues. The biggest one is that advertisers don’t control the content that appears in an advertisement. The problem is that most Sponsored Stories are boring. Seeing someone “like” the Starbucks Facebook Page is far less engaging than a Facebook status update talking about how much he or she loves the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte.

We suspect that’s why Facebook asked Wildfire to develop an app to make Sponsored Stories more engaging. The result is is the Wildfire Storyteller App, a Facebook application focused on turning user feedback and opinions into not just Newsfeed stories, but Sponsored Stories as well.

The application allows brands to add a new tab to their Facebook Pages. On this tab, brands can ask their fans to answer a question or provide an opinion (e.g. What’s your favorite thing about Mashable?). Users can then share those answers with their Facebook friends and post it onto their walls. These wall posts can be customized to include images, videos and descriptions the brand wants to include. A film would be able to share a promotional poster and a description in every single wall post generated from the app.

That’s not what makes this app special, though. The app’s real purpose is to generate engaging Sponsored Stories ads from all of those user responses. By asking the right question, brands can create far more engaging social ads. My friends are more likely to click on a Starbucks Sponsored Stories ad if it says “I love the Starbucks Chai Tea Latte!” than if it just says I checked into my local Starbucks franchise. Storyteller also comes with filtering options so negative comments don’t appear in Facebook ads.

Wildfire Interactive CEO Victoria Ransom says that ads generated via the Storyteller app are four times more effective than traditional Sponsored Stories. While the traditional Facebook had has a 3.3% conversion rate, Storyteller-generated ads have a 17% conversion rate. Ransom warns that Sponsored Stories are more effective with larger brands, since smaller brands simply don’t have the reach to make Sponsored Stories effective.

What do you think of Wildfire’s new Storyteller app? Is it something your company would use? Let us know your opinions in the comments.


Storyteller Tab




The user will see something like this when he or she clicks the Storyteller tab. It lets users post feedback, reactions or opinions to their Facebook walls.


Storyteller Admin Panel




Managing a Storyteller campaign is relatively straightforward.


Storyteller Sponsored Stories




Storyteller syncs up with Sponsored Stories. This makes it possible to run ads with engaging content from users, which increases the conversion rate of the ads.

More About: facebook, facebook stories, Storyteller App, wildfire

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, facebook stories, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Social Networking, startup, Storyteller App, wildfire

Top 25 Most-Shared Mashable Stories in August

September 1, 2011 By Brian Anthony Hernandez Leave a Comment

icons image

You really like your coffee, don’t you?

In a month where Steve Jobs stepped down as Apple’s CEO, Google acquired Motorola Mobility and HP discontinued webOS operations, Mashable readers focused on the story about the Pumpkin Spice Latte’s return to Starbucks, which tops our monthly most-shared stories list.

The big social networks also attracted significant attention as Twitter plopped “user galleries” on profiles, Facebook overhauled privacy settings and President Barack Obama joined Foursquare.

Based on figures from Mashable Follow‘s M Share button, the following 25 stories got the most love, with all of them garnering about 240,000 combined shares on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon and Google Buzz. To keep track of the most-shared stories at anytime, log into Mashable Follow and click on “Top Stories” next to the Mashable logo. You’ll have the option to view the top stories of the day, week, month or year.

Which stories will you remember the most as the year progresses? Which stories are missing?

Filed Under: Facebook, Google, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: apple, Blogging, Facebook, features, foursquare, google plus, infographics, iphone, Mobile 2.0, Mobile Apps, News, Opinion, privacy, search engine optimization, security, SEO, social good, social media, Social Networking, starbucks, tech, technology, Twitter, video
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