Today's Buzz

• Top Facebook apps transmit identifying user data to marketers
  Some of Facebook's most popular applications can record identifying data about users, as well as their friends, and send the data to marketing and Web-tracking companies. The issue could affect tens of millions of Facebook users, including some users with their privacy settings arranged for maximum discretion. Facebook officials pledged to address the issue, and closed down some of the apps caught sharing user data. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (10/18)

More than 17 hours of B2B social media insights for just $99. From the comfort of your desk, join Jeremiah Owyang, Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki, and B2B social media marketing practitioners from companies like Adobe, Cisco, Intel, and SAP at SocialTech 2010 (live online Oct. 26, then on-demand for 3 months). Reserve your seat today.

• Will Google ever get social media right?
  So far, Google's forays into the social-media world haven't ended well, and while the search giant has another major social offering in the pipeline, some at the company worry that the company's geek culture makes it inherently unable to run an effective social network. "There is some belief at Google that their DNA is not perfectly suited to build social products, and it's a quite controversial topic internally. ... The part of social that's about stalking people, sharing photos, looking cool -- it's mentally foreign to engineers," says one staffer who has worked on the company's social-media projects. The New York Times (tiered subscription model) (10/17)

• Yahoo! to unveil login system to rival Facebook Platform
  Yahoo! will roll out a new third-party login system, dubbed Y Connect, in an effort to rival Facebook's Platform service. The system will let users log in to sites using their Yahoo! ID, and will make it easier to share content. Analysts say the service could do particularly well in Asia, where Yahoo!'s brand recognition is somewhat greater than Facebook's. The Wall Street Journal (tiered subscription model) (10/17)

• Study: Twitter chatter can predict stock market trends
  Tweets might have the power to predict shifts in the price of stocks, according to a group of U.S. researchers. The scientists used a sentiment-analysis algorithm to determine whether the prevailing mood of tweeters was calm or panicky, and found that jittery Twitter chatter closely correlated with a slump in stock prices between two and six days later. The group says that after reviewing almost 10 million tweets, they've shown that their algorithm can predict daily stock market trends with an accuracy rate of about 88%. MIT Technology Review/The Physics ArXiv Blog (10/2010)

• Social media must be integrated for success, says Ford exec
  Ford is working to integrate social media into every department to ensure that it becomes part of the company's DNA, says Ford social-media chief Scott Monty. The company's successes in social-media marketing come from taking an integrated approach that incorporates earned, paid and owned media within a single campaign, he says. "Social media is front and center. ... It's baked in from the beginning. It's not an afterthought, where you get the rubber stamp, 'what are we doing for social media?' kind of thing," he says. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media (10/18)

• 4 things you need to host a successful tweetup
  Jason Falls writes that he has learned that every good tweetup has four things: a compelling narrative, a charming host, a suitable venue and a bevy of interesting and interested people. "You take the social media crowd, which is by nature extroverted, put them in a venue where they can meet and greet and put a fun drink in their hand and you're going to have a good time. The people make the party," he writes. Social Media Explorer (10/15)

• How to avoid annoying your Facebook fans
  Brands need to tread a fine line between engaging their fans with fresh content and bombarding them with spam, write Morgan Stewart and Michele Souder. Over-sharing is the quickest way to alienate your audience and tarnish your online reputation. "Post too often and you risk turning your Fans off. ... If you don't have something new, don't feel compelled to share," Stewart and Souder write. MediaPost Communications/Engage: Gen Y blog (10/15)

Featured Content

• For the past 2 weeks, we have turned our poll questions and analysis over to 4 guest bloggers, each vying to become SmartBrief on Social Media's next poll analyst. We think they've all done a great job -- but it's up to you to decide who gets the honor.
  
  Who do you think should be our new poll analyst?
  

	Mirna Bard, for her question/post "Do consumers want to be treated as individuals?"
	Jeremy Victor, for his question/post "Has social media for business hit the mainstream?"
	Erik Deckers, for his question/post "Is ghost blogging an acceptable business practice?"
	Mike Sansone, for his question/post "What's your role in the social-media ecosystem?"

• The big retweet
  Every day, we search our SmartBrief on Social Media Reader List and reprint one great tweet. Just include #ireadSBoSM in your next tweet and we'll add you to the community. Not only will you find other like-minded readers looking to network, your next tweet might end up in lights!

  RT @genewickerjr "How to Screw Up Your Social Media Strategy" http://bit.ly/dsn5Ot

  

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Social Media readers in the past week.

• Keep things simple to keep your Facebook fans happy (SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media)

• Report: Facebook is for sharing, Twitter is for clicking (FastCompany.com)

• 3 ways to stay on top of your fans' Facebook feeds (SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media)

• Gap discards its new logo after social-media outcry (Advertising Age (tiered subscription model))

• Survey: 92% of Facebook fans are brand advocates (Adweek)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

• SmartBrief on Social Media job board launches this week
  See your company's name in lights: Post your jobs now on the new SmartBrief on Social Media job board. Jobs will start running on Wednesday.

Google's culture is very much based on the power of the algorithm, and it's very difficult to algorithm social interaction." --Charlene Li, founder of Altimeter Group, as quoted by The New York Times