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Facebook’s June 20 new product announcement is gathering a lot of curiosity by the technology business world. We are all in anticipation over what Facebook will release and how we think it will affect the lives of Facebook users, which now account for 1 in 7 people across the planet. Early indicators based on code released by Facebook point to some form of an RSS tool. From a user functionality point of view, a feature with RSS feed could be a new channel to find information, or track trending topics within Facebook. Similar to how Reddit has built a very successful aggregator of information through user submitted and promoted content, Facebook could potentially optimize its News Feed to include trending topics amongst Facebook users. Recent interface changes would also support this theory. For example, Facebook has added nested comments making it easier to for users to have conversations based on comments as is popular in Reddit. Other changes within the Facebook interface seem to point in the direction that Facebook is working on a much larger goal. It would appear that Facebook has their sights set on becoming a player in the search marketing business. It started with the introduction of the Open Graph, as Facebook opened their walled garden to include objects that exist outside of the Facebook network. Then they rolled out Graph Search, which makes it much easier to search socially for things like “songs my friends like” or “restaurants my friends like.” We’ve also recently seen the addition of interactive hashtags, making it possible to search for trends and other popular topics. From a business standpoint, it begs the question: Who should be worried about these changes? Google and Twitter have the most to lose should Facebook successfully enter the search game. In the short term, Twitter has the most at risk. Hashtags in Facebook are a clone of Twitter’s most popular feature and Facebook already has the larger network of users. If Facebook users quickly adopt hashtags, it could have an immediate impact on those Twitter users who use the service primarily to track trends. In the long term, Google will need to keep an eye on Facebook as advertisers look for digital advertising options. Today, Google still dominates the direct response market, especially in key categories like retail and travel based on implied behavior from keyword intentions. For example, someone who uses the “Samsung Galaxy” is most likely looking to either buy the latest Samsung Galaxy phone or they are looking to research the product. Facebook’s Open Graph Search has the potential to be more accurate than keyword intention. Instead of searching just for a keyword, consumers can tap their social network for purchasing advice via searches like “what smartphones do my friends use” or “where is the best site to buy a smart phone?” Google+ already shows that Google is playing the defensive as they try to build up a social network to supplement keyword data with social demographics. At the end of the day, Facebook, Google, and Twitter all run on the same advertising business model. The company that will succeed will be the one who can deliver the best relevance between consumer and advertiser. If Facebook can put together a search engine that enables a more natural way to find information via searchable web behavior based on Open Graph data, it will attract the big advertising budgets that currently flow primarily to Google.  Joe McCormack has more than a decade of digital marketing experience and currently serves as the CEO of Adotomi, a Facebook PMD. Joe sits on the board of directors at multiple technology companies and is a long-time expert on the advertising technology industry. Adotomi is a Social Advertising Technology company which works with some of the biggest brands, developers and agencies in the world including SodaStream, OMD, Konami, Playtika, and Wix. Main image courtesy of Shutterstock.

The Newcomers Guide To Twitter is a ten-part series of introductory lessons, tips and suggestions for people using Twitter for the first time. Please share these articles with your friends, family, colleagues and anyone you know who is struggling to “get Twitter”. So, you’ve studied the basics, chosen the perfect username, setup your profile at Twitter.com, started following some cool people and picked up some followers yourself. Now, you need to figure out a way to hold on to them, and attract more folks to your Twitter table, and the best way to do that is to write great tweets. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

As Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and LinkedIn have become an integral part of our everyday routines, sharing private information about ourselves publicly to these channels has in turn become the norm which, in some cases, can be hazardous. In the face of Twitter account hacks, the recent controversy over the NSA’s data mining, and Facebook phishing, how do you keep your data safe? continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Small businesses are deceiving. Why? Because there's really nothing small about them. The ideas that spark them, the minds that lead them, the risks that advance them, and the heart that goes into them -- they're all pretty ... big. Not to mention, small businesses have been responsible for over 67% of the net new jobs created from mid-2009 to 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That ain't peanuts. We know that small businesses get their name from company size -- generally, businesses with fewer than 500 employees are considered "small" -- but I've always heard that good things come in small packages. Since 1963, the U.S. has been celebrating all the big things small businesses have been doing with National Small Business Week, an annual, nationwide week of recognition complete with workshops, events, and inspiring talks from business leaders. This week praises all the small business leaders and team members who have been bold enough to invest their resources and efforts into something different. And guess what? Small Business Week kicked off this past Monday. But don't worry, it's not too late to join the party. Small businesses are fueling the economy and innovation, and we can all learn a thing or two from the risk-takers pioneering the small business sector. So we gathered wise words from small business owners and experts to get a glimpse into how rewarding, challenging, inspiring, and lovable building a small business can be. The Best Advice For Small Businesses From Experts Who Have Lived It from HubSpot All-in-one Marketing Software Expert Small Business Advice From Real Entrepreneurs & Experts Craig Brown, Founder & CEO, Recruitment Rocket “In my opinion, the greatest key to small business success is to not hold your cards too close to your chest. Tell people about your great idea. Tell anyone who will listen. Actively seek feedback from the larger community as a whole, with a particular emphasis on potential customers. You'll be surprised at how many people will be both willing and able to contribute." Eric Dosal, Co-Founder & CEO, BrightGauge Software "Starting a small business is like riding an intense roller coaster. There are tons of twists, turns, loops, ups, and downs. Sometimes you manage the business thinking about the next quarter, and sometimes it's just managing hour by hour. The key is to stay focused and enjoy the thrill of the ride." Shawn Graham, Small Business Owner, Fast Company Blogger, and Marketing Consultant to Small Businesses “Unlike huge corporations, as a small business owner you have a chance to interact with your customers face-to-face on a daily basis. By treating each and every touch point as an opportunity to gain a better understanding of your customers, you’re ensuring your small business will continue to grow and evolve to meet their unique needs and expectations.” Laura Fitton, Inbound Evangelist at HubSpot and Founder of oneforty (Acquired by HubSpot) “People say that small businesses are hard work, but the reality is that it's hard work like you've never known -- you eat, sleep, live, and breathe your business. There's nothing harder, but there's also nothing better -- small business owners are some of the the world's most wonderful, dedicated, and intelligent innovators." Mark Lingo, President, Precise Hire “Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake once said, ‘So often people are working hard at the wrong thing. Working on the right thing is probably more important than working hard.’ After working hard for 13 years as a small business owner, these words ring true with me more than ever.” Ryan Koral, Owner, Tell “Being a small business owner is the best. It's incredibly hard but it's been totally worth it. I love creating -- and I love being a part of a team that cares about people and cares about telling stories. I doubt I could have a tougher job -- and I'm sure I couldn't have one that is more rewarding.” Arlyn Davich, CEO & Founder, PayPerks “Trust your idea enoug

During tonight’s LA Dodgers vs. New York Yankees game at 7:05 p.m. EST, there will be as much game-time entertainment online as on the field as 85-year-old Vin Scully takes over the Dodgers’ Twitter account for his first live tweetcast. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Did you know that 91 percent of B2B marketers use content marketing? And with good reason, too – blogs give websites 434 percent more index pages and 97 percent more index links, and B2B companies that actively blog generate 67 percent more leads per month. Overall, an incredible $118.4 billion is expected to be spent on content marketing, video marketing and social media in 2013. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Smartphone owners in the United Kingdom spent an average of almost two hours (119 minutes) per day using their devices in May, logging no less than 16 minutes using social networking sites, which finished second behind browsing the internet (24 minutes each day) as the most popular smartphone activity, reveals new research from O2 and Samsung. Listening to music (15 minutes), playing games and making calls (13 minutes each) rounded out the top five. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Mass Relevance Social curation and engagement platform Mass Relevance and marketing communications organization VivaKi announced a strategic partnership on Monday. The partnership will give all agencies with Publicis Groupe, which founded VivaKi in 2008, access to the Mass Relevance platform. The Mass Relevance platform can aggregate, filter and display posts from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube in real time. Publicis Groupe is currently one of the third largest buyers in the world for social advertising. The organization’s adoption of the Mass Relevance platform will give it a significant boost. The Mass Relevance platform has already powered social experiences for the the 2012 elections with CNN and Facebook; the Olympic Games with NBC and Twitter; as well as campaigns for brands like Pepsi and Doritos. Unified Enterprise marketing technology company Unified has announced the quarterly release of its cloud-based Social Operating Platform. In its spring 2013 release, the company has added more data-driven applications for more thorough insights. These applications include an insights application for tracking audience and engagement analytics as well as a content application for real-time feed optimization and monitoring. The company has also added an advertising application for cross-channel planning and buying. With these new applications, Unified adds to its existing capabilities such as automated ad creation, targeting, optimization, and programmatic bid management for native, mobile and premium Facebook ads.

Small businesses don't exactly have it easy. And with new marketing technologies emerging at a rapid pace in recent years, it's no wonder 59% of small business owners say it's harder to run a small business now than it was just five years ago. But "harder" may not necessarily be a bad thing, considering 72% of small business owners also expect their 2013 revenue to outperform their 2012 revenue. This all according to some new survey data from Constant Contact, brought to our attention by AllFacebook. The survey asked 917 small business owners to explain what it's like running their small business now compared to five years ago. Then, in honor of National Small Business Week (#SBW2013), Constant Contact compiled this data into an infographic to highlight the study's discoveries about how running a small business has changed. Take a look at the infographic, and feel free to share some of the tweetables below. 28 Tweetable Stats About Small Businesses Then vs. Now Difficulty 1) 59% of small business owners say it’s harder to run a business today than five years ago. Tweet This 2) Of the 59% of small business owners who say it's harder to run a business today, 55% said the economy has hit their business hard. Tweet This 3) Of the 59% of small business owners who say it's harder to run a business today, 49% said it's harder to keep pace with technology. Tweet This 4) Of the 59% of small business owners who say it's harder to run a business today, 40% said there's more direct competition. Tweet This5) Only 12% of small business owners said it's easier to run a business today than it was five years ago. Tweet This 6) Of the 12% of small business owners who say it's easier to run a business today, 89% say online marketing tools make it easier and less expensive to market their business. Tweet This Challenges 7) 84% of small business owners said using, or using more, online marketing tools is a big challenge today vs. five years ago. Tweet This 8) 59% of small business owners said general economic uncertainty is a big challenge today compared to five years ago. Tweet This 9) 27% of small business owners said using, or using more, automated business solutions (payroll, inventory, etc.) is a big challenge today compared to five years ago. Tweet This Marketing Tools 10) 98% of small business owners use email marketing today, compared to 64% five years ago. Tweet This 11) 87% of small business owners use social media marketing today, compared to 10% five years ago. Tweet This 12) 40% of small business owners ranked word-of-mouth as their most powerful marketing tool today, compared to 32% five years ago. Tweet This Top Concerns 13) 75% of small business owners said their top concern today is finding new customers, compared to 78% five years ago. Tweet This 14) 65% of small business owners said their top concern today is having enough time to do everything needed to run their business, compared to 61% five years ago. Tweet This 15) 58% of small business owners said their top concern today is retaining existing customers, compared to 49% five years ago. Tweet This Customer Data 16) 51% of small business owners said being locally owned and operated is a major reason why customers support their business today, up from the 42% five years ago. Tweet This 17) 55% of small business owners said the volume of customers has increased over the last five years. Tweet This 18) 49% of small business owners said customers spend more money at their business now than five years ago. Tweet This 19) 63% of small business owners said customers have higher expectations today than five years ago. Tweet This 20) Small business owners said customers expect more value (71%) and more discounts (52%) today than five years ago, making it harder to turn a profit today. Tweet This 21) Small business owners were fairly evenly split about whether it’s easier (30%) or harder (35%) to find new customers today. Tweet This 22) Of small business owners who think it's easi

The Daily Beast has released its BeastBest Awards, a selection of 82 websites and 95 Twitter feeds hand-picked by the editors. Each winner includes a photo or sample tweet, description, and link. You can also sort by genre – news, politics, parody, style, books, entertainment, etc. In short, it’s a major time-killer – in the best way. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.