I have seen and heard a lot of cute ways the news has been broken—ultrasound in a Father’s Day card was a really nice one I was witness to recently.

But forget the whole “human touch” thing….Now soon to be parents can more easily announce the news to their friends via the family member status option.

Users can update the Friends/Family section of their profiles to include an Expected: Child. You can also choose to add photo, name or due date of the expected.

As we’ve all heard, Google+ is now up to 25 million visitors after only being in market since June 28^th.  If you can believe it that rate of growth is faster than MySpace, Twitter and even the all mighty Facebook!   If you don’t believe me, check out the chart below:

Does this mean that Google + will one day surpass the popularity of Facebook? That is still left to be answered.  The engagement rates are still not up to par as people are still asking themselves what exactly is Google+ and why it even exits.  So why then is Google+ growing so quickly one might ask? Google has used their existing Gmail base to establish themselves as a true competitor in the social network world and it has worked.

What Google+ now decides to do with its growing user data base and how it will apply to advertisers will be their next big move!   Stay tuned advertising world, this just might change how we buy and use social media!

This is very interesting. France has officially banned the names of the top two social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, from being mentioned on radio or television…UNLESS, they are part of a news story. Dating back to a 1992 decree that says, “mentioning services by name is an act of advertising,” France has taken a stand against both of the social giants.

As described by Christine Kelly, a spokesperson for France’s Counseil Superieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA), “Why give preference to Facebook, which is worth billions of dollars, when there are many other social networks that are struggling for recognition. This would be a distortion of competition. If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it’s opening a Pandora’s Box– other social networks will complain to us saying, ‘why not us?’”

TechCrunch sums this up nicely, “Instead of referring to specific social networking pages, like saying ‘Find us at Facebook.com/Audi’ or follow us on ‘Twitter.com/Pepsi’ brands will have to skirt around the issue, saying things like ‘Find us on social networking sites!,’ or directing viewers to their community pages and hoping that viewers will just pick up on where to go.”

France has a history of trying to regulate language used on air. According to the Toubon Law,  the French government can mandate the use of the French language in official government publications, in all advertisements, and in all broadcast audiovisual programs, with some exceptions (most notably, private non-commercial communications).

Some say the French government is going overboard in terms of restricting “the spread of American culture” which some bloggers attribute to traditional French protectionism, similar to how in 2003, the French banned the use of the word “email” in all government communications and publications.

In all, the true nature of the ban is not clear, but Facebook and Twitter are certainly making their way across the globe. Think about the earned media the two companies get every day, in every advertisement featuring one of their “brand pages.”

You never know, maybe France does support smaller social networks…or better yet, maybe France is launching their own social network (unlikely), where you have to be French to partake. Didn’t Facebook start with the promise of exclusivity?

Search results on Bing are about to become more socially influenced.  The struggle to maintain search share in the US and globally, against a rival the size of Google certainly keeps the MSN search engine on its toes.  Leveraging its partnership with Facebook gives Bing a leg up in many ways, and starting early this week, Bing searchers will begin seeing results which are influenced to some degree by what their Facebook friends “like” or “share”.

In a Bing Community blog post Monday, Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate VP at Microsoft commented that “today, search remains largely driven by facts and links…Research tells us that 90% of people seek advice from family and friends as part of the decision making process. This ‘Friend Effect’ is apparent in most of our decisions…”, but “…historically, search hasn’t incorporated this ‘Friend Effect’.”  Looking to change this apparent flaw in search results, Bing will begin “including personalized search results based on the opinions of friends”, simply by having users first sign into their Facebook accounts.  Tapping into the larger, “Collective IQ” will also help shape search results when “friends don’t have the right expertise or you’re not sure what you’re looking for. Search is better when it’s not just based in math and algorithms, but also infused with the opinions of people.”

Is the world obsessed with Facebook? Thank you to OnlineSchools for this infographic, check it out:

Via: Online Schools

Over the past week, Google execs and Sales representatives alike have been speaking agency to agency touting their most recent SEM development, the +1. Google is finally taking a leap into the “socialsphere” and a shot at taking share away from Facebook. Ultimately, the +1 is Google’s version of a “like” button on Facebook. If you click the +1 and are linked to your friends via the Google Profile network, then your friends will see your Search Results recommendations, or your +1’s.

By introducing this type of technology, advertisers question what impact this will have on targetability – can I now target ads on the Google Display Network to those that +1 a certain topic? How about deliver keyword to those that have a +1 threshold? Lot’s of questions.

Think of it this way- does getting a +1 on your listing drive up your organic ranking? If so, will there be a click fraud issue?

I’m curious to see how this plays out in the future, but I applaud Google’s new addition…for now.

Lady Gaga is the biggest artist in the world. With over 8 million people following her Tweets and over 11,000,000 fans on Facebook, she has built herself an army of little monsters through the power of social media. So what’s left when you have built such an impressive army? The answer is simple: harness them. Today, Lady Gaga made an announcement via Facebook to all of her little monster all over the world to join a new facet of her social media onslaught – The Official Lady Gaga Street Team.

The goal of this newly formed Street Team with Fancrops, which promotes social media with a purpose, is a brilliant idea that enables the legions of voracious Lady Gaga fans to take her message and brand even further, faster into the social media stratosphere. After you sign up to be a member of the Street Team, using your existing social media accounts, including Facebook, Twitter, and Itunes, a new team member can choose to complete the tasks assigned.

Tasks include simple things like posting your favorite lyrics from her new single, Born This Way, on Facebook and tagging it via Gaga. Then you simply submit a screen capture of your completed task through the Lady Gaga Street Team website and earn points towards the purchase of Gaga merchandise. Each task is assigned a different value of points (i.e. posting her interview with Jay Leno on Facebook will earn you 50 points, and simply reviewing and rating “Born This Way” on Itunes will earn her little monsters 200 points). It’s really that simple, but this goes way beyond the promise of essentially free merchandise. The true power here, which is yet to be measured, is the ability to not only make your fan base feel more included in your world, but also to pick specific things you want promoted about your brand/message and unleash them into every major form of social media. Paws up everyone! For Lady Gaga, this is only the beginning of her total global domination via all forms of media.

In today’s marketing landscape, creating a branded website is an essential part of the promotional mix.  What’s more, brands today are tasked with an added challenge — Not only is an engaging website necessary, but as Facebook Fan pages become increasingly popular, an equally interactive Facebook page takes priority.  See more here.

This is especially relevant in the entertainment category, for which new movies and TV shows premiere regularly.  Warner Bros. created both an impressive website and Facebook fan page for their recently released movie, Yogi Bear.

Nonetheless, the idea of creating an online destination for a brand/movie is not one born of the 21^st Century.  Movie studios have been leveraging the Internet as a marketing tool for years.

Click here to see the promotional site for the 1996 classic basketball-alien comedy, Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny.

Until this week…really until I saw this video…I have resisted using the new Facebook profile option. Shortly after the new profile release a French artist inspired Schweppes to develop the Schweppes Profile App on Facebook, which can help even the most creatively challenged among us seem like experts.

To start changing your FB profile click here.

Along with your mom, 3rd grade teacher, high school sweetheart, and Moses – Tom Anderson, everyone’s default friend on MySpace has also made the jump to Facebook.

Full Screenshot

But don’t be alarmend; the fictional Facebook profile below was created by Comedy.com’s Brendan Bergen.