Changes to the Way Customers Buy – raise your hand if you use recommendations to make a purchase. I know I do and am sure 80% of you reading this blog do as well. In this post from Valeria Maltoni, she sheds some light on Google’s new privacy policy and how it will make trusted recommendations out of the data we share with Google.

In Facebook IPO, color this graffiti artist richly rewarded – say someone were to offer you cash for your work or an equivalent in stock in a start-up? Chances are you would say that cash is king, but if you would choose to gamble on the stock you, well you could have wound up like this graffiti artist who did just that. The start-up that the artist took the stock in? Facebook and now he looks to make roughly 200 million in the IPO on those shares from a few years earlier.

Personal Data’s Value? Facebook Is Set to Find Out – how much is the data that Facebook holds worth? Some say 75-100 billion dollars and we will all find out soon as the social network has its IPO on the horizon.

Social Love: Take THAT Writer’s Block! – writer’s block blows. We all get it from time to time and we all deal with it in our own ways. This post offers some crowd-sourced advice that really can help you out too should you find yourself in a rut.

PUMA Adds Instagram and Tumblr To The Blogger Outreach Mix – a behind the scenes look at PUMA’s approach to social PR. Not sure that this would be worth it for all brands but comes across as interesting to me. What say you?

Image - jm3

Unlike many picks I am going away from my gut or stats and choose the winner of the Super Bowl based on social media buzz. All season long, I relied on a series of formulas that were run with social data pulled from Lithium’s Social Media Monitoring. The series of formulas (click here for a full breakdown) look at conversation share, NPS, positive/negative conversation share and SIM scores that each has an assigned number of points. While it may sound hair brained the methodology produced a 132-123 record in the regular season and a 6-4 postseason record including picking the Giants and Pats to represent their respective conferences two weeks ago.

To get the best result for the game, I looked at the teams; buzz numbers over the past week as well as the course of the entire playoffs and in both cases, social media picked Eli Manning to top Tom Brady in this super rematch:

• 7-Day Metrics: NY Giants 6, New England 3
• Playoff-Long Metrics: NY Giants 22, New England -6

Who are you picking this weekend?

I am not going to lie, but Groundhog Day makes me smile and giggle like a

schoolboy. Seriously who has the time to go out and watch a guy grab a pampered groundhog that “predicts” the end of or extended winter. That and it always reminds me of Bill Murray who also makes me laugh.

For the second straight year, you can celebrate the day with a foursquare
badge. What, What, What you say?

You heard me you can get your hands on your very own Groundhog Day badge. All you have to do is follow VisitPA on foursquare and then according to Aboutfoursquare, check into any venue with the word “groundhog” in it and you will get the swanky badge commemorating the day.

Badgewhores, geeks and people with too much time on their hands rejoice!

For businesses this is where logos come in. A lot of money is spent to identify the heart and soul of what the business is. So it is safe to say that everyone gets what these logos represent right? Well not always as we can see in this video with a 5-year old.

What does your logo say about you?

I like to read, a lot and learn a lot via reading books. With that said, I really wish that Christopher Barger had written The Social Media Strategist four years ago when I was getting into the space. What took you so long Barger?

Not only does the book offer things that you should be doing out of the gate, but also offers what you should be doing as you look to expand your program.

If you are a college student or someone getting into the social media space, you should read this book. If you’d like to get a copy for less, click here (Amazon affiliate link) where a new copy is under $16.

Want More Stickiness? Users Logging In Through Social Networks Spend 50% More Time On Site – this data is very interesting from Gigya. I am not going to lie, but it doesn’t surprise me. People trust social networks more than companies so it can help in the conversion cycle. The funny part is that most of these folks using a social login don’t realize the data that they are sharing willingly.

Flight Grounded For 4 Hours After Cat Gets Loose In Cockpit – file this one under random things that are awesome and odd at the same time… Crazy Canadian Cats…

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace to Google: Don’t be evil – I find it interesting that the social networks are teaming up to poke holes in Google’s social search. While it is a cool thing, at the end of the day users and these companies will be resigned to using a search dominated by Google unless they decide to play ball and share their big data.

4 Strategic Requirements For Corporate Tweeting – with Michelle Obama and Rupert Murdoch recently joining Twitter, Fast Company takes a look at some great tips for corporate bigwigs to look at when they start Tweeting.

The Universe in a Windowpane – one of the reasons I enjoy being friends with Tamsen McMahon is that she shares smarty pants articles. I am not going to lie, but Science is not my usual cup of tea but I enjoyed this read and think I learned something new.

1. Traditional and non-traditional measurements
2. Measurement is not one-size fits all
3. Social customer personas
4. How Vistaprint got started in the space and what we measure