Social Media Marketing

Wal-Mart announced it's signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kosmix, underscoring its commitment to social and mobile commerce. Kosmix has developed a social media technology platform that filters and organizes content in social networks to connect people with real-time information that matters to them.

Ask any entrepreneur how many Facebook fans they want and you're liable to hear upwards of 1 million. Few people ever think that the “wrong kind of fans" can bring any Facebook page to its virtual knees.

All sorts of merchants are experimenting on Facebook. But does this mean Facebook is en route to becoming a major e-commerce player? Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru says the answer is a resounding “No.”

Video game retail giant GameStop has opened up a store to sell games on its Facebook fan page. The store will sell physical games that users can receive in the mail or pick up at a local store. The move is part of GameStop’s strategy to stay relevant in the age of digital distribution of video games, since it doesn’t want to go the way of the now defunct Hollywood Video and Tower Records chains.

Just when you thought Facebook couldn't get any bigger, a recent study from Webtrends shows that Fortune 500 brands are seeing more web traffic go to their Facebook pages than their websites.

It’s where teenagers go to hang out. It’s where they gossip. And it’s where more than half a billion people spend a lot of their time. No, it’s not the mall. It’s Facebook. So could the social network also be the place you go to shop?

The more active a brand is on Facebook, the better chance consumers will "Like" it. This was the key finding from a recent study on retailers' growth on Facebook and Twitter conducted by marketing agency Media Logic. However, a follow-up study released this month shows that the majority of brands on Facebook saw their growth on the social media site lose steam as the holiday season came and went.

A test version of the new Facebook Deals product will launch shortly, as has been reported and assumed for some time. NetworkEffect spoke to Facebook and people familiar with Facebook’s plans about how the program will work and what will differentiate it from daily-deal market leaders Groupon and LivingSocial.

Kenmore announced that it's launched an online reality series, "So You Wanna Be a Designer." For six weeks the reality show will stream live on Kenmore's Facebook page to show budding designers at work, making their dreams a reality.

8thBridge, a Minneapolis-based social e-commerce company that helps merchants take their shopping experience onto Facebook, announced it raised $10 million in Series B funding led by Trident Capital, with help from existing investor Split Rock Partners. This round brings the company’s total funding raised to more than $15 million.