Facebook Announces Searchable Hashtags, Promises More Features For Following Public Conversations

From TechCrunch:

Facebook just announced that it is indeed launching ability to follow conversations via hashtags, as was reported in March.

In the blog post announcing the new feature, Facebook acknowledges that this isn’t exactly a new idea, noting that it will be “similar to other services like Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest” — when you click on a hashtag, you’ll get a feed of comments using the hashtag. Facebook says its capabilities will include searching for hashtags, clicking on hashtags that come from other services, and writing posts directly from the hashtag feed.

Read the rest here

Facebook shareholders meeting not so friendly

From USA Today: SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced his first shareholders' meeting in what has been a rocky ride for company investors.
Facebook's meeting comes after the company last month celebrated the one-year anniversary of its public debut, a sobering reminder of the overhyped IPO and its dampening effect on public markets.

Many retail investors have been burned while insiders have exited with tidy profits. Individual shareholders lined up to complain of their lost fortunes and to question the company's bumbled handling of the offering. Read the rest here

The Top 50 Social Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on Twitter

From Huffington Post's Vala Afshar

CMO and Chief Customer Officer, Enterasys Networks

Below are my recommendations for the top 50 social CEOs that you should consider following on Twitter:

1. Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com - Twitter: @benioff
2. Richard Branson, Virgin - Twitter: @richardbranson
3. Bill Gross, IdeaLab - Twitter: @bill_gross
4. Chris Brogan, Human Business Works - Twitter: @chrisbrogan
5. Brian Solis, Altimeter - Twitter: @briansolis
6. Jon Ferrara, Nimble - Twitter: @jon_ferrara
7. Mark Cuban - Twitter: @mcuban
8. Gary Vaynerchuk, Vaynermedia - Twitter: @garyvee
9. Jack Dorsey, Square - Twitter: @jack
10. Aaron Levie, Box - Twitter: @levie
11. Steve Case, Case Foundation - Twitter: @stevecase
12. Ray Wang, Constellation Research - Twitter: @rwang0
13. Roman Stanek, GoodData - Twitter: @romanstanek
14. Peter Cashmore, Mashable - Twitter: @petercashmore
15. Steve Forbes, Forbes - Twitter: @steveforbesceo
16. Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Media - Twitter: @timoreilly
17. Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX - Twitter: @elonmusk
18. Brian Halligan, HubSpot - Twitter: @bhalligan
19. Charlene Li, Altimeter - Twitter: @charleneli
20. Donald Trump, Trump Organization - Twitter: @donaldtrump
21. Michael Dell, Dell - Twitter: @michaeldell
22. Peter Aceto, ING Direct - Twitter: @CEO_INGDIRECT
23. Andrew Grill, Kred - Twitter: @andrewgrill
24. Wendy S Lea, Get Satisfaction - Twitter: @wendyslea
25. Bill Gates, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - Twitter: @billgates
26. Shervin Pishevar, Sherpa Foundry - Twitter: @shervin
27. Micky Arison, Carnival - Twitter: @mickyarison
28. Mark Fidelman, Evolve - Twitter: @markfidelman
29. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo - Twitter: @marissamayer
30. Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation - Twitter: @rupertmurdoch
31. Aneel Bhusri, Workday - Twitter: @aneelb
32. Mark Bertolini, Aetna, - Twitter: @mtbert
33. Kevin Rose, Google Ventures - Twitter: @kevinrose
34. Bryan Kramer, PureMatter - Twitter: @bryankramer
35. Dennis Crowley, Foursquare - Twitter: @dens
36. Dick Costolo, Twitter - Twitter: @dickc
37. David Morin, Path - Twitter: @davidmorin
38. Jeffrey Joerres, Manpower - Twitter: @manpowergroupjj
39. Michelle Rhee, StudentFirst - Twitter: @michellerhee
40. Ryan Holmes, HootSuite - Twitter: @invoker
41. David Karp, Tumblr - Twitter: @davidkarp
42. Drew Houston, Dropbox - Twitter: @drewhouston
43. Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn - Twitter: @jeffweiner
44. Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp - Twitter: @jeremys
45. Daniel Ek, Spotify - Twitter: @eldsjal
46. Gary Knel, NPR - Twitter: @NPRgaryknell
47. Jack Salzwedel, American Family Mutual Insurance Group - Twitter: @amfamjack
48. Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed - Twitter: @peretti
49. Andrew Mason, Former CEO of Groupon - Twitter: @andrewmason
50. Hikmet Ersek, Western Union Company LLC - Twitter: @westernunionCEO

Celebrities Get Paid To Tweet

Here's the rundown from HuffPo

Question for SMM students - what does this mean for your business?  For business in general?

Data Shows Social Media Calls to Action Work [INFOGRAPHIC]

Good stuff from HubSpot

Dan Zarrella’s latest data analysis shows the top words and phrases used to drive action on social media. After analyzing 50,000 blog posts, millions of tweets and all of the posts on the top 10,000 most-liked Facebook pages one thing is clear – direct calls to action on social media posts simply work. 

The data shows that simply mentioning, or even sometimes asking, for specific actions such as links and comments actually drives these actions! 

Who knew you just had to ask?