What it describes is the convergence of social, location-based and mobile marketing into a new category of tools that many businesses are using to acquire new customers.

The odds are you’re already familiar with some SoLoMo tools such as Yelp, Foursquare and Groupon. But you may not be familiar with how to use these tools to attract new customers. That’s what we’re going to talk about here. But first, let’s take a look at how SoLoMo works.

Get the full story here: 3 Steps to Determine if Social Local Mobile Is Right for Your Business | Social Media Examiner.

The company, which had originally set the price between $28 and $35, now has put the range at $34 to $38, according to an amended S-1 it filed Tuesday morning. In addition, Facebook is offering another 50 million shares in the company, bringing to total to 337 million for a maximum haul of $12.7 billion at the high end of the range. Facebook’s share price hike shows that a report by Blooomberg stating that the IPO was meeting “weaker-than-expected demand” from institutional investors was likely off the mark.

via Facebook Confirms New $34-38 Share Price.

Google has been adamant these changes are only being made to make their products better than ever and display even more relevant content and advertising to each personal user.

Even if you turn tracking off with Google, they will still be tracking your web activity – they just won’t be using that information with your Google account. Your searches will still be followed and stored by Google – even if you’re not signed in. The information can still be used to build a profile about you and will allow Google to sell ads that are specifically tailored to you.

Alma Whitten, Google’s Director of Privacy, wrote in a blog post recently:

“As you use our products one thing will be clear: it’s the same Google experience that you’re used to, with the same controls, and because we’re making these changes, over time we’ll be able to improve our products in ways that help our users get the most from the web.”

Alma outlined out 3 important points to keep in mind regarding these changes.

1. Google’s Privacy Policy is now much easier to understand.
2. Google’s Privacy Policy will enable them to build a better, more intuitive user experience across Google for signed-in users
3. Google’s privacy controls aren’t changing.

Naturally, every business wants a piece of the action on Twitter, but on a platform with that many eyeballs, every business better have a strategy first. From a company perspective, this initially makes sense. A business envisions Twitter as yet another marketing platform from which it can blast forth corporate messaging, advertisements and, occasionally, customer support. Unfortunately, many fail to realize that Twitter is not, at its core, a business tool.

While a company may feel it is being innovative by reaching out to a new audience on Twitter, that same audience often feels that the business’s tweets are spammy, phony and even creepy. The alternative is not to keep businesses off of Twitter, as there is a lot of good that comes from engagement on this platform. Instead it’s important to show off your company and brand in a way that paints both in a positive light, making followers eager for that next tweet.

Check out the link below for 4 tips on how to avoid being a Twitter Menace

4 Ways Your Business Can Avoid Being a Menace on Twitter

Facebook announced the price for its initial public offering at $28 to $35 per share Thursday afternoon. The company will offer 337,415,352 shares of Class A common stock at a yet-unspecified date.

A statement from Facebook reads:

“Facebook, Inc. is offering 180,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock and the selling stockholders are offering 157,415,352 shares of Class A common stock. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. This is our initial public offering and no public market currently exists for our shares of Class A common stock. We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $28.00 and $35.00 per share.”

Rumors that Facebook would be setting its IPO price after the market closed surfaced early Thursday afternoon. The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook would price its shares in the high-$20s to mid-$30s range, putting the company at a valuation of $85 billion and $95 billion.

via Facebook Sets IPO at $28 to $35 a Share.

Mashable has posted some great examples of how brands are using Facebook’s new ad tools. Check out the shift that Facebook encouraged with its advertisers and the results of the campaigns.

On Leap Day 2012, Facebook gathered all its marketing executives in New York City for a coming-out party of sorts for a slew of new ad products. To people outside the industry, the promise of new initiatives might appear a bit on the dull side. But for advertisers, anything that Facebook does for advertising is of interest.

Among the products Facebook introduced were Premium on Facebook, Reach Generator, Offers and Logged Out ads. The company also asked brands to embrace a paradigm shift from advertising to “Stories,” Facebook’s preferred term for brand-related messages. Since that time, a few big brands have experimented with the new tools.

via How 7 Top Brands Are Using Facebook’s New Ad Tools.

Smart Clicks – Event Success Through Social Media
5/2/12 

Presented by: Emma Loggins

Come to learn how to harness the power of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to increase the attendance at your company’s events!

Be discovered by more potential attendees, cut marketing costs and develop meaningful relationships with others in your field!

Don’t you want to drive more traffic to your company’s website and position your events as the “absolutely must-attend, cannot-be-missed” events in your industry?!?

Join us for a discussion on these topics and additional web marketing tips!

Emma Loggins Bio
Emma Loggins is a web designer and social media expert based in Atlanta, Georgia. She runs a the design and marketing firm called LNP Studios, which helps businesses by designing and optimizing their web presence and also their social media marketing. Emma works with a large range of clients from small local businesses up to large entertainment studios such as Warner Brothers.

Emma also runs an entertainment website called FanBolt.Com where she has worked with numerous television networks and studios in featuring their titles. The site has over 125,000 registered members and receives around 1 million hits per month. The site has never done any formal advertising. In addition to running her own site, she is also a contributing writer for CNN’s Geek Out.

Emma graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Multimedia and Web Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, and received her Masters Of Fine Art Degree in Web Design/New Media from The Academy of Art.

AGENDA
11:30 AM  Registration
12:00 PM  Lunch
12:30 – 1:30 PM  Program

LOCATION
Georgia International Convention Center – College Park, GA

Need 5GB of free storage? Google is launching another new online service for personal cloud space which will be free initially. http://mashable.com/2012/04/17/google-drive-launch/

Have you guys checked out the new Google+ redesign? How do you think it compares to Facebook Timeline? Let us know! http://mashable.com/2012/04/11/google-plus-redesign-2/

Facebook has bought Instagram. The sale is expected to close later this quarter, and will bring the nine-person staff of Instagram to the social network. Check out the details at the following link: http://mashable.com/2012/04/09/facebook-instagram-buy/

Many have already dismissed Google+ as a failed venture, but it would be premature to write off the network as a social experiment gone awry. Just as Gmail was key to Google’s enterprise play, Google+ is fast becoming the enterprise social networking tool of choice for savvy office workers. http://mashable.com/2012/04/04/google-plus-enterprise/

Looking to beef up your presence on Pinterest? We stumbled upon a great article on the subject this morning - http://mashable.com/2012/04/02/pinterest-tools/

Twitter will be allowing a select group of small businesses to begin advertising on the site. For information check out the article here: http://mashable.com/2012/03/26/twitter-small-businesses/

Great idea for the classroom! The rising popularity of Pinterest is undeniable. Are you using it for your business http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/teachers-using-pinterest/

Are You In Control of Your Social Media Privacy? http://mashable.com/2012/03/19/social-media-privacy-management/

Pinterest’s value is growing - http://ow.ly/9x6wS Do you have a Pinterest strategy yet? We can help!

Great article on what you need to know before running a Facebook promotion! http://mashable.com/2012/03/05/facebook-promotion-guide/

What you need to know about Google’s new privacy policy that goes into effect today http://mashable.com/2012/03/01/googles-privacy-policy-effect/

Great tips for small businesses that are utilizing Facebook! If you need any help implementing these – let us know! LNP Studios would love to help! http://mashable.com/2012/02/20/facebook-marketing-small-business/

Facebook Timeline coming for brands later this month http://ow.ly/96U6f Let us design your cover photos for your company’s profile!

Need help optimizing the search feature on your e-commerce site? Here are some great tips! http://mashable.com/2012/02/09/ecommerce-search/ If you need help implementing them – LNP Studios can help!

Great summary on the 150+ page Facebook IPO -http://mashable.com/2012/02/02/facebook-ipo-top-words/