Facebook adds post insights
A week after rolling out their version of the Retweet, Facebook has revealed a new feature: insights for posts, for page owners to find out how users are interacting with specific posts from thier pages. At the moment it just covers ‘impressions’ and the percentage of impressions that lead to an action, such as a ‘like’ or comment. There’s been some confusion about what exactly an ‘impression’ is, but as Mashable points out, it’s better than nothing, and as this interview with a Facebook employee reveals, they’ve got a lot of behavioral data at their fingertips, so expect more of the same to come along.

Marketers continue to shift budgets to social media
Brand Republic reports that more and more marketers plan to shift budget from direct marketing to social media. 40% of over 1,000 responding to a survey said DM would be cut by a fifth or more to make budget for social media, and 51% said they would be making effort to move away from a campaign-based DM model.

Illustrating just how seriously big brands are taking social media, Coca-Cola recently announced a shift from building campaign microsites to using existing social media platforms, making their Facebook and YouTube profile pages content hubs and NMA also outlines Unilever’s plans to do the same.
Disclosure: Coca-Cola and Unilever are both We Are Social clients

All of this is being played against a backdrop of growing optimism in the industry, according to the latest IPA Bellwether report. After cuts for the past two years, in 2010 average marketing budgets are higher, and internet advertising budgets are taking a lead, rising for the second quarter running.

The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures
Dating site OKCupid has a rather excellent blog and some eloquent data crunchers – as exemplified by this incredibly detailed post on what profile pictures generate more activity. If you’re a woman, you should smile & make eye contact while men should avert from looking directly at the camera. But to get a conversation going, don’t just rely on abs or cleavage – photos of you doing something interesting are more likely to get talk going. Interesting implications for how you choose your avatar on social networks, whether you’re looking to meet new people or avoid needless approaches.