Salesforce.com is launching Salesforce Chatter, a new secure enterprise collaboration application and social development platform based on popular consumer social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

Salesforce Chatter will enable enterprise collaboration and communication via familiar social networking features such as user profiles, status updates, real-time content feeds, interest groups and real-time connections to user Twitter and Facebook profiles. In addition, enterprise applications will have connectivity to content feeds so that updates from Salesforce clouds such as new leads or inventory alerts will be automatically available to all members of the Chatter network.

In addition, the Chatter development platform will allow developers to customize other enterprise applications to give them social networking capabilities. Prebuilt social components will ease the customization of other Force.com applications to work on the Chatter platform. Thus other applications on the enterprise can have social networking features such as user profiles and real-time content feeds built into them, allowing the entire enterprise to have the same basic foundation as popular consumer social networks. Chatter will be accessible via mobile device as well as desktop…Read more

Luxury Brands Must Embrace Social Networks as Major Drivers of Customer Relationships, According to Luxury Institute’s WealthSurvey “Social Networking Habits and Practices of the Wealthy”.

The objective and independent New York City-based Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com) released its latest WealthSurvey today documenting the Social Networking Habits and Practices of the Wealthy.

According to a sample of more than 400 high net-worth consumers, social networking sites are now mainstream channels of interaction for wealthy consumers of all ages:

--  Membership in social networking sites has increased significantly
    since early 2008 from 60% to 72% of wealthy consumers. Wealthy consumers 55
    years of age and above have participation levels of 62%.

--  Facebook, LinkedIn, and newcomer Twitter have shown the strongest
    growth in that timeframe.

--  One out of four (24%) wealthy social networkers say they would be
    likely to join a community dedicated to a luxury brand that is sponsored by
    the brand, and 20% would join an independent luxury brand community not
    sponsored by the brand.

--  Nearly one in five social networkers belong to a social shopping site.
    Ideeli and Rue LaLa are the most popular.

--  More than 40% of wealthy social networkers say they do notice
    advertiser brands on social networking sites they visit.

--  Thirteen percent of social networkers have joined a group that is
    based around a product/service or a brand. Of these, more than one-third
    were solicited via email or other form of communication.

“As the luxury industry tries to reinvent itself, we continue to provide the only unbiased and objective research that helps the industry see where wealthy consumers are going and where the industry needs to follow,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute. “Our research indicates strong participation among wealthy consumers in all key evolving areas of social networking. Although no one can predict the new innovative forms of interaction that will take place online, it is clear that social networks will serve as central and irreversible conduits for consumer-to-consumer and consumer-to-provider cooperation and value creation in the near future. We are seeing more leading luxury brands embrace social media, but the overall luxury industry continues to lag to its own detriment.”

A national sample of more than 400 wealthy American consumers was surveyed online by the Luxury Institute. The Institute’s respondents had an average weighted household income of $415,000 and an average weighted household net-worth of $4.9 million. Survey results are weighted to match the profiles of the latest Survey of Consumer Finances from the Federal Reserve…Read more

The takeover of administration rights to a large number of Facebook groups by an organization that calls itself Control Your Info is just one example of the many security issues facing social-networking sites in general and Facebook in particular, according to experts.

Indeed, this nontechnical exploit can be called a benign example of what is at risk if better controls aren’t put in place. Control Your Info hijacked almost 300 groups by simply taking over unadministered groups. Dave Amsler, the cofounder and CIO of Foreground Security, said the illegitimate administrators have access to profile information, e-mail addresses and other data that members have provided. He pointed out that credit-card numbers aren’t involved…Read more

Businesses have been urged not to consult social networking sites when considering job applications, as it could lead to discrimination claims.

The Law Society warned that using the likes of Facebook and MySpace to vet candidates is a dangerous practice.

This is because details such as religious beliefs and sexual discrimination are often shared on these portals and could be perceived to influence hiring decisions….Read more

The next big step in social networking is taking this internet evolution to the next level. The information and cultural transformation spawned by social networking may soon upgrade to a new level of sophistication.

According to authorities, new technology will allow automatic uploads of status updates and a variety of social and geographic information.

European researchers are working to merge information pulled by ambient intelligence systems that use sensors and smart objects to create awareness of users’ whereabouts and activities to networking and messaging platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Combined, the two technologies promise to provide an omnipresent or pervasive awareness, that is, an encompassing way to stay in touch with friends and relatives…Read more

Not many of you are aware of this experimentation currently going on by our friends at Google. Recently Google Social Search which is a new stream of service under development in Google labs was launched. This service allows you search content from your social networks you are signed on. Social networks are a warehouse of information with data created by diverse individuals. According to Google these data can make social networks a lot more useful. While carrying of regular search people will be able to search out the views from friends or connections from their various social networks. These views I trust would help improve our search experience. For instance if I want to go on vacation to Bahamas my social search can reveal comments or views from friends on my any of my social contacts who may have at one point talked about Bahamas. Interesting. Right

Google also announced to a search deal to work with twitter on this. According the Google, user will be able to see Twitter post or tweets in Google search results. The service is designed to return traditional results along with updates and tweets that user’s friends and other people they follow on various social networks have posted.

I would agree that Google Social Search will make social networks very useful, especially with capturing useful data. Marrissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search products said user will be able to fill out a Google profile, which will then be linked to friends on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and other social networks. Something tells me the Google the King of internet search will become the ultimate Social data aggregator the Google profile approach. Fingers crossed here. For users who already have a Gmail account, Google will simply have access to their contacts.

For the next couple of days I’ll be experimenting more with Google Social Search. You can join the experimentation to try it out as the development continues. Talk soon!

-Paulette.