Social Media Observatory

Small businesses on the West Coast of the U.S. are far more social-media savvy than those on the East Coast — with companies in San Francisco and Los Angeles leading the pack, according to a new study. Small business analytics accompany has released an infographic that looks at the top 85 U.S. cities and ranks them by social media presence and daily deal activity. San Francisco topped the list of…

How many articles have been written about Facebook in its eight-year history? Impossible to tell — by the time you came up with an estimate, no doubt, another dozen would have been added to the list. It is, at least, easy to pinpo

What does a family portrait look like when it represents a community of millions of people? For our photo challenge this week, Mashable readers sent us their photos, helping us to create a family portrait of our community. This past Sunda

Linda Coles, founder of Blue Banana, is a speaker, trainer and author of Learn Marketing With Social Media in 7 Days. Did you know two new members join LinkedIn every second? As a result, more people are using it for intelligence, recr

Howcast announced Wednesday the launch of a new website designed to guide users through all videos within a selected search topic. The new design also shows users which videos they’ve already viewed, which is especially handy when watchin

Facebook has adjusted the date by which it expects to close its $1-billion acquisition of Instagram. Previously, Facebook said it expected the deal to close within the second quarter, which ends in June. On Tuesday, the company u

It’s no secret that Facebook has decided the best way to spur more advertising on the platform is to encourage marketers to use their brand Pages more effectively. With that goal in mind, Facebook looked at postings on 23 brand Pag

The Daily Show‘s “Old Man Stewart” has expressed again his opinion on kids and the media using the Internet. This time he’s covered nearly all of the bases: Twitter, Facebook, Google, Instagram and YouTube

Scott Widak and his family recently received the greatest gift anyone in their situation could receive — a viral act of encouragement and kindness from complete strangers. Widak, 47, has Down syndrome and is terminally ill

Scott Widak and his family recently received the greatest gift anyone in their situation could receive — a viral act of encouragement and kindness from complete strangers. Widak, 47, has Down syndrome and is terminally ill