Facebook is encouraging researchers to report security bugs on its site by rewarding them with debit cards.

The card, a customised Visa debit card, works in the same way as a credit card. Facebook adds more money to each researcher’s account as they report more bugs.

Ryan McGeehgan, manager of Facebook’s security response team, said in a recent interview: “Researchers who find bugs and security improvements are rare, and we value them and have to find ways to reward them. Having this exclusive black card is another way to recognize them. They can show up at a conference and show this card and say ‘I did special work for Facebook’.”

The card might also give researchers other benefits, such as passes to get into Facebook parties.

The social media giant is also planning to tap further into researchers’ knowledge. For example, researchers may be brought into products as soon as they reach production stage in order to help Facebook catch any problems as early as possible.

Researchers who report security bugs that are eventually confirmed can make at least $500, but they have to follow Facebook’s Responsible Disclosure Policy and not go public with the vulnerability information until the problem has been fixed.

AT&T, the major American communications company, has launched a mobile web hosting service aimed at SMEs.

AT&T Mobile Website Hosting allows small businesses to create their own web-site using AT&T’s easy-to-use Do-It-Yourself tool along with a mobile version that is compatible and clearly viewed with smartphones.

The cloud-based web design service also includes traditional AT&T website hosting and email services.

According to Nielsen, 38 percent of U.S. cell phone owners access the internet from their mobile device. The market research firm predicts that mobile website traffic will increase 40-fold over the next five years.

For small businesses, having a mobile website can be crucial to their success. In fact, Nielsen say that businesses experienced a 13% increase in web traffic when they added a mobile website.

AT&T Mobile Website Hosting offers one-click website creation, with no technical expertise required. It features automatic sync and updates to a customer’s mobile site when changes occur on their main website. It also offers multiple design templates, enabling each mobile website to have its own unique look and feel.

Ebrahim Keshavarz, AT&T vice president of small business product management, said: “Having a mobile website is crucial for small businesses, which need to be accessible to their customers anytime and anywhere.”

Industry experts in the UK now anticipate similar services being provided by telecommunications companies in this country.

Organisations across the UK are hiring more and more social media and community managers in a bid to engage with the digital world.

According to a survey conducted by social media company EpiServer, nearly 75% of 250 business owners questioned run online communities or intend to do so within the next 12 months.

Nearly 70% of respondents plan to appoint social media or community managers this year in a bid to help them achieve their online goal.

A further 41% of those questioned say that they expect to hire someone in this capacity within the next 12 months. Just under 30% of businesses already have a social media or community manager in place.

The survey also looked into the specifics of social media management.

Just over 30% of respondents say that the most challenging aspect of social media management is attracting users, whilst 28% say that generating content is the biggest challenge.

Just over half of businesses employ a marketing manager to conduct social media or community management, contrasted with 21% who ask a PR executive to do this and equal number to who get an IT worker to fulfil the role.

Maria Wasing, vice-president of marketing at EpiServer, said: “While an increasing number of businesses are embracing social media, there are clearly areas for improvement. Managing social media can be challenging and time-consuming, so it’s vital to put in place a dedicated resource, along with the right tools and platforms.”

It’s been a mixed week for Facebook, with Google making a blatant swipe at them in the press release which accompanied the search engine’s decision to stop sharing Gmail contacts with all and sundry. On the other hand, the king of social networking sites continues to make unusual alliances with companies which help improve user experience and may, in the long-term, provide interesting new opportunities for social marketing.

Their latest entente is with Amazon. com, who will become the first retailer to allow the delivery option of ‘Facebook Wall’. Those wishing to purchase a gift card for a friend this Christmas will be able to arrange delivery of it direct to the recipient’s Facebook account.

The move builds on an existing relationship between the two sites, which allows Amazon to make recommendations based on their Facebook friends’ likes and dislikes. Michal Geller, director of ACI Gift Cards, who are responsible for Amazon’s voucher service commented:

“We think our customers who use Facebook will be thrilled that we’ve made gift-giving more social.”

It’s a nifty idea, and as the vouchers are posted to a wall, it will provide countless hours of free advertising for Amazon among the friends’ of customers as the voucher works its way through the news feed. As social integration goes, this really is a new step, and whether it proves as popular as both sites seem to expect remains to be seen.

If it does prove a success, then in the next couple of years it could open up a whole new arena of sales and marketing driven by social media which would build and strengthen the current trends in this area.

In the fast-paced business world, it is very easy to let updating elements of your social media campaign fall behind, especially Twitter. Luckily it is relatively simple to restart the machine, and keep on top of it moving forward.

Make sure your profile is up to date

Your profile can potentially be seen by everyone on Twitter, and it has been repetitively proven that users with pictures and full profiles attract more followers than those who tweet anonymously. It’s also worth spending time personalising your profile to reinforce your company’s branding through the site.

Auto-tweet

This is not something you should rely on, however, if you’re busy elsewhere, setting up a couple of scheduled tweets across a particularly testing period will keep your account current while you focus on other tasks. Programmes such as Hootsuite and Tweet Deck which enable you to pre-programme tweets are readily available.

Tweet by-proxy

Alternatively, share tweeting amongst company members. This not only avoids laps in activity but also helps create a variety of tweeted content.

Don’t forget to check in

It only needs to be once a day, but you do need to check for retweets, DMs and any other mentions of your company if you are to get the most out of your campaign. It’s also good practice to respond to as many of these as possible to encourage interaction.

Advertise

Make sure your website visitors are aware you have a Twitter account. The Twitter logo or a live feed can easily be included on most websites and as you get more followers, you’ll find yourself automatically motivated to keep up-to-date on your account.

Social media works best when it provides potential customers with something they’ve never seen before or the opportunity to jump into a conversation they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have.

The weakest social media campaigns are purely sales-oriented, every blog written and tweet published has a single aim – advertising. That generally means their content is very one-note, can be repetitive and has a clear agenda which puts off many readers.

That’s not to say social media should obscure your business’ involvement entirely; just that it should explore different avenues by which to raise awareness. For blogs – is there an industry issue or debate you want to become involved with? A key business question you’d like to discuss or some information on a key area you’d like to share? Addressing these sorts of topics via blogs not only positions you as a business of intelligence and free thought, but also encourages engagement with your brand through debate and conversation.

If you are more interested in social networking, then the word constraints obviously come into play. However, there are still plenty of characters to ask a question and open a debate, or, just as importantly, respond to someone else’s work. Conversation is a two-way corridor and the more you interact with others, the more you’ll find come back to you!

NSDesign was delighted to hear the news that BBC 6 Music is to be saved, and even more excited to hear that the BBC Trust’s reprieve is largely thanks to the power of social media.

Since the BBC announced the closure of BBC 6 Music, its home for new and upcoming bands, in March the public outcry has been immense with celebrities and citizens going online to offer their support for the station, seen as one of the few bastions of independent music in the UK.

An internet campaign using various social media sites sprang up almost instantly. This was not a coordinated effort, but started by different individuals who wanted to show their support for the station and encourage others to do the same. The Facebook campaign gathered 180,000 followers, while Twitter’s #save6music hashtag appeared to be constantly trending as several million tweets featured it.

These campaigns led supporters to online petition sites, which formalised the support and created documents that could then be handed to the BBC trust, creating a definite record of the station’s popularity amongst the public. When these petitions closed in May, they held nearly 100,000 signatures between them.

Added to this was the inundation of 50,000 online responses and 25,000 emails the BBC Trust received in support, as opposed to 250 snail mail letters, and you can truly begin to appreciate just how much difference the internet made in this highly successful internet and social media campaign.

The perfect case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of social media marketing!

A lot of social media tutorials focus on how to use the various tools these sites provide to open a dialogue and engage with consumers. While this is absolutely correct, the role of social media sites in providing cost-effective, and, some might say more traditional advertising methods is often overlooked.

Earlier this year, a report by Nielsen and Facebook found conclusive evidence that social media advertising led to a dramatic increase in advert recall, brand awareness, and purchase intent. This is not only down to the wording and placement of the advert, but also the effect of ‘personal recommendations’ as trusted friends become fans of the product.

The sample of 800,000 illustrated that the best social advertising campaigns followed a two-pronged approach that combined paid media (pay-per-click and banner adverts) and earned media (advert viewers driving their friends to become fans). This approach combines the best of traditional advertising while utilising all the benefits that social media has to offer to create an advertising campaign which is immediate, personalised and can have a long life, even once the initial adverts have stopped running.

This is a highly cost-effective way to drive business, as using pay-per-click adverts means that a company only pays to receive traffic with a confirmed interest in a product. Add to this the snowball effect of social media, whereby each paid for advert has the potential to enlist hundreds of ‘fans’ all spreading your brand awareness for free and the fiscal benefits become remarkably clear.

Combining social media advertising with a strong campaign can effectively push a company forward to quickly reach an entire new audience.