Las Vegas Web Design

So far this year, we’ve seen Facebook pull away from the pack as not only the largest social network in the world, but in the US as well. Overall, nearly 200 million people now actively use Facebook, and with its recent (and controversial) redesign and overhaul of Facebook Pages, it’s become an essential platform for not just keeping up with your friends, but also for engaging your customers and growing your professional network.

This week, Mashable will be taking a closer look at Facebook, and how to make the most of it as a user, a brand, or a developer of applications for its growing platform. Each day, in addition to our ongoing news coverage, we’ll be publishing an in-depth feature about Facebook, covering key topics including how to build your brand on Facebook and how Facebook Connect is being leveraged on the iPhone. You’ll be able to engage in conversation both in our comments section, as well as on the Mashable Facebook Page.

So stay tuned to Mashable this week for some of our best Facebook-related content yet. In the meantime, be sure to check out some of our most popular posts about the social network from our archives:

HOW TO: Survive the New, New Facebook

30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook

New Facebook Pages: A Guide for Social Media Marketers

10 Great Implementations of Facebook Connect

20+ Great Greasemonkey Scripts for Improving Your Facebook Experience

Reviews: Facebook, Mashable

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It’s official: a Skype application for the iPhone will appear in the Apple App Store on Tuesday. It will, of course, enable you to make cheap VoIP calls over Wi-Fi; it will work on both iPhone and iPod Touch and feature iPhoneish, not Skypeish menus.

Other features include chatting, taking a photo from within the application and using it as your avatar image, accepting incoming conference calls (but not creating them), and sorting your contacts alphabetically or by online status. As for the other things that are missing in this initial version, there’s no support for SMS, file transfer, as well as handling second incoming Skype calls.

While everyone has been waiting for Skype on the iPhone as the VoIP application, the fact of the matter is that Skype already faces quite a bit of competition; Fring is definitely a solid application and it already supports Skype. Check out our list of VoIP-related iPhone tools to see if your perfect iPhone VoIP app is already out there for the taking.

Finally, if you’re a proud owner of a BlackBerry, rejoice, because the Skype client is coming to these devices as well in May.

[image credit: CNET]

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Last week, Last.fm announced that they would soon start charging users that live outside the US, UK, and Germany about $4 USD per month to continue using the streaming radio features of its site. The announcement drew tons of feedback – much of it negative – both in our coverage of the story and on the Last.fm blog.

Today, Last.fm publicly responded to its users – first giving a more detailed explanation of why they’re implementing subscriptions internationally, and second, indicating that they’ll be delaying the move until a few much requested features are delivered to users.

Perhaps the most important addition that Last.fm plans before launch is alternative payment options, most notably, the option to pay via premium SMS. In other words, some users will be able to pay for their Last.fm subscription by simply sending a text message and having the fees added to their phone bill. While that hardly makes up for the fact that users have to pay in the first place, it will make the service accessible to those without a credit card or PayPal.

Other planned Last.fm improvements include integrating subscriptions with the Last.fm API to ensure that streaming will still work on third-party apps (for those who pay Last.fm) and the addition of gift subscriptions, so if you’re feeling generous, you can pay for your international friends’ subscriptions.

It’s nice to see that Last.fm has at least listened to users in some respects, though, they should’ve been a lot more clear about why they were making this change when it was announced last week. Instead, they kept it vague and had to respond in the comments, and again today with a full blog post addressing the real reason for the changes (they can’t sell enough ads outside of its major markets). In any event, the days are still numbered for international users to enjoy free streaming radio on Last.fm.

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Samir Balwani is a social media marketer who helps businesses create effective web strategies. You can follow him on Twitter and get his newsletter.

For many companies a Facebook fan page is an integral part of their social media campaign. But, what elements help fan pages build up large followings and what can brands do to emulate the success of others? I’ve put together a list of specific elements that I believe have helped create fan pages with large, engaged, followings.

This post is part of Mashable’s Facebook Week. To discuss everything Facebook, join our authors and community at Mashable’s Facebook Page.

1. Networking with other platforms

Building a large following requires a network of other platforms, working in conjunction to drive visitors to your fan page. One brand that does that well is Victoria’s Secret with their PINK line.

As you can see, on their PINK landing page they have a link to their Facebook fan page and their MySpace profile. Victoria’s Secret leverages the traffic their home page gets and pushes them to their Facebook fan page.

Many companies lack this level of dedication, expecting their consumers on Facebook to find them automatically. However, that’s not usually the case.

When is the last time you went looking for a brand’s Facebook fan page? More often than not, a consumer will stumble upon the page, either through a friend or from a hub, similar to Victoria’s Secret’s PINK page.

Understandably, the fact that the demographic targeted by Victoria’s Secret PINK, aligns exactly with the demographic that is most active on Facebook, has helped grow the group as well.

Key Takeaway: Connecting multiple social platforms and a hub from the brand website, can help funnel consumers throughout the network.

2. Creating a resource

Some pages are used as connection hubs, but others offer information pertinent to their consumers. They use the information as added value to have consumers create a connection with the brand.

Dell has done a great job with their social media resource for small businesses. Understanding that small business owners buy computers, by offering them this resource, small business owners interested in social media keep Dell top of mind.

Although, Dell can’t explicitly gauge the success of this program in ROI, it is a branding exercise. Also, since they offer deals and updates on new products on the page - the page does have a chance to convert small business owners into Dell consumers.

Key Takeaway: Offering a resource page allows a brand to target a new demographic, outside of those that already know and love the business.

3. Creating contests that include participation

For brands that want fan pages to have added value (a reason for users to join the page, aside from brand loyalty), but don’t want to become a resource portal; offering contests and coupons specifically to Facebook users can entice consumers to join.

Sears offered fans a $10 coupon to use in stores, giving consumers a reason to join. Clicking on the coupon takes you to a page where Sears collects your information and sends you information about the coupon, deals, and offers. There’s no way to make sure the coupon is given to only Facebook fans, however like Sears, brands can require an email before receiving the coupon.

Key Takeaway: Offering something to consumers to join can help build a large community. Some examples of things to offer: Coupons, free shipping, weekly deals.

4. Empowering pre-existing pages

One of my favorite stories about social media involves the Coca Cola Facebook page. The fan page was created by two users who liked Coke. What started as a fan page for fun, turned out to be the largest product fan page on Facebook.

Coca Cola, instead of taking over the page and making it their own, rewarded the fans by bringing them to Atlanta and giving them a tour of the Coke facility. The fan page remains theirs, but now they have the blessing and help of Coca Cola.

By empowering the fans to keep their fan page, Coke ensures a passionate page owner.

The Coca Cola marketing team was also smart enough to realize that letting others know what happened here would work in their favor. The fan page creators were told to make a video of the history behind the fan page, and how Coke had reached out to them and rewarded them for this.

The video shows future ‘brand enthusiasts’ that creating successful groups around Coca Cola can result in rewards and recognition.

Key Takeaway: Taking over unsanctioned Facebook fan pages isn’t always the best idea. Instead, rewarding dedication can inspire others to do the same.

5. Targeting the proper demographic

Sometimes no matter what you do, your Facebook page won’t grow. This can simply be a side effect of Facebook’s demographic. There are just some brands that will not have a strong presence on Facebook.

Understanding the demographic present can help you decide if Facebook is worth it for your business.

From Quantcast estimates, we can tell that Facebook skews towards female youths. Interestingly, 53% of users have kids and a majority make over $60k a year salary. Obviously, over 50% are college kids. The demographics that make up Facebook are changing quickly, as more moms have begun to join and the college market has become saturated.

Armed with this knowledge, Seventeen Magazine jumped on to the Facebook fan page bandwagon. Their brand targets the demographic most prominent on Facebook, meaning a fairly quick and organic growth.

For companies whose brand does not target the optimal demographic, finding a specific line that does, works.

Consider the brand mentioned earlier in this article, Victoria’s Secret. Instead of putting the entire brand on Facebook, they targeted the PINK line, a line for college students.

Key Takeaway: Some brands cannot expect huge followings on Facebook. Brands or product lines targeting the demographic most prominent on Facebook tend to see the quickest growth.

I purposely did not talk about using advertising to increase the size of a fan page, because although it can be useful to jump start a fan page, organic growth can help build a more engaged group.

Creating a Facebook fan page is simple, but getting it to work well takes time, dedication, and some planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Build good content, make it easy to share, and let people know about it, and over-time the community will grow.

Do you have a successful fan page? What did you do to get the word out? What elements did you add to make it easier to pass along? How do you engage your consumers?

More Facebook resources from Mashable:

- You Might Not Love the New Facebook, But Brands Should

- New Facebook Pages: A Guide for Social Media Marketers

- HOW TO: Survive the New, New Facebook

- 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, DNY59

Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter

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In my case, no. My Facebook friends are pretty much only my real life friends and closest coworkers. When it comes to some other services, such as Digg, I’ve let pretty much anyone be my friend, but sometimes I feel it’s better if I restrict my online friendships to match my real life connections.

I do this for one simple reason: Facebook is too valuable for me. If I have hundreds or thousands of friends, the service simply isn’t that useful; I get bombarded with too many status updates, and after a while I simply stop caring. I haven’t yet determined the sweet spot for the ideal number of friends on Facebook, but I’m pretty sure that - for me - it’s under 100.

Of course, Facebook is just one example; as our Adam Ostrow had shown in a recent post, by tweaking Facebook custom friend lists you can make sure that you don’t see stuff you don’t want to see, and by tweaking the privacy options you can hide your personal details from certain groups of Facebook friends. However, Facebook is just one social media site among hundreds, and not all of them offer such detailed customizing options.

On Twitter, I’m a bit more relaxed, and I follow several hundred people. But even there I’d rather have 100 relevant friends than 10000 random ones. It’s simply practically impossible to actively follow that many people.

Of course, if you’re a social media consultant or otherwise deeply involved with social networking & media sites, you might find it a necessity to amass as many friends as you can on sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg or Facebook. From a certain perspective, I should probably be doing it, too. But I just can’t get myself to do it; for lack of a better word, I like Facebook too much to ruin it by having too many friends. Sure, if you look at Facebook and Twitter as somewhat of a passing trend which might be gone in a year or two, none of this matters. But I believe these sites are here to stay, and I’d rather take it slow, even at the cost of not being the hippest user out there.

How do you feel about this? Do you add as many friends as you can on social media sites, or do you prefer to take it slowly and keep the number of friends in check? In your opinion, what’s the ideal number of friends on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, and other social media sites? Please, speak your mind in the comments.

Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Twitter

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It’s a brand new week, which means it’s time for Mashable’s guide to upcoming social media and web events, parties, and conferences. For more upcoming event listings, check out Mashable’s Events section.

Not on this list? Contact us and let’s establish a media partnership.

March 31, 2009, New York City: Celebrate the Girls in Tech NYC Relaunch Launch Party at 6:30pm at the M1-5 Lounge. Juliette Powell will speak and sign books, while there are goodie bags for 200 first-comers, drink specials, including food, and an eBags, Mint Cars, and cash raffle. The event is co-ed and tickets are discounted at Eventbrite or on our Meetup group. Don’t miss it!

March 31, 2009, Bern, Switzerland: As part of its six-month talent search to identify, mentor and promote Europe’s top startups, Innovate!Europe is hosting a Going Global workshop which will be followed by an invite-only networking meet-up co-hosted by Orrick and Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency CTI. If you are a European entrepreneur looking to improve your skills and expand your global reach, we encourage you to apply to participate in Innovate!Europe. There is no cost to participate in the Going Global workshop, where you will sharpen your market position and strengthen your presentation skills with the help of renowned analysts who’ve heard and honed thousands of company pitches. Other workshops and meet-ups are scheduled for Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin and other European cities in 2009. Apply today to receive invaluable learning and guidance to help move your startup from the local market to the global stage. Visit http://www.innovate-events.com to learn more.

March 31-April 3, 2009: Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco brings together the designers, developers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketing professionals, product managers, and business strategists – from start-ups to enterprises – that are building the next-generation web. Along with a dynamic Expo Hall and plenty of networking opportunities, five main conference tracks discuss a spectrum of topics from business strategy to web design, user experience, developer hacks, community building, security, mobile, web ops, and more. Register today – use code websf09btd18 save $100 or get a free Expo Pass at www.web2expo.com/sf.

April 1, 2009, Philadelphia, PA: NextWeb’s Philadelphia mixer/networking event provides a foundation for entrepreneurs and professionals from all fields to come together, network, and discuss all elements of Social Media, Networking, etc. Please join us and enjoy appetizers and drink specials. RSVP at http://nextwebphilly.eventbrite.com.

April 1-2, 2009, New York City: The Bootstrapper Venture Summit II (BVS II) is an exclusive conference featuring compelling talks by some of the top entrepreneurs in the world and pitches by up-and-coming companies. It is by application only and is only open to approved entrepreneurs and investors.

The first day of the conference will focus on Digital Media & Technology and the second day is planned as an International Capital Networking day where we will be bringing in companies spanning various industries from around the world.

April 1-3, 2009, Napa, CA: Despite years of print content, publishers are still having trouble defining themselves online. The theme at the Mequoda Summit this year is “How to Make Money Online in a Web 2.0 World” and focuses its efforts on teaching publishers that are still stuck in the 1.0 phase, how to compete with their fierce 2.0 competition. Sessions cover SEO strategy, website strategy, editorial strategy, product strategy, business strategy, advertising strategy, email strategy, organizational strategy and reporting strategy. There will also be an extensive SEO workshop. To get a $100 discount on this event, send an email titled “Mashable Reader Discount” to customercare [at] mequoda [dot] com or call Amanda MacArthur at 866-713-1005.

April 3, 2009, New York City: Social Media for Social Change was born of the idea that the social media community had the power to change more than the technology sphere — they could change the lives of people in need, too. After hosting a successful event in Boston, SM4SC has turned their attention to New York City, and the thousands of individuals thrown into crisis by record unemployment levels, and the waning support of NY-based hunger relief organizations.

SM4SCNYC will combine live entertainment, invaluable networking, and fund-raising into a single night of fun to benefit City Harvest, the world’s first — and New York’s only — food rescue program. All proceeds of the event go to charity.

April 3-5, 2009, Austin, TX: The idea of 3 Day Startup is simple: start a technology company over the course of three days. We rent work space for an entire weekend, invite 40 UT Austin student entrepreneurs with a wide range of backgrounds, cater food, drinks, snacks, and coffee, pick the best idea for a software startup during the Friday brainstorming session, and release a minimal prototype by Sunday night. The goal is to build enough momentum and a network of motivated people to sustain the company beyond the weekend.

April 4-5, 2009, Silicon Valley, CA: The Wild Pockets Bay Area Game Jam event is two days of intense creativity where teams of game developers compete to create the best games while using the new, free Wild Pockets 3D platform and game engine. 24 hours after you start, you and your team will have the chance to submit your game and have it judged by a panel of industry experts. The game jam will also feature industry speakers, recruiters from top companies, tips and tricks for creating and monetizing your games, super cool prizes for the winning teams, giveaways, networking, PR coverage and much more!! Winning games will be featured and distributed on Crispy Gamer alongside cash and other cool prizes. Check out http://wildpockets-mashable.eventbrite.com/ for details and registration! And best of all – it’s a completely free event.

April 16, 2009, Los Angeles, CA: Are you ready for the shift to social media? This session, hosted by Sally Falkow with guest speaker Paul Gillin, focuses on social media campaign researching and planning including how to identify important influencers, evangelists and detractors, pinpoint relevant communities and create a strong online reputation. An in-depth white paper accompanies this webinar. Other sessions include guest speakers John Blossom, Rebecca Lieb and Katie Delahaye Paine. Session costs are $125 each or $425 for all four sessions. Archived versions are available. Visit us at Social Media Roadmap and use the code mw10 for a 10% discount.

April 20-24, 2009, New York City: Organized by the NYC Entrepreneurial Community, NYC ENT was created to strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit of New York City through a week long series of events aimed at educating entrepreneurs and connecting them with sources of capital. Most events are free and open to the public.

April 21-23, 2009, San Francisco: There’s little room in this economy for marketing missteps. Get it right with SMX@ad:tech, featuring case studies, a media boot camp, training courses, takeaway tips and more! The opening keynote features Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia.org. Use code: BRSFZ5 to save 20%: www.ad-tech.com/sf

April 24-25, 2009, Bilbao, Spain Nonick is a social media and online video event. The program will include: Interactive panel discussions, Workshops (open barcamp), Startup 2.0 Competition, a Facebook Developer Garage, the Euro Blog Awards Contest and a Night Party. Get 25% off when registering with code nonick09.

April 25-28, 2009, Toronto, Canada: FITC Toronto 2009 celebrates what it means to live, think and play outside the lines with a three-day event focused on the art and craft of Interactive design, April 25 - 28, 2009, at the Toronto Hilton in Toronto, Canada. Now in its 8th year, FITC Toronto is one of the largest and longest running events for the design and technology community. This year’s speakers include: David Carson, Joshua Davis, Joshua Hirsch, and MK12. The event is open to Flash and FLEX designers and developers, animators, programmers, motion graphic artists, creative directors, account managers, and anyone interested in Interactive design and technology. A 20% discount can be had with code MASHABLE.

April 26-28, 2009, San Francisco, CA: The Nonprofit Technology Conference is THE place to engage around the technology issues that face the nonprofit sector. Nearly 1200 people will come together from across the country and around the world to connect with our peers, learn from our heroes, and change the world. It’s true that our sector will face remarkable challenges in the coming year. Joining us for the 2009 NTC will put you among those poised not only to meet those challenges, but to rise above them. Can you afford not to be there? Mashable readers can get the NTEN rate ($200 off) when using code Mash09NTC to register!

April 27-29, 2009, West Hollywood, CA: Mashable is proud to be an affiliate partner of the upcoming OnHollywood event, where cutting-edge technology CEOs from the back streets of Silicon Valley meet the Hollywood digital entertainment and media elite. This two-and-a-half-day executive event features high-level debates on which forces are disrupting user behavior and creating new opportunities, content strategies and monetization schemes in the video, music, gaming, search, and mobile industries. Register now to take advantage of the exclusive 50%-off discount for Mashable readers.

Today to April 28, 2009, EVERYWHERE: Social Actions’ Change the Web Challenge invites developers to create innovative web applications and widgets that help people find and share opportunities to make a difference on the websites, blogs, and social networks that we all visit every day. Winners will share $10,000 in prizes and will be announced at NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference on April 28, 2009. For more information, and a full schedule of real-world and virtual events, visit: socialactions.com/changetheweb.

April 28-29, 2009, San Francisco: The Inbound Marketing Summit is a marketing conference organized by Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott and Paul Gillin. The Inbound Marketing Summit brings together experts in the field of new media marketing to share the latest strategies, tools, and best practices to utilize new marketing methods to grow your business. Speakers include: Tim O’Reilly, Charlene Li, Loic LeMeur, Tim Ferriss, Jason Falls, Brian Solis, and many more. For more details please visit our website (and use code MASH200 for a $200 discount!)

April 28-29, 2009, Amsterdam: a4uexpo will be the first Pan European Affiliate Marketing Conference & Exhibition, designed to bring together everyone working in and around the European Affiliate Marketing industry. The action-packed two-day event will provide a professional environment in which Affiliates, Merchants, Agencies, Networks and Suppliers can come together, share knowledge, meet colleagues and debate the market’s very existence and future development. a4uexpo Europe is perfect platform for business-dealing, networking, celebration and fun. A 10% discount for Mashable members can be had if you register with code Mashable09.

April 28, 2009, New York City: The second Mashable NextUp NYC at the 92YTribeca will bring together the local startup community, from startups in their infancy to those that are now successful small to medium businesses. The night will comprise of networking, a presentations session from local startups and a panel with successful New York founded startups. Panelists include Philip James of Snooth, Avner Ronen of Boxee, Michael Galpert of Aviary, Scott Belsky of Behance, and our very own Adam Ostrow of Mashable. Find out more (and get ticket details) at Mashable’s Lessons from the Local Internet Startup Community.

April 29, 2009, New York City: BlogWell will present unprecedented insight on social media and corporate blogging from Nokia, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Tyson Foods, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and more. Discussions include measuring ROI, managing teams, legal issues, working with agencies, and creating great content. Mashable readers can get 10% off by using code thanksmashable when registering.

April 30-May 1, 2009, London: FOWD London is back for 2009! Join the industry’s leading, most talented designers, developers and artists for some inspiration and practical advice.

The goal of this show is to unite, inspire and equip web designers around the world. We want you to walk away from FOWD knowing that you’re not alone in your battle to create beautiful, usable and accessible websites and apps. The conference on the 30th April includes some great names including: Jim Coudal, Molly Holzschlag, Folkert Gorter, Mark Boulton, Meagan Fisher. You also have the chance to attend a day of workshops on the 1st May which is the ideal opportunity to learn some new skills in an intimate classroom environment. Find out more.

May 1, 2009, Philadelphia, PA: The Mashable team is excited for our first ever event in Philadelphia. Mashable Mixer Philly will be a great opportunity to meet with Adam Hirsch (COO), Adam Ostrow (Editor-in-Chief), Sharon Feder (Features Editor), Brett Petersel (East Coast Events Director) and the local social media community. Thanks to IndyHall for partnering with us to help make the night one to remember. Location and ticketing to be announced shortly.

May 5-6, 2009, Hamburg, Germany: If you’re shaping the interactive trends in Europe, Next09 is your event. With this year’s topic of “Share Economy,” the next conference is both the meeting place for Europeans and international attendees to connect and share insights, as well as get access to the German market. The programme includes some great names like Brian Solis and Steve Rubel, as well as speakers from companies like Amazon, BMW, Coca-Cola and Google.

Use our promotional code mashable435 to get 20% off when registering.

May 7, 2009, Seattle, WA: The Seattle 2.0 Awards recognizes the amazing accomplishments of the best from over 300 Seattle-based technology startups – the second biggest startup cluster in the US – and the exceptional people who are behind their heroic efforts. Nominate your favorites until March 25 and make sure you and your colleagues vote for the finalists between March 30 and April 28, and then attend the awards ceremony on May 7 in the biggest gathering of CEOs, Founders and Investors in Seattle.

May 7, 2009, Sanford, CA: Do you have the world’s next big idea? Here’s your chance to PITCH. Women 2.0’s third-annual Startup Competition will provide your alpha, beta, or prototype-stage startup with exposure to early stage investors. The judging panel includes investors and experienced startup executives who will provide valuable written feedback on your business.

HUNDREDS of submissions will receive valuable feedback from the judging panel of investors and experienced startup executives. FIVE startups will be chosen to pitch live on Pitch Night: May 7th, 2009. ONE winning startup gets a meeting with legendary investor Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital in addition to free office space, legal services, marketing support, PR support, and more – everything you need to win with your new idea.

How to submit: See details on the PITCH 2009 web page for details on the 3-step submissions process. You have a firm deadline of April 10th for your submission. At least ONE of the founding members needs to be female to qualify. Submissions are accepted GLOBALLY but if selected finalists must be present on May 7th in San Francisco.

May 7-8, 2009, Omaha, NE: BIGOmaha will be the premier event where some of the nation’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs and creative minds gather — all in Omaha, Nebraska! One of the primary goals of the event is to challenge as well as motivate people from within the city and region to follow their passion, launch a new business or product, and simply work on what they love.

May 11-14, 2009, Ottawa, Ontario: Attend the Advanced Learning Institute’s “8th Forum on Social Media for Government: How To Engage Your Employees And Citizens By Using The Latest Web 2.0 Technologies To Drive Communication Results” to learn how to capture the power of social media in your organization, along with helpful tools, tips and techniques to get started.

Hear from leading experts at Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, National Aboriginal Health Organization, City of Ottawa, ON, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canadian Embassy, Ontario Ministry of Government Services, and more, how to engage your employees and citizens by using social media. $200 off for Mashable members can be had by mentioning mashable.

May 11-14, 2009, Washington DC: Attend the “Advanced Learning Institute’s 25th Forum on Internal Branding: How Branding And Communications Drive Employee Engagement And Improve Your Organization’s Bottom Line” to learn how to create brand champions and advance your organizational goals.

Hear from leading experts NASA, Dean Foods Company, ServiceMaster, Kaiser Permanente, Royal Mail, Federal Aviation Administration, REM Medical Corp., The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Watson Wyatt Worldwide, and more, how to integrate social media strategies and technology into your marketing and communications programs to build customer and employee relationships and drive bottom-line results.

Mention “Mashable” when registering to save $200.

May 14, 2009, Atlanta, GA: Mashable and Regator are proud to announce the first ever Mashable event in Atlanta: we have a special evening planned so we look forward to meeting the Atlanta social media community. Mashable team members in attendance will include Adam Hirsch (COO), Adam Ostrow (Editor-in-Chief), Sharon Feder (Features Editor) and Brett Petersel (East Coast Events Director). Location and ticketing to be announced shortly.

May 14, 2009, London: The International Social Media Summit will bring together some of the leading experts and practitioners of social media marketing from across the world. Social Networking, Blogging, Twitter, Social Media Optimisation and Social Media Trends will all be on the agenda as speakers including LinkedIn, Bebo, Plaxo, The Guardian and Trendstream share their knowledge and experience of this hot topic. Use discount code MASH09 for a 20% discount.

May 18, 2009, San Francisco, CA: The SanFran MusicTech Summit is an all day event with a cocktail party thereafter and features the leading Bay Area developers, musicians, entrepreneurs, investors, press, service providers, and organizations in the music/technology space, at the convergence of culture and commerce. There will be panels, conversations, and schmoozing on the evolving music/technology ecosystem, in an elegant and conducive to dealmaking environment. Pete Cashmore calls this event “The BEST Music and Technology Conference.” Speakers will come from Pandora, YouTube, Rhapsody, The Washington Post, The Future of Music Coalition, SoundExchange, Cisco, and many, many more. Get 10% off if you use the discount code mashable when you register.

May 19-20, 2009, New York City: In turbulent economic times, it is critically important to understand what opportunities exist to make our businesses run better. The Web 3.0 Conference will explore how companies are using a new generation of tools and technologies today, and should be using them tomorrow, for significant bottom line impact in areas like marketing, corporate information management, customer service, and personal productivity. Join us at the Web 3.0 conference to hear from and meet the people that are bringing you this exciting new world and to learn how these technologies can impact your organizations today. A 15% discount is offered to Mashable readers with code XW3MASH.

May 19-21, 2009, San Jose, CA: The earth isn’t flat, and maps don’t live in the glove compartment anymore. The O’Reilly Where 2.0 Conference will pinpoint how far location technology has reached, explore the boundaries of geospace, and point the way into the location frontier. Now in its fifth year, the Where 2.0 Conference is where the grassroots and leading-edge developers building location-aware technology intersect with the businesses and entrepreneurs seeking out location apps, platforms, and hardware to gain a competitive edge. In the O’Reilly conference tradition, Where 2.0 presents leading trends rather than chasing them. Join us as we delve into the emerging technologies surrounding the geospatial industry. Register by March 31 and save up to $300 - https://en.oreilly.com/where2009/public/register. Mashable readers save an additional 15% using code whr09msh.

May 21, 2009, Los Angeles, CA: Put your social media plan in motion. This session, hosted by Sally Falkow with guest Rebecca Lieb, focuses on choosing your social media campaign tactics including how to develop your content strategy, leverage universal search, and how to choose the best tools from blogging, to video, images, RSS feeds and social networks. An in-depth white paper accompanies this webinar. Other sessions include guest speakers John Blossom, Paul Gillin and Katie Delahaye Paine. Session costs are $125 each or $425 for all four sessions, but with code mw10, you can get a 10% discount. Archived versions are available. Visit us at Social Media Roadmap.

May 27-June 3, 2009, England: The Carsonified team is taking the ‘Future of Web Apps‘ (FOWA) on tour and we’ll be visiting Edinburgh (5/27), Leeds (5/28), Cambridge (6/2) and Bristol (6/3). It’s a brand new half day conference, with a morning of free cloud computing workshops and an afternoon of talks from some of the industry’s most well respected professionals. We’ll be focusing on good solid technical content… talks that will give you some good take away points and an insight into various aspects of the industry. There will also be a chance for some speed networking - the perfect opportunity to connect with local businesses and professionals. Oh, and of course there will be drinks at the end of the day! Thirty early bird passes are available at £39, and when these run out, prices will be rising to £59.

May 28-29, 2009, Santa Clara, CA: Virtual Edge 2009 the Summit on Virtual Events, Meetings & Communities will feature speakers from marketing departments in such companies as SAP, Cisco, Ziff Davis, IBM, Linden Labs, UBM and many more. The focus is on helping you find and apply effective virtual event and meeting strategies that you can use to produce the results you need without the expense of travel. Use the discount code mashable and receive a 20% discount on your registration fee.

June 1-2, 2009, San Francisco: Connect with the smartest minds in youth marketing at the 2009 national Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup, where top brand, corporate and social marketers, media profs, educators and non-profit organizations will gather to share best practices, research and latest strategies on marketing to youth with technology. NEW pre-conference events offer a deep dive focus into the tween, college or multicultural market, or choose a youth marketing boot camp. Featured participants include Spotlight Keynoter Don Tapscott, plus Josh Shipp, Donna Fenn, Guy Kawasaki, and top marketers from Disney, MTV, Alloy and more. Mashable readers may register using code MASHABLE for a savings of 10%!

June 1-2, 2009, New York City: Two years ago, the first Conversational Marketing Summit made the case for a new kind of engagement with audiences. Now we have real cases to study. Join us for a chance to look back at what the creative pioneers have learned and turn that experience into great ideas for the next stage of Conversational Marketing. Mashable readers get a $200 discount with code CMSMASH — but hurry, because the code is valid until 4/6/09.

June 1-2, 2009, Airport City, Israel: Nowadays, affiliates constantly look into new market niches. The days affiliates were focusing on a single market niche are over. Affilicon covers the entire market and not any specific niche. The conferences are targeting new affiliates, experienced affiliates, and super affiliates as well as the respective affiliates programs (vendors). Affiliates who look into what is the latest and greatest in the market, new market niches and vendors who look into extending their affiliation network will find Affilicon events as the place to be. With extensive educational program (3 tracks in some locations), large exhibition attended by global vendors, lot of fun and sightseeing, Affilicon delivers a clear return on investment. Mashable readers get 10% off with code AU555MASH.

June 3, 2009, New York City: The third Mashable NextUp NYC will focus on what is new, what’s hot and the how to of Social Media Marketing, and will also be held at the 92YTribeca. Every successful site, whether you are a small business or a major corporation should have a social media component by now… If you don’t, you are far behind, if you do, are you using it properly? The night will comprise of networking, presentations and keynotes on the topic by Steve Rubel and Mashable’s Founder and CEO, Pete Cashmore.

June 8-10, 2009, Orlando, FL: The Gartner Portals, Content & Collaboration Summit is the productivity-minded event focused on finding better ways to deliver resources, streamline content delivery and storage, and bring people together for greater efficiency. Go to gartner.com/us/pccspring or call 1 866 405 2511 and reference priority code PCCMASH.

June 10, 2009, Mountain View, CA: The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community practitioners - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, marketing, business models, legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners. Register with code mashable to get $#20 off.

June 16-17, 2009, Chicago, IL: Join us when EXECUTING SOCIAL MEDIA meets INNOVATING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT. Communitelligence presents two stimulating days of learning and sharing on the most essential aspects of employee engagement, HR and social media for internal communications. Topics range from “internal Facebooks and Youtubes,” to employee blogging, internal wikis, podcasts, mobile intranets and micro-sharing. Executing Social Media for Internal Communications takes to the next level. One trip, two great conferences, tons of ideas to take back to your office. Register today – use code tweet1 to receive $100 off registration.

June 19-21, Glasgow, Scotland: At Social Innovation Camp, we’ll be attempting our usual trick and bringing together some of the best of the UK’s software developers and designers, together with those at the sharp end of social change. They’ll have just 48 hours to build some web-based solutions to a set of social problems - from back-of-the-envelope idea to working prototype, complete with software. Think you have an idea on how to change something important? Or want to come and participate? The event is free!

June 20-22, 2009, San Jose, CA: O’Reilly Velocity 2009, the Web Operations and Performance Conference dedicated to helping people build a better Internet, is the essential conference for web developers who build Internet infrastructure, enterprise websites, or need to bootstrap a startup to scale for a global audience. Last year more than 600 of the web’s leading developers attended Velocity to learn — straight from the experts — how to build large scale websites that were fast, scalable, efficient, and always available. Register Now & save an additional 15% using discount code vel09msh at https://en.oreilly.com/velocity2009/public/register

July 24-26, 2009, Napa and Sonoma, CA: Did you know blogging is changing the wine industry as we know it? Love wine? Love blogging? Join as fellow wine bloggers, new media innovators in the wine industry, and wine industry leaders converge on California wine country on July 24-26 for the premier conference for new media and the wine industry. This three day symposium brings you a unique opportunity to learn about and discuss the intersection of wine with the world of new media including blogging, social media, and more. We hope to see you there - it’s going to be a fantastic wine country experience! Get a discount by entering MASH when you register!

Reviews: Boxee, Google, Mashable, Pandora, Twitter, Wikipedia, YouTube

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This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Mydeco

Quick Pitch: Mydeco combines 2.0 with leading functionality and content, making it your first stop to design and shop for your home.

Genius Idea: Mydeco is a comprehensive portal for home decorations and design. In terms of its shopping features, it has the essentials for every room of the house: everything from bedding to cutlery is available for purchase.

Purchases are not made on Mydeco; they are completed through third-party vendors such as the UK’s B&Q (home improvement supplies). What makes the website stand out, however, is its vast array of tools for designing the perfect home, as well as its dedicated community. Here are just a few of our favorite features:

Room Planner Tool: The 3D Room Planner allows the users to create room templates, put in furniture, assess space, and see the room in both 2D and 3D.

Styles and Trends: Mydeco provides an overview of styles and trends for picking out a perfect home layout. Some of the layouts are simply gorgeous, and Mydeco offers you the tools to turn it into a reality.

Community: Mydeco’s community features include the ability to subscribe to the activities of members of the site, joining groups based on interests, creating, commenting, and subscribing to user blogs, and participating in contests to design the best and most creative rooms.

Mydeco is easy-to-navigate, simple-to-understand, and yet offers everything anyone could possibly need to brainstorm, design, purchase, and build a beautiful home design. Mydeco is based out of the UK, and thus is centered around UK companies and products. However, the company has recently signed a deal with furniture.com to provide products and services in the states, so expect a lot more options for U.S. users very soon.

Overall, the website is a useful new resource for anyone who has purchased a new home, intends to redesign their current home, or wants to plan out a new room.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

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There are already plenty of Facebook applications that use Adobe Flash. In fact, according to Facebook, 12 of the 20 most popular apps on the site incorporate it. But until today, developers were left more or less on their own when it comes to building applications that make use of the format.

Alas, the two companies have gotten together officially to make developing Flash applications – both on Facebook and off through Facebook Connect – quicker and easier with the ActionScript 3.0 Client Library for Facebook Platform.

What type of applications does this enable? According to some executives at Facebook and Adobe I spoke with this afternoon, on the high-end, it would essentially let anyone build their own version of the wildly popular CNN-Facebook Inauguration Day mashup.

This was custom built by Facebook and CNN, and made use of AJAX to include status updates side-by-side with live streaming video, after users logged in using Facebook Connect. But with the new Flash libraries, Status Updates could be integrated via Flash, all within the same file as the video. Moreover, anyone could build something like this on their own.

On a slightly less grand scale, it also enables game developers to build far more interactive applications. For example, the UNO for Facebook game we featured last week is almost entirely Flash based. On the Facebook Connect side of the Platform, it could enable things like Web-based photo editors to include a built-in option for uploading to Facebook.

SproutBuilder, the Web-based service for building Flash applications, has already integrated the ActionScript library to allow users to immediately publish their creations as either a Facebook application or a Web app using Facebook Connect. You can check out the details of their implementation in the widget below:

Given the success that Flash-based applications have already seen on Facebook, today’s announcement is an important one for the developer community. As an end-user, all of this probably doesn’t mean too much – other than you’ll likely be seeing more apps on Facebook and off that make use of Flash.

This post is part of Mashable’s Facebook Week. To discuss everything Facebook, join our authors and community at Mashable’s Facebook Page.

Reviews: ActionScript , Facebook

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You’re unbelievably good at using Facebook and Twitter, but no one is taking you seriously because you don’t have papers to prove it? Birmingham City University can solve your problems; as of next year, it’ll offer a course in social media, encompassing social networking sites as communications and marketing tools.

The one year course will earn you a master’s degree at the cost of 4,400 pounds (6,239 dollars). “During the course we will consider what people can do on Facebook and Twitter, and how they can be used for communication and marketing purposes,” says the course convener Jon Hickman, adding that “There has been significant interest in the course already, and it will definitely appeal to students looking to go into professions including journalism and PR.”

Of course, there’s the question of how deep such a course should go; some students have already described the course as too basic. Finding expert teachers on the subject might be a problem, since many students are already very good at using social networking and social media sites. However, there’s nothing wrong with the idea; there are courses in TV and media, and social media and social networking are definitely worthy subjects, especially if you’re studying communications, journalism, PR or marketing.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, adventtr

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

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Twitter has tweaked their sidebar to now refer to Replies as “Mentions,” and adjusted the functionality so that rather than showing only those tweets that begin with your username, they’ll show all tweets that mention it.

While this could already easily be accomplished using Twitter search, or through a client like TweetDeck, it now allows all users of the Web interface – still the most popular method for updating and tracking Twitter– to see everyone who mentions their username.

Twitter’s Biz Stone further explains the move in a blog post: “In your Twitter sidebar you’ll now see your own @username tab. When you click that tab, you’ll see a list of all tweets referencing your account with the @username convention anywhere in the tweet—instead of only at the beginning which is how it used to work. So for me it would be all mentions of @biz. For developers, this update will also be included in the APIs.”

This also means you should also start to see all of the retweets that you generate, since those always start with something along the lines of “RT @adamostrow” or “Retweet @adamostrow.”

A small change on the surface, but one that will give Web users a much better idea of who’s tweeting about them – if they weren’t already getting this information in some alternative way.

Reviews: TweetDeck, Twitter

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