After our post below, we were contacted by a BranchOut spokesperson who offered some clarification:

Facebook recruitment networking app BranchOut now has 300 million users and, according to a Wall Street Journal conversation with BranchOut CEO Rick Marini, reaches twice the number of users as competitor LinkedIN. The way Marini explained it: BranchOut trails LinkedIN in number of registered users, but it’s on Facebook and connects users with their Facebook friends and friends of friends, and that number exceeds LinkedIN numbers.  Only 10 million people have actually placed their profiles on BranchOut, however, with only 4 million actively returning to the site each month. Recruitment giant CareerBuilder has additionally teamed up with BranchOut, to offer social connectivity to its users.

Combine these statistics with the stats for LinkedIN candidate search – 87 % of recruiters surveyed by Jobvite used LinkedIN to find candidates in 2011 – and it’s clear that social media has taken a front and center place in the world of online recruitment.  Publishers who fail to integrate social media tools and features may end up eating the dust of sites such as Indeed, SimplyHired, Monster’s BeKnown, CareerBuilder, JobFox, JobVite, TweetMyJobs, TwitJob Search and its The SocialCV, and others who connect candidates with their social friends at hiring firms, and recruiters with candidates, through social networking.  For more on this growing social recruitment phenomenon read AIM Group’s Recruitment Advertising 2012: “Social 2.0″ (CIR 12.23, Dec. 15, 2011)

WSJ’s Digits blog has the latest BranchOut story.

  IAC, which operates more than 50 Internet businesses across 30 countries, just reported impressive quarterly growth in areas that include search, Match.com and ServiceMagic. 

NEW YORK— February 1, 2012—IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) released fourth quarter 2011 results today.

• Q4 revenue and Operating Income Before Amortization reached record levels, with strong double-digit growth for the 8th consecutive quarter. Operating Income Before Amortization grew 88% to $90.9 million, which included the write-off of $23.0 million in deferred revenue related to the Meetic acquisition.

• Free Cash Flow for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011 was $332.4 million, up 32% over the prior year, while cash flow from operating activities attributable to continuing operations was $372.4 million, up 9% over the prior year.

• IAC repurchased 4.6 million shares of common stock between October 29, 2011 and January 27, 2012 at an average price of $41.70 per share, or $191.2 million in aggregate.

• IAC declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share to be paid on March 1, 2012 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 15, 2012.

• Q4 Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS more than doubled from the year ago period.

• Q4 net income and GAAP EPS comparisons were impacted by certain discrete items as further described herein. Collectively, the net impact of these items benefited Q4 2010 net income and GAAP EPS by $77.4 million and $0.80 per share, respectively, but had no impact on Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS.

Here is the complete release.

Everyday Deals has a few bells and whistles that leapfrog GrouponNow (although we suspect not for very long). Most notable is a nifty filter feature that can drill down by category, day and even time (early morning, mid-day, late night, etc.). There is also a Google Map with pushpins where a deal is located. If you’re in the mood for saving money while on-the-go, Everyday Deals looks promising.

Despite its Toronto-origins and headquarters, and its strong presence in every major Canadian cities, DealFind also runs local sites in most U.S. states (the company added 18 new cities in November 2011 alone). DealFind has been around since 2009 and has sold nearly 2 million vouchers valued at over $400,000 total – not the biggest player on the block but one that looks to be around for a while.

Zillow has just launched a mashup with Facebook, which lets consumers get advice from their social media friends as they search for a home to buy or rent. We tried it. Not only did we find two friends in the very zip code in which we wanted to make a purchase, we also found out that we have Facebook friends in 44 US states and 207 cities.  It’s very easy to use and could be immensely useful for those who are making a move to an area about which they know little. While in theory there’s much out there about neighborhoods and cities – schools, shops, cost of living and so forth – how do you find out the truth about the safety of the neighborhood, or whether the residents there keep their barking dogs in at night, or keep their yards looking nice? Your friends who live there will tell you, of course. We like this new Zillow feature.

Here’s the announcement, and a graphic of our search in a specific Phoenix zip code: 

Zillow Launches Social Home-Shopping Experience, Neighborhood Advice

Home Shoppers Can Now Connect With Facebook Friends to Find Neighborhood Information While Searching for Homes on Zillow

SEATTLE, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Today leading real estate information marketplace Zillow® (NASDAQ:Z) announced the launch of Neighborhood Advice on Zillow.com®, a social home-shopping experience that helps buyers and renters learn about neighborhoods from their Facebook friends.

While shopping on Zillow, users are prompted to activate Facebook® Connect and then see locally where their Facebook friends live or “check-in” the most.  As shoppers search for homes in a specific city or neighborhood, Neighborhood Advice will recommend Facebook friends connected to the area to contact for personal tips and advice.

For example, if a user is searching for homes in the San Francisco neighborhood of Noe Valley, Neighborhood Advice will identify friends who have shared that they live in Noe Valley, or who frequently “check-in” to places in Noe Valley. The home shopper can then send these friends a private direct message on Facebook to ask questions about the neighborhood.

“When people are looking to rent or buy a new home, they always ask friends, family and co-workers questions about different neighborhoods. Neighborhood Advice takes this further and deeper by allowing shoppers to quickly and easily tap into their broader online social network as they shop for homes on Zillow,” said Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow. “Integrating social media tools and friend networks into the core Zillow home-shopping experience is yet another way we are giving our users access to previously hard-to-find, yet sought-after, information.”

About Zillow, Inc.

Zillow is the leading real estate information marketplace, providing vital information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages through its websites and mobile applications, enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to connect with real estate and mortgage professionals best suited to meet their needs. More than 23 million unique users visited Zillow’s websites and mobile applications in December 2011. Zillow, Inc. operates Zillow.com, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Mobile, Postlets® and Diverse Solutions™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow and Postlets are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Diverse Solutions is a trademark of Zillow, Inc.

Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

SOURCE Zillow, Inc.

From a relatively unknown player, AdParlor burst onto the online advertising radar when it landed an exclusive deal to handle Groupon’s entire Facebook ad spend. Other high profile clients for the company include Ubisoft, Sega and agencies like Digitas and OMD.

AdParlor offers three ways of working together: a fully managed service for clients spending more than $25,000 a month; a self-service tool called Pulse; and a white label solution. AdParlor bills its clients based on either cost per acquisition or number new fans or app installs: the company claims to deliver some five million Facebook application installs per month. On the ad side, AdParlor serves over 30 billion impressions a month.

Adknowledge has been on a buying spree: in the last three years, it has made eight acquisitions. Its last purchase was the cost-per-action network Hydra Group. It also made a previous buy in Canada when it acquired Vancouver’s Super Rewards in 2009.

AdParlor’s CEO Hussein Fazal (who will keep that title post-merger) said the deal was important for the company to get into places like London, New York City and Chicago where a physical presence, which AdKnowledge has, is needed. Fazal and co-founder and CTO Kristaps Ronka were named to Inc.com’s 2011 “30 Under 30” list.

AdParlor will operate as an independent unit within Adknowledge and will keep its Toronto offices and 20 employees.

Housed on Merchants.Groupon.com (The Groupon Merchant Center) the analytics provide buyer demographics by age, gender, and zip code. Included as well is the feedback of the more than one million Groupon deals buyers who told the Deals provider whether they’d recommend the purchase and merchant to others, and what they thought of the Deal.  Merchants can access a compilation of their own deals, whether Groupon or the more time-sensitive Groupon Now, as well as returning-customer earnings in the Groupon Rewards loyalty program. 

The highlights:

• LinkedIN will reach 300 million users by the end of 2012
• Facebook’s decline in usage will continue in 2012 as Facebook apathy takes a firm hold
• Video assessment will go mainstream for corporate recruiters
• Twitter will explode as a recruitment communication tool
• Social media litigation will become the single largest headache for HR departments
• Mobile will dominate the total spend in recruitment / HR portals

You may not have heard of Gary Vaynerchuk – I hadn’t – but once you watch his keynote presentation at the 2011  Inc. 500 / 5000 conference you’ll never forget him.  He’s been an entrepreneur since age 8, founded WineLibrary.com in 1997, and now owns VaynerMedia.com. He has written two books – The Thank You Economy, and Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion-  both of which I hurried to Amazon to buy once I saw this video. His presentation on social media and its ROI was one of the most powerful and riveting keynotes I’ve seen on any topic anywhere. If you’re a publisher or broadcaster wondering about the importance of social media for your firm and its bottom line, you MUST watch this video.

An unidentified newspaper owner in the audience asked about monetization of content. “Holding on to what emotionally feels good is a good way to go out of business,” Vaynerchuk responded. Amen.

Here are just a few of his quotes and thoughts that resonated with me:

• “I like social media because it sells s**t.”
• “Marketing for the last 150 years has been push. Whoever told their story best won. We’re now living for the first time in a pull society. Consumers now have a say.”

He had a few disparaging things to say about some traditional media, pointing out that no one is looking at outdoor billboards. “Look at five people driving around you the next time you are on the road,” he said. “Three of them are texting. Are they looking at the billboards? They’re not even looking at the road.”

Vaynerchuk told the story about a man, Jay Cutler, who bought a considerable amount of wine from his website. Cutler followed Wine Library on Twitter and Wine Library followed him back. It was clear that Cutler was an avid fan of one prominent football player. As a thank you for the large wine purchase, Wine Library sent him that quarterback’s jersey. Cutler’s response: “I go into X store and they don’t know me from Adam. But you knew me and what I was avid about. I’m your customer for life.” The customers with which Wine Library engages on Twitter outbuy the company’s more traditional customers by 60 percent, he told us.

Social marketing is not really new, according to Vaynerchuk – it’s going back to the old ways of selling. It’s about being human, and it takes humans to make it happen. He said that our grandparents would have been better marketers in today’s world than we are now, because they knew how to be small-town human. The local butcher started slicing our meat as we walked in the door because he knew us. That, said Vaynerchuk, is what social brings back to doing business.

His caution: “Social won’t excite anyone about what it will do for your bottom line in 6-12 months. Most companies in social marketing are trying to close on the first transaction.” That, he said, won’t work.

Vaynerchuk made some predictions about the world of advertising in five years. He said that you might be watching your favorite football team and, all psyched when the star player made a touchdown. Then up pops an opportunity to buy his jersey. And you will, right then. You might be watching Pamela Anderson on a daytime show. “I love those shoes she’s wearing,” you might think. Again, you can scan a TV ad and buy two pair right then.

Vaynerchuk suggested that the next time we want to do a search about our own business, we should bypass Google and go instead to Twitter.com/search. He promised it would be an eye opener. He chastised those in the audience who don’t follow their own company’s mentions on Twitter.

“If you went to a local pizza place and happened to overhear the people at the next table talking about your company, good or bad, wouldn’t you introduce yourself and start a conversation? Of course you would.” But, he said, you’re not doing it on social media. And you should be.

Social marketing is about retention and lifetime value, Vaynerchuk emphasized. It’s not about the momentary sale. it must be done by humans.

So, what about the ROI?

“What’s the ROI of your mother?” he asked an executive who kept pressing for the bottom-line value of social media.  His mother, Vaynerchuk explained to the audience, was responsible for raising him to be entrepreneurial and confident and successful. Yet he couldn’t do a power point and show that when he was little and she said, “Great job, son” that later translated into the sale of x number of wine cases 20 years later.

His closing comment: “Take all the money you’re spending on dumb s**t and put it into humans.”

Publishers and broadcasters, watch this video, have your ad managers watch it, and then get your advertising, news and circulation staff involved. If you haven’t already, read Seth Godin’s Tribes, about empowering the natural leaders in your company, and start socializing your news, your advertising including classifieds, and put the human back into your marketing. No, there’s not enough time in the day for your ad director to spend responding to tweets or posting to Facebook, but plenty of ad reps would jump at the chance to get involved. If you don’t think so, show them this video and then ask them.

Much thanks to 360 Media Alliance for bringing this presentation to my attention.

Today is the close of Toyota’s Shareathon,  a ten-day social media event rewarding new car buyers and those who use social media to promote the Toyota brand.  Everyone who buys a Toyota during this event and tweets about it earns a prepaid $500 debit card. With each retweet the car buyer earns another $50, up to $1000. The followers who do the retweeting are each entered into a drawing for a new Prius.

Will it help sell Toyotas? Who knows yet. But it certainly helps promote the brand. It’s an interesting concept that just about any product or publisher could emulate.

In order of most social-media-shared, they are:

1. Volkswagen: The Force: Volkswagen Commercial  – 47.5 million views, 4,813,984 shares (32,618 comments)
2. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Four; The Hollywood Megamercial – 13.1 million views, 2,111,150 shares (19,115 comments)
3. Kia: Party Rock Anthem-Kia Soul Hamster Commercial – 10.7 million views, 1,556,221 shares (12,748 comments)
4. Nissan: Pôneis Malditos – 13.9 million views, 968,124 shares (25,827 comments)
5. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three; The Ultimate Playground – 733,112 shares
6. Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial – Imported From Detroit – 15.4 million views, 436,016 shares (28,241 comments)
7. BMW 1M – Walls – MPowered Performance Part 1 – 3.0 million views, 407,505 shares (1,922 comments)
8. DC Shoes: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two; The Infomercial – 341,980 shares
9. Team Hot Wheels – The Yellow Driver’s World Record Jump – 8.1 million views, 294,046 shares (4,177 comments)
10. Volkswagen: Black Beetle – 6.3 million views, 212,290 shares (2,371 comments)

Today in the US is Bill of Rights day, which involves a celebration of the 220-year-old First Amendment*. At a time when many project the death of newspapers, the Knight Foundation and the American Society of News Editors (ASNE)  have collaborated on this Twitter-based FreeToTweet competition. It’s a smart way to get out the message that traditional media are evolving to multimedia, and to help create top-of-mind awareness of newspapers among a younger demographic. While it’s not a classified-focused or even advertising-focused project, this marketing is important to the success of both.

During FreeToTweetDay – today, December 15 – Students 14-22 can tweet #FreetoTweet or email their message about what the First Amendment means to them. They can attach and include links.  The top 22 tweeter or emailers will be awarded $5000 college scholarships.  A panel of judges will first narrow down the entrants into a group of finalists, and then choose the winners. It’s a great idea, though we wish they’d brought the public into the judging at some point – generating even more discussions on Facebook and Twitter. This could have virally marketed the message even further.

Some of what we’ve seen so far:

Read the press release here.

*Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.