More small businesses use Twitter, Facebook to promote
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAYSAN FRANCISCO — A surge in social-media use by small businesses reflects a shift in how they operate and their comfort with increasingly easy-to-use technology.
In growing numbers, small-business owners are adopting social-networking services, location-based services, Twitter and online video to promote products and services, according to a new study by MerchantCircle, a social network for small businesses. It polled › Continue reading
FTC tells Twitter to protect the private data of its users
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAYThe Federal Trade Commission on Thursday ordered Twitter to establish a security program subject to government monitoring for the next 10 years and barred it from misleading consumers about privacy.
Twitter agreed to those terms in exchange for the FTC not pursuing a civil lawsuit against the company. It was the agency’s first-ever enforcement action against a social network.
“When a company promises consumers › Continue reading
Twitter for cars: Ford tech reads your incoming tweets aloud
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAYNow you’ll be able hear your “tweets” on the street.
Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally will announce Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that the automaker is incorporating a Twitter application into its next-generation Sync in-car communication system. It is one of three free apps — the others are online entertainment services Pandora and Stitcher — in the first wave of what Ford hopes will › Continue reading