Ads That Pay

Facebook will now pay users to watch certain ads. A new ad program launched by Facebook on Thursday will give users 10 Facebook credits per select video ad watched. The credits can be used towards virtual goods (such as purchases within online games) and “real-world goods” (in the form of Facebook’s new Deals service).

Business is Social

A quote from the must-read Wall Street Journal article, Business Joins the Party:

“If you want an example of the power of social media, consider this. Starbucks gets 1.8 million visitors to its website every month, Coca Cola some 270,000. By contrast their Facebook pages get 19.4 million and 22.5 million respectively, roughly 10 times the traffic. And every one of those people has given those companies permission to talk to them.”

Google’s Business Photos

Watch this video on Google’s new Business Photos, which allows participants to showcase the inside of their business (similar to street view only it gives you a look at the inside). Business owners can take their own photos and Google is also hiring photographers to snap photos of business interiors. Businesses can apply here.

(Also, watch this video for a laugh)

Current Events & The Changing News Landscape

President Obama made a major announcement on Sunday night, broadcasting that Osama Bin Laden was dead. See some of the ways social media played a role in the dissemination of the news:

• One Twitter user, @ReallyVirtual, live tweeted the raid on Sunday without even knowing it. He relayed the news of helicopters and gunshots. Once he found out about the purpose of the raid, he tweeted “Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.”

• Many social media users found out the news before the presidential address. As the NYTimes reported, “Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, some CNN watchers had already heard the news.  Unconfirmed reports — that turned out to be true — of Osama bin Laden’s demise circulated widely on social media for about 20 minutes before the anchors of the major broadcast and cable networks reported news of the raid at 10:45 p.m., about an hour before Mr. Obama’s address from the White House.”

• The White House released a photo on Flickr of Obama and his security team watching the raid from The Situation Room. The picture is quickly to becoming one of the most viewed images on the photo sharing site. The photo (shown below) already has over 2,000,000 views (for those curious, click this link to see the Flickr photo that has the most views to date.)

AT&T’s Groupon Competitor

Can we say crowded? AT&T is launching a Groupon/LivingSocial/Facebook Deals/Google Offers competitor. AT&T’s YP.com will start sending daily deals to consumers who opt in. The daily deal service will initially be offered in L.A., Atlanta, and Dallas-Fort Worth.

-Anna (@alucas9)