The Securities and Exchange Commission requires a company to describe all the risk factors associated with investing in its business before it goes public. One of these issues for Facebook is “significant competition” from companies including Google, Microsoft and Twitter. The social network notes that Google or others could use dominant positions in one market to gain an advantage in one of Facebook’s areas of operation.

With 85 percent of its revenue coming from advertising, Facebook competes with both traditional and online media businesses. Advertisers tend to have fixed budgets, and the social network will have to continue to make a case for its ads and Sponsored Stories. We have seen businesses spent significant amounts to generate Likes for their pages, but it is unclear how much advertisers will devote to Facebook once they have amassed an audience. Facebook did not address this in the document today, but it is a trend to watch.

Also critical to maintaining and expanding its position as a display ad platform is user growth and engagement. If users spend less time on Facebook in favor of other social networks or offerings, the company will be negatively affected. It mentioned Google+, along with regional networks Cyworld (Korea), Mixi (Japan), Orkut (Brazil, India) and vKontakte in Russia. The company also recognizes that other Internet or mobile companies could offer products and services that compete with individual Facebook features. It didn’t name names, but these can include everything from Apple’s iMessenger to startups like Instagram.

Facebook acknowledged that Google in particular could gain a competitive advantage by integrating its social networking platform into its existing search product, web browser or mobile operating system. On these fronts, Facebook might have to spend significantly to acquire or partner with other companies. This will be difficult, though, as many companies in the position to help Facebook fight Google are threatened by other aspects of Facebook’s business.

There are already tons of different ways you can invoke the Twitter panel in iOS 5, and this is just one of the latest methods for doing so.

QuickTweet is a Notification Center shortcut for iOS 5 that places a quick link to the compose tweet function in the bottom left-hand corner. This could be the perfect companion to IntelliScreenX’s built-in Messages+ SMS shortcut, because it’s situated directly across from it…(...)
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The social network’s outreach among public figures and the prominence it gives subscribe suggestions on the site show a level of commitment to taking away some of Twitter’s power and preventing Google+ from gaining traction as a source for news.

Journalists like Ann Curry, Nicholas Kristof, Katie Couric and Don Lemon have converted to Timeline and enabled subscribe. Some of these figures have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. More than 90 journalists from the Washington Post and more than 50 from The New York Times have made their profiles available to public subscribers, according to the Journalists + Facebook note. The Washington Post recently published a list of all its staff members who are accessible on Facebook.

Many users have been able to accumulate Facebook subscribers at a much faster rate than they gained Twitter followers. A sample of 25 journalists showed the average journalist had a 320 percent increase in subscribers since November 2011. This is largely due to the “People To Subscribe To” sidebar that shows up on several pages prompting users to follow updates from journalists, celebrities and other public figures. Of course, when one user subscribes to another, it generates a story in friends’ News Feeds in a way that Twitter hasn’t taken advantage of. (Twitter added an activity feed in August 2011, but users have to visit a separate tab to view it.) Facebook has also offered a subscribe button plugin for third-party sites and added a subscribe call to action within its comments plugin and the “page owners” section of pages.

Notably, Facebook has employees dedicated to outreach, not only to bring the right personalities to the platform but also to provide best practices. Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik has been extremely active in sharing examples of how reporters can use the social network and producing resources like the Facebook + Journalists note today, which included recommendations such as “reader shoutouts can increase feedback by as much as 4x.”

Twitter might have to start implementing changes or better courting public figures to convince them not to neglect Twitter in favor of Facebook. Google+ has an advantage with the way Google Search now displays results from its social network, which could help keep it in the race for public attention. But for Facebook, a key point will be letting users choose whether to post to subscribers or friends. Because posts have to be public for subscribers to see them, a user is forced to also share that content with friends. Unlike Twitter, users can only have one profile so they have to mix business and personal. Another issue is that Facebook does not have a way to designate a profile as “official,” which has long been a problem for pages. And because many people who have subscribers also have pages, the social network will need to determine how to balance these in search.

Earlier today we told you about an upcoming tweak that would let you send tweets using Siri. At the time, we didn’t know the name of this tweak or when it would be available for download.

It appears that Sireet, as it is called, is now available for download from the MMI repo for free…(...)
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It was only a matter of time, but the inevitable has finally happened. Even though you could already use this workaround to send status updates to Twitter using Siri, you can now tweet with Siri courtesy of an upcoming jailbreak tweak.

The yet to be named tweak is making its way around the blogosphere, and should be released to the public in the very near future.

We’re pretty impressed by how accurate tweeting with Siri actually is, but that should be expected since Siri is very precise when it comes to dictation.

Check out our hands on video as we tweet with Siri inside…(...)
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Not to be confused with the Mission Control that’s standard on all OS X Lion builds, MissionControl is a Cydia tweak that adds menu based multitasking to the iPhone.

Using Activator as a means to invoke the menu, MissionControl is a simple alternative for those who want lots of predefined options in an organized menu.

This free tweak contains quick links to Cydia, Twitter, Facebook, Wi-Fi settings, and more…(...)
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Didn’t we tell you? The floodgates are opening for Siri tweaks now that the iPhone 4S jailbreak is available.

OpenSiri is among the Siri tweak freshman class, and it allows you to launch stock Apple apps, plus Facebook and Twitter apps using nothing but your voice.

Check out our hands-on video of OpenSiri in action…(...)
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Below is an excerpt of this week’s full Featured Facebook Campaigns entry in the Facebook Marketing Bible, which also includes detailed breakdowns of over 100 other Facebook marketing campaigns by top-performing brands and other organization on Facebook.

The Great Big Toys “R” Us Book

Goal: Page Growth, Product Purchase, Brand Loyalty

Method: The Great Big Toys “R” Us book is available for download as a PDF on the company’s Page.

Core Mechanic: The app allows users to download the company’s toy catalog that includes holiday shopping specials for leisurely perusal. The company first began releasing the catalog on Facebook in 2009; at the time users could only peruse the catalog on Facebook, thus, the download represents the next level in marketing. The app also offers users the chance to sign up for mobile deals or emails.

Impact: The Page currently stands at 2.3 million and shows steady growth according to PageData.

Taco Cabana’s eClub Free Taco

Goal: Email Acquisition, Brand Loyalty, Product Purchase

Method: The Page’s Join Our eClub tab asks users to sign up for the company’s email list, taking them to the website to sign up in exchange for a free taco.

Core Mechanic: The free taco serves as a lure to bring customers into the social media and email offerings the company frequently launches, such as seasonal beverages or foods. The company has also been advertising the offer and its social media presence in-store to boost its email list.

Impact: The Page currently counts about 82,000 Likes and shows steady growth, according to PageData.

Want to learn how top brands are designing their Facebook marketing campaigns? See the Facebook Marketing Bible for detailed breakdowns of hundreds of Featured Campaigns by top-performing brands and businesses on Facebook.

But after 15 years building products, he recently became a principal at Silicon Valley venture firm Greylock Partners. We sat down with him recently to get his take on where Facebook and Twitter are going, and to learn more about his own plans now that he’s an investor.

Inside Facebook: If you were abandoned on an island for the rest of your life, would you rather be stuck with Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Williams or Jack Dorsey?

Josh Elman: Um, wow that’s a great question. I’d probably choose Ev. Ev, Zuck and Jack are great entrepreneurs, and I have massive respect for all three. But I’ve spent most of the most time with Ev and would love to spend more. Of the three, I feel closest and most stylistically connected to him. And I’d add Reid Hoffman to this list too — and should note that I’m happy to be working with him again.

IF: It’s 2011, and despite all the years of speculation about Facebook and Twitter killing each other, they are obviously coexisting now. But having worked at both companies, what do you predict for them (and other social platforms) in the future — let’s say in the next 5 years to keep that question somewhat focused?

JE: The way that I think about a lot of the opportunities in communication is: Where do we turn to as humans to find out what we care about in the world? In the past it was maybe newspapers, TV, radio. Now it’s mobile, iPads, computers, TV — we’re turning to all these different screens. But we really want an emotional connection to people we care about, to be more informed, and to be more able to react to conversations that are important and interesting around us.

There are three streams of important information. One of those, I think, is direct messages to me. That’s mostly email. I don’t know a single person who doesn’t do this (though I’m sure there are some) — the question of whether Facebook and Twitter can do to replace it gets asked a lot less now.

The second stream is what is happening with the people I love and care about. It’s obvious that Facebook has become that for everybody. When you want to know what’s going on with a friend, you have these incredible emotional moments on Facebook. You see them change jobs, celebrate their kids, share funny or important links.

The third stream is the world: What should I know about and care about? Everyone wants to know what’s happening. I think that Twitter is really redefining what that experience means. For example, recently there was an earthquake, and a lot of folks turned to Twitter to both share what happened and to verify what happened.

And for a lot of folks, there is a fourth stream — your work/professional stream. There are a lot of companies working on different facets of this between LinkedIn for your professional life, Google Apps, Salesforce, Asana, and more for your productivity. And email is still a huge component here.

IF: Right, that’s today, but all these companies are in some ways getting into each other’s turf.

JE: Think about it this way. If your favorite Italian restaurant hires a Japanese chef, who then starts doing Japanese noodles, you still wouldn’t go there for Japanese noodles unless it was the best Japanese noodles ever. You’d still want to go to an Italian restaurant for Italian food, or go to a Japanese restaurant for the noodles.

The specialized graphs of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn make them each incredibly long-term defensible businesses.

Twitter is so focused on staying simple, real-time — like Mac is so much simpler than Windows. Facebook, while some people say it’s too complex, has grown to more than 800 million people worldwide. It’s clearly not too complex.

Humans will go to whatever is best, most visceral.

Facebook’s frictionless sharing is a big opportunity to pivot from connecting people and more to connecting info. That’s going to be a change for the way that people use Facebook, and I’m not sure if that will ultimately happen. But it’s a great move in many respects — Spotify’s new integration means that I can see if Eric is listening to Bieber again, and jab him about it. When we launched Facebook Connect, we thought that Facebook wasn’t just going to be a social network site for communicating with your friends. It was that you were going to go to have all sorts of great experiences. On the phone, web, offline locations, wherever — it makes us more connected as people, and helps serendipity happen.

IF: What about Google+?

JE: I have huge respect for them. They’ve had a great launch and done something most people in the tech industry had doubts about — whether Google could launch a compelling social product.

But it’s still incredibly early to tell if it’s mainstream and able to tap into visceral elements like Facebook and Twitter. It’s enabling certain types of conversations between people — big conversations, real-time debates, it’s more similiar to what we’ve seen on indie blogs than Facebook or Twitter.

IF: It feels more public than Facebook, but private enough that you know your audience….

JE: Yeah, and the interface naturally enables that. Facebook doesn’t always have great topical discussion.

It’ll be exciting to see how Google+ expands to other services.

IF: How do Facebook’s latest f8 launches change what developers should focus on?

JE: They introduced probably the most important change since at least 2008 when they did a big shift from profile boxes to make the news feed central. The idea of the ticker is transformative. Now frictionless sharing creates way to share everything, naturally broadcasted without being too heavy or too spammy or too awkward. In the past, it’d be annoying. Now it lets you find out what your friends are doing at a much bigger scale — great insight into lots of friends.

You can start to build really compelling discovery, like with Spotify — seeing that ten of your friends listened to Bieber.

The launch creates new opportunities for every kind of vertical or business where people interact around certain thing would bring other friends in. Companies who take advantage of it first are going to get big benefits.

Overall, it’s better alignment between Facebook and developers — broadcasting what you actually do which gets more friends sharing , and even more discovery.

IF: How should developers be trying to harness the Twitter platform?

JE: Twitter’s platform has only gotten stronger because Twitter now has 100 million active users. Comscore shows much higher visits, not just users. So it creates even more opportunities to help people create, interact with, and consume more content through Twitter. Twitter has talked about curation, analytics, and a few other platform businesses.

But the thing about building for any platform is that the moment you start building for one, you need to remember you’re building your own company and business. If I were to go build this great new restaurant discovery app, I’d want to use Twitter to share more, as a source of content and amplifer. But I would be focused on restaurant discovery, not being “X for Twitter.” The same is exactly true for Facebook.

IF: How are you approaching this from the investing perspective?

JE: I’m brand-new to this side, and it’s quite a bit different than the operating side. A lot of what I’m doing is listening and helping teams that we’re meeting as well as in the portfolio in any way that I can. Through my career, I’ve always been super excited about creating networks of people that enable new forms of communication and connection. Whether that’s Linkedin or Zazzle (connecting designers and artwork with buyers), or Facebook or Twitter, I’ve always been compelled by helping the founders realize these huge visions and build and grow these networks and platforms.

A lot of people talk about specific spaces like “mobile” or “social” or “local”. In general, I think any new consumer experience is going to tie in key elements and work across all of those. It needs to be relevant when you check the service on your phone and relevant when you want to pull something up on your TV in the future.

At Greylock, we tend to look for two things — a great product that people will want to use in meaningful ways, and durable distribution that ensures the product gets in the hands of as many users as possible.

Mostly I’m looking for great teams of people with big visions and a deep understanding and excitement about the path it takes to build a long-lasting company.

[Photo via Greylock Partners]

Hearsay Social also added several new features to its product for companies with a corporate / local structure, including granular roles management, and the ability to run integrated social campaigns that combine Facebook ads, Page posts, and Page tab applications.

The funding and features will help Hearsay Social address the social marketing needs of more corporations that oversee many local branches, and box out more general brand-focused Facebook Page management companies.

Hierarchical Page Management

Hearsay Social launched in February to become the only company focused on addressing the problems of local branch social media management and regulatory compliance for companies with both a corporate Facebook Page and Pages for each of their franchises. Corporations could use it to monitor the performance of their local branches, and deliver Page posts and applications to them for publishing.

With unique features, powerful Silicon Valley angels backing it, and deep-pocketed potential corporate clients, Hearsay Social had the power to disrupt more established players in the Facebook Page management industry. Early results showed that the product could help corporations achieve full regulatory compliance across their social media presences and attain more fans.

At that time, Facebook had no user interface or API designed for managing businesses with a hierarchical corporate / local structure. Hearsay Social worked with Facebook, and earlier this month the social network began testing both a basic UI for managing “parent” and “child” Pages, as well as an API that lets corporate admins make changes to settings or install applications on multiple local branch Pages simultaneously.

While these additions provides some rudimentary corporate / local functionality for those without a third-party tool, the API also strengthens Hearsay Social’s product. Facebook’s native tool only supports two-tier hierarchies, while Hearsay Social can support many levels and different sets of permissions for each.

Funding and Features

NEA and previous investor Sequoia Capital have just put $18 million towards building out the Hearsay Social team, currently led by CEO Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era. Shih tells us that “on the hiring front, sales and engineering are top priorities, but we’re hiring across the board, every department.” NEA’s Sakoda, formerly of IMlogic, acquired by Symantec, will lend enterprise sales expertise to the growing team tasked with getting huge, often multi-national corporations to execute their social media marketing through Hearsay Social.

Thanks to the product’s new integrated social campaigns feature, clients can schedule and run coordinated marketing campaigns that tie together Facebook ads, Facebook Page tab applications, and Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn posts. For example, State Farm insurance could install a promotional Facebook app on the Pages of all its local branches, run localized Facebook ads pointing to the app, and post links to the app on the news feed from all the Pages every four hours.

Shih explained to us that this “lets corporate bundle up its marketing genius” and ship it out to local branches that wouldn’t be able to design or execute such sophisticated campaigns. Ads are run through the Facebook Ads API, which allows the roughly two dozen companies with access to efficiently run Facebook ads at a massive scale. Apps used in integrated campaigns can be pulled from Hearsay Social’s basic suite, but clients can also integrate apps developed for them by their agencies.

Hearsay Social now also include the Rogue Page Finder, which identifies local branches with social media presences that haven’t yet been brought under a corporation’s control, as well as unofficial fan-created presences. Corporations can monitor the performance and regulatory compliance of these presences on Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, so they can decide whether to contact the hosting Platform and have them shut down or rolled into their own official presence.

Lastly, Hearsay Social now lets clients customize granular roles and permissions for all users. They can permit admins at certain levels of hierarchy to post, edit, view analytics, and use other specific parts of the product. Shih tells us one client is using the feature to set up different roles for all twelve levels of its hierarchy.

The tool has proved useful for attaining Facebook fans. Hearsay Social says that local branch agents using it gained over three times more fans than those without it. Once Google+ releases brand pages and an API, Hearsay Social will support that platform as well. Shih tells us “Brands are asking about Google+. People are kicking the tires and trying to understand if there will be traction.”

Shih believes her licensable tool can integrate naturally into the marketing flows of large corporations, and that it “leaves plenty on the table for media buyers and creative agencies.” Regarding the trend of partnerships and acquisitions in the Page management industry, Shih says there’s a”healthy level of consolidation. In terms of the landscape, I still see a number of Page management companies that can’t divest themselves from the agency model, which makes them less attractive. You really need to work closely with a brand’s ecosystem of partners.”

She adds that there’s room for other Page management companies because there’s “plenty of brands without a local presence. We’re laser focused on global-local brands, and we can go deep because of our focus.”

Local branches are able to cultivate an intimate connection between a brand and its customers. Taking advantage of location-based technology such as Facebook Places and Check-In Deals and running coordinated marketing campaigns requires more expertise than most local branch managers have, though, so expect growth for corporate / local Page management tools like Hearsay Social as more global businesses invest in social media.