Say you’re planning a big trip to New York. You want to get in touch with friends to go to a movie or a concert while you’re in the Big Apple, but can’t remember exactly which of your Facebook friends lives there. Ribbon, a recently launched iOS application, makes it easy to find friends in faraway cities.
We're kicking off our upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp with a special keynote presentation by Ella Chick (left), the digital producer at Anderson Cooper 360°. She'll discuss how the network uses social media for breaking news and leverages social media to draw attention to organizations and causes. Learn more about our program and register here. 
Facebook users love to travel. It’s one of the most-talked about topics, and Facebook has also changed the ways people travel. An infographic by Co-operative Travel and Neomam Studios breaks down some of the hottest destinations among Facebook users, and shows what they enjoy doing most in countries such as Spain, Greece, and Egypt.
It’s probably not surprising that when Facebook users are 21, most of their friends are also in that same age bracket. It’s also not a shocker to say that men talk about sports on Facebook more than women. But how do trends change over time? Do 30-year-olds tend to talk about health more than new high-school graduates? A highly visual set of data from Wolfram Alpha brings Facebook’s social graph to life, showing how people connect and relate to each other on the social network.
Looking for the most popular dive bar in Boston or the hottest nightclub event in Paris? Unless you know someone there, it can be hard to find what you’re looking for when traveling or moving to a new city. Triposo, a recently launched mobile application, takes data from public Facebook events and makes it easy for travelers to find fun experiences that the tour guide won’t talk about.
More companies are putting more importance on having a Facebook presence, but which industries have seen the most growth in terms of pages and fans? Analytics company Socialbakers crunched the numbers from July through September (the third quarter of the year), finding that health and travel were the kinds of Facebook pages being set up the most. Pages regarding health and alcohol saw the greatest gains in terms of fans.
Travel applications are becoming all the rage on Facebook. The site’s developer blog highlighted one in particular Tuesday — Tripl, where users can get a uniquely visual view of their friends’ travels. Facebook reported that since Tripl launched with open graph, the app has increased its user base by 600 percent.
When one of your Facebook friends posts a photo album of their trip to Maui, they’re not just showing off — they might also be acting as a travel agent. Forbes reports that Facebook is becoming a popular travel motivator, because when people see photos and posts from their friends’ vacations, it inspires them to book a flight there, too.
For hotels, using Facebook as a marketing tool is nothing new, but they can now use Facebook users as marketing tools following Appnostic’s addition of the “Plus-U” feature to its SocialBooker hotel distribution application.
Online travel company Orbitz.com relaunched a Facebook game that can really take its players places.
Does using Facebook and LinkedIn profiles to determine which passengers to sit near on an airline flight sound far fetched? Not to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.
