According to comScore, an estimated $37 billion will be spent online over the festive period this year, up 15 percent on last year’s $32 billion, and Shop.org’s eHoliday survey anticipates that 73.7 percent of retailers will use Facebook pages to reach out to shoppers, a marked increase from 57.1 percent last year. Indeed, according to CNBC, 18 percent of chief marketing officers say that social media promotions are their top sales priority this weekend

For every new product launched, 17 teams up with a hot, new-on-the-scene music artist to create a piece of music and video in keeping with the item in question. Currently, the campaign is pushing Magnetized Nail Polish, alongside Summer Camp’s retro electro tune “You might get stuck on me”. (See what they did there?)

That’s the finding of a new piece of research from digital marketing specialists at Web Liquid who calculate that posts with photos consistently generate the biggest response from the online public. And the worst? The plain old link.

While it may be the ladies dragging their weary partners from store to store in pursuit of that perfect dress on a Saturday afternoon, a new study reveals that in the world of social shopping, men like to take their sweet time, too. More so than the girls, in fact.

Last month we reported on the slowdown-defying market that is social media advertising using the latest multi-billion-dollar projection to come out of the U.S. Today, there’s fresh detail on the global picture, and again the numbers paint a rosy picture. It’s particularly good news if you happen to be a member of Facebook’s ad sales team.

Despite launching nine months ago, and with the clout of mega brands like Marks & Spencer, IBM, Virgin Money and British Gas, sustainability campaign Start Today did not make the impact anticipated in its ‘One Day’ event yesterday.

By adding the Open Graph protocol to eBay’s ecommerce platforms X.commerce, Magento and GSI, merchants can add Facebook sharing options to their sites, including ‘want’ and ‘own’ buttons, which add a deeper dimension than the simple ‘like’ button.

Coca-Cola has ranked at or near the top in just about every measure of social engagement for some time now. It is the Lady Gaga of brands. How does it manage to keep its 34 million-plus fans sated on a daily basis? An interesting new piece of research offers some insights.

In the first partnership of its kind, Walmart and Facebook have teamed up to launch more than 3,500 Facebook store pages through the My Local Walmart application, where users can view special offers, rollbacks and new merchandise based on their location.

This morning we got a note from Tabjuice, the Facebook commerce-and-marketing specialists. They put together this infographic on what brands should consider if planning to take the plunge into social commerce, that $30 billion market opportunity.