(Image: File)

One of the largest initial public offerings in U.S. history is off to a strong start. Facebook shares started trading at $42.05 per share on Friday around 11:30am EST on the Nasdaq Stock Market, an increase from Thursday’s $38 IPO. This brings the social media company’s valuation to $116.6 billion.

Read more at the Wall Street Journal…

In a neighborhood where bodegas and fast-food spots are mainstays, the author of New American Table is proud to have assisted in establishing a farmer’s market in his historic community. The movement has gone beyond the confines of the community and spread virally through Samuelsson’s food culture website Food Republic and MarcusSamuelsson.com, as well as his social media platforms. The Harlem resident’s social media footprint is sizzling—his verified Twitter account boasts over 51,000 followers; Facebook fan page has nearly 35,000 likes and he engages with a YouTube audience of 127,340 on MarcusCooksTV.

Samuelsson advises those looking to further their brand via social media to focus on quality, not quantity; in addition, to familiarize themselves with the space. “Know your space. Own that one space and be really, really good at it,” advises the Chopped judge. “The people will come to you. Today it’s not a matter of [the] people who are going to come to you, it’s a matter of how you draw them in.”

The Chopped: All Stars winner is set to draw a crowd, taking the stage at the 2012 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference + Expo hosted by Nationwide on May 24 at 12:30pm. The exclusive one-on-one conversation with Black Enterprise’s Sonia Alleyne is happening at the Hilton Chicago Hotel in Chicago, IL.

Follow the hashtag #BEEC2012 on Twitter for the latest updates on conference speakers and sessions. Expect innovative sessions, high-powered speakers, and an early peek at the products, trends, and services you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve. To register and find out more, visitwww.blackenterprise.com/ec/

Boxing champ Floyd "Money" Mayweather Jr., center, poses with pop singer Justin Bieber and Cuban boxer Yuriyorkis Gamboa after defeating Miguel Cotto (Image: File)

Whether you love Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. or not, there’s no doubt that he’s playing for the right team, #TheMoneyTeam. He has the charisma and talent to back up his fearless demeanor, as well as the ability to make millions of people pay to watch him duke it out. Mayweather, an eight-time world champion, is doing what no other boxer in history has done, not even Muhammad Ali.

The pay-per-view champion collected a guaranteed $45 million for his latest fight with Miguel Cotto. It’s a purse that beats Nevada’s prior record of $30 million, which was achieved three times by Mike Tyson in both of his fights against Evander Holyfield and another against Frank Bruno. Based on salary alone, the 35-year-old boxer is the highest paid athlete in the world, according to ESPN magazine.  His multitiered brand has spread beyond the boxing ring, amassing an online following that rivals tech heavyweights and influencers. (His Klout score weights in at 84.)

Money May’s social media footprint speaks for itself:

Twitter: @FloydMayweather (over 2.8 million followers)

YouTube:  Floyd Mayweather (over 18K subscribers; nearly 5 million views)

Facebook: Floyd Mayweather (about 1.4 million subscribers)

Instagram: Floyd Mayweather (over 300K followers)

Having a lot of people follow you online is not enough, you have to turn your following into value. On game day, pop singer Justin Bieber tweeted:

(Image: Twitter)

The Money Team, Mayweather’s crew of friends and fans, follow the boxer’s social media interactions closely. One of May’s latest followers (and quite possibly one of his most influential crew members), Bieber, flew to Las Vegas from Los Angeles to be a part Saturday night’s festivities. The teen sensation’s appearance with Mayweather set the Twitterverse ablaze. The professional boxer has been able to increase his brand awareness, capitalizing on his talent and popularity.

While Mayweather has had a few social media hiccups like when he tweeted that New York Knicks’ Jeremy Lin wouldn’t be getting as much attention if he was black, you can’t ignore his overall social media rapport.  Here are a few lessons straight from a page of Mayweather’s branding book:

Focus on your craft first, the rest will follow

With a professional record of 43-0, Mayweather is not to be messed with. He’s landing punches in both the boxing and digital ring. Just check his stats. The boxer serves as his own promoter on social media, and took a hold of his own promotional efforts when he founded Mayweather Promotions.

Marry your offline and online presence into a valuable unit that can be leveraged

Mayweather’s talent, stage presence and business acumen translates into a brand with a net worth of over $100 million.

Use your social networks to connect with people in real time

In addition to connecting with his fans inside and out of the ring, the famed boxer gave his network intimate access to his training routine via his website FloydMayweather.com, where he live-broadcasted a full-day of training as he prepared for his fight with Cotto. He uses his Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram accounts to connect with his followers daily.

At the core of every successful brand there is a value proposition, something that people connect with and are willing to spend money and time on.  Mayweather has given fans total access into his lifestyle through his social media prowess and reality-tv show 24/7 on HBO. Whether you agree or not with how Mayweather flaunts his assets, the boxer has turned his popularity and social media presence into hard dollars.

By Alec Banks for HypeBeast

It was 1993 when Charles Barkley penned the infamous text for his now iconic Nike commercial where he proclaimed, “I am not a role model. I’m not paid to be a role model. I’m paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball, doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.” Clear, succinct and thought provoking, the words still hold weight in today’s contemporary athletic landscape, but for completely different reasons.

Nearly 20 years ago athletes did as they pleased, only entering the public news scope if an off the court/field dustup was so monumental that the nightly news couldn’t afford not to cover it. Today, thanks to the advancement in social media with tools like Facebook and Twitter, athletes have signed up for a 24 hour a day news conference—forgoing filters in exchange for fuel that they add to a nightly stew full of politics, scandal and pop culture oochie wally. Athletes want the ability to make millions while still being able to crack off-kilter and slightly offensive jokes without seeing the number of zeroes in their paycheck affected. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Athletes may not be role models, but they’re certainly digital lightning rods.

Twitter is a medium built around choosing one’s word wisely – given only 140 characters to make a group of followers laugh, cry or wax poetic over a group of words that create a brain boogaloo. But as history has shown us, it’s done more damage to an athlete’s career than it’s ever helped them stay “connected” with their fans – surely an excuse when a manager or coach asks a player why they’re even dedicating a nanosecond to social media exploits. From Rashard Mendenhall’s unfortunate comments about Osama bin Laden which occurred almost exactly a year ago, to former Chiefs running back Larry Johnson who was cut from the team after making inflammatory statements about then coach Todd Haley—Twitter proves that statements made regarding off-color subjects as well as more “relevant” sports-related chatter are always going to lead to more controversy than resolution. Sports are played with emotion – social media shouldn’t be treated in the same way. Steelers safety Ryan Clark went so far as to say that “social media is ruining the world.”

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"Awkward Black Girl" creator Issa Rae was all smiles during her BlackEnterprise.com interview (Image: Brain Food Film)

After beating out numerous other web series to win the 2012 Shorty Award for Best Web Show in March, Issa Rae took to Facebook and Twitter to announce the big win. Within minutes, producers and fans of two of the other nominated shows, as well as hashtag bandwagoners began bashing The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl on Twitter. Several commenters took the virtual belittling to the next level, not only downgrading the quality of the web series, but spewing racial epithets and making light of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin. Rae spoke to BlackEnterprise.com about her Shorty Award win, the racist comments and why ABG haters are her motivators.

(Produced by Janel Martinez; Videography and editing by Brain Food Film)

On a scale from 1 to 100, Klout—a measurement of your digital influence based upon your true reach (number of people you influence), amplification (how much you influence your digital network) and network impact (the influence of your network) aggregated from your social networks—generates a figure for social media users. The algorithm measures your activity on up to 12 different social media profiles. Yes, all those status updates, “likes,” replies, retweets and comments count towards your overall score.

But, can a single number truly be the tipping point in identifying an elite group of individuals that companies and brands want? Should your Klout score—the FICO Score for your online activity— be the absolute measure of your influence?

I beg to differ. If you take a closer look at the social media measurement tool, it’s flawed. It should not be looked at as the single indicator for evaluating absolute influence. For one, it doesn’t include offline influence.  It also doesn’t measure your online activity holistically.

Recently, across the web, people have been chatting about whether or not employers should reference one’s Klout score during the interview process. If your career has nothing to do with social media and online marketing, why should you have to maintain (or even know) about Klout?  I would question any employer making a hiring decision and spending thousands of dollars to train and take on new employees solely based upon their Klout score. That would be a risky and very costly proposition. When it comes to the employment process, various factors come into play such as experience, character, and skill set, among other things.  Klout cannot be used as the only tool measuring a person’s qualifications:

Klout Doesn’t Measure Offline Influence— Currently, Klout does not measure your real-world impact or the relationships you’ve garnered offline. The influence measurement tool determines your network score after drawing data from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube and other social networking platforms. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has a Klout score of 77 while Snooki of Jersey Shores has a Klout score of 87. According to Klout, Snooki is more of an influencer than Bill Gates. You be the judge of that one!

It’s All a Game— With some persistence—and a little dedication, you can increase your Klout score significantly. But recruiters and employers should note that isn’t saying anything about an individual’s overall influence, network and the like. Just because you can get an influencer to tweet back and forth with you for a few, doesn’t mean you have actually established a meaningful (or long-lasting) relationship. What are you doing to maintain a relationship with that contact once the Twitter chat is over? It’s those well-established relationships that are going to take your network somewhere.

While there is value in the data Klout generates, users—and non-users alike—must choose how important their network score is to their overall social capital, as well as if it’s even relevant to their career or industry.

(Image: File)

With more than half a billion people on Facebook, the company’s chief executive continues to encourage users to utilize the platform for social good. In an exclusive interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg announced Tuesday the addition of a new feature that allows users to share their organ status with their friends.

Users can add that they are an organ donor to their Facebook timeline, and share their story about when, where or why they decided to become a donor. If a user is not already registered, they will find a link to the appropriate state or national donor registry.

In Facebook’s press statement about the project, the social media company said: “More than 114,000 people in the United States, and millions more around the globe, are waiting for the heart, kidney or liver transplant that will save their lives. Many of those people – an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need. Medical experts believe that broader awareness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis. And we believe that by simply telling people that you’re an organ donor, the power of sharing and connection can play an important role.”

In the GMA interview, the 27-year-old Facebook founder said his close relationship with Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs inspired him to use Facebook to spread awareness. While being treated for pancreatic cancer, Jobs underwent a liver transplant. The young tycoon was also encouraged by his med-student girlfriend to create the tool for the social networking site.

Watch the video to see how the latest feature works:

(Image: Getty)

Music mogul and entrepreneur Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter continues to extend his brand in innovative ways. After conquering fashion (Rocawear), music (Roc-A-Fella Records), real estate (40/40 Club) and sports (New Jersey Nets), among other mediums, he is currently developing a Facebook game called Empire. Recently released in beta format on the social media platform, the game allows users to play out a rags-to-riches story as a character, whose life mirrors Carter’s own rise from the Marcy Housing Projects in Brooklyn, NY to a glamorous life of fame and fortune.

While Empire is still being finalized, Facebook users can get updates on the game’s developments via its Facebook page.  Can’t knock the hustle.