social media

In a move to give itself more of a voice in an online conversation in which it largely gets lambasted, investment banking giant Goldman Sachs joined Twitter Thursday.

As Friday's Facebook IPO -- and its gory aftermath -- proves, even experts can run into trouble investing in social media. But if you're still looking to get in on the Facebook action, and want to mitigate your risks, this ETF might be the way to go.

On Monday, Facebook's stock fell from its IPO price of $38 to a low of (as of this writing) $33.60. So what? Nobody who actually paid attention to Facebook's statements before the IPO should be surprised by this latest turn, or even worried. Here's why:

Facebook finally set its IPO price Thursday evening: $38 a share, for a record-setting value of $104 billion on the social media giant. Is it worth it? Who knows. But despite the skeptics, there are definitely ways to make money from all those Facebook users' eyeballs.

Maryland is poised to become the first state to ban employers from demanding applicants or workers hand over their log-in information for social media sites like Facebook. The measure handily passed the legislature earlier this month, and now awaits the governor's signature.

Recently, companies have begun to ask potential employees to hand over their Facebook passwords, and the backlash has been loud, widespread and angry. Too bad we hardly have any online privacy left to save.

The evolution of the idea was probably inevitable. Once people got comfortable using sites like Kickstarter to crowd fund creative projects, someone was going to launch a pooled-money platform for funding the social activities of groups of friends. That site is Crowdtilt.

When the Facebook IPO arrives, many of its employees are almost certain to hit it rich -- and they're getting an extra benefit no one would have expected: The company will pay the taxes on their stock profits. Crazy? Recent history says not. Here's why:

Hyper-connection means missing an email, text, Tweet or status update -- or a moment of the Kardashians. But is that a good thing? Are we too connected? And if the answer is yes, is it even possible to back away from the smartphones and social media and go back to our old-fashioned ways?

Regulators are warning the public to be wary of social media sites that could be offering bogus investment schemes. The warning follows civil charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against an Illinois-based investment adviser who tried to sell fraudulent securities through Linkedin.