Facebook’s First Sales Guy, Kevin Colleran, Joins General Catalyst Partners

Kevin Colleran, one of the first 10 Facebook employees and its first salesperson, has joined General Catalyst Partners as a venture partner.
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News Byte

Buddy Media Adds Brighter Option to Help Brands Buy Facebook Ads

Buddy Media, a start-up that helps brands manage their presence on Facebook, is now going to help them buy ads, too. The New York-based company has acquired Brighter Option, a “Facebook ads API company” that helps brands purchase media on the social network. WPP, the ad giant that invested in Buddy Media in 2010, says it will use Buddy/Brighter exclusively to manage its clients’ Facebook ad buys.

News Byte

Google+ Gives Early Platform Access to Brands

Google+ today took another step toward being a social platform by announcing it had enabled six social media management tools — Buddy Media, Context Optional, Hearsay Social, Hootsuite, Involver and Vitrue — to plug into brand pages (Involver, for its part, says it will limit participation to 20 hand-selected customers). The partners are getting fairly limited tools (Circle management, publishing and monitoring), but it means that brands will be able to use the same tools for multiple social networks.

Voices

Hello, Marc, Welcome to the Social Party

For those of you just getting back into the swing of things from vacation, Salesforce.com staged a mega rock concert — I mean a tech conference — last week: 45,000 registrants, 475 sessions, 700 experts, a performance by Metallica and an after-party with will.i.am.

Facebook Platform Player Involver Hires an Enterprise Sales CEO

Fan page creation company Involver has brought in enterprise software guy Don Beck to replace its founding CEO, the company will announce today.
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Three Markets U.S. Internet Companies Can’t Ignore: Social, Mobile and … China

Pretty much every U.S. Internet start-up today has a social and mobile component to its business; it’s standard operating procedure in 2011.

Facebook Pal Buddy Media Raises $54 Million

Mike Lazerow’s company, which helps advertisers figure out the social network, is now worth about $500 million.
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Facebook Loses Earliest Remaining Employee, Kevin Colleran

Kevin Colleran, Facebook’s longest-tenured employee and its first advertising salesperson, will leave the company early next month after six and a half years.
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Facebook Pal Buddy Media Buys a Start-Up, Isn't Selling to Facebook

The rumor mill wants Facebook to swallow Buddy Media. But CEO Mike Lazerow says he’s a buyer, not a seller. Today he’s picked up Spinback, which helps retailers navigate Facebook.

Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Wants to Hire As Few People As Necessary, and Isn't So Sure About China

Bloomberg Businessweek just posted Brad Stone’s lengthy cover story about Facebook’s No. 2 exec Sheryl Sandberg and her highly effective soft power.