Jonathan Katzman shares what the success of Yahoo!'s Facebook integration means for advertisers

Yahoo! connects people to what matters most. One of the new, social ways we're doing that is through our integration of Facebook's Open Graph across our global media network. After Yahoo!'s "Harnessing the Power of Social Content" session at Social Media Week NYC, we caught up with one of the key Yahoos behind "Social Bar," Jonathan Katzman, Director of Product Development, and asked him the top five things that marketers need to know about social on Yahoo!.

Yahoo Advertising Blog: What is the Social Bar?

Jonathan Katzman: Social Bar is a product that Yahoo! launched last September at F8 with Facebook. We really thought of Social Bar as a way to have users discover and navigate content through their friends. It was something that we heard loud and clear from users that, in addition to the great editorial voice that Yahoo! has, there are times they really want to discover content through their friends.

I know it's true for me, too. My friend Steve really knows about sports, so I want to discover sports content through him. My friend Patrick knows about tech news, so I want to follow tech news through him. I really love food and my friend Francine knows about cooking recipes, so I want to look at that, as well. Social Bar simplifies this content discovery by adding your friends as "social editors" of your experience.

YAB: What has been the adoption of Social Bar by Yahoo! visitors?

JK: We were one of the initial partners for the Facebook Open Graph, and it's been incredibly successful since then. To really give advertisers a feel for that: In just three months, on any given day we were able to get more traffic to US News now from Facebook than from Google. That's a really gigantic shift for us.

Warner Bros. embarks on an epic adventure across the Movies frontpage, with an assist from ginormous bumblebees and a pec-flexing Rock.

Warner Bros. is generating a new kind of buzzzzzzzzzzz all over the Movies front page to promote "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island," the sequel to 2008's "Journey to the Center of the Earth," this time starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, as well as the original's Josh Hutcherson.

No sooner do you land in this lost world than the bumble-borne characters soar at you from either side of the wallpapered page before settling inside the rain-forested 300 x 250 panel on the right. Hovering your mouse over the panel bumbles the bees as you ponder whether to click through to get tickets.

Americans are beginning their annual IRS torture, so now's the time to optimize your tax-related campaigns

Death and TaxesBenjamin Franklin is the source of the famous saying, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." What the great patriot and inventor couldn't imagine is how complicated actually paying one's taxes has become. With page upon page of additional tax code layered on every year, most Americans turn to professionals—or, at least, a good piece of software—to fulfill their 16th Amendment responsibilities. And the way they find their tax solution is usually via Internet search.

While many taxpayers procrastinate right up until the April deadline, the more diligent among us are already deep into the task. According to a National Research Federation (NRF) Consumer Intentions & Actions Survey conducted in February 2011, nearly 77% of Americans planned to file their taxes between the months of February and April. The NRF also found the number of individuals using some form of tax-preparation service (computer software, accountant or other tax preparation service) increased to 76% of all those surveyed.

Talks, demos and panels seek to simplify social

It's called social media for a reason. And socializing was never more in evidence than at Social Media Week 2012 in New York City, as speakers and conference-goers shared their knowledge—trading information in person about the world online.

The slideshow below provides a visual recap of some of the week's most memorable moments, such as: Yahoo!'s ever dapper Director of Insights, Edwin Wong (right), presenting on brand storytelling across paid, earned and owned media; Edward O'Keefe, Executive Producer of ABCNews.com, talking about IntoNow from Yahoo!; David Eastman, CEO of JWT North America, kicking off the marketing and advertising hub sessions, plus panels on blogs, fashion and retail, social media analytics and more.

Edward O'Keefe shares how Yahoo! is helping ABC reach audiences in new, dynamic ways

At Social Media Week in New York City, Edward O'Keefe, Executive Producer of ABCNews.com, called the partnership between Yahoo! and ABC "transformative." Find out how Yahoo! is helping the traditional broadcast network navigate the digital future of television in this exclusive interview:

Storytelling and authenticity insights from "Obama for America's" chief blogger

An estimated four-fifths of well-known, public figures have someone else tweeting for them. Despite this fact, during the Social Media Week NYC panel titled "The New Ghostwriting," Ben Graham-Helsen took a potentially controversial stance: he doesn't believe in ghostwriting. In this video interview, the former chief blogger for the historic Obama for America campaign details how his approach to storytelling in 2008 maintained authenticity and transparency across social channels.

How did you approach creating an authentic voice across social media for the campaign?

How do you think the approach to storytelling in social of this year's campaign will differ from 2008?

Plus: 72K Super Bowl apps for Chevy; Chrysler's "Halftime in America" trips the buzz-o-meter; $800K for a Grammy ad, and more

6.8%: The expected growth in TV ad spend this year, according to forecasting company Magnaglobal and reported on Reuters. Leading the surge is cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, which plans a 65% hike in spend. We hope that these advertisers know that people multitask on wireless devices while watching the boob tube and will coordinate their TV and online campaigns accordingly.

725,000: The number of Chevy Game Time Apps downloaded in the weeks prior to the Super Bowl, according to an article in the New York Times. See our last point in the item above.

83%: The supposed lift in positive blogger buzz for Chrysler after its controversial "Halftime in America," according to Zeta Interactive, which monitors 200 million blogs. We like to think we might have had a little to do with that ourselves.

$800,000: The cost of a single 30-second spot during the Grammys, says the Hollywood Reporter. That's up from $621,000 last year.

Check out the notable quotes we loved

Sharing, connectedness and personal touch.

Those were the warm and fuzzy buzzwords on Day 2 of Social Media Week in NYC. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was Valentine's Day, or maybe it was because every panel was full of (shocker!) social media aficionados.

No matter the reason, here are the top five insights we loved about how social is changing the relationship:

Sam Graham-Felsen, Chief Blogger for Obama for America:

Two of the most underrated words in PR are "I'm sorry." People love moments of vulnerability and humanity. The fact that you can do that in an unfiltered way on Twitter is an incredibly powerful thing. You have to be truthful and genuine in social. Authenticity is a buzzword in social. But you can't make an "attempt to be authentic." You can't try to be "real"—that's when you stop being real.

Aliza Licht, SVP of Global Communications for DKNY:

Whether it's Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, every person today should think of themselves as a brand. If everyone has that filter of thinking of themselves as their own brand, it will shift how you do social. You'll realize that if you make a mistake, you need to address it quickly. People today will jump on the fact that it took a brand eight hours to respond, or 10 hours to respond. No one has ever paid so much attention to a clock ticking except in social media.