This Tuesday, an amendment was passed in North Carolina that declares marriage between one man and one woman as the only legally recognized domestic union in the state. This not only effectively banned same-sex marriages, but also civil unions.

The executive committee for this amendment claims that its passing merely shows that North Carolina residents are defending the traditional idea of marriage; however, the following day, President Obama made a monumental public statement expressing his support not just for civil unions, as he has in the past, but for same-sex marriage.

His announcement received shock, applause, outrage, and critique in equal doses. While religious conservatives and extremists alike made the typical, “Obama is an agent of Satan,” comments on every corner of the Internet, many others, including famous household names, have applauded the president for what both sides of the issue consider a bold move.

Snooki and JWoww from the popular reality TV show Jersey Shore expressed their pride in a president who supported equal rights for the gay community. Prominent members of the LGBT community expressed their gratitude to the president, including beloved comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres who applauded Obama for what she considered a brave move during an election year.

Despite Obama’s explanation of his personal “evolution” regarding same-sex marriage, people supporting either side of this polarizing issue, including Bristol Palin, claimed that this was purely a political move to gain votes. Others, gay rights activists in particular, expressed their hesitation to commend the president because his statement alone could not effect the changes sought out by the LGBT population and its supporters.

Now political analysts are pondering how these events will affect the elections in November. Regardless of your stance on the issue, you can stay informed about legal, societal, and political issues pertaining to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered population through Best of the Web. Whether seeking news updates, blogs and commentary, or educational information, you can find reliable resources provided to you through the BOTW Directories.

Recently it has come to light that the FBI has been meeting with representatives from top Internet companies — such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook — in pursuit of backdoor access for surveillance purposes.

Currently the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) — a movement that was passed by lawmakers in 1994 — requires telecommunication providers to make their systems “wiretap-friendly.” This same law was expanded upon just 10 years later, in 2004, to apply to Internet service providers as well. Until recently, web companies have not been affected by this law.

Now the FBI is coordinating these meetings under the radar (like most things involving The Bureau) to argue the case for a legislative proposal that would require not only service providers but also the aforementioned web companies, social networking sites, and email providers to modify their products to be more accessible for surveillance.

Additionally, it has been mentioned that the FCC is now considering a reinterpretation of CALEA to include video and VoIP products. Although likely to go unnoticed by most, these changes will affect every Internet user and their friends and family members.

While most Facebook users, for instance, do not hesitate to agree to privacy setting changes, any who take the time to read and comprehend these updates will find reason to take pause. If the FBI‘s proposed wiretap-friendly services are accepted, social networking platforms and their users will be powerless against government-authorized invasions of privacy. So far, that is something that few are entirely at ease with, regardless of the legality of their standard activity on the social platform.

In recent years, brands have learned to integrate traditional SEO methods with the social networking scene. The intent is always to increase visibility, and so in many ways, the concepts behind traditional and social SEO efforts are similar; however, in the quickly evolving world of social media, there are some newer, strictly social SEO strategies that all brands should be implementing.

• Google+ Presence

We’ve discussed here before why Google+ is an essential tool for a business’s SEO strategy. Although the consumer audience has not quite caught onto the G+ hype, Google remains the most commonly used search engine online, and implements data from their social networking platform in search results. Being added to a social circle as well as getting +1s and shares are all ways to directly boost your brand’s ranking in search engines.

• Refresh Relationships with Followers

Building relationships with customers and fans has always been a primary interest for brands on social networks. Many companies lose sight of this goal after building a strong follower base; this is to serve as a reminder that you need to nurture those relationships, or your early efforts will become relatively meaningless.

Welcome new followers to your circle on G+, implement lists on Twitter, and increase your outreach efforts overall, and your followers — and potential customers — will not come to question whether your page makes quality contributions to their news feeds.

• Share Content & Make Content Shareable

Twitter, Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds are all indexed by Google now, so it’s more important than ever to share the content you put out. Whether it’s articles, coupon offers, or media, setting your content to automatically publish to your social profiles will earn you better and faster SEO results.

Additionally, make sure your content is mutually shareable. That may sound obvious, but providing shareable content extends beyond getting it retweeted or reblogged. While having your social network updates shared is effective, the content you link to should also provide visitors with the option to share it directly. When someone shares something directly from a website, as opposed to retweeting a brand sharing their own content, it tends to better encourage a second glance among their circles.

• Expand Your Social Networks

Every brand and their parent company is on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These are the social powerhouses, and deserve the majority of your attention when focusing on social SEO strategy; however, once you’ve established a following on these major social networking platforms, it may be time to branch out.

Look towards the “underground” social networks that are not yet considered mainstream — even those that are focused less on follower interaction and more on sharing, such as Pinterest. It turns out that this newest social platform sends referral traffic comparable to that of Twitter, so it’s worth consideration. Other social sites to connect on include YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, and Reddit.

If you’ve been following this blog in recent weeks, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that the most popular social networking platforms are a bunch of copycats when it comes to design. In the case of Facebook’s most recent update, it comes down to the age-old question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

The new Facebook brand pages could be a response to Twitter’s redesign (the focus of which was on brands). Just as feasible is the idea that Facebook’s development team had been planning to roll out the Timeline to brand pages all along. Needless to say, the redesign was inevitable regardless of how it came about.

If you don’t have a very active personal profile on Facebook, here’s what you can anticipate on your revamped brand page:

An example of the new brand pages with Facebook Timeline from American Express.

• Cover Photo: The Timeline allows you to choose a graphic to feature in banner-like fashion at the very top of your page. You’ll want it to be not only attention-grabbing, but also aesthetically pleasing, so it may take more consideration that choosing your most recently uploaded picture.
• Featured Story: If any aspect of this update feels similar to Twitter, it’s the new ways Facebook is allowing brands to feature content. Now brand profiles can choose to pin important updates or special content just below the basic profile information.
• Displaced Tabs: Through the current brand page layout, profiles can include countless tabs. These are used to organize content and direct visitors to important content. With the Timeline, and the implementation of featured stories, the tabs now appear as icons below the cover photo, and only three will remain immediately visible (others can be accessed through a drop-down menu).
• No Landing Page: Perhaps the most disappointing part of this update is the inability to set a default landing page. Landing pages used to be included within the page tabs. Having transformed tabs into icons and relocated them, the Timeline does not accommodate any default landing page. Brands will now have to translate the information landing pages once provided visitors into featured content.
• Private Messages: Brand pages can now send messages directly to users without going through a page Admin’s personal account. This will not only enhance communication, but also keep clutter off the brand’s wall. For instance, questions about the company or products offered can be sent directly to a page’s inbox, and addressed on a case-by-case basis. For Best of the Web‘s Facebook fans who regularly participate in the weekly Trivia Challenges, soon you can expect to receive your prize details directly from the BOTW page.

Companies with Facebook brand profiles need to anticipate these upcoming changes, but consumers also have plenty to consider in interacting with these redesigned pages. Many Facebook users are still adjusting to the Timeline on their personal profiles. The new layout is promised to take effect within the month, so users and brands alike should take this time to adjust and prepare for the remnants of Facebook’s older appearance to disappear entirely.

Several months ago, Facebook announced its partnership with eBay, and their intentions to turn the social networking platform into the next big online shopping destination. If successful, Facebook – which currently has nearly 850 members – would be equipped to revolutionize eCommerce as we know it.

Unfortunately, efforts to embrace the idea of bringing storefronts to Facebook have not yet been fruitful for merchants. During the past year, major retailers including The Gap, GameStop, 1-800-FLOWERS, J.C. Penny, and Nordstrom have opened and quickly closed these social e-shops. It seems that, despite having success in brand marketing, Facebook’s efforts in creating a “social shopping” have not adequately encouraged purchasing.

One reason behind the failure of these social storefronts is redundancy: online shopping is already convenient through retail websites. If there isn’t unique, exclusive content or merchandise only available on Facebook, there’s no incentive for customers to make purchases on a social networking site. Consumers can just as easily visit a trusted brand’s website to shop.

This brings us to the other prominent (but often disregarded) problem for these social shops: trust. Facebook users are all too familiar with unannounced changes to their privacy controls. Equally concerning is unreliable security: for instance, the malware worm that compromised the accounts of 45,000 Facebook members in early January. Consequently, many consumers are still hesitant to share and potentially store sensitive credit card information on the site.

Some retailers behind the recent e-shop flops have expressed a desire to modify their approach and have their storefronts make a return to Facebook eventually. Others intend to take a step away from the idea of social shopping. Despite this less-than-encouraging response from consumers and retailers alike, Facebook is not ready to give up on its vision of revolutionizing the world of online shopping.