Companies that are still fighting to keep their employees from using Facebook are apparently losing the battle, with games from Zynga scoring some significant victories, according to the latest research from Palo Alto Networks.

The firewall provider released the following statistics about Facebook usage in the workplace:

When measured as a percentage of total social networking bandwidth, active usage of Facebook applications, games, social plug-ins, and posting to Facebook more than tripled, to 28 percent in December 2011 from nine percent in October 2010.

The percentage of total social networking bandwidth consumed by Facebook apps alone also more than tripled over the same period, to 13 percent from four percent.

Zynga games were broken out as their own app ID in May 2011, and since then, they have been found in employee accounts at 53 percent of companies that participated in the study, accounting for some five percent of total social networking bandwidth.

via REPORT: Facebook Usage At Work Is Still Rising.

Lithuanian video artist Laimonas Zakas, who enjoys web production as a hobby, created a Facebook Page called Glitchr that messes with Facebook codes. The art project has garnered more than 12,657 likes so far.

Don’t be afraid to visit the harmless Facebook Page. It just takes your chat navigation line and causes it to appear in the sprawling line down your screen. Voila, art.

via Facebook’s Buggiest Page Was Created on Purpose.

I HAVE found myself in a season of loss. Every few weeks for the last six months, friends in the prime of life have suffered the death of a close family member. These deaths included a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a spouse and, in one particularly painful case, a teenage child who died on Christmas morning.

via Mourning in the Age of Facebook – NYTimes.com.

Currently, social networking accounts for 19% of time spent online globally. Four out of every five people who have access to the internet across the world use social networks in some form, many several times a day, some on multiple devices. With social networking being such a pervasive and integral part of the online experience, penetrating all aspects of consumers’ lives, it is vital for marketers to understand how their audience is reached through social networking and maximize the value of their social marketing strategies.

comScore Co-Founder and CMO Linda Abraham and Buddy Media CEO and Founder Mike Lazerow present insights on how brands can optimize their social marketing programs and evaluate their effectiveness using metrics that matter.

via Best Practices for Brand Building in the Social Media Marketplace – comScore, Inc.

According to recent research from NM Incite, for 82% of Facebook users, knowing someone offline is reason to add them on the social network. The next most common reason for adding a friend is having many mutual friends, a practice reported by 60% of users.

via This Is Why You Were Friended or Unfriended [STUDY].

For most of us, football season means it’s time to grab our jerseys and clear our Sunday afternoons. We’re the weekend warriors.

But super fans are another breed entirely. They’re the ones who purchase season tickets, paint their faces with team colors and endure below-zero weather to catch every game. Their loyalty is absolute.

via 4 Ways to Convert Facebook Fans Into Super Fans.

In an effort to catch your eye on their Facebook pages, brands have experimented with apps and splashy profile photos. But in almost all cases, it turns out, the humble Facebook wall itself steals the show.

In an webcam eye-tracking study for Mashable by EyeTrackShop, the 30 participants who viewed top Facebook brand pages almost always looked at pages’ walls first — usually for at least four times longer than any other element on the page.

via Here’s What People Look at on Facebook Brand Pages.

There is a tab under Facebook Messages you may have never noticed. It filters out what’s supposed to be less-than-important messages from events and people you have no apparent connection with.

Although it’s not a new feature, the “Other” inbox upsets some users who have only just discovered it and are reportedly missing important messages.

Check out the video to learn more.

via Is Facebook Hiding Your Messages? [VIDEO].

Social media has revolutionized the way companies run sweepstakes, contests and promotions. Specifically, social tools have made it easy to accomplish things that weren’t possible a few years ago. Maybe too easy.

via 4 Things to Know When Planning a Social Media Contest.

Facebook LikeFacebook has released a list of news stories that were shared the maximum number of times on Facebook in 2011. The list offers an insight into the kind of content that goes viral on the web and what news websites are popular among the 800 million users of Facebook.

via The Most Shared Stories on the Internet – Facebook Likes vs Tweets.