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Economist: IN 2007 Safaricom, the biggest mobile operator in Kenya, launched M-PESA, a service that allows money to be sent and received using mobile phones. It has since signed up 15m users, is used by 70% of the adult population and has become central to the economy: around 25% of Kenya’s GNP flows through it.

Similar schemes have had some success elsewhere. More than 120 mobile operators now offer mobile-money services of various kinds, and another 90 will soon join them. There has been a particular push in east Africa. Yet in many poor countries where mobile money should be flourishing, it isn’t.Reprints

A bank in your pocket

Mobile-money services are especially useful in developing countries. A worker in the city can send money to his family in the village without having to waste a day travelling on a rickety bus. Indeed, he can pay his family’s household bills directly from his phone. It is safer too: nobody wants to carry wads of currency on public transport.

Forbes: Facebook will debut an advertising exchange in the next few weeks that will help advertisers target audiences on the social network in the same way they’ve been able to do elsewhere on the Web. That may help Facebook boost its revenues to counter worries by investors, who have knocked its stock down nearly 30% from its initial public offering last month.

The exchange will allow a select group of ad tech companies called Demand-Side Platforms, or DSPs, which gather pools of target audiences that advertisers can reach instantly through automated buying systems, to get access to such audiences on Facebook, according to spokesperson Annie Ta. They haven’t been able to do that before because Facebook only allowed them to target ads using its own data on posts or brands that users Liked or shared, or on information about themselves that the revealed in their Facebook profiles.

Using what’s known as real-time bidding on the Facebook Exchange, a travel site, for instance, could target an ad on Facebook for a discounted air ticket to Hawaii to people who searched for a Hawaii flight but didn’t buy a ticket, or an ad for a Honolulu hotel room to someone who did buy a ticket…

“lame…didn’t we already decide facebook ads don’t work?”

Financial Planning:  Each social media site has its own culture. Every advisors needs to learn how to exist in them or risk getting lost in the crowd.

Have you ever unfriended someone on Facebook? If not, ask your kids because they have. Ask them about the storm that it creates. It is as if you slapped someone in the face

LinkedIn has the easiest out when it comes to relationship management. LinkedIn is the place for business networking but there are a lot of social rules. You do not need to accept LinkedIn requests because it is a place for business.  If you receive a request not stemming from a business relationship, its acceptable, though not preferable, not to confirm. This actually helps the platform maintain its integrity through qualified connections, but, if you are looking for a new job or if you start following a company while you are at another company, this can spell disaster for you.

On LinkedIn, groups have rules that you need to follow, if you don’t, expect to get blasted by members. Remember: don’t post silly things about your personal life on LinkedIn. This is a platform is for business only.

Twitter is an underutilized social media platform for advisors. Most advisors have heard of the “Law of Large Numbers,” Twitter is the way to use that principle to draw attention to your website, blog, fan page or publication.

I have had many advisors say to me, “Shouldn’t I have a lot more followers that people I am following?” My answer would be a resounding yes if I was coaching Suzie Orman or Jim Kramer, but for most advisors, the answer is a resounding no.

Here’s why: people look at Twitter differently than Facebook, Pinterest, or LinkedIn. It is about scaling your message, if you do not follow people back; they will un-follow you. Most Twitter users have tools that have follower time bombs, which means if you do not follow them back they will immediately un-follow you.

Remember, as a newbie to Twitter and a non-Billboard topping celebrity, you need to draw attention to your message. Traditionally, people you “follow” will in turn “listen” to you. So, until you are a national celebrity, you need to follow the rules and social aspects of Twitter. Lady Gaga does not need to scale her message because her celebrity does this for her. Trust me, without that celebrity status, Ms. Gaga would be following everyone who followed her.