This Week in Social is a weekly digest of some of the biggest stories in social media marketing news. These stories are the show notes for the Brave Ad World Podcast. Each story is discussed at a deeper level on the podcast.

Facebook Looks to Expand Into Mobile Payments (Read more at Financial Times)

Facebook is working with the Central Bank of Ireland to start a service that would allow users to store money with Facebook and then use it to pay other people. The move would allow Facebook to get into the mobile payments game. Facebook has been talking to online and mobile money transfer services, including TransferWise, Moni Technologies and Asimo.

Facebook has been taking steps and laying the groundwork to be much more than a social network, and with mobile and electronic payments growing in popularity, this move seems to make sense. After all, it already has the identities of more than 1 billion users. However, Facebook would be entering a very competitive space that includes heavy hitters like PayPal and even Google Wallet, which has struggled.

But perhaps Facebook's biggest challenge is its reputation as being anti-privacy and disrespectful of personal information. People may not feel safe tying their payment information to Facebook, so that's a brand reputation issue Facebook may need to overcome for this to be successful.

Twitter Acquires Gnip (Read more at ReCode)

Twitter is continuing its acquisition spree with the purchase of social analytics company, Gnip. Gnip gained notoriety when it was one of the three companies granted access to Twitters' data firehose for the purpose of reselling it. DataSift and Topsy, which Apple acquired, are the other two. NTT Data is a fourth reseller in Japan.

Twitter says the acquisition will allow Gnip to offer "more sophisticated data sets and better data enrichments." Gnip will continue to provide data to its customer base.

Twitter's goldmine is its data, and this move may signal that Twitter's approach may be shifting from selling access to data to selling the tools to act on that data as Gnip has. Gnip was once a middleman, so now, Twitter becomes the source for data. However, Twitter could take it to the next level as Tom Merritt pointed out on his DTNS podcast with the acquisition of Cover last week. Cover uses your phone's sensors to automatically bring apps you might want to use based on your location and typical behavior to your Android device's home screen. Twitter data could be integrated into Cover by looking at what you're tweeting and what your friends are tweeting to create better, more holistic recommendations.

Twitter Starts Selling Mobile Ads Across Ad Network (Read more at AdAge)

Twitter is now selling mobile app download ads in mobile ads across its acquired mobile ad exchange, MoPub. This is the first significant move Twitter has made with its acquisition.

The move allows Twitter to sell ads to marketers and developers to promote their mobile apps on Twitter and across the MoPub network, which reaches about one billion users and handles 130 billion ad requests every 30 days.

The move allows any advertisers to run a campaign simultaneously on Twitter and across the network in an effort to push mobile app downloads.

Mobile app download ads have proven to be a big success for Facebook, and Twitter is looking to cash in on what is clearly a market hungry for such an ad offering. It makes advertising on Twitter more desirable because of the sheer scale advertisers can gain by using the MoPub network, which allows Twitter to diversify and not rely on just its platform for ad revenue.

Facebook Introduces Nearby Feature (Read more at Slate)

Ambient awareness technology such as Highlight and Glancee has taken a backseat because of privacy concerns, but Facebook aims to bring it back. Facebook acquired Glancee awhile back, and now we're seeing the result of the acquisition, Nearby Friends.

Nearby Friends is a feature that now exists within the Facebook app's 'More' menu. After users opt in to use the feature, users can see who of their friends are nearby if their friends have also turned on the feature. Users can see locations by neighborhood or city but not exact locations. Once a user sees a friend, they can tap the app and send a message to meet up. Push notifications are sent to friends if someone is nearby.

According to Facebook, the app's drain on battery is limited to about 0.4% per hour. Facebook adds that it is not using any data from Nearby Friends or Location History to target ads to users. Instead, Facebook will continue to rely on current city in user profiles and IP addresses.

Facebook is approaching Nearby Friends in a very cautious and considerate way. First, the feature is opt-in. Second, it doesn't show exact location. The question remains whether or not people will know about it with it being buried in the 'More' section and second whether or not they'll opt-in to use it. If people don't use it, it's not very useful for those who do. If it does take off, it has the potential to be very useful in merging online sharing with offline activity.

News Quick Hits

Google Glass went on sale to the public on April 15 for $1,500 for one day only. Previously, sales were limited to a select invite-only group of Google Glass Explorers. (Read more at Forbes)
Tumblr will be working with Curalate to add visual analytics. The integration will allow brands to track how their images are being shared on Tumblr. Curalate also measures how brand visuals are performing on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. (Read more at SocialTimes)
YouTube is going the traditional media route with print, TV and out-of-home ads to promote its starts to make them household names. (Read more at AdAge)