The House GOP conference says the challenge spawned 11,000 new Facebook likes for participants.

We told you about the New Media Challenge that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives launched to increase member participation on social media platforms, including Facebook. Well, round two just wrapped up and we’ve got the winners and losers hot off the press. The envelope please…

The House GOP conference says the challenge spawned 11,000 new Facebook likes for participants.

• Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV), simply asked (er, pleaded) outright for more friends in a video post on Facebook. The straightforward approach shouldn’t be surprising, since politicians have to ask for things all the time, right? Unfortunately, this time it didn’t work as her competitor, Rep. Allen West (FL), moves on to the next round.
• Or, there’s the “all for one and one for all approach,” as these Texas Congressmen shared on their respective pages (neither made it past Round 2.)
• Congressman Steve Womack (AR) posted a photo from his recent trip to Arlington National Cemetery, along with storm and tornado tips for his constituents in Arkansas.

Worth noting are the number of freshman GOP members who have taken to the challenge, since they have only been in office since January.  More than half of the remaining players are new to Congress. The challenge started with 106 players and after today that’s been cut down to 24.
So, what’s the secret to increasing engagement? There may not be a tried and true formula, but here are a few highlights the Republicans learned about it during the week.
Leanne Goodman, who handles social media for California Congressman Howard McKeon’s office, said, “The strategy is straightforward- engaging our constituents on Facebook through relevant, consistent content that integrates different new media platforms. The Congressman is fully engaged in the process, regularly recommending articles and opening his doors to ‘behind the scenes’ views for constituents back in California.”

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Readers, how likely do you think it is that Weiner’s accounts on Facebook and Twitter really got hacked

Sometimes, having a higher profile than Twitter has its disadvantages, as Facebook found itself mentioned in a scandal it had absolutely nothing to do with over the weekend that went by the chuckle-inducing name of Weinergate.

Weinergate reared its ugly head Saturday, when Big Government reported that a photo of a man’s erection, concealed by underwear, appeared in the official Twitter account of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), included in a Tweet directed to Gennette Cordova, a graduate student in Bellingham, Wash.
So what does this have to do with Facebook? Not much, except that Weiner apparently doesn’t know the difference between the U.S.’s largest social network and the 140-character microblogging site, as he replied in a Tweet, “FB hacked.”
Weiner told Politico in an email that he thought it was “obvious” that his account had been hacked, and his spokesman, Dave Arnold, told the New York Post, “Anthony’s accounts on both Facebook and Twitter were hacked.”
For her part, Cordova never mentioned Facebook, telling the New York Daily News:

Friday evening, I logged onto Twitter to find that I had about one-dozen new mentions in less than an hour, which is a rare occurrence. When I checked one of the posts that I had been tagged in, I saw that it was a picture that had supposedly been Tweeted to me by Weiner. The account that these Tweets were sent from was familiar to me; this person had harassed me many times after the congressman followed me on Twitter a month or so ago. Since I had dealt with this person and his cohorts before, I assumed that the Tweet and the picture were their latest attempts at defaming the congressman and harassing his supporters.

And as for the hacking itself, RedState blogger Caleb Howe Tweeted, “Haven’t seen it mentioned, but wouldn’t have to hack twitter/facebook to post from yfrog. Only have to hack yfrog. It’s authorized to tweet.”
And Photoshop expert Philip Bump went one step further for Mediate, reporting that the photo doesn’t match previous images uploaded by Weiner, that the type of camera is different, and that in his opinion, the photo did not come from Weiner.
Readers, how likely do you think it is that Weiner’s accounts on Facebook and Twitter really got hacked?

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Commerzbank to Raise 5.3 Billion Euros to Help Repay State Aid

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Commerzbank AG, Germany’s second- biggest bank, plans to raise about 5.3 billion euros ($7.5 billion) selling new shares to help repay state aid.

Commerzbank will sell 2.44 billion new shares at 2.18 euros apiece, the Frankfurt-based bank said today in a statement. Shareholders will be allowed to subscribe to 10 new shares for every 11 already held from May 24 to June 6, the company said. New shares are expected to trade on June 7.

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Insurers May Owe More Than $1 Billion in Unpaid Policy Benefits

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, who made the estimate, said it was a “conservative number,” in a conference with reporters during a break in a hearing today in Tallahassee. Officials from MetLife Inc., the largest U.S. life insurer, and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., the policyholder-owned insurer, were subpoenaed to appear at a hearing by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation to explain how they determine when policyholders have died.

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