Technology: The Week in Technology

Owen Van Natta, chief executive of MySpace, has left the firm less than a year after being hired from rival Facebook. Van Natta is being indirectly replaced by Mike Jones and Jason Hirschorn, chief operating officer and chief product officer at the News Corporation-owned social networking site. They will become co-presidents.

Promise Technology, the IT storage company, has selected Napier Partnership to run a media relations campaign in the UK. Napier will aim to promote Promise's range of storage solutions that cover the data centre to the desktop, as well as several additional service offerings.

NixonMcInnes, the social media specialist, has recruited Beth Granter as community manager. Her signing follows a spate of new business wins for NixonMcInnes, most recently travel firm TUI. Granter joins from integrated advertising agency The Good Agency, where, as head of social media, she led digital strategy for clients.

Immediate Future, the PR and social media agency, has hired six new staff at all levels, in addition to a key pre-Christmas hire. David Dewilde and Delilah Pollard join as account directors, Katie Simpson as account manager, and Matt Pynn, Nora Maki and Gemma Dudley as senior account executives. These follow the appointment of Jane Franklin to client services director last November.

Almost 60 per cent of retailers do not have any kind of social media presence, while Twitter is superseding Facebook among those that do, according to research.

The study of 100 UK retailers by dotCommerce says retailers are losing out in the battle to boost sales and generate loyalty through social media.