Facebook isn’t the only one feeling the pressure from advertisers after their stock price plummeted this week; Twitter has come under fire too. As the alternative to Facebook, they’re now feeling the squeeze to prove that they can deliver results and monetize the 340 millions Tweets sent per day.
Justin Bieber has set a new Twitter record for the most number of retweets. 200,000 users retweeted his heartbreaking tweet about 6-year-old Avalanna who died recently. The tweet trended, globally. That’s some serious Klout.
After switching to a subscription model back in 2009, all content from Times newspaper was off-limit to all but subscribers – even the Google bots were locked out. Gaining only 200,000 subscribers apparently made Murdoch see the error of his ways, and Google bots will now be allowed to crawl and index all of the content. However, Google will only be allowed to show 2 lines of the content in search results, which could prove more annoying that anything else for non-subscribers.
Klout has received investment from Microsoft, and now has serious Bing integration. Klout scores will now show up in search results on Bing’s People Who Know section. There will also be integration with Wikipedia, as Klout users with Wikipedia entries about them will now see their score soar when their page is found and selected in search.
Facebook is venturing into e-commerce as they begin testing gift sales. It’s actually quite clever, as it turns user data into gift recommendations. And it gets cleverer. The gifts can then be sent via desktop or mobile to the recipient, who will receive it as a digital card, or a physical shipment. Missing a friend and want to let me know? You can now buy them a Starbucks, just cuz.
Part of a four part series about how Journalists are using social media, beyond Facebook, ReadWriteWeb looks at how journalists are using SoundCloud in new and interesting ways. Some are using it as a platform to publish interviews, while some are using it for mobile audio editing. This makes an interesting read for anyone looking to use different platforms in new and interesting ways.
And finally, if you’re struggling to connect with your audience via social media or direct marketing, have you thought about making your communications more humorous? According to Social Media Explorer, this can work for B2B marketing too. One method of incorporating this is to separate work time from play time. By posting funny things at the weekends, you’re showing your playful side, without compromising your usual serious marketing communications.
Here’s a rather odd video to get you started, and my viral video prediction of the week…
Stumbling upon the news that Microsoft has ventured into the world of social networking is guaranteed to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Not that I have anything against Microsoft, or Bing, I actually love the new Bing layout. It’s just that Microsoft feels intrinsically uncool, it’s like the dorky dad of the Internet.
Based on looks alone, so.cl is quite obviously Microsoft branded, with the distinctive square stock photographs with thick white borders. And how exactly are we pronouncing So.cl? I refuse to pronounce it as ‘social’ until I see a few more vowels in there.
So.cl isn’t strictly a social network, it’s been described as the Frankenstein’s monster of the social networking world. Microsoft have taken the most successful aspects of each social network and mashed them up to create one sharing/ discovery tool which revolves around Bing search. You can ‘Pin’ like you’re on Pinterest, ‘Like’ like you’re on Facebook, ‘hangout’ like you’re on Google+ and Tweet like you’re on Twitter.
The question is, does anyone really have enough time to add yet another social network to their already hectic schedule?
The answer to this: Microsoft isn’t really asking you to. According to the promotional video, which I found deeply confusing until the end, So.cl is a student research tool, and it’s still in the early stages of development. It’s more likely an attempt to compete with Facebook’s file sharing for groups, which is ideal for academic project work. I can already see the benefits of being able to collaborate on project work with a tool such as so.cl.
With the Facebook IPO still fresh in our minds, only time will tell if any newcomer to the social networking scene can knock the top three off their spots. Do we want to combine our social networking, or are we happier to segment our online activities?
Top Tip: According to PC World, if you want to avoid the queue’s and jump straight in, make sure you connect with you Window’s Live ID rather than your Facebook account.
Reports coming from across the pond suggest that the FBI may be the next person to friend you on Facebook; but you won’t have any choice in accepting or declining this request. Just as we all got a little more savvy about what information we share and with whom, the FBI has decided they want to create a backdoor in our social networks to enable Government surveillance.
Image from dbaldinger.com
This move would be intended to replace the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, which covers telecommunications companies, but not Internet companies. As worldwide communication shifts in favour of social networking, VoIP and e-mail, the FBI wants to make sure they’re still able to snoop, and they’re asking Internet companies in the US not to resist the new law.
The FBI has drafted a proposal which would cover Social Networks, VoIP, and e-mail providers with over a certain number of users; Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook would all be affected. These companies would be required to make alterations to their code which would better enable them to wiretap suspected criminals.
Back in February 2011 the FBI reported that networks were ‘Going Dark’, which poses a problem for surveillance. As technology advances, the way we communicate is changing, and as a result we’re less easy to monitor. In the UK we saw an example of this during the 2011 riots; rioters were utilising the blackberry messenger service to fly under the radar and arrange meeting places and communicate on the whereabouts of the police.
This is scary enough for Americans, but what does this mean for the rest of the world? If my social networks and e-mail account are owned and housed in the United States, does that mean they’ll have a backdoor to snoop around my personal information too?
Yesterday (April 17th) was Equal Pay Day, a day which aims to draw attention to the stark inequalities in our workforce. When you take the workforce in general, there are shocking statistics that show women are only earning 77% of what their male counterparts are taking home. However, when you look at the tech industry, the problem isn’t that women aren’t earning enough – the problem is that they aren’t even invited.
Image from: evasmith.wordpress.com
Gaming, Tech, Programming, and even SEO are often considered ‘boys club’; because women are apparently incapable of coding, understanding a complex machine, or getting to grips with an algorithm. When we see news stories like this – when Sqoot suggested that the only women at their API event would be serving the beverages – it’s easy to see why tech can be a hostile industry for women.
Along a similar theme, this Storify show’s what can happen when women stand up and say something about these inequalities. After complaining to Geeklist about a promotional video which featured a woman dancing around in her underwear, Geeklist responded by attacking the girl who complained and even trying to bring her employer into the conversation.
Here’s how the big Search Engines and Social Media Sites stack up: (And this data was very hard to find.)
I couldn’t find data for Facebook or Twitter. And according to the Pinterest team photos, they have 1 woman in their ranks.
It’s not all bad news though – trying to address the huge inequality, the online retailer etsy has started a grant program which will support 20 women as they attend a three-month programming course.
