Social Media

Facebook Taking Over The World

facebook-worldLast week was a major week for the social network Facebook.  Not only did the social network celebrate it’s 6th year birthday, but also officially announced there are more than 400 million users. 

That means in just over two months, the company has gained more than 50 million users.  It took more than 4 years to get 100 million users, and since then Facebook’s population has been increasing and the speed that it’s growing is increasing as well.  (more…)

New Social Media Helps Haiti

gowallaYou may recall last month I shared with you an article on how you should be using  new social media.  I had mentioned a few smart phone applications, including GoWalla, which allows you to check into locations, obtaining items and points in a location based game against your friends. 

Now the new localized social media is donating $50 for each check-in at three different San Fransisco Bay area locations.  Those locations include Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Emeryville, CA from 11:30AM until 1:30PM, along with Peet’s Coffee & Tea in Mill Valley, CA from 2:30PM to 4:30PM and Infusion Lounge in downtown San Fransisco between 5-7PM.  Those who check in and go to the Infusion Lounge will be treated to a free concert by the Barenaked Ladies, although a donation is suggested.  All the money will go directly to the Red Cross. (more…)

Twitter Numbers Out Of Control

tweetcounterA good portion of Twitter users are experiencing a bug which shows they have a significatly more number of tweets than that actually do.  The company says they are aware of the problem and are now urgently working on taking care of the issue.

Some Twitter users reported this to the company early last week and the company said, “This bug is a low priority issue because it does not prevent users from fully using Twitter. We do not expect to have this issue fixed in the immediate future for this reason.” (more…)

Happy Birthday Facebook!

thefacebookOn February 4, 2004 Mark Zukerberg along with a few of his Harvard classmates created TheFacebook.com.  A social network which was exclusively for Harvard students.  It was so popular that 1,200-1,500 students joined within the first 24 hours of the site being launched. And in less than a month, more than half the students had joined the social network.  Zukerberg and his classmates decided to expand the network to other Ivy League schools, along with college’s in the Boston area.  Soon after it was an exclusive college social network.  The site later changed to invitation only registrants.  But in the fall of 2005, Facebook users were upset after the company had decided to open the site to everyone over the age of 13. 

In the past 6 years, Facebook has seen a number of face lifts.  Normally after any change there was an uproar from the community, but looking back at some of the designs on Facebook’s wikipedia page, the changes have definatly been worth it. (more…)

Social Media Viral Task Violates TOS

dweekIf you are one of the many 350+ million users on the social media site Facebook, you may have noticed a few of your friends have turned celebrities.  As part of Doppelganger Week, which started 2 weeks ago, Facebook users have changed their pictures to celebrities they’ve been told they look like.  I’ve even taken a part in this, posting a picture of Frankie Muniz, since I’ve even been stopped at the airport because they thought I was him (I personally don’t see the resemblance but you gotta go with the majority). And my friends apparently look a lot like Ellen, Taylor Launter, Daniel Radcliff, Niel Patrick Harris, David Archuletta, Aladdin, and Maya Angelou  just to name a few.

And while this latest viral social media task is fun and silly, CNet brought up the point, it’s actually against Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS). (more…)

Twitter E-Mail Not Phishing Scam

twitterpasswordThis morning, several Twitter users woke up to e-mails from Twitter saying,”“Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset,” which was then followed by a link to see what their new password was changed to.  To most smart internet users this looks like a phishing attack and scam.

However, the e-mail is indeed from Twitter, and the social network was taking precautions.  (more…)

Twitter Off The Twitter Plateau

twitterA few months ago, Twitter CEO & co-founder, Evan Williams talked at the Web 2.0 Summit about how Twitter’s growth was slowing.  Since then, Twitter’s growth had actually declined.  At least until this new year. 

Twitter’s numbers in January hit record numbers, meaning that Twitter’s growth could be continuing to climb very soon.  First the numbers of tweets was actually record breaking.  Twitter users posted more than 1233.8 million tweets  in January.  And as high as that number is, it’s not that surprising, since the number of tweets each month has been constantly growing month after month.  However, in January 2009 there were only 76.6 tweets posted.  (more…)

Obama & The Social Media World

obamaIt’s not really news that President Obama is for social media, since many say his presence on social media helped him get to the White House.  And although he maybe for it, he’s still just learning how to use it.  Last week, when the President visited the Red Cross headquarters to learn what they were doing in effort to help Haiti, the President hit the Twitter ‘submit’ button for the very first time.  Although he has his own Twitter account, he’s never actually personally used it.

Tonight, President Obama is expected to give his first State of the Union address to the nation.  And for the first time ever, social media has already begun to play a role in the president’s State of the Union speech.  First the Rethink Afghanistan organization has started a widespread war protest on the White House’s Facebook page.  What started as an effort to obtains 20,000 signatures on Rethink Afghanistan’s website, moved to the social media world after they had reached their goal.  (more…)

Can Twitter Be The News?

twitternewsA few weeks ago when I talked about the future of social media, one of the things I mentioned was how Twitter was going to become our news source.  Next month, five journalist are actually going to test out the method of only getting news from only Twitter and Facebook.  The “Behind Closed Doors on the Net” experiment’s goal is to see if the journalist can actually write articles based on facts mentioned on the social networks.  The only way to do that, is take away and block all other communication technologies.  That means no phone, radio, or clicking on links attached to the social networks. 

I’m looking forward to seeing how the journalist do in the experiment.  Can anyone really just get their news from Twitter and social media alone?  I say “Yes & No.”  I think Twitter is a great tool for overviews, and for discussion.  However some stories are best told by social media.  The Iran election from last summer is a great example.  Although journalist were banned from covering it, the citizens of country took our their cameras, and shared what was happening with the rest of the world.  While this was everyone’s only option to learn about developments, it opened the doors to citizen journalism, allowing anyone to tell a story, and in some cases, like this situation, made the story more real.  (more…)

Your Twitter Account Could Go Bye-Bye

Twitter_is_Dead_offline_conkedIf you don’t log into your twitter account often, you may want to change that. At least if you want to keep your Twitter user name.  Martin Bryant, writer for The Next Web, contacted Twitter’s headquarters, and the company says they plan to recycle all inactive accounts soon. 

“We reached out to Twitter for comment…and a spokesperson for the company told me that the company plans to release all inactive user names and deleted user names in the future but doesn’t have a date set yet,” said Bryant. (more…)

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