Tag Archives: latest news
Planned Parenthood, Social Media, and a Win for Women’s Health
In the snafu heard around the world, Susan G. Komen pulled their funding from Planned Parenthood earlier this month. This move outraged Planned Parenthood, women’s rights and even Susan G. Komen supporters, and after a week of taking a beating, Susan G. Komen reversed the decision and restored funding. On the surface, this seems to be a completely PR related issue, but those closer to the situation know that this is really about social media and the power of speaking out through social networks.
Susan G. Komen took a hard beating for this decision. Their Facebook page looked like a war zone, with people expressing their disgust and disapproval, with very little response from the organization. People were upset with the dishonesty of the decision and with the decision itself, and they were not going to be quiet until Komen did something about it. There was, of course, plenty of reporting being done on the situation, statements from other organizations and damage control from Komen. But all of that was drowned out by the reaction of the people through social networks.
Racist Comments Pile Up on Lowe’s Facebook Page
Every once in a while, a TV show comes around that really gets people talking. This season, TLCs “All-American Muslim” was that show. Taking place in Dearborn Michigan, the show follows the daily lives of Muslim families.
While many have revered the show, there has of course been some backlash. Some people were unhappy with the portrayal of the families, others were unhappy with the fact that the show was even on air. One group in particular was so outraged that they took it out on Lowe’s for airing commercials during the show. So they started writing letters. This group wrote Lowe’s so many letters that eventually, Lowe’s backed down and pulled all of their ads.
Now, opponents and supporters of this decision have flocked to the Lowe’s Facebook page to show their respective outrage and support. More than 23,000 comments have been left in reply to the note that Lowes posted, explaining their decision. Many of those comments berated Lowe’s or expressed disappointment for the decision they made and declared they will no longer be shopping at Lowe’s. But a good portion of the comments were also in favor of the decision that they’ve made–expressing blatant racism and saying they will begin shopping at Lowe’s based on this decision.
As you can imagine, the Facebook page has become a mess to moderate.
COMMUNITIES
When Should You Thank Someone for a Retweet?
Getting retweeted is always exciting. So naturally, plenty of users want to thank that great person who retweeted them. But wait! That might not be the best way to go about handling the situation. In fact, saying thank you for a retweet might put some of your other followers off. People might find it an act of immodesty and that’s not what you want your followers to think, now is it? Instead, this opinion article suggests sending a DM in order to thank people.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Starbucks Kicks Off eGift Card Program Aimed at Facebook Community
Starbucks is making gift shopping even easier than before. The brand is now allowing users to purchase gift cards and send them virtually through email or Facebook. The idea is to make gift shopping less stressful, even if you wait until the last moment. The cards come with multiple themes, for birthdays, holidays, and oh yes, Valentines Day, which is right around the corner. Users have the option to even to pull in their Facebook friend’s birthday information in order to set up auto-delivery on specific dates. How convenient!
MEASUREMENT
PeopleBrowsr’s ReSearch.ly Lets You Search 1,000 Days Of Past Twitter Conversations
A new Twitter analytics and search platform ReSearch.ly has recently been launched and they are making finding Twitter information easier than ever. In fact, by using this program, you can seamlessly search from 1,000 days of Twitter data. For free. Awesome. They also offer the opportunity for users to pay for service to receive more specific reports. ReSearch.ly, which is powered by PeopleBrowsr, is basically just a high tech Twitter search that allows users to narrow down searches by keyword, demographic, location, sentiment and community.
INFLUENCERS
WHOOPS: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Fan Page Gets Hacked
It seems that Facebook hackers have a new target, Mark Zuckerberg, himself.
Read More
With the crazy election week behind us, allow yourself to kick your feet up and relax with this week’s edition of the Social Six. Choose from categories like Communities, Tools and Technologies, Measurement, Partnership, Influencers and Fun Stuff because after such a stressful week, you deserve it!
COMMUNITIES
Checked in? 96 percent of Web users haven’t
Location based services may be some of the fastest growing startups on the web, but only a shockingly small percent of web users have ever “checked in” to a location. According to research done by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, only 4% of adults use location based apps to “check in” at a location. On any given day, according to Pew, only 1% of Internet users use location based apps. This number may seem shocking, due to the vast growth of these features, however, Pew also noted that younger generations are far more likely to “check in” than their older counterparts.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Twitter’s In-Stream Targeted Tweet Ads Begin Today In HootSuite
Get ready, in-stream advertisements are coming soon to a Twitter account near you. Twitter is testing their new advertising, which unlike their “Promoted Tweets” will appear directly in your Twitter feed. According to Twitter, the ads will appear first in the stream, regardless of your other tweets. They will also be targeted, so users will only receive advertisements that are congruent to who they are following. For now, the ads will only roll out to those using HootSuite, but if it is a success there, be sure to look out for ads (still being referred to as Promoted Tweets) on your own Twitter, as they will be soon to follow.
MEASUREMENT
2010 Election Tops Obama’s Presidential Win in Online Traffic
This year’s midterm elections were record breaking in many ways, and now we have one more record to add to the list. Read More
