Tag Archives: social news
Communities
HOW TO: Get Started With Photo Blogging
Blogging is possibly the purest form of social sharing, but with so many types of blogs it can be difficult to pick just one to begin with. Photo blogging is a fantastic way to show off your creativity, while also keeping your photo skills sharp. This article focuses on some of the key things to do when starting a photo blog. For instance, it is extremely important to customize. With thousands of photo blogs, why should anyone pay attention to yours? By customizing, you are giving people a reason to pay attention. This will also help focus the intent of your blog. Check out this article for some more great tips and tricks.
Tools & Technology
Facebook Launches ‘Send’ Button For More Selective Sharing, Announces 50 Million ‘Groups’
Facebook’s “Like” button is getting a friend. The “Send” button is Facebooks newest addition to the family and is already getting rave reviews. The idea is that when you see “Send” on a site, you can share it with select people such as Facebook friends, specific email addresses or Facebook groups. It’s a selective way of sharing information with specific people. While only 50 sites will begin using this feature to begin with, it is inevitable that this usage will grow, most likely making groups a more popular feature on Facebook. “It’s always been easy to share links within Groups, but this lowers the bar even further because you don’t have to leave the page you’re reading — you can imagine people using the button to share book reviews with their book club, close friends sharing new ideas for travel destinations, and so on.” Facebook reports there are over 50 million groups right now, and with this new feature, that number is only bound to grow.
Communities
Coachella Marketing Blitz: New Brands Shake Up Party Landscape
As many of you already know (and possibly attended), Coachella took place recently. This desert music and arts festival had some pretty hefty social media integration this year, a reflection of the culture and goals of the festival. Many brands were in attendance, appealing to attendees with their social media interactive tools. QR codes were a big hit this year in terms of navigating the festival and interacting with brands. Giltcity.com, Spin.com and Lacoste are all brands that were there showing off their social media chops. Did you attend the festival? Let us know what your impressions of the social media integration were!
Tools and Technology
LocalResponse Taps the Social Web to Help Businesses Draw Customers
LocalResponse is a new tool that was announced on Tuesday. It is being referred to as a “social advertising platform” that allows companies to look through social media information to more directly target their consumers. By being able to look at who their most loyal consumers are, brands have the opportunity to send them rewards and deals specifically, rather than in an email blast. LocalResponse scans Twitter as well as a plethora of location-based services to find out their information. So far, LocalResponse has reported that the beta version of their product had extremely positive response.
Measurement
ContentAide: Get Daily Reports About Your Rival’s Facebook Page
See full infographic at Mashable.com
Communities
The Winners & Losers of Social Networking
In the game of social networking, there have been plenty of winners and losers. And while it might seem that Facebook is the ultimate winner, it depends on who you are talking to. For example, if you are over the age of 65, you probably would be more inclined to join Plaxo.com rather than Facebook. Social media agency, Ignite, has done a study about the demographics within social networks, to discover where most people are hanging out. Some of the findings might be surprising, like the fact that most kids under the age of 17 are not on Facebook, but rather Habbo.com. Check out this extremely informative infographic to find out more, and let us know if you find any of these findings and predictions especially surprising.
Tools & Technologies
Location Discovery Service Scoville Lets You Find Hot New Local Spots
Location based services are all the rage right now, and Scoville is jumping on that bandwagon. Basing their business plan around the idea of a Scoville Scale (one that measures spiciness in food), Scoville aims at giving users the hottest destinations in their area.
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Communities
Obama 2012 Campaign Launches With Digital Push
In one of the biggest stories of the week, Obama has announced that he will be running for a second term, and launched the new campaign on YouTube and with email and text message blasts. While the 2008 campaign will be a hard one to follow, experts believe that 2012 will be impressive in a different way. The “It Begins with Us” video features real voters discussing the election and how they believe Obama can win again. But a differing factor than from the 2008 election, is that this time the team seems to be recognizing Obamas weaknesses. One voter in the video admits that he might not agree with everything Obama does, but he respects him and trusts him. Could this be a positive new spin for the new campaign? There is also, of course, Facebook integration, with ads being run that ask whether or not users are “in” yet.
Tools and Technologies
Facebook reaching out to feature-phone users
If you are a feature-phone user who has felt left out of the Facebook mobile phenomenon, have no fear. Facebook is upgrading their mobile site, which will make feature-phone users lives easier. To clear up any confusion, feature-phones are not the same as smartphones. They are a “simpler, less powerful cousin” to the smartphone. Now that that’s been cleared up, let’s talk about what feature-phone users can expect. With the upgrade to the mobile site (m.facebook.com) users will be able to experience a full range of features found on Facebook’s site. There will no longer be a difference between the capabilities on a touch phone and those on a feature-phone. Everyone knows that the mobile industry is the new up-and-comer, and Facebook is clearly looking out for how to please consumers across all mobile devices.
Communities
What A #MarchMadness Bracket Would Look Like If It Were Decided By Twitter
With March Madness well underway, most of our attentions have been turned to the TVs, and away from twitter for a little bit. But Empire Avenue, a social media exchange service, has dared to keep on tweeting and ask one very important question: Who would take home the National Champion of Twitter. Empire Avenue has set up a full bracket of which university would take home the top prize when it comes to twitter activity. The Final Four has been narrowed down to North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and UNLV. Just in case your brackets are not doing as well as you had hoped, maybe you will have a little more luck with this one.
Tools & Technologies
Augmented Reality Industry Aims to Get Beyond the Hype
Augmented reality is a phenomenon that has really been a theory more than a reality. With all of the hype however, consumers are getting excited about all of the potential possibilities. But now, Laurent Gil, founder of Viewdle, is ready to make all this hype a reality. With plenty of other developers and augmented reality coinsures behind him, the technology may not be as far into the future as we thought before. For example, gaming company Ogmento is working on finding ways to encourage natural behavior while playing these games, discouraging awkward motions and movements. Steps like these, Gil believes, are what will help bring augmented reality, into reality.
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COMMUNITIES
While the World Watches, Japan Tweets Its Way Out of Disaster
Devastation and heartbreak hit Japan late last week with both the earthquake and the tsunami. Now, in the aftermath, social media is playing a bigger and more important role than ever. Many loved ones have been able to reconnect due to tools like Twitter and Facebook, and many tourists in Japan have been able to alert their families across seas that they are, in fact, safe. People Finder, powered by Google, is in use once again after its creation for the Haiti earthquake in 2010, and helping people locate lost victims. Social media is even helping in the fight to raise monetary donations for the cause. Within an hour of the disaster, tweets from Japan were flying out at a speed of 1,200 per minute. Fundraising efforts have also been set up through social media, so to find out how to donate and help, check out the rest of this article.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Twitter Adds Permanent HTTPS Setting to Improve Security
Twitter is looking to improve their security, and many think that their most recent development will most certainly help in this area. Twitter has added a setting that will permanently enable your HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) setting. Basically, this setting creates a more secure network, decreasing the chance that someone will be able to access users account information. This Yahoo! article does a wonderful job explaining the mechanics behind it. While this feature is now available, Twitter notes that it is not possible for its mobile website to enforce HTTPS settings permanently, but they are working on a solution.
