What if what we did on Facebook was real? How weird would it be? Can you imagine walking up to someone and putting "like" on everything? What if we wrote messages on our coworkers or roommates walls? How about that how asking to be someone's friend thing? How odd would that be?
Take a look at this parody to get an idea of what it would be like.
I personally find this video hilarious, being the Facebook addict that I am. It really makes me realize the terminology and concepts that Facebook uses are not something we would use in real life. It would be really awkward if we acted like the above video.
So what did you think?Leave us comments below.
*This post was written by Matt Murrow
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Monday, November 28, 2011
Bebo
Bebo was launched in July of 2005 by Michael Birch. In 2008 it was sold to AOL for about $850.00, then in 2010 AOL sold Bebo to Criterion Capital Partners. Bebo stands for Blog early, and blog often. Like all social networks Bebo allows you to create profiles in which you can upload music, video's, photos, and blogs.
One thing that Bebo does allow its users to use is what they call a questionnaire, which allows the users to post questions and have any other user post their answers to the question. Bebo resembles many of the current online social networking sites, but it closely resembles Facebook. Due to that fact Facebook was its biggest competitor.
Although Bebo resembled Facebook and had the backing of AOL and then Criterion Capital Partners it still had trouble staying above water. Saying that, BBC said that the AOL purchase of Bebo was "one of the worst deals ever made in the dotcom era".
Still though Bebo is still up and running only change being that you could now sign in to Bebo using your Facebook account.
Sources; "Bebo sold by AOL after just two years". BBC. 2010-06-17.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10341413
Written by Jesse Willems
One thing that Bebo does allow its users to use is what they call a questionnaire, which allows the users to post questions and have any other user post their answers to the question. Bebo resembles many of the current online social networking sites, but it closely resembles Facebook. Due to that fact Facebook was its biggest competitor.
Although Bebo resembled Facebook and had the backing of AOL and then Criterion Capital Partners it still had trouble staying above water. Saying that, BBC said that the AOL purchase of Bebo was "one of the worst deals ever made in the dotcom era".
Still though Bebo is still up and running only change being that you could now sign in to Bebo using your Facebook account.
Sources; "Bebo sold by AOL after just two years". BBC. 2010-06-17.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10341413
Written by Jesse Willems
Monday, November 21, 2011
eHarmony
eHarmony is one of the many online dating websites that is designed to uniquely match single men and women for friendships, dating, and even long-term relationships. This privately owned online company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. The primary investors for this company include Technology Crossover Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Fayez Sarofim company.
The confidence of success for this websites rest within a compatibility model that was designed by psychologist Neil Warren, Greg Forgatch, and Galen Buckwalter. Along with creating relationship connections, eHarmony offers advice to users who may solely be inquiring about advice for an existing relationship. The founders of this website have faith in this service because they believe that it is not about matching people with similar hobbies, rather focusing on compatibility. To obtain a compatibility match each user is prompted to create a user account and profile that will tell about themselves rather then what they want in someone else. Along with written passages by the user, a questionnaire is completed that in the aftermath determines characteristics, beliefs, values, emotional health, and skills. The information from the questionnaire and profile are used in a matching algorithm which depicts traits and values to replicate happy couples.
While eHarmony has not submitted their work for peer review or correlating evaluations, their results speak for themselves. Over ninety percent of eHarmony couples had marriage quality scores that were above average when compared to couples who begun their relationships elsewhere. Since 2000, the company has gained over 33 million members and have well over 15 thousand eHarmony questionnaires filled out each day. According to renowned outsider research relationship companies, approximately 542 eHarmony members get married in the United States daily. While eHarmony receive its’ many criticism, it clearly is a social network to be reckoned with among others.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
A Few Ways To Manage your Sites
I know that many people find themselves being users on more than just one Social Networking Sites and at times it is probably a little overwhelming or hard to manage each account. I know I usually end up neglecting one site more then the other. There is many different sites and applications that help you keep track of your accounts all at the same time. A few of these sites are Ping.fm, FriendFeed, Mysocial 24x7, and Minggl. These are just a few of the many out there
Ping.fm is a a website that allows you to ping a message to any of your social networking profiles. This can help you out if you would like to post the same thing across profile. Ping.fm also has a future that helps to make posting urls to twitter easier. It automatically will shorten the url.
FriendFeed is an application that is similar to ping. It allows you to be able to share your things with all your friends with all of your social networking sites. FriendFeed currently supports over 50 different websites. FriendFeed also has both public and private privacy settings.
MySocial 24x7 is a different kind of site, it is an extention of Firefox and works with FriendFeed. This allows you to be able to keep up with what is going on with your friends on your sites. A benefit to MySocial is that because it is just a sidebar you are still able to have it up keeping yourself updated and still be able to do what you are doing on the interenet. Instead of usually having to go back and forth between your webpages.
Minggl is an application that is for IE, Firefox and Firefox for mac. As of now minggl is for only six sites including; Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, LinkedIN, and Digg. This application stores all of your login information on this sites and allows you to be able to send a status update to any of your sites, either one at a time or all of them at once.
There are a lot of other application and websites out there that all pretty much do the same things just in a little different ways, but if you ever find yourself having an issue updating or you feel like you can't really keep up with your social networking sites try one of these out.
Sources:
http://mysocial247.com/
http://www.huddle.com/blog/15-tools-to-help-manage-your-social-networking-profiles-more-efficiently/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/minggl
Ping.fm is a a website that allows you to ping a message to any of your social networking profiles. This can help you out if you would like to post the same thing across profile. Ping.fm also has a future that helps to make posting urls to twitter easier. It automatically will shorten the url.
FriendFeed is an application that is similar to ping. It allows you to be able to share your things with all your friends with all of your social networking sites. FriendFeed currently supports over 50 different websites. FriendFeed also has both public and private privacy settings.
MySocial 24x7 is a different kind of site, it is an extention of Firefox and works with FriendFeed. This allows you to be able to keep up with what is going on with your friends on your sites. A benefit to MySocial is that because it is just a sidebar you are still able to have it up keeping yourself updated and still be able to do what you are doing on the interenet. Instead of usually having to go back and forth between your webpages.
Minggl is an application that is for IE, Firefox and Firefox for mac. As of now minggl is for only six sites including; Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, LinkedIN, and Digg. This application stores all of your login information on this sites and allows you to be able to send a status update to any of your sites, either one at a time or all of them at once.
There are a lot of other application and websites out there that all pretty much do the same things just in a little different ways, but if you ever find yourself having an issue updating or you feel like you can't really keep up with your social networking sites try one of these out.
Sources:
http://mysocial247.com/
http://www.huddle.com/blog/15-tools-to-help-manage-your-social-networking-profiles-more-efficiently/
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/minggl
Monday, November 14, 2011
Hi5
In 2003 Ramu Yalamanchi founded Hi5. Hi5 is like many other social networking sites having attributes such as networks, being able to show photos, status updates, user groups, and a personal profile.
Users of Hi5 are able to create a personal profile allowing them to put in there interests, personal information, upload pictures and also create photo albums. With the photo albums it allows for other Hi5 users to comment on them.
Hi5 also allows its users to play online games and also set up music on their profiles. Hi5 is mainly used for gamers and for playing online games. It is set up so you can still have contact with other people and socialize with them through the web.
Hi5 also allows users to set up their privacy settings, it allows people to friend people, accept or deny friend request. We all know there is creepers out in the world and Hi5 allows you to block users all together. Another privacy setting is who you allow to see your profile.
A feature different then normal social networking sites is that it is mainly for games and you are able to create avatars.
Currently every month there is about 25 million people who visit the website and it is the 6th largest online gaming site.
Hi5 has around 100 games with more and more coming out every week. People who are set up with Hi5 are in over 200 different countries, and the site offers over 50 different languages.
Hi5 is a great way to get your gaming on and to be able to interact with people all over the world.
Sources:
http://www.hi5networks.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5
Users of Hi5 are able to create a personal profile allowing them to put in there interests, personal information, upload pictures and also create photo albums. With the photo albums it allows for other Hi5 users to comment on them.
Hi5 also allows its users to play online games and also set up music on their profiles. Hi5 is mainly used for gamers and for playing online games. It is set up so you can still have contact with other people and socialize with them through the web.
Hi5 also allows users to set up their privacy settings, it allows people to friend people, accept or deny friend request. We all know there is creepers out in the world and Hi5 allows you to block users all together. Another privacy setting is who you allow to see your profile.
A feature different then normal social networking sites is that it is mainly for games and you are able to create avatars.
Currently every month there is about 25 million people who visit the website and it is the 6th largest online gaming site.
Hi5 has around 100 games with more and more coming out every week. People who are set up with Hi5 are in over 200 different countries, and the site offers over 50 different languages.
Hi5 is a great way to get your gaming on and to be able to interact with people all over the world.
Sources:
http://www.hi5networks.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi5
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tumblr
Tumblr was first introduced in 2007 as a microblogging and social media site. In tumbler everyone has their own personal site which is called your Tumblelog. You are able to share text, images, links, videos, music, quotes on your page. There is also an option where you can re-blog someone else's post if you find it interesting or like a post rather then being able to post comments. With tumblr you are able to link it up to other sites such as facebook, you can also post something from tumblr on other social networking sites. Tumblr is different from you normal blog sites because it is for quick short things. It is a tool to make blogging easier for people. Tumblr like almost everything these days is also accessible through a smart phone. You are also allowed to customer everything that has to do with your tumblr account and page. Also it is kind of like twitter in a sense you follow other people's account and they also can follow yours. To date there has been a total of 12,910,287,019 posts and 34,654,569 blogs on tumblr. Also just today there was 42,559,168 posts.
Sources:
http://www.tumblr.com/about
http://weblogs.about.com/od/choosingabloghost/p/What-Is-Tumblr.htm
Sources:
http://www.tumblr.com/about
http://weblogs.about.com/od/choosingabloghost/p/What-Is-Tumblr.htm
Monday, November 7, 2011
FourSquare
"Check In.
Find Your Friends.
Unlock Your City."
Foursquare is a social media tool. Most users do not use the site from their laptop or desktop computer, but from an app on their smart phone. FourSquare allows you to "check-in" to locations that are currently close to you. So what's the catch? After checking in a certain number of times you can become the mayor of the location that you are checking into. Other badges can be unlocked such as; "Newbie, Adventurer, Explorer, Superstar, Bender, Crunked, Local, Super User, School Night, etc." These badges are unlocked based on the location you check in, the time you check in, and the number of times you have checked into this location.
In addition to checking in to see where your friends are, companies have teamed up with Foursquare to give you specials and rewards for checking in at their location. For example, right now in Charlotte the major of Toppers Pizza gets 50% all regular priced food (up to $100). At Planet Fitness, if you check in for the first time it's only $5 to enroll, instead of the regular $50 enrollment fee. Other businesses across the country have begun to utilize this tool as well to increase their business through this social media app! The number of companies utilizing foursquare is astounding!
Sign up to get a foursquare and start becoming the mayor above your friends, getting discounts at a multitude of restaurants, and check out where your friends are too!
*Written by Catie Beth
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
How Businesses Use Twitter
How Businesses Use Twitter
A lot of us use Twitter for our everyday use. But how do
businesses use Twitter and how does it differ from the everyday use? The
following features will help you to understand how businesses use Twitter.
Promoted Tweet:
Promoted tweets allow a company to have their tweets appear
at the top of users search feeds for a longer time period (with a fee of
course). They can also target users in certain geographical locations. Promoted
Tweets appear as they normally would if they had not been “promoted.”
Promoted Trend:
Similar to the
“promoted tweet” feature, the “promoted trend” allows for a company to
have their #word appear at the top of the trending topics. As I type this the
current promoted trend is #six. If I click on the #six I will see a tweet from
Jesse McCartney in which he has tweeted someone named “GirlBehindSix” which is
apparently some kind of Twitter game show.
- · Businesses interact with their customers
o
I like to use the example of Lowe’s Home
Improvement because they do a good job of interacting with their customers.
Visit @Lowes and I guarantee that you
will see a lot of interaction between Lowe’s and their customers.
- · Businesses answer questions from their customers
o
Again, Lowe’s does a very good job of doing
this.
- · Businesses retweet tweets that they like.
o
The Charlotte 49ers Athletic Department does
this pretty well. Check out @Charlotte49ers to see when they retweeted someone
last. It really helps to build a relationship with the customer. It always
makes me smile when someone retweets me.
- · Businesses use CMS (Content Management Systems) software to put their tweets on a timeline. I prefer to use cotweet.com. It gives you the option of timing your tweets to reach the maximum viewers. It also allows you to manage multiple twitter accounts from one user interface.
*This post was written by Matt Murrow
Sources:
Monday, October 31, 2011
Are you LinkedIn?
Today there are over 120 LinkedIn members and growing everyday. LinkedIn is a free professional social networking website that allows you to add people you have worked with or invite people to join LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you create a professional network that connects you to other professionals.LinkedIn is sorted by industries schools business partners friends and co-workers.
LinkedIn allows you to create a profile and update your work history, resume, websites, twitter, and ask friends for recommendations. Whether you are looking for a job or just networking LinkedIn be very helpful. You can view your friends connections on LinkedIn which allows you to ask you friend for an introduction instead of searching the internet and reading reviews of strangers. LinkedIn can allows you to add you industry and your personal expertise.
Jobs on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a jobs tab that allows you to post jobs search for jobs and receive emails about jobs. LinkedIn has over 120 million members and mangers and recruiters still like to hire someone who has been recommended by someone they know.Headhunting. LinkedIn also has a paid edition LinkedIn Premium normally used by headhunter to locate high quality professionals from one company for another.
Companies have LinkedIn pages and groups where they can post jobs and add news about there business on there LinkedIn page.
LinkedIn has a Learning Center that allows you to view where they are going with the website and what is currently available to you. The site goes in detail on how to propel your career using your LinkedIn Account. Tutorial videos are available with most of the sections and it can help you optimize your LinkedIn account.
LinkedIn allows you to create a profile and update your work history, resume, websites, twitter, and ask friends for recommendations. Whether you are looking for a job or just networking LinkedIn be very helpful. You can view your friends connections on LinkedIn which allows you to ask you friend for an introduction instead of searching the internet and reading reviews of strangers. LinkedIn can allows you to add you industry and your personal expertise.
Jobs on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a jobs tab that allows you to post jobs search for jobs and receive emails about jobs. LinkedIn has over 120 million members and mangers and recruiters still like to hire someone who has been recommended by someone they know.Headhunting. LinkedIn also has a paid edition LinkedIn Premium normally used by headhunter to locate high quality professionals from one company for another.
Companies have LinkedIn pages and groups where they can post jobs and add news about there business on there LinkedIn page.
LinkedIn has a Learning Center that allows you to view where they are going with the website and what is currently available to you. The site goes in detail on how to propel your career using your LinkedIn Account. Tutorial videos are available with most of the sections and it can help you optimize your LinkedIn account.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Teamwork Online, the Link Between You and the Sporting World
Not many people know of teamwork online, but that is okay. For those of you who don't know what teamwork online is here is a brief description. Teamwork online is just like Linkin except it is designated more towards the sporting world. It ranges from football and baseball, to hockey, basketball and even motorsports. Many professional teams and their small leagues use Teamwork online to help sift through the people who are looking to get into professional sports.
Teamwork Online has a profile where you can set up information about yourself and upload a photo, but it also has a place where you can upload your current resume and cover letter. This function allows for businesses to look at all your information without having to request it from you, just makes the process go along a little quicker.
Along with the function for the resume and cover letter, Teamwork Online also has you fill out a questionnaire asking you about what field or fields you are interested in and what type of background you have. Based on your answers, Teamwork Online matches your answers with companies that are seeking people with your specific wants and qualifications.
This site if free to the public and is easy to operate, but don't think that it is just for looking up jobs. Teamwork Online can also search for internships throughout the different sports and can point you in the right direction based on what you are looking for.
Overall this site is a great tool to use if you are looking to get into the professional sports world. Go give it a try, you never know who is looking through the profiles. You may get selected for the job that you always dreamed of.
Written by Jesse Willems
Teamwork Online has a profile where you can set up information about yourself and upload a photo, but it also has a place where you can upload your current resume and cover letter. This function allows for businesses to look at all your information without having to request it from you, just makes the process go along a little quicker.
Along with the function for the resume and cover letter, Teamwork Online also has you fill out a questionnaire asking you about what field or fields you are interested in and what type of background you have. Based on your answers, Teamwork Online matches your answers with companies that are seeking people with your specific wants and qualifications.
This site if free to the public and is easy to operate, but don't think that it is just for looking up jobs. Teamwork Online can also search for internships throughout the different sports and can point you in the right direction based on what you are looking for.
Overall this site is a great tool to use if you are looking to get into the professional sports world. Go give it a try, you never know who is looking through the profiles. You may get selected for the job that you always dreamed of.
Written by Jesse Willems
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
YouTube
Youtube is the leader in online video worldwide. Over 100 million videos are shown daily. Youtube first started as a video sharing website an now offers a personal profile page. Your personal profile is called a channel page and it allows for friending. You are able to comment on other people's videos world wide which can help create new connections. You are able to share videos worldwide or with just a select people, you can control your limits to who you want to see. The more frequent you upload videos the more potential viewers you can have and that will lead to a relationship called a viewership. You are also able to use youtube with other social networking sites, such as facebook or twitter. You are able to post a link leading to the video on someone's wall on facebook or tweet it. This is a great way to get your videos out there. Youtube is a great way to stay connected with your family and friends. You can upload videos of virtually anything and be able to share it with your friends and family from all around the world. This is allowing you to keep connected with loved ones all around the world. Youtube is not only a good way to stay connected with other people but it is also a good way to stay connected with people if you have a business. Youtube now has commercials during some of their videos allowing companies to get their names and products out across the world. It is a great way for you to personally get known but also for a business to get known.
Sources:
Monday, October 17, 2011
Google and Social Networking, What's the Link?
Google has join the social networking game, by creating Google +. The basis behind Google + is to create small subsets or as Google calls them "Circles", for users to invite friends, family, and coworkers in a small circle where they can share anything and everything, without other circles seeing it.
The one thing that Google + has done is improve the social networking multimedia options, allowing the users to view all the photos that they have uploaded or shared, as well as any photo that they have been tagged in. It goes beyond this though, by allowing users to use different effects on their photos, and enabling them to sent certain photos to different privacy levels.
Google + has also created what they like to call "Hangouts" allowing people to open a video chat and invite people from their groups, telling them they are just hanging out. Takes the typical chat to the next level.
Now if you are still asking what the link is, then here it is. Google + is Google's version of Facebook except it tries to involve their users in different ways. Hangout takes simple chatting to the next level and turns it into video chats that only certain people from circles can see, getting rid of the big group chats that are open to everyone in the group, small or big.
Google + vs Facebook vs Twitter, let the Social Networking battle begin.
*article written by Jesse
Source: Google Plus on Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Source: http://mashable.com/follow/topics/google-plus/
The one thing that Google + has done is improve the social networking multimedia options, allowing the users to view all the photos that they have uploaded or shared, as well as any photo that they have been tagged in. It goes beyond this though, by allowing users to use different effects on their photos, and enabling them to sent certain photos to different privacy levels.
Google + has also created what they like to call "Hangouts" allowing people to open a video chat and invite people from their groups, telling them they are just hanging out. Takes the typical chat to the next level.
Now if you are still asking what the link is, then here it is. Google + is Google's version of Facebook except it tries to involve their users in different ways. Hangout takes simple chatting to the next level and turns it into video chats that only certain people from circles can see, getting rid of the big group chats that are open to everyone in the group, small or big.
Google + vs Facebook vs Twitter, let the Social Networking battle begin.
*article written by Jesse
Source: Google Plus on Freebase, licensed under CC-BY
Source: http://mashable.com/follow/topics/google-plus/
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Facebook. Period.
Facebook. Enough Said.
Entertainment Weekly states it perfectly with this quote, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?"
In 2004, a conversation about Facebook would have gone similar to this one,
College Student 1- "Hey, have you heard about Facebook?"
College Student 2 - "Face what?"
In 2011 if someone asked me "What's Facebook?" I would blankly stare at them for a couple minutes before bursting out laughing.
As of July 2011, Facebook has 800 million active users. My 92-year-old great grandmother has a Facebook, and so does my 8-year-old little sister, as well as my parents, friends, etc. The real question is who does not have a Facebook? Facebook has become a cultural phenomenon to keep friends, acquaintances, peers, and family connected.
So since many already know what Facebook is, where is Facebook going, and who is going with?
Facebook is taking many companies with it to the top, but the most recent and popular website rumored to be attaching them to the Facebook name is eBay.
“Facebook and eBay will deepen their relationship at a developer conference this week, according to a person familiar with the e-commerce company, cited by Reuters.”
Facebook teaming up with eBay will create even more of a user-friendly and “right at your fingertips” experience via Facebook. More information is to be announced after the developer conference about the partnership between Facebook and eBay.
Facebook will continue to bridge partnerships and build relationships with other large internet businesses to further grow and develop their company. In reference to my second post on this blog, this was MySpace's downfall. MySpace could not generate new ideas and innovations. Facebook is booming and will continue to boom due to it's ever evolving company and ideas.
Sources:
*Written by Catie Beth
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
When Twitter Accounts are Hacked!
In my last post, I briefly spoke about some of Twitter's features like the retweet, trending topics and the hashtag. So these are some features that you can use to help you reach a larger audience. But what happens when your twitter account is hacked and the wrong message is sent out to your followers?
According to an article on Mashable.com, Twitter has banned 401 passwords for being "too obvious", as of July 2011.
Twitter's top users (by followers) are Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, Brittany Spears, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres. According to the Mashable article, 8 out of the top 10 Twitter users have been hacked. Shakira and Taylor Swift are the only two that haven't.
Famous Twitter Hacks:
NBC News:
On September 10th, 2011, NBC News' Twitter account was hacked and the following message was sent out:
"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking, more as the story develops."
As it turns out a group calling themselves "The Script Kiddie" decided to take credit for the event. The same group had also tweeted from a hacked @FoxNewsPolitics Twitter account that the President had been assassinated.
Anthony Weiner:
Everyone has probably heard about Sen Anthony Weiner's sex scandal by now. Back in May of this year, Sen Anthony Weiner's Twitter account send out lewd photos of someone's "buldging" underpants. The Senator soon came under harsh treatment by the media. Weiner eventually admitted that he tweeted the picture himself. The Senator later resigned after some embarrassing media coverage.
It looks like Weiner isn't too tech savy.
Brittany Spears:
Two years ago, Brittany Spears' Twitter account was hacked with the following message:
"I give myself to Lucifer everyday for it to arrive as quickly as possible. Glory to Satan."
Ashton Kutcher:
In early March of this year Ashton Kutcher's account was hacked with this message:
"Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?"
*This article was written by Matt
Sources:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/26/twitter-account-hacks-infographic/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/anthony-weiner-twitter_n_869008.html
http://mashable.com/2009/11/12/britney-spears-twitter-hijacked/
According to an article on Mashable.com, Twitter has banned 401 passwords for being "too obvious", as of July 2011.
Twitter's top users (by followers) are Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Barack Obama, Katy Perry, Kim Kardashian, Brittany Spears, Shakira, Taylor Swift, Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres. According to the Mashable article, 8 out of the top 10 Twitter users have been hacked. Shakira and Taylor Swift are the only two that haven't.
Famous Twitter Hacks:
NBC News:
On September 10th, 2011, NBC News' Twitter account was hacked and the following message was sent out:
"Breaking News! Ground Zero has just been attacked. Flight 5736 has crashed into the site, suspected hijacking, more as the story develops."
As it turns out a group calling themselves "The Script Kiddie" decided to take credit for the event. The same group had also tweeted from a hacked @FoxNewsPolitics Twitter account that the President had been assassinated.
Anthony Weiner:
Everyone has probably heard about Sen Anthony Weiner's sex scandal by now. Back in May of this year, Sen Anthony Weiner's Twitter account send out lewd photos of someone's "buldging" underpants. The Senator soon came under harsh treatment by the media. Weiner eventually admitted that he tweeted the picture himself. The Senator later resigned after some embarrassing media coverage.
It looks like Weiner isn't too tech savy.
Brittany Spears:
Two years ago, Brittany Spears' Twitter account was hacked with the following message:
"I give myself to Lucifer everyday for it to arrive as quickly as possible. Glory to Satan."
Ashton Kutcher:
In early March of this year Ashton Kutcher's account was hacked with this message:
"Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?"
*This article was written by Matt
Sources:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/26/twitter-account-hacks-infographic/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/31/anthony-weiner-twitter_n_869008.html
http://mashable.com/2009/11/12/britney-spears-twitter-hijacked/
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
MySpace. What Went Wrong?
"MySpace is like the wild, wild west or the Las Vegas of social media, dirty and ghetto."
MySpace: Falling from Grace
This quote, taken directly from "Social Network Failure: What Happened to MySpace #fail" perfectly describes MySpace's decline since it's launch in 2003. By 2006, MySpace was the largest and most popular social media site according to trends and active monthly users. Pretty quickly Facebook quickly gained attention over it's newly found younger and nerdier social networking sibling. As of August 2011, MySpace has 31 million active users, Facebook with 800 million users and Twitter sits at a cool 200 million.
So what went wrong? Where did MySpace begin to lose it's appeal to the social media consumer base and begin to be the less popular social networking site. Two major factors launched MySpace to the social media graveyard to allow other sites to grow into the spotlight.
- Spam, Advertisements, and Viruses.
- Lack of "user friendly" qualities involving MySpace.
- Spam, Advertisements, and Viruses.
- Lack of "user friendly" qualities involving MySpace.
When MySpace began to decline in 2006, a major factor was the massive amount of advertisements (albeit, inappropriate ones) that would flood your screen as soon as you logged into your page. Why would you want to visit a site multiple times a day where fifty percent of your time is spent closing out of pop-up advertisements. Then, once you closed your advertisements, many times a virus would take over your computer, causing the user to never want to visit MySpace again.
In addition to the advertisements, MySpace became so non-user friendly that only the smartest computer programmers could figure out how to change the background of their MySpace page. One of the article's below states that MySpace simply ran out of ideas. While competing with Facebook, who's ideas were innovative and constantly changing, MySpace ran out of key things that would alter the vision and ease of their site, causing more and more users to leave MySpace's site.
What's Next for MySpace?
In July 2005, MySpace was bought for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. In June 2011, Specific Media with the partnership of Justin Timberlake bought MySpace for a measly $35 million. That's 93% loss on one social media site. So where do Timberlake and Specific Media plan to take MySpace? On October 4, MySpace (backed up by it's new owners) released a statement regarding its marketing strategy to emerge once again. MySpace wants to begin to be the "Hulu of Music."
"Specific Media’s strategy relies on Myspace’s prior licensing agreements with the four largest music labels in the world as well as over 20,000 independent music labels. Myspace will also compete against a variety of companies, like Vevo, MTV, Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody, Grooveshark and more."
The new MySpace will feature an updated look and focus on music distribution and discovery. Only time will tell if this social media site will ever return from the internet graveyard, or if it's doomed to failure forever.
What do you think about MySpace's new endeavors? Do you think it will succeed? Will it fail? Tell us your thoughts!
Sources:
http://techland.time.com/2011/07/15/could-what-happened-to-myspace-happen-to-facebook/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/04/myspace-future-plans-music/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/04/myspace-future-plans-music/
Monday, October 3, 2011
Life Happens. Get a Twitter.
Life Happens. Get a Twitter.
Some of the most important things in life occur in between Facebook status updates, blog posts and emails. This is the basis behind the concept of “Twitter.” Twitter is a micro-blogging that allows you to post “tweets” of 140 characters or less.
Developed in the Summer of 2006, Twitter has become an outlet for celebrities, Presidents, businesses and the everyday Joe that wants to share his life with the world. Taking the concept of “going viral”, Twitter has developed a few really cool functions into their site.
The Hashtag:
The first one is the hashtag (#). When a user places a hashtag in front of a word it turns the word into a link. If you click this link it will allow you to see all the posts in the world with that hashtag in it.
Trends:
Ever read Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point?” In Gladwell’s book he speaks about how trends start and spread. He takes the concept of a connector (a person that is well connected to different groups of people) and applies it to specific examples (i.e. Hushpuppy shoes trend in the 90s, crime cleanup in NYC). Twitter lets this concept go online in an easy to read fashion by placing a “Trends” section on the right hand side of your main page. These trends cover what people are posting about in larger cities, entire countries and the world.
As I am typing this the Baltimore Ravens played the NY Jets last night. Ray Lewis must have had a good game because he is trending right now on Twitter.
The Retweet:
Have you ever saw a Facebook status, loved it and just wanted to put it as your status? Twitter allows you to do that with the retweet function. It’s a really interesting function because everyone does it and its not considered creepy. In fact, I have found it flattering when people retweet me. If your tweet is retweeted enough times it will show up at the top of some of the hashtag searches.
Sources:
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