Social media may be powerful, it may be useful and it might be the right tool for a lot of businesses, but it isn’t the solution to everything nor has it had impact on every single part of human activity.
Don’t Overemphasise Social Media
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Tag Archives: Social network
Twitter To Target Users Based On Browsing Activity
Twitter is experimenting with new advertising techniques and formats.
In a recent announcement the company announced their plans to start targetting their US users based on their web browsing activity.
The new “service” is aimed at US based Twitter users so Europeans should not be impacted:
So if you’re a European Twitter user you shouldn’t have to do anything..
But if you are in the US it’s quite easy to disable this new form of targetting.
- Login to your Twitter account via the web interface.
- Go to your account settings
- Uncheck the box labelled “Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits”
- Click on the “Save changes” button at the bottom of the page
Social Network Wars Explained
Social media networks want more users. Of course if you’re trying to grow your social network then it makes sense that you use your users’ existing connections .. So a lot of social networks tap into the data available via Twitter, Facebook and other services.
Of course by doing this they can upset each other .. end result you see social networks blocking access to each other. Sometimes it’s pretty petty, but it’s still fascinating to watch.
The guys over at Hootsuite used a Game of Thrones style analogy to visually represent what’s been going on:
Pinterest Engagement Graphic
Pinterest has made changes to their systems in the last couple of months that make it easier for brands and businesses to use the social network.
But what’s actually going on?
This graphic from Curalate gives some interesting insights:
Do you use Pinterest? Why? Do you like it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments!
Twitter Blocks Tumblr
Twitter’s API changes announced last week upset quite a few people. But what about its relations with other social networks and services?
The Guardian reports that Twitter has blocked Tumblr’s access to its users ie. you won’t be able to search for your Twitter contacts on Tumblr anymore.
As the various social networks buy up services that work with them you can expect to see more and more of this.
Take a look at what’s been happening with Instagram to get an idea.
Related articles
- Tumblr ‘Truly Disappointed’ That Twitter Revoked Its Friend-Finding Privileges (techcrunch.com)
- Twitter v Tumblr: neutron bomb approach? (guardian.co.uk)
Twitter Goes Offline
Twitter has been offline for the last 30 minutes.
It’s not even showing the (in)famous “fail whale” at the moment!
So you can expect to see a surge of traffic to Facebook and Google+ 🙂
Twitter Sells Tweets
Image via CrunchBase
With most social networks the users are the product.
In the case of Twitter one of the problems the company has been struggling with is how to actually make money from it all ..
So selling their content ie. their users’ tweets appears to be one of the solutions.
According to an article on RWW Twitter has sold the data to Datasift and has other companies lined up to buy the same data.
So not only is Twitter claiming ownership of the content, but they’re also happily ignoring any privacy concerns users might have..
Expect privacy advocates to get very vocal on this.
Related articles
- New Company Sells Years of Twitter Posts (escapistmagazine.com)
- Privacy betrayed: Twitter sells multi-billion tweet archive – RT (rt.com)
- Twitter apps are about to be flooded with ads (technolog.msnbc.msn.com)
- Twitter sells tweet archive to marketers (telegraph.co.uk)
Google+ Vs Facebook Humour
Came across this animated image on Google+ earlier today and thought it was amusing enough to share:
No idea where it originated, so if you know the image source please let me know
CoTweet Standard Being Pulled
Image by Gustavo Pimenta via Flickr
CoTweet Standard, which is used by a lot of companies to manage Twitter for teams, is being withdrawn on February 15th
From then on CoTweet will only be offered as a paid service under a new name “SocialEngage”
There aren’t much details about SocialEngage on the CoTweet / Exact Target site unfortunately, nor is there any information on pricing. It looks like they’re adding support for tracking Facebook, but without knowing pricing etc., it’s really hard to see if this is going to end up costing companies a lot more than they’ll gain or not.
Their Enterprise product “Cotweet Enterprise” may have been very powerful, but it also came at a very high price.
So are there any viable alternatives?
Irish Social Media Awards
Nominations are open for the 1st Irish Social Media Awards. There are also full details on how to submit a nomination for the awards and what information you need to supply.
The awards ceremony will be held May 26th 2011 in Dublin’s Mansion House, which is a great venue.