Our thoughts, rants and inside knowlege of web design & development!
Social Media
Facebook Stops Showing Pictures of Your EX
Oct 21st
Facebook is doing its very best not to make you sad. It used to show pictures of your ex which may / may not have hurt a little. Photo memories appear in the top right corner of some Facebook pages which are chosen by Facebooks complex algorithm which tries to figure out who your most interested in. If you check it out you will notice it normally is old romances as you have spent more time looking through their profiles, pictures and wrote on their wall more then others. No one know exactly how the Facebook algorithm works but this user created a group to complain about this and Facebook Photos Project Manager Sam Odio took notice.
Yesterday he commented on a post about this issue Inside Facebook, saying, “I’d like to let you know that we’re listening to your feedback. The photo memories product no longer shows tagged photos of your friends if you were previously in a relationship with them.”
This is another clear sign of social media users making big brands stand up and listen and causing good change. Facebook are not changing the algorithm but instead will hide any pictures of past romances if you have selected them More >
Foursquare Will Hit 4 Million Members This Week
Oct 19th
Foursquare are about to reach rthe 4 million member mark this week. The milestone comes roughly 50 days after the location-based mobile game signed its 3 millionth user. This means that Foursquare are adding up to 20,000 users per day.
What is Foursquare?
Foursquare is a mobile phone game that allows you to check in via GPS at locations such as shops, pubs, schools, your home, your street even tesco! You can search for locations near where you are and add new locations if it doesn’t yet exist. You are awarded badges for your explorations / travels and if you check in to a place morew than any other you become the Mayor of that place. You can leave fun tips so others checking in know a little more about the area.
Foursquare For Business
Big brands such as Starbucks, Dominos Pizza and Whetherspoon pubs to name but a few, are catching on and offer deals to the Mayor. For example you receive 20% off your food in any Whetherspoon pub if you check in and your the Mayor.
It is a great game and you can pick up some cool offers too.
Let us know if you use Foursquare and any cool offers out there?
More >Earn Some Inexpensive Online Exposure for Your Small Business
Oct 16th
So you’ve started a business. You’ve incorporated, you’ve set up a great website and/or blog, and your social media strategy is in place.
Now, if only you could get the word out. Sometimes you need to do more than rub two tweets together to generate a little buzz. If you’ve exhausted your personal social networks, the next step is to reach out to the online media world and get some exposure.
If you’re just starting out, you may not have the capital for a water cooler, let alone a full-time PR agency. But there are a few ways to get your biz covered in the right online circles if you’re willing to put in some time and effort. We spoke to some PR pros to find out how to tap into the online media and get your biz a little exposure without breaking the bank.
Answer Public Media Queries
Bloggers and reporters are always hunting for interesting stories, products and companies to cover and discuss with their audiences. For news outlets and blogs that foster very niche coverage, it’s not always easy to find sources.
That’s where media query services like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) come in. It’s a place where media pitches are sought More >
Klout Now Measures Your Influence on Facebook
Oct 14th
Social media analytics service Klout, well-known for its Twitter influence measurement scores, has finally launched a version of its platform that determines your influence on Facebook.
Klout currently uses various data points from Twitter (Twitter) to figure out your “Klout Score,” a representation of your influence and ability to compel action by others online. Its Twitter analytics platform takes into account metrics such as retweets, follower counts, list memberships and unique mentioners to calculate everything from who influences you to your “true reach” on Twitter.
Klout’s now trying to do the same thing on Facebook (Facebook). Once connected to a Facebook account, Klout will pull in data such as likes, comments and your friendship network in order to determine your influence on Facebook. It can take up to 72 hours for the data to be processed and your Klout score to be updated.
Instead of representing Facebook and Twitter with different scores, Klout has decided to integrate them into a single Klout Score. If you’re worried that connecting your Facebook account to Klout will drop your score, the company says that “there is no risk that your Klout will go down.” The company claims that most Klout scores will rise due to the More >
Facebook Increases Security with Temporary Passwords via Text
Oct 13th
Facebook have released a new ‘one-time password’ security feature that helps its uses protect themselves when they log into public computers. It is a simple yet clever feature, users can text 32665 and if their phone is linked to their Facebook account it will create and text back a one-time password to be used for that session. This will protect users even if a keylogger has been installed at the computer, common with public machines in libraries, airports etc.
Makes sense to us… what do you think?
Corona’s New Facebook Campaign Puts Your Face in Times Square
Oct 13th
Corona is betting that young adults want to see their faces tower over New York City’s Times Square; in order to make it happen though, the Mexican beer is turning to Facebook.
Grupo Modelo, the company behind the popular Mexican beer, has launched a campaign to promote Corona Light to the young adult crowd. While it will contain traditional media advertising, it’s also placing Facebook front-and-center in its efforts to become the “most liked light beer in America.”
Here’s how it works: you “like” the Corona Lite Facebook page. Once you do that, you get access to the Times Square app, which will let you upload a photo (at least 500×500) for use in a billboard the company will be running from November 8 to December 6. There will even be pictures from the other side of the square showing what your face looks like hovering over the crowds of people that traverse Times Square every day.
This campaign, while simple, seems like an extremely smart move on Corona’s part. Not only does it get the benefit of a Times Square ad, but it gets thousands of people to “like” Corona Lite’s Facebook page, where the company can deliver even more marketing messages More >
Twitter Growing to a Billion Members
Oct 13th
The co-founders of social media giant Twitter shared the stage addressed the criticism that Twitter had gone mainstream at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Evan Williams started off by asking what “going mainstream” meant, he also pointed out that Twitter gains more than 1.8 million new signups each week. Both Evan and Biz Stone went on to say how well the New Twitter roll out had been received. The goal of the new design, Biz Stone said, was to keep Twitter’s inherent simplicity intact while adding the richness and content people are linking to.
When asked if Twitter would reach the Billion mark Williams said:
“Twitter will get to a billion members.” He quickly added it wouldn’t be the same billion individuals as Facebook, and he wouldn’t specify just how long it would take to reach that goal. This refers to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claim that Facebook would reach 1 billion after it had surpassed the 500 million user mark.
Gap bows down to the power of Social Media
Oct 12th
Gap has announced on its Facebook Page that it is scrapping its new logo design efforts, due to a heap of criticism coming primarily from Facebook and Twitter users.
Last week, Gap unveiled a new logo, one it called “a more contemporary, modern expression.” The retailer’s customers were not so thrilled about the change, and Gap decided to ask users for their logo design ideas instead. However, that course of action has now been reversed, as well.
“Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback,” the company said on its Facebook (Facebook) page. “We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowdsourcing, we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.”
According to Gap, the original logo will make its return “across all channels.”
The backlash against the Gap’s new (and now defunct) logo was intense. Beyond the thousands of tweets and Facebook status updates deriding its design, people found other creative ways to protest the new logo. A fake Twitter account has gathered thousands of followers, while Gap logo generators have quickly gone viral.
While social media wasn’t the only reason that Gap felt compelled to revert to More >
Social Media Now More Popular Than E-Mail on Mobile Devices [STATS]
Oct 12th
Mobile users spend 1.4 times as many hours using social networking sites than reading and responding to e-mail, according to a recent study by research company TNS. On average, users spend 3.1 hours per week on social networks, versus 2.2 hours on e-mail.
In most mature markets — such as the U.S. — the trend is reversed on PCs; consumers spend more time on e-mail (5.1 hours per week) than social networking (3.8 hours).
The study, which tracked the online activities and behaviors of nearly nearly 50,000 subjects between 16 and 60 years of age in 46 countries, cited “the increased need for instant gratification” as well as “the ability to offer multiple messaging formats, including the instant message or update function,” for the popularity of social networking platforms on mobile devices. More consumers, both in the U.S. and abroad, expect to spend even more time accessing social media on their mobile devices in the future, rather than their PCs.
In addition to the mobile use patterns cited above, the survey found that those who had Internet access were more likely to use it daily (61% of those surveyed) than TV (54%), radio (36%) and newspapers (32%).
In general, consumers proved more engaged and More >
Facebook news
Oct 6th