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Posts tagged Twitter
Hackers get Hacked – the power of online action
Jul 20th
The recent ’phone-hacking scandal which has tainted the reputation of Rupert Murdoch – who was already a hate figure in some media circles – and his News International corporation seemingly caused an online reaction so extreme that international hacker collective “Lulz Security” (often known as LulzSec) took steps to infiltrate the website of News International’s Sun – the best-selling newspaper in the UK. LulzSec officially renounced their retirement from hacking in June; however, they have claimed responsibility to the attack, at first posting a fake news story about the death of Rupert Murdoch on the Sun’s website with the headline “Media mogul’s body discovered”. Minutes later, any attempt to access thesun.co.uk caused an automatic redirect to LulzSec’s Twitter account. “How can we read this morning’s breaking Sun stories when there is no Sun website?” joked @LulzSec. Twitter has been for days the go-to site for information about the hacking scandal as it continues to break, and online pressure in the form of petitions and retweets has been blamed partially for the collapse of the News of the World, sister paper to the Sun and now closed down permanently. However, although News International still stands, its official website has previously been More >
Is Google+ the answer to social networking behemoth Facebook?
Jun 28th
Google have unveiled their latest attempt at cracking the world of social media, titled ‘Google+’. After previous attempts such as Google Buzz turned out disastrously (and even resulted in privacy scandals), it is particularly important for Google to get it right now before they lose an irreclaimable amount of ground to Facebook.
In fact, Google+ looks very promising. The tool will be baked in across the entire suite of Google products – search, maps, GMail, Reader, YouTube and many other successful services. A notification drop down similar to the red icon you see on Facebook will be accessible and omnipresent across all of these services, ensuring that take up and continued usage is high.
Circles
Google have presented some innovative ideas to the status quo of social networking. They noted that granular sharing is ‘tacked on’ in many current social services, like ‘Friend Lists’ on Facebook, to which you can restrict access to your posts. Google wants to slip this on its head and make their social network reflect reality – hence their ‘Circles’ feature. A fun interface will allow you to drag and drop you friends in and out of your different social ‘circles’ – like ‘University friends’ or ‘Colleagues’ or even More >
Twitter’s Tribute to Ryan Dunn
Jun 21st
Ryan Dunn, 34-year-old star of popular student stunt programme Jackass, died in a car crash in Pennsylvania on Monday morning, and within minutes of his death, he had appeared as a trending topic on Twitter.
Dunn – @ryandunntv on Twitter – used not only the microblogging feed, but also the picture-based social network Tumblr – posted a link (which has since been removed) via Twitter to a picture of himself drinking with friends on his Tumblr, hours before his crash.
As news of his death spread, celebrities and Jackass fans alike were posting tributes over the Twitterverse – with one user of photo-sharing service Flickr snapping the wreckage of the car.
Although film critic Roger Ebert has drawn controversy for his harsh comment – “friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive,” @ebertchicago said, most of the tributes spanning the social networking services Dunn used – Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr and even Facebook – have been overwhelmingly positive, remembering his sense of humour, friendly manner, and willingness to shine in the eyes of the camera.
The Power of Social Media – Anthony Weiner vs. Twitter
Jun 14th
The effectiveness of social networking has reared its head again in the United States Congress. Congressman Anthony Weiner has reacted to his mistake in unwittingly sending an allegedly indecent message – and image – via Twitter, forgetting to hit the ‘direct message’ button. Thanks to the speed at which social networks run, the image was gotten hold of by other users of the popular micro-blogging network, and subsequently re-tweeted around the world.
President Obama, who has called for the resignation of Weiner, is familiar with the impact of social media himself. Throughout his presidency, and even his initial electoral campaign, Obama has kept his supporters updated via his own Twitter account (@BarackObama has over eight million followers worldwide), his Facebook account, and YouTube – a speech by Vice-President Joe Biden concerning health reforms was an instant success on the video-sharing website.
Weiner, who initially denied that the indecent image was posted by him, has apologised via Twitter, but Obama is still insistent that “if it was me, I would resign.” Interviewed on US channel NBC about the incident, a clip including Obama’s comment has been seen circulating – appropriately enough – on YouTube.
Twitter’s New Follow Button
Jun 7th
The team at WordPress.com have been working hard with the guys at Twitter to unveil the new Follow Button to the online world for the first time.
The new Follow Button is designed for your readers to easily follow you on twitter without ever leaving your WordPress website. This is a huge benefit for businesses that previously had to redirect users back to their respective Twitter accounts and risked losing customers once they had left the company web page. The new Follow Button will act similarly to the Facebook “Like” button. You can incorporate the new Follow Button into your site by:
- Adding the new Follow Button to posts, pages or text widgets. You can customize the colours, show a count of your followers and display a link to your Twitter page.
- Using Twitter’s Blackbird Pie tool to embed fully functioning web Tweets on your posts and pages.
- Displaying the Follow button on your site’s side bar using the Twitter Widget.
The new Follow Button should help increase your site’s reach and exposure. If you would like to know more about incorporating this feature in to your website or would like to know more about the social media services that Areatrade provide, contact us here.
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Reformspring How the Q&A site just got cooler
Apr 6th
Formspring.me, a popular social website which works with a unique question-and-answer format, unveiled a new look for its site yesterday, which has sparked comments about its similarity to the new Twitter interface.
Designed seemingly with egotists in mind, the site’s primary system is a function which allows anyone – member or not – to ask a specific user a question about themselves, their opinions, or their lives, with the prompt “ask me anything”, which can (and often is) cross-posted to Twitter or Facebook, to gain more questions. A ‘follow’ function, not unlike the aforementioned rival social networking sites, allows you to ask, contact, or smile at the people you know. You can also answer their questions, too.
“One of the most significant design evolutions in Formspring’s history,” according to the company, adds a top-screen navigation bar, allowing for instant navigation back to your profile or questions – saving those precious two seconds one previously used up scrolling back to the top of the page – and shifts the site’s layout to 760 by 490 pixels by default. Formspring claims that the new layout is suitable for all sizes of computers – desktops, laptops, netbooks and even tablets, like the new iPad 2, More >
The Japan Tsunami Appeal
Mar 13th
Most people will have heard by now about the horrific disaster which struck Japan over the weekend. We would like to urge our followers to donate to the British Red Cross appeal if they’ve got any spare change – people are desperately in need of rescue and shelter at this very moment.
It has been interesting to see the usage of social media in relief efforts. News of the disaster spread quickly across Facebook and Twitter and videos of the event appeared almost instantaneously on YouTube, Japan being such a well connected country. The phrase ‘Text REDCROSS to 90999′ was trending on Twitter worldwide to encourage users to make an instant $10 donation to the appeal (though this only functioned for American users.)
Google have also set up a version of their ‘Person Finder’ tool, the technology of which was used extensively as part of operations in Hurricane Katrina and the Christchurch earthquake. The tool allows users to search for information about someone they are trying to find or upload information about the whereabouts and state of someone to be found by others. The tool uses a standard, open format to allow different organisations to collate data in one place – reducing the More >
Google increases emphasis on social search rankings
Feb 18th
Google has announced an upgrade to its social search features. A feature has been available for some time that shows links related to your search at the bottom of the results page that have been shared by your contacts on social networks.
Now Google will be further integrating this feature by moving the social results higher up in the rankings. This feature is only available to users signed into a Google account that is attached to social networking accounts.
What does this mean for people optimising their websites for promotion on Google? It seems clear that a strong social networking presence is becoming a increasingly important component of an effective online promotion campaign.
Social Media Campaigns
Feb 15th
Social Media Campaigns
We can help you create and optimise profiles for your company on the key social media sites which include Facebook (business pages) and Twitter. These sites allow you to connect with existing customers, so you can use social media as an extra method of customer support. You can also reach out to prospective customers or simply use the site to connect with other businesses in your industry or keep track of how similar business owners are promoting their sites. Another feature of social media sites is that they are visited frequently by the search engines and the profile pages rank highly. This is great for brand awareness as when a customer searches for your business name, your social media profiles rank highly in Google alongside your site, making your company hard to ignore.
We are a London website design company that specialises in website planning, website design and website promotion. Call us to find out how we can work together to make your website work for you online.
The real world role of social media: tuition fees debate
Dec 8th
You may have been following the UK tuition fees debate with some interest in the news, and seen how previously apathetic students have sprung into organised protests and occupations with surprising speed and ease. This is a great example of the role of social media in a practical context. Let’s take a look at how social networking has been used, and how it is relevant to the commercial world.
How do you know if anybody is coming to a protest? How do you know where to meet? The popular social network Facebook has been used extensively to organise protests across the country. Facebook ‘events’ have been set up with a wealth of information on dates, times, locations and attendees to organise their exploits. However, event pages are only useful up until that event starts. Which leads us to…
So when the march has started, how do such a large mass of people communicate? Twitter is the popular micro-blogging platform used by celebrities, politicians, businesses, charities, activists and everyday people – including students. When police attempted to use their controversial ‘kettling’ tactic a multitude of warnings would appear instantly on the site warning other protestors to change route. Occupations and sit ins have More >