“The friendship that can cease has never been real.”- Saint Jerome
By now, I would assume that most social media users realize the positive and negative effects that social media reflects on us and our current and future environment. Whether how social media can help parents raise their children better, or how it can hinder friendships or relationships, social media’s consequences are becoming more and clearer to its users!
As one of Thoughtpick’s content chefs, I am always seeking to research, create and write about controversial and intriguing ideas which have the ability to get you to think about different things in a new light! Therefore, for my special dish of the day, I decided to present you with 10 easy and time efficient ways to lose your Facebook “friends” in ten days!
Remember, if you lose them, then they were never really your friends :)
Are you ready for it? Here I go!
1. Make sure you BOMBARD them with meaningless video and audio shares!
I promise you, if you are a regular Facebook user focusing your use for business or just to staying connected with friends and their lives, you will just hate being bombarded with more than 2 video or audio shares per day. I personally removed friends from my account due to the fact that they seem to have too much time on their hands and they share meaningless and useless audio and video clips on my profile!
Bombard them with videos!
2. Limit their access to your profile!
Are you shocked? Well, don’t be! I had friends remove me from their Facebook account simply because I placed them on my Limited Profile list due to privacy concerns! Sometimes, I even got calls r messages complaining about it to the point where we almost lost our friendship! [read full article >>]
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Adsense Monitor screenshot
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“Telling a teenager the facts of life is like giving a fish a bath”. ~ Arnold H. Glasow
Teens...
Dealing with teenagers’ emotions, mood swings, habits, behaviors and even their rebellious nature can be really difficult for parents and older siblings for many reasons which hundreds of studies and researches have been trying to uncover for years!
Recently, and based on the above statement, I found myself deeply entrenched into the thought about teens and web marketing, especially after having spent a few hours watching different Youtube clips aiming to warn about certain harmful practices such as drug abuse. All of a sudden, I realized that with no supervision or control, there is a very thin line between warning and motivation for those teenagers!
How Can Web Marketing Confuse Teens?
An old saying I faintly recall goes something like this: “What you don’t know can’t harm you”! And here, for this particular post, I strongly agree!
Although the internet has taken over almost every aspect of our daily lives, through certain random eye opening “awareness” campaigns being advertised over mediums such as Youtube, we are taking a risk of actually being the reason for introducing teens to many practices they might not need to be aware of!
If you have any of the following Microsoft operating systems: Windows 7, Vista and XP, be scared, be VERY scared, the black screen of death might be heading your way to deem your computer useless!
It never seizes to amaze me how a technology giant, such as Microsoft, can repeatedly fall into the trap of trying to create a solution which ends up being, in fact, a bigger problem!
When will the bad reputation finally pay back?
Apple vs Microsoft
I am sitting now at the edge of my seat wondering: When will all this bad reputation and negative PR finally smite Microsoft down? How long can it keep standing its shaky grounds with all the competition out there? My answer is, if all other variables remain constant: never!
Almost every other day, there is a new story, post, article or press release about Microsoft’s failure in one department or another! One day, it’s a Hotmail problem; group e-mails you send out are only sent out to a few recipients! Another day, it’s a problem within its Microsoft Office suit. How about the problems within its operating system as a whole, such as Windows XP’s many errors and Vista’s bad traits?
“Healthy competition is the fuel for growth and development”.
Big names in the technology arena are bumping each other’s heads in a war dedicated to grab customer attention and further create loyalty! One of those names must be Apple!
Not only does Apple lead a variety of creative, well-studied and effective small battles against Microsoft, it also has a front built for Verizon as well!
In a recent article, it is made clear to us that Apple is cooking something to undermine Verizon’s network. A series of ads is to be launched by Apple “set to obliquely attack Verizon, made in the same mold as its ongoing “there’s an app for that” campaign.”
Apple take a swipe at Verizon – Apple iPhone Ad – What Time’s The Movie?
Apple backs up AT&T with the new ad “multi-people”
But will this campaign really undermine Verizon’s red-blue coverage maps campaign? I mean, if you don’t have signal, you can’t make a call or surf!
An interesting white paper published at OneRiot’s blog claims that 40% of users’ search queries across major search engines including Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask are best satisfied by real-time search results. That is, indeed, quite an impressive number that shows the huge potential market for real-time search engines. It also – somehow – explains the huge buzz around Twitter and the continuous talk about the potential threat it poses to other traditional search engines, especially Google.
Real-time search engines fail to gain market share
Aside from Twitter, other – recently emerged – real-time search engines are finding a hard time proving their business model and gaining market share, in spite of the potential huge market. We, here at Thoughtpick, have been monitoring this market since our coverage of 9 real-time search engines a few months ago. Unfortunately, according to compete stats, there has been no major gains in the last 3 months, on the contrary, most services showed a decline in numbers of visitors. In fact, OneRiot which is the most successful in this category, with 150k more visitors than its second competitor Twingly, shows a drop of 100k visitors in the last 3 months.
Oneriot, Twingly, Collecta, Socialmention and Scoopler traffic
Someone on Twitter once said “Twitter is the theater of the mind…”. While many might disagree, claiming that it is a waste of time and energy, I strongly feel positive when it comes to my overall Twitter experience in terms of interaction and learning. Despite that, I still have some negative vibes towards those who abuse their Twitter presence, leading me to, sadly, block them!
Twitter Block
So, with that said, what are the things one should take into consideration when using Twitter? And how does an active Twitter user, seeking more business or communication opportunities, avoid being blocked on Twitter?
A few months ago, I posted an article about my personal experience on Twitter and the lessons I learned from that experience. Luckily, the article turned out to be a success and the dos and don’ts I listed gained a lot of popularity and appreciation.
Today, this post is dedicated to the top 10 tips I have for Twitter users who want to avoid getting blocked on Twitter, again, from my own personal experience.
NEVER add your followers’ names in your ad tweets! It might seem appealing, it might seem lucrative but trust me, it is annoying and I have deleted and blocked many of those I was following for that reason!
Don’t just tweet rambles! In a post we published a few months back, we spoke of 15 types of Twitter users, amongst those there were 3-4 types that were in the red zone: the annoying types and ramblers were on that list! Yes, I want to know that you just woke up and you’re drinking your coffee, but I also want to learn new things from you!
Don’t be selfish! If I care enough to retweet you, you should be able to do the same or else you don’t deserve me following you and I will eventually block you. Sharing is caring and retweeting is as well. [read full article >>]
How is social media affecting the old, traditional yet long-loved media channel: the television? Is social media slowly pushing television to its grave? How is social media able to encourage less television viewing and promote more Internet usage simultaneously?
Personally Speaking…
Television dead?
Allow me to begin this post by presenting you with a short personal experience of mine which will, in turn, help you realize how I thought about this topic and where my ideas are coming from in addition to where they are headed!
I have been a mildly heavy Internet user for the past two years or so. A year ago, my interests in reading, writing and going out started changing: I started spending more time on Facebook and less time for going out and seeing friends. Since March 2009, I think I became an “Internet addict”, replacing most outings and TV time with Internet use, especially social media related sites and channels! I can recall that the last time I actually sat down and watched anything on TV was late March of this year!
With this little story in mind, let’s take a deeper look on how social media is discretely replacing the role of our beloved television!
Do creative ideas and original content eventually run out, especially when it comes to advertising and marketing initiatives? Is spending millions on “bad” advertising the new emerging trend to capture audience attention and spread the word about new products and services? How much impact do “bad” ads have on sales as opposed to good creative ads?
Naturally, any campaign or advertisement a company launches should be thought of as the front of its building; inviting people to come in. Moreover, ads should have a certain intrinsic value that has an ability to broadly influence the mind of the population — the collective consciousness. But what we see these days is quite different, especially when it comes to Microsoft’s “Browse Better” Campaign!
Yes, a few of the advertisements in this campaign can be categorized as funny yet the majority are a little less than lame while the “vomit ad” is a little more than revolting! Though it is true that this specific ad did “spit up a viral hit” but one must wonder, will it lead to more sales? I highly doubt it since now, in my head at least, the image of IE 8 is linked to puke!
What is going on with Microsoft? That is a question I would love an answer to!
I mean after some research, I was able to find the following flaws in Microsoft’s advertising methods, and I just wonder, again, how neither the management nor their marketing or PR agents, see those flaws yet!
Take a look:
Even in their efforts to show that Microsoft PC’s are better because they are less expensive, Microsoft clearly pointed out that Mac is “too cool” for customers linking Apple to a trendy, cool image!
What about trying to prove that Macs are just for children? Seriously? 1) What about expert designers who use Mac for better quality designs with less complications and errors? And writers who utilize Pages and other simple yet efficient Mac tools? 2) How could Microsoft think that by accusing Mac of being user friendly that even a kid can use it, they would hurt Apple? Apple can argue that they are building brand loyalty since childhood which is a key to a long product life! 3) How could Microsoft go against Mac being for children when they have used children in their own advertisements?
![Oneriot.com, Twingly, Collecta, Socialmention and Scoopler traffic [compete.com]](http://blog.thoughtpick.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/oneriot.com+twingly.com+collecta.com+socialmention.com+scoopler.com_uv_460.png)
