Thoughtpick: A unique perspective of the Web and social media...
A unique perspective of the Web and social media...

March 17, 2010

@Anywhere with Twitter

This week, Twitter announced its ‘@anywhere’ platform for websites, which allows site visitors to Tweet and follow from sites including Digg, Amazon and eBay.

Basically, Web-masters (oh don’t you love that word?) will be able to add @Anywhere to their sites with a few lines of Javascript. This would integrate Twitter into their websites so that their users could follow and tweet without having to go to Twitter itself as well as use Twitter to sign into the site.

It could become as Internet-omnipresent as “Contact Us”

This is big. Twitter, unlike many other services, has the potential to become more like email (a tool) rather than like a service. After all, it’s a communication platform, first and foremost. The idea of Twitter revolves around short bursts of text, which people who know each other and do not know each other can use for targeted communication.

With @anywhere integration into anywhere online, brands, corporate websites, newspapers, bloggers, and every other kind of website can start communicating with its users and building communities using the leverage and power of Twitter. It’s interesting, isn’t it?

Twitter is certainly excited about the frameworks, saying in a blog postImagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo home page.”

Here’s the announcement at SXSW:

Twitter is certainly excited about the frameworks, saying in a blog post “Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo home page.”

What do you think? Does Twitter have the potential to become a tool?

Facebook Kicks Google’s Ass

Well, not literally, but “numberly“.

For the first time ever, Facebook, the place to go stalk friends, foes, and ex-boyfriends squeaked past Google, the place to find information and porn, to become the most popular online destination (that’s a whopping 7% of US Internet usage).

WOW!

Exponential growth of Facebook has left Google behind

Exponential growth of Facebook has left Google behind

Information Scavenging Versus Social Information Curation

It could be that the world has become so trite that images of drunk friends has become more time-worthy than googling for relevant information.

But I doubt it.

[read full article >>]

March 15, 2010

And The Nobel Peace Prize Goes to…

The Internet!” says the tuxedo-clad Nobel Peace Prize presenter.

Upon hearing her name, the Internet, dressed up in her best attire of a colorful table-based website, and with a flock of blue Twitter birds flying over head, seemed to be really surprised. She quickly got over the shock (thanks to multitude of fans updating the shock Wikipedia entries in her head), and strutted her way to the stage to accept her prize.

She really did look her best, didn't she?

She really did look her best, didn't she?

Oh, wow,” the Internet says, “I‘ve been around for a while but no one ever thought of nominating me for the prestigious Nobel Pea—”

The crowd interrupts her acceptance speech with loud and booming cheering: “W00t! W00t! W00t!

[read full article >>]

March 12, 2010

Fun-List: Top 10 Ways in Which Social Media Can Get You Fired!

According to Proofpoint, an Internet security firm, of companies with 1,000 or more employees, 17 percent report having issues with employees’ use of social media. Furthermore, 8 percent of those companies report having actually dismissed someone for their behavior on sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Some other interesting findings from the study:

  • 15 percent have disciplined an employee for violating multimedia sharing / posting policies
  • 13 percent of US companies investigated an exposure event involving mobile or Web-based short message services
  • 17 percent disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies

So, how do you avoid getting fired when using social media? What are the things which will, most probably, get you fired? Here we go with another Thoughtpick fun-fact list with a point:

1. Speak ill of your boss or manager

Example: “I hate my job!! I want to tell my bosses how dumb they are and how meaningless this job is, then quit, and be happy!” Revealed by CNN.com [read full article >>]

March 10, 2010

Love at First Poke

This might sound absurd to someone who does not hang around as many geeks as I do, but believe it or not, at least 10% of my good friends have met their soulmates online. When I say online, I do not mean dating sites. The relationships that worked were more like serendipity, often starting on social media sites when neither party even had the word “soul” in mind.

Love Online...

Can you find true love online?

The sparks either clicked on blogs or through 140 character tweets, but around 4% of these friends met on Facebook.

The conversations these friends have with non-Webbies are often hilarious, going something like this:

Non-Webbie: “Wait, did you fall in love before or after you saw him?”
Internet Romancer: “We fell in love before.”
Non-Webbie: “How did you know he wasn’t a 50-year-old grandmother with a lisp?”
Internet Romancer: “Um… we talked online for a year before we decided to take our relationship a step forward, so I knew him quite well by then.”
Non-Webbie:
“Whoa! You mean you had a steady relationship with a person YOU DIDN’T MEET FOR A YEAR?”

[read full article >>]

March 3, 2010

Facebook: A Penny for Your Thought?

Except that, in this case, Facebook could possibly be asking you to pay a penny for your thought, rather than the other way round.

Okay. That’s a very misleading title from my side, but I can’t help it. People who claim that Google is the next evil empire, move over. I’m willing to bet some money on the fact that it’s actually the blue-faced Facebook that will wreck more havoc.

Let me introduce you to “Facebook Credits“, now open for applications that not only spam our sorry butts off, but are also about to do some ripping off. Basically, Facebook Credits is a currency that is aimed at making the purchase of virtual goods across Facebook’s apps easier.

How many Facebook Credits do you need today?

How many Facebook Credits do you need today?

Here’s what Deborah Liu, from Facebook’s blog, has to say about it: “By providing a single, cross-application currency, our goal is to making transactions simpler for users, leading to a higher conversion rate for developers. Specifically, our early testing has shown that users paying with Facebook Credits are significantly more likely to complete a purchase than the average Facebook user.”

To make it super easy, Facebook Credits supports different credit cards, fifteen currencies, mobile payments, and recently, PayPal.

[read full article >>]

February 24, 2010

Avatar Movie — Learn Social Media by Example

Stat Box

Campaign Name: Avatar
URL: www.avatarmovie.com
SM Channels used: Youtube, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Website
Target Audience: Movie Goers
Date: Dec 2009
Campaign Duration: Ongoing

Avatar The Uber Block Buster

Avatar The Uber Block Buster

Hollywood has certainly been one of the great adopters of internet and social media marketing. Some of the greatest internet marketing campaigns have been given to us by the movies, campaigns like that of The Dark Knight were truly game changing. Ever since early December, the movie world has been abuzz with one word “Avatar”, with an impressive nine award nominations in March 7th at the 82nd Academy awards ceremony, it was certainly one of the biggest movies of not only the decade but of all time.

A movie that was truly entertaining, bringing 3D cinematics to the mainstream and raising the bar for special effects. While Sam Worthington and the Na’vi own part of their success to Mr. James Cameron’s genius, a great social marketing campaign helped propel the buzz around “Avatar” to stratospheric heights on the internet; giving it the boost it needs to break a Titanic record.

[read full article >>]

February 22, 2010

5 Ways to Utilize Twitter to Grumble — Effectively!

Each and every one of us, at least every now and then, and for one reason or another, feels the urge to complain, grumble and/or fuss about one thing or another. This is one part of human nature and for your average human beings, the “grass is almost always greener on the other side!”

Wah!

Wah!

Regardless of your reason to grumble, it seems to me that social media has established itself as the trendiest “fashion” of venting and complaining publicly! It is like a confession board available for all to see – a documented manifesto placed into social media users’ hands!

[read full article >>]

Quarky News of the Web — Feb 2010

While news like the new Google Buzz, the new Facebook interface and soon to come mailing system dominate the headlines, there are always smaller headlines that tend to go unnoticed. They are the headlines that let us know how individualistic and unique some of the interactions on the web can be, and how much social media is shaping our world in ways that we could not have fathomed 20 years ago.

So the Quarky News of the Web section will be dedicated to those pieces of news that might go unnoticed but still pack quite the punch.

Google only looks out for Google’s privacy

After a wild party hosted by Orkut Büyükkökten, a senior Google engineer, Google exec barred the pictures of the night from being posted on the web. The home-warming party was wild, with  female and male strippers, booze and God knows what else; so there was a good reason for the ban. Thankfully, we can always depend on Facebook for leaks when Google fails, photos of the party surfaced on it.

Orkut at a party in Jan. 2009

Orkut at a party in Jan. 2009

[read full article >>]

February 20, 2010

10 Ways to Lose Your Facebook Friends in 10 Days!

“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!

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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