Posts during: October, 2011

Social Round-Up

Take This Lollipop

The image of a creepy man sitting in front of his computer and screening your Facebook details provided the viral scare of last week. Out of the blue a website appeared saying “I dare you” with the request to connect with your Facebook account.

Parents always tell their children not to take sweets from strangers for obvious reasons. ‘Take This Lollipop‘ uses this metaphor for showing you how careless we give away information about ourselves online. The website creates a short movie based on the information you have given to Facebook. The video shows the creepy man following your movements on Facebook using a mashup of your personal details, making you feel very uncomfortable and insecure. I read about ‘Take This Lollipop’ and watched videos on YouTube but when I tried it myself it scared me to death and I have the feeling it was not the end of the campaign. Halloween is still coming! A great campaign indeed, raising awareness of some pressing issues *deletes Facebook account*.

Application 2.0

The job application process has changed a lot within the last few years. A cover letter and CV are not necessarily enough anymore. Recruiters and potential employers now spend a significant amount of time looking us up online. Worryingly, sometimes we may share embarrassing photos, inconsiderate comments, nasty complaints etc, particularly on Twitter and Facebook. In our private life it wouldn’t affect us much but with new media, what goes on the web stays on the web. Last week a survey by social media monitoring service Reppler revealed that 91% of employers use social media to screen the online life of their applicants. In this connection 73% use Facebook, 53% think Twitter is a good platform to spy a candidate and 48% have a look at the professional platform LinkedIn [Infographic].

The conclusion of the survey is that social networks can support your job hunt if you show an employable online presence but it also can harm you if you share too much information or if you lied about anything relevant for the company you applied for.

LinkedIn University Reunion

Last week LinkedIn launched their new feature ‘classmates’. It gives you the opportunity to get in touch with fellow alumni as well as the information where they work and live. Certainly makes it easier to expand your network.

Source: Mashable

 

 

 

 

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Social Media Patchwork Chime.in

Another social network

UberMedia have launched their own social network called Chime.in. My first thought was:  Another one?!?! Anyhow, I thought I’d sign up and have a look around.

So what is it all about?

Basically it is a patchwork of different already existing social networks. It gives the user a forum like interface where like Twitter, text or picture updates can be published. It also includes familiar Facebook elements like sharing videos and polls. Similar to Reddit, the user can share links or posts based on their interests. The focus on Chime.in lies with topics and interests rather than on following people, which is also an option.

Left: Chime.in / Right: Google+ & Twitter

What I like about it

The content you click on within Chime.in, a link for example provides a much larger preview than most other sites, allowing you to stay within Chime and not veer off the site straight away.  Another plus is that you can determine your interests and kick out irrelevant content in your feed. You can start your own community page, which is either for personal interests or for your business (read more here).

The Question

I have to say it all sounds good to me because it’s brought together many features which I like on other networks. Chime.in is just a few days old but does it have a real chance of competing? I think it’s a nice idea to pick out the best things of all networks. But it’s also a matter of how many social networks people are willing to join. It’s not really ground breaking and people could be too lazy to join another network. The question is : does it offer me a better experience?

What are your thoughts about it?

 

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TheFancy.com – The next big thing?

Back in 2006, when I was a fresh faced student getting up at midday with a hangover, covered in snakebite I was super reluctant to join up to Facebook when I first came across it. I eventually joined, and the rest is history. Then came Twitter and I was more eager to join up, but it took a few weeks to actually ‘get it’ and understand how it works. A couple of weeks ago I came across thefancy.com and it took me no more than 30 secs from landing on the homepage to wanting to sign up. I haven’t looked back, its ruddy brilliant.

So what is The Fancy?

“Fancy is part store, blog, magazine and wishlist. It’s a place to discover great stuff, to curate a collection of things you love, to get updates on your favorite brands and stores and to share your discoveries. Use it to create a catalog of your favorite things around the web and around the world. When you find something you love somewhere on the web, Fancy it. ”

Essentially The Fancy is a collection of really beautiful things. I’ve never seen so much cool stuff in one place before. Everyday you feel encouraged to have a look and see what the latest things have been ‘Fancy’d’ and added to the site.

How does it work

You can download the app (iPad/iPhone/Android) and upload images from your device for others to ‘Fancy’, or you can add the Fancy widget to your toolbar on your computer and start ‘Fancying’ anything you come across which you really like. You can follow people and be followed in much the same way as Twitter. You can also comment on things you’ve Fancy’d, or find out where to buy it, or link through to the original source. It also allows you to share what you’ve Fancy’d across Twitter, Facebook and by email.

You can also invite/ find friends:


 

Browse categories which interest you the most


 

Then when you see something you like, ‘Fancy it’ and it catalogues it for you


 

Why this could be the next big thing?

  • Its very easy to use
  • Its inherently social (we all like nice things, and sharing nice things with our friends)
  • Its addictive (I’m addicted, no really)
  • Its everywhere (on your computer, on your mobile, on your tablet)
  • The content is incredible, and always fresh
  • Its aspirational (some of the things on there, particularly the houses!)
  • You get a real buzz when someone ‘fancies’ something you’ve uploaded
  • It’s cooler than cool…

This was the response after mentioning on Twitter I’d be doing a blog post about it :

I strongly recommend you getting involved, it will be interesting to see how this develops!

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Social Round-Up

5 years of sharing

Last week AddThis shared with us a very interesting infographic about how we’ve been sharing content over the last 5 years. For example, did you know the highest volume of ‘tweets’ occur at 9.30 in the morning? No? Other interesting insights include Twitter seeing a growth in number of ‘shares’ to the tune of 35,000%. Not bad at all.

Where am I?

With over 10 million users, foursquare is a very popular location-based application. Last week foursquare has announced their 4.0 release for iOS, which includes a new feature called Radar. It takes the check-in experience one step further. Foursquare describes the new Radar feature on their blog: Now, if you follow a list, like the 101 Best Dishes of 2011, foursquare will let you know when you’re next to one. Or you save that yoga studio to your To-Do List (because you really want to try it); we can remind you when you’re close. Or, better yet, if you’re driving home and three of your friends are getting together nearby, we’ll tell you so you can meet up. The app doesn’t even have to be open, it just works. We call it foursquare Radar, because it finds things nearby that you normally wouldn’t know about.

Radar feels like we’ve arrived in the future. It reminds you of places you want to visit or things you want to do when you are close to a specific location. I find it quite useful and exciting at the same time. It’s brilliant that you don’t have to keep foursquare open, it will just pop up when you’ve put something in your to-do-list and you are near the place. When your friends are around you can meet up for a spontaneous cup of tea. I would be always up for that!

Social Shopping

Facebook and eBay have unveiled an e-commerce partnership. Adding Facebook features into e-commerce products has the potential to make online shopping a much more personalized experience, by displaying people’s thoughts about products on the virtual store shelves. The content on Facebook, which is shared by friends, and the communication about brands and products on social media platforms should be used to create a new consumer online shopping experience. The possibility to display friend’s thoughts on products should strengthen the personalisation and enhance e-commerce in social media. Third party developers are now being called in to work on new social shopping applications. The partnership between Facebook and eBay was expected to be stronger but we will see, what they have in store for us (excuse the pun).

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