Facebook's New Privacy Policies: Live Blogging the Press Ca. Facebook is holding a press webcast and phone call this morning regarding upcoming changes to its privacy policies and features. It's an ongoing story we've been following closely but as we wrote on Monday in our in-depth coverage of changes underway: Given the change underway and the company's move to lobby governments around the world in favor of its privacy philosophy, we think it would be a good idea to have a more thorough public conversation about what that philosophy is.
This morning's call could be an important chapter in that conversation. We'll be live blogging it below starting at 10am PST but we begin by laying out what we think the big questions are. Please feel free to contribute your questions in comments; we'll likely get a chance to ask the company one question on the call. It could be yours. These are complicated and important matters. What Is Facebook's Definition of Privacy? Facebook has recently hired lobbyists in the US and the EU to advance its privacy philosophy. Hype vs. excitement. Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Guest Po. Submitted by Allison Fine, publisher of A. Fine Blog Lucy pointed me to this great post on Change.org about Tori Hogan’s video series called Beyond Good Intentions. Tori takes a hard look at conventional wisdom in activism. Her latest video questions the efficacy of microfinance, a sacred cow in social change and philanthropic sectors.
Here is how Tori explains her trepidation about stepping into taking on the iconography of microfinance as the unquestioned antidote to poverty worldwide: I was a little bit nervous for Episode 9 (and this blog entry) to come out because I am well-aware that I am questioning a beloved organization and a highly popular development initiative. Sacred cows exist everywhere. Unthinkable things aren’t talked about, it’s just too scary or radical to question issues and subjects that have become sacrosanct. I’ve been thinking about conversation lately. But, too often, we think of the unthinkable in only tragic terms; as people or industries dying. Building Blocks for a Successful Business Blog @ Better Business. You want to have a blog which benefits your business – yes?
You want a blog which people are going to want to come back to time and time again – yes? Essentially, you want a blog which is going to be successful – yes again? Well, to give you the best chance of a successful business blog, then you’re going to need to make sure that you tick all the boxes to ensure that all of the underlying elements are in place to make that happen. It’s not difficult but it is important. For me, there are 5 elements which are like building blocks that make a blog what it is, 5 layers if you like that constitute the makeup of a blog and so 5 key aspects that you need to keep in mind as you plan and develop your blog. 1. 2. 3.
I) What do you want the blog to be used for ii) Who is your target audience and what do you want to attract to your blogiii) What you want to achieve with it and how to measure that? 4. 5. As Brands Continue to ‘Pollinate’ the Social. Brands are pollinating the social web with easy-to-share features like Sharethis. As conversations splinter across the web, brands must prepare to aggregate those same conversations on their corporate website.
As a result, the trusted conversations will centralize back on product pages. [Trusted conversations have fragmented to the social web --shifting the balance of power to communities] Social Pollination: Brands Currently Spreading to CommunitiesWhy: Brands are trying to let their corporate and social content spread to many different communities in Facebook, Twitter, Email and others.Examples: Any blog post, press release, or product page that encourages readers to share the content to other locations. Any brand created Facebook fan page, flickr account, or Twitter account.Risks: Letting content spread to other locations causes some angst, as brand managers now must monitor content and discussions elsewhere on the web. Google Toolbar's Improved Web Page Translation. Google Translate can be used to translate many web pages, but you can't use it for pages that require login and for Ajax-powered web applications. You won't be able to translate a Gmail message, a Google Docs document or a Facebook message without copying the text to Google Translate.
I've mentioned in March that Google Toolbar tests a translation feature that extracts the text from any web page and translates in real-time. The impressive feature is now available in Google Toolbar 6 for Internet Explorer and it works extremely well. By default, Google detects when a page is not in English (or another preferred language) and it offers the option to translate it. Language detection doesn't send text from the current web page to Google's servers, but you'll need to send the text when you translate the page. Here's a Gmail message written in French: ... and here's how Google Toolbar replaces the French message with the English translation: A shel of my former self. Brave Citizen Journalists Provide New Images of Ira. Like many people, I have been watching this so-called “Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, [Insert New Media Application] Revolution” unfold in Iran from the comfort of my own home.
Watching the dizzying and horrifying images that have emerged on the Internet has triggered a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts. I was shocked and outraged by the death of Neda. I felt a sense of awe watching a group of women defiantly walking the streets without head coverings as if they were in a Pantene shampoo commercial. I often felt bewildered watching these videos, for I consider myself to be somewhat worldly, and while I always assumed there to be Iranian dissenters, I had precious little knowledge about them. It turns out I’m not the only one who was in the dark.
What the world sees Being a citizen of the U.S. currently based in Israel, I am generally shuttling back and forth between Iran’s two greatest enemies. I find this a bit disturbing, especially in this day and age. Why Now? Thank you. Related. Facebook or Just Face-Look? Are People 55 And Older Really Using. Facebook is estimated to have 70.2 million unique visitors per month in the United States according to comScore. Social networking is booming, everyone is friending, following, tweeting, tagging, and grandma and grandpa are getting involved too.
Wait a minute, did I just say grandma and grandpa? That’s what some recent Facebook research has shown. It seems the fastest growing demographic on the social networking giant is women 55 and older. That segment grew by 175% in February 2009, while men 55 and older grew by 137%. I was definitely excited to see the data. I’m a big believer in social networking and love to see people in that age group join a site like Facebook. Her: I can’t seem to find some emails I’ve written. That conversation reminded me that not everyone is as tech savvy as the readers of Search Engine Journal. My 3 Degrees of 55 and Older After the phone call, I started thinking about people 55 and older and the data I saw about Facebook. Getting My Own Data 1. U.S. Government Reaches Out to the Social Web for Collaboration, In the quest to open government processes to citizens, collaboration and participation were identified as explicit goals in a presidential memo issued earlier this year.
Upon the appearance of a tenuously connected web of blogs, sites, wikis, and forums, many were excited about the refreshing availability of public channels for dialogue between ordinary Americans and policy makers when it comes to deciding what the 21st century American government will look like. On the other hand, the participation in these initiatives has been dwarfed by what one might see on ICanHasCheezburger. In spite of what could be seen as lackluster citizen response, The Open Government initiative's final drafting phase, which was to have closed already, has been extended until July 3. When President Obama's office issued his memo on open government earlier this year, the document stated that transparency, collaboration, and participation were called for to improve the government's efficiency and effectiveness.
Companies Cope With Twitter Imposters. iMedia Connection. Warning: The information in this article is most likely out of date. OK, that's a bad way to start off an article about how to stay current, but it points to an incontrovertible truth: Trends move at a lightning-quick pace, and that pace accelerates every day, especially in digital. Don't believe me? Just ask the MySpace executives how quickly they lost their position atop the social networking heap. Or, better yet, take a look at this graph from Compete.
(Click to enlarge) MySpace and Facebook were neck and neck last December, and while legions of tech journalist wrote countless articles about how Facebook was catching up with MySpace, nobody predicted that the headlines this summer would be this bad for MySpace. So what happened to MySpace? But ask yourself: Were you truly prepared for the Twitter onslaught, or did you push off those urgent questions -- what is Twitter; are we on it? All of that is history now. Yes and no. Next page >> iMedia Connection. To say it's important for companies to remain on the cutting edge of their market segment is a colossal understatement. To ensure that your staff achieves this objective, however, is a colossal chore. You might encourage them to read up on industry publications and reports in the hope that their knowledge will translate to their work.
But they're busy people with scarcely an office moment to breathe, let alone scour the web for what they need to know. Business owners, take heart. Corporate blogsSocial media's no newcomer to the office. This is essential in industries like our own, where staying abreast of news and trends is essential to producing cutting-edge ad creative and campaigns. YammerThe next generation of this type of corporate blog comes in the form of Yammer, best known for being a sort of interoffice Twitter. Yammer also serves an important marketing role: it familiarizes employees with social media, particularly tools like Twitter.
Tom Beck is president of Enlighten. 3 Common Social Media Mistakes - Search Engine Watch (SEW) A lot has been written about what to do within social media (this column included). As a refreshing change of pace, let's look at some things to avoid. 1. Not Every Company Needs a Big Social Media Presence Every social media tool isn't appropriate for every product or service. Most of the common mistakes are happening within Facebook and Twitter because of all the media publicity these platforms are receiving. Executives think, "Wow, all I hear about is Twitter and Facebook, let's make certain we get on those ASAP! " But, as has been discussed in this column several times, sites such as Digg, Delicious, and YouTube may be more appropriate platforms or best first steps for companies, rather than the latest media darlings.
A good reality check: not too long ago, Technorati, Friendster, and MySpace were about to conquer the world. While it's fun for the employees to implement these initiatives, it may not make the most sense from an ROI standpoint. 2. Even take a look at Facebook. 3. Restaurants finding Twitter a cheap, effective marketing tool - On Dec. 2, computer consultant Jen Deaderick got on the social-networking site Twitter and posted: “Tupelo02139 is preparing.’’ It was her first missive, or tweet, on behalf of the Cambridge restaurant Tupelo, where her husband is a chef.
The restaurant was more than four months away from opening. (Full article: 858 words) This article is available in our archives: Unveiling the New Influencers | PR2.0. InShare1 Traditional influence has followed a systematic top-down process of developing and pushing “controlled” messages to audiences for decades, rooted in one-to-many, faceless broadcast campaigns. Personality wasn’t absent in certain mediums, it was missing from day-to-day communications.
For the most part, this pattern seemingly served its purposes, fueling the belief that brands were in control of their messages, from delivery to dissemination, among the demographics to which they were targeted. It scaled very well over the years, until it didn’t… Unbeknown to many companies, a quiet revolution was amassing over the last two decades. And, slowly but surely, the whispers eventually intensified into roars. The socialization of the Web and content publishing disrupted the balance and is now forcing a media renaissance that is transforming information distribution, human interaction and everything that orbits this nascent ecosystem. We are Media We are the people we’re trying to reach. The Main Characteristics Of A Profitable Website. When it comes to achieving success it seems that most people struggle and fail. This seems to be especially true when it comes to Internet business, but it does not not have to be this way.
Successful Internet entrepreneurs understand what it takes to establish a profitable website and to achieve a considerable income from their online endeavors. Whilst many people might say that in order to build a profitable website you must focus on design, must make your site search-engine friendly and must ensure that it is full of great content, there are other traits that you should also focus on when you are starting out. Firstly, and this is where a large number of prospects fail, you must take action! Many, many people fall prey to “analysis paralysis” – quite simply, they just get stuck. There is an overwhelming amount of information out there and an unending line of “experts” who are ready to give you the latest and the best advice.
Secondly, be wary of those experts. Adam Toren. Seth's Blog: How to be a packager. For fifteen years, I was a book packager. It has nothing to do with packaging and a bit more to do with books, but it's a great gig and there are useful lessons, because there are dozens of industries just waiting for you to do something like this.
Let me explain: A book packager is like a movie producer, but for books. You invent an idea, find the content and the authors, find the publisher and manage the process. Book packagers make almanacs, illustrated books, series books for kids and the goofy one-off books you find at the cash register. I did everything from a line of almanacs to a book on spot and stain removal. It was terrific fun, and in a good year, a fine business. I think there are real advantages to this model (and not just for books). First, the world needs packagers. Second, in many industries there are 'publishers' who need more products to sell. The skills you bring to the table are vision, taste and a knack for seeing what's missing.
Teens and the Internet : Buzz Networker - Social Networking Tips. Social Business mobile edition. Who will be the John Lennon of Social Media? Epeus' epigone: Celebrities - social objects or fake frien. 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Emoticons :) - Neatora. Gmail Increases Maximum Attachment Size to 25 MB. Spam2.0: Fake user accou. How Will Iranian Protests Change Twitter? Five Ways to Identify Twitter Spam Before It Invades Your Twitte. How Facebook Could Create a Revolution, Do Good, and Make Billio. Is Blogging Evolving Into Life Streams? Web Strategy by Jeremi. Everything You Wanted to Know About Semantic Technology, But Wer. Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK. Seth's Blog: The difference between strangers and friends. iMedia Connection. Your Guide to Iran Election News Online. The Twitter Cycle: Curiosity, Abandonment, Addiction. Global Vis. Google Voice, Available in the US. Case Study: Twitter Usage at Wordcamp SF - O'Reilly Radar.
Should the CEO do social media? | Blog. Teens, media and why you shouldn't believe the hype | Blog. Twitter Is Going To Kill RSS | Six Pixels of Separation - Market. Seth's Blog: Magicians, sausage makers and transparency. YouTube - Digital Media Musical Chairs. Toolkit - Networking for the Shy Entrepreneur. Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK.
Google’s Android comes of age with a powerful handset, Google Gets Serious about Innovation I’m Not Actually. iMedia Connection. The NPD Group: Twitter Users More Engaged with Music -- and More.