Posts Tagged ‘facebook’
Would you name your baby after Facebook’s ‘Like’?
May 17th, 2011
Guess what, someone did. A piece on Huffington post confirmed: “Parents Lior and Vardit Adler have named their newborn daughter “Like” after Facebook’s “like” button, the parents were looking for a unique name for their baby girl and liked the sound of the word “Like.” The name was not intended to be a gimmick, nor an ad for the social networking site”
Apparently, according to the same article this is not the first Facebook related name check, “an Egyptian father named his child “Facebook” in a nod to the social networking service’s role in the country’s revolution.
I understand the Beckhams calling their son Brooklyn and actors Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin naming their daughter Ireland, but naming children after social networks takes it to a whole new level. What should we expect next, a boy called Digg-it and a Girl called Re-Tweet?
Facebook ‘smear campaign’ collides with launch of teacher guide to online safety
May 13th, 2011
Facebook has had one of those weeks – as my colleague Lloyd Gofton has been pointing out forcefully on Twitter today (@liberatelloyd).
On the one hand, it is fighting a PR firestorm over stories published initially in the US that Facebook secretly paid a top public relations firm to plant negative stories about Google in the US media.
Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest PR firms, attempted to get USA Today, the Washington Post and other high profile US news outlets to write scaremongering stories about Google’s privacy policies, according to the Guardian’s Josh Halliday.
On the other hand, we see an apparently different face from Mark Zuckerberg’s company, facilitating and publicising the launch of a teachers’ guide to Facebook safety,
The Facebook for Educators Guide by education heavyweights Linda Fogg Phillips, Derek E. Baird and B.J. Fogg (Linda’s brother) appears to be focused on lessons for North American educators and though I would like to read the Guide, the download link on the Facebook site does not work. You can find out more, though, at http://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-safety/qa-with-linda-fogg-phillips/210692988951491.
Update Saturday 14th May: the Facebook link is still failing but you can download the Guide here:http://www.scribd.com/doc/55182215/Facebook-for-Educators-Guide
According to news sources, the guide provides US teachers with seven tips on how they can use Facebook more effectively in the classroom to enhance learning inside the classroom and beyond:
· To help develop and follow school policy about Facebook
· To encourage students to follow Facebook guidelines
· To stay up to date about safety and privacy settings on Facebook.
· To promote good citizenship in the digital world.
· To use Facebook’s pages and groups features to communicate with students and parents.
· To embrace the digital, social, mobile, and “always-on” learning styles of 21st Century students, and
· To use Facebook as a professional development resource
Joe Sullivan, chief security officer for Facebook (pictured above) says: “By sponsoring this guide, Facebook will actively promote it to educators and parents alike. This guide will keep educators informed so they can help students be responsible citizens of the digital world and also provide educators new ways to use Facebook for the benefit of their schools, curriculum and their own professional development.”
It’s good to see Facebook reaching out in this positive way but the company must be rueing its luck that such a practical move is overshadowed by a much more visible “dirty tricks” story.
It’s also timely for us and a client, DigitalME, who is rapidly expanding its social enterprise through Safe, a programme that teaches teachers and young people how to engage safely on social networks and define the boundaries for this.
DigitalME’s founder and CEO Tim Riches was discussing the Guide’s publication with me today and highlighted an often overlooked point about Facebook.
He said: “EU Kids Online, Nielson and other independent research indicates that while the official joining age on Facebook is 13, there are millions of young people from age 7 up who regularly use Facebook to connect with their friends.
“Rather than ignoring the problem, we should make sure that we equip them to engage safely online. We need to address this and teach children of all ages how to engage safely, as well as showing teachers how they can guide their pupils to make the best use of social networking.”
Structured approaches to online social network safety and how teachers can avoid the pitfalls of inappropriate contact with pupils online, is much needed and the Facebook-sponsored guide together with the not-for-profit Safe programme are very welcome.
Facebook Faces Friday 13th horror after commencing open hostilities with Google
May 13th, 2011
Today maybe Friday 13th, but yesterday marked the realisation of a nightmare scenario for Facebook, when news broke that it had hired a PR agency to plant negative stories about its big rival Google.
The stories specifically related to a privacy issue surrounding the Google Social Circle tool, which allows Gmail users to see information about their friends and friends of friends.
Dan Lyons at The Daily Beast broke the story yesterday (May 12th), and it has been growing ever since. If you’re not familiar with Lyons, he spent 10 years at Forbes and is now technology editor at Newsweek and the creator of Fake Steve Jobs.
He confirmed: “For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy. Burson even offered to help an influential blogger write a Google-bashing op-ed, which it promised it could place in outlets like The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post.
“The plot backfired when the blogger turned down Burson’s offer and posted the emails that Burson had sent him. It got worse when USA Today broke a story accusing Burson of spreading a “whisper campaign” about Google “on behalf of an unnamed client.” See the emails here which included this pitch from Burson: “The American people must be made aware of the now immediate intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day-without their permission.”
The Daily Beast story confirmed the client was Facebook, and Burson-Marsteller was seeding the story that Google Social Circle was “designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users-in a direct and flagrant violation of Google’s agreement with the FTC.”
Facebook has since admitted it, citing two reasons: “First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.”
Let’s leave to one side claims of data ownership from Facebook, and focus on what exactly Facebook was trying to achieve.
If the key objective of the campaign was to spread anti-Google stories and highlight that Google was violating user privacy, surely the campaign has in fact achieved exactly the opposite.
I would also have hoped that these sorts of tactics, which certainly go on, would not have been necessary for such a young and progressive organisation that should have learnt from mistakes of corporate comms of a by-gone era.
Even if we remove the ethical issue for a moment, the alarm bells should still have been ringing when this campaign was discussed. Whether this idea originated from Facebook or the agency, the potential negatives vastly outweigh the potential positives, and someone must have said ‘what if this gets out?’ After all, in the socially-connected world we live in, it was always going to be a big possibility.
As Facebook wakes up to its Friday 13th PR nightmare, and the ongoing fallout, what does this mean for the rest of us? Is it an insight into the long-brewing hostilities between the two biggest boys on the digital block? Is it a pre-emptive strike by Facebook as it knows Google is focused on the social networking space? Is Facebook right in its accusations?
The truth is none of these points really matter in the near future as Facebook has managed to put the negative spotlight on itself and destroy any platform it may have been trying to build by approaching a delicate issue with a poorly judged bully-boy tactic.
I’m sure Google isn’t totally innocent, but by making the first public move, Facebook has given itself a mountain to climb.
Read more at:
Add the new Facebook “Send” button to your Wordpress blog
April 26th, 2011
Facebook have announced its new Send button that replaces the classic “email to a friend” button.
What is the send button?
The Facebook “Send” button allows you to instantly/privately send any web page directly to select friends, groups or other people via a Facebook message.
What is the difference between the Send button and the Like button?
The Facebook “Like” button posts any web page publicly that you “Like” to all of your friends or fans on Facebook.
From Mashable
More than 50 websites are launching the Send button, including Gilt Groupe, 1-800-Flowers, The Wall Street Journal, Orbitz, Last.fm, The Huffington Post, People.com and The Washington Post. The Send button’s code is also now available on Facebook’s Developer Website
How to add it to your Wordpress blog
HOW TO: Add the New Facebook Send button for WordPress
Which age ranges are the most prolific users of social networks?
March 17th, 2011
We’re all fond of a good stat in the worlds of social and communications, so when a stat conversation breaks out about demographics on some of the leading social networks, you’re bound to get a whole range of different answers to the same question.
Earlier today, i was discussing the question that forms the title of this post: Which age ranges are the most prolific users of social networks? More specifically we were talking about Twitter and Facebook, and the assertion that the most prolific users of social networks are pushing towards the 35 and over age range. I spoke to a number of different people and each had a slightly different take on what the basic make up of age ranges would be. Each also had the stats to back up their argument, so which should we believe?
First off, we have to take into consideration where the stats come from, both in terms of a reliable source and the geographic region the stats are sourced from. Most stats are skewed towards U.S users, so if we are considering UK-specific or European users we have to dig a little deeper.
This is all fairly obvious stuff, but it’s worth pointing out because of the many sources that i’ve looked at today, the vast majority, even when they say they use the same sources, come up with separate answers.
Therefore, i thought it might be helpful to reference a few of the stats that i’ve uncovered and the differences between them.
In terms of infographics, these versions from Kiss Metrics and Digital Surgeons are easy to understand at a glance, and use reputable sources, but in terms of age ranges for Facebook there is quite a difference.
The infographic from Kiss Metrics shows a clear rundown of demographics, this was posted last month using Google Ad Planner and Twitter sources, among others:
Facebook - 57% - 35 or older
Twitter - 56% - 35 or older
Here’s the Digital Surgeons infographic using a range of Google and Facebook sources:
Facebook - 37% - 35 or older
Twitter - 53% - 35 or older
As for European research, the latest data from ComScore is a good guide, and the 2010 Europe Digital Year in Review, launched last month, is an excellent resource. See the overview here and below
ComScore say: “The profile of social networking users in Europe reveals an audience that generally skews younger, with 15-24 year olds representing 25.3 percent of users, followed closely by 25-34 year olds at 24.3 percent. While the breakdown of European visitors to Facebook and Twitter mirrors that of social networking site users in general, LinkedIn has an older age profile. Only 10.4 percent of its visitors are under 25 years old, while half of the site’s audience is between the ages of 35-54. This older age profile is understandable given the site’s orientation toward professional networking.”
Breaking down the figures for Twitter and Facebook in Europe, ComScore say:
Facebook
15 - 24: 27.1%
25 - 34: 24.6%
35 - 44: 20.4%
45 - 54: 15.6%
55+: 12.4%
Twitter
15 - 24: 28.1%
25 - 34: 22.5%
35 - 44: 19.9%
45 - 54: 15.9%
55+: 13.5%
So you could say the largest segment is 15-24 years old, but equally more than 60% of users are over 25; or about half of all social users are 35 or older. More specifically:
Facebook - 48.4% 35 or older
Twitter - 49.3% 35 or older
So, yes, most of the stats agree, social network users are older than many might expect, but it’s not quite fair to say the younger age ranges are disappearing. We should also be aware that the degree to which the age range is present depends on geographic location, and the source.
Facebook team features heavily on the Forbes rich list
March 10th, 2011
The latest rich list published by Forbes includes six, yes six, Facebook investors.
Highest placed of the six is of course Mark Zuckerberg, the social networking site’s CEO and president. He currently sits at number 52 up from 212 on the previous list, with an estimated wealth of $13.5bn.
Next up is Dustin Moskovitz, a co-founder with an estimated wealth of $2.7bn, he is also the youngest billionaire on the list at 26 years of age.
The others included on the list are Sean Parker $1.6bn, Peter Thiel $1.5bn and Yuri Milner $1bn.
Finally, Eduardo Saverin, whose argument with Zuckerberg lead to a lawsuit, has an estimated wealth of $1.6bn.
Google’s founders are also well placed on the list. Sergey Brin and Larry Page both come in at No. 24 unchanged from a year earlier, though their fortunes have increased to $19.8 billion each from $17.5 billion each.
Facebook and the social networks move to a new level with the Egyptian revolution
February 11th, 2011
Have no doubts about it. The deposition of Egyptian President Husni Mubarek signalled a fundamental change, not only in Middle Eastern politics and culture, but also in the way we view social networks.
Wael Ghonim today (Friday 11th February) told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that Facebook was a key to the success of the Egyptian people’s uprising.
Ghonim is a marketing manager for Google and played a leading role in organizing the January 25 protest by reaching out to Egyptian youths on Facebook. Shortly after that first protest, Ghonim was arrested in Cairo and imprisoned for 12 days.
Since his release, Ghonim worked hard to dismiss the notion that he is a symbol for the Egyptian freedom mobement.
“I’m not a hero. I was writing on a keyboard on the Internet and I wasn’t exposing my life to danger,” he said in an interview immediately after his release. “The heroes are the one who are in the street.”
[Thanks to Huffington Post]
We know that progress is not linear. There will be setbacks and even a bloody reckoning that re-establishes the corrupted classes in Egypt. But whatever happens at the blood and flesh level in the short term will not affect the cultural dominance of social networks.
The speed at which Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and other social platforms have been transformed from simple sharing tools to revolutionary engines is astonishing. And we also bear in mind that states under pressure have used every traditional means to block these platforms.
It took the traditional tools of communication – the Press and Broadcast - centuries to achieve this level of authority and power. By the time they had achieved this, most were diminished because they were owned by or in the pay of power brokers in the countries in which they operated.
What is strikingly new about the social platforms is their agnostic, non-judgemental nature. Indeed, their very survival depends on this. Many millions of voices can group to form a new ground for the process of change – and answer the criticism of that process.
This is truly an exhilarating time in the culture of transmission; more fluid, engaging and productive than we have ever witnessed.
We should celebrate with the Egyptian people and at the same time pay a discreet homage to Facebook and the other social networks for their (our) part in the process of change.
We’ve watched the transmissions and debates on broadcast networks but we always got our information about the Egyptian people’s struggle first through the social networks. This is one communiqué. Enjoy this tonight:
August 23rd, 2010
There has been plenty of conversation surrounding Facebook places over the last week. So, to help you access the discussion around Facebook’s latest launch, The Liberate Media team have put together a collection of their favourite posts in this single “round-up” style blog post.
First off here is the official Facebook Places Check in video.
Facebook Places Launches with Bing’d Out Maps
How To Use Facebook Places For Your Business
Facebook Places vs. Foursquare: Who Has the Business Edge?
Week in review: The fallout over Facebook Places
A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places
Facebook Wants Advertisers To Help Build Out Its Directory of Places
Will Facebook Places revolutionize location-based mobile advertising?
5 Ways B2B Companies Can Use Facebook Places
Do you know of any more fascinating Facebook Places blog posts worth checking out? please let us know in the comments section.
Did Facebook and Twitter influence the General Election?
May 7th, 2010
As I took up my blunt pencil attached to a piece of string in the polling booth yesterday, and made a cross against my chosen candidate, it struck me how much Twitter and Facebook have enhanced my interest and understanding around this General Election, but similarly how far the UK still has to go before we can experience a truly, socially-connected election.
This was the first General Election where Twitter and Facebook played a part. They gave the electorate a new ‘voice’ aside from their vote, enabling them to freely discuss election issues in an uncensored environment within a much wider network of individuals.
Facebook set-up a live voter counter on its website (via a tie-up with the Electoral Commission) - according to the final tally, 107,892 Facebook users voted. A poll was also conducted through this group, aka the Facebook election, which saw Nick Clegg and the LibDems emerge victorious. Facebook groups and political pages have been hugely active - today a particularly active one seems to be ‘I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who want Proportional Representation - UK‘.
But how much of this social network activity and buzz was two-way conversation and engagement?
A comment on the BBC blog is telling:
“I asked questions via Twitter of the main parties, but no reply was ever returned. In fact, the only politician who replied was John Prescott. The political parties were treating Twitter just like another letterbox through which to poke leaflets - but failing to grasps the idea that such systems require two-way communication to be effective. I just felt ignored by them online.”
Today across Twitter in particular, and to a lesser degree Facebook, there seems to be a general feeling that today’s election results do not match with their political learnings and discussions over the past few weeks. BBC blogger, Rory Cellan-Jones, makes the same conclusion in his blog post: So was it an Internet Election?. He opens the post saying: “The verdict was already in, even before polling day. This was not an internet election, and all those who had suggested it might be had got it completely wrong. It was a television election, and all of those tweeters and bloggers were sad political obsessives talking to each other.”
Facebook and Twitter have undoubtedly provided a gateway to political engagement, and importantly among the younger generation. A YouGov survey found that a quarter of 18-24-year-olds had commented on politics via social networks. But at the end of the day, this activity seems to have had little impact on the final election outcome.
Co-developer of the World Wide Web discusses Facebook and privacy
April 30th, 2010
I’ve just come across a fascinating interview with Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners Lee, developed the World Wide Web almost 20 years ago. The video was taken by Robin Wauters for Techcrunch.com, during The Next Web conference that has taken place in Amsterdam this week.
If you’re short of time, scroll to the 5.38 mark where Robert explains why he’s not on Facebook, and offers his view on how social networks need to change their position on privacy.
In regards to Facebook, Robert says: “I can get in, but I can’t get out. I don’t know what happens to my data.”
He also goes onto talk about Skype which apparently refused to take his identifier off once he closed his account. “You have no control. You cannot buy something a la carte. You have to agree to the whole block and go in and be bound hands and feet to their terms of service, which is something that I think has to change…we should seriously look at all of these social networks.”