This Week in Social

Facebook wants your expected child, Google+ should be fatest growing social network, Old Twitter is dead, Germany wants Facebook's facial recognition features halted, Sports stars using social media and Foursquare self service pages

Facebook gives option to add expected child as family member

 

Facebook members have been able to add other members of their family to their profile for some time but the new option allows the addition of an unborn child. This feature gives parents the option to add a due date and even name the child. Apparently too many parents were creating “illegal” fake profiles for their yet unhatched offspring and setting their age to 13, with this being the legal age to use Facebook.

You can read the story from TechCrunch.

 

Google+ now has 25 millions active users

In just one month, Google+ has captured 25 million visitors, making it the fastest social network to reach such a number. Growing at around 1 million users per day Google+ has outshined Facebook, which took three years to grab 25 million people, and Twitter, which took a little more than 30 months to reach that level.

You can read more on Google+'s rate of growth at Mashable. 

 

The Old Twitter is dead

Back in June, Twitter announced that they would be decommissioning the old platform from 3rd of August. While the new version has been out since last September, users still had permission to use the old version if they chose to, until now. May you RIP Old Twitter.

More about this story can be read at Media Bistro.

 

Germany claims Facebook are breaking EU privacy laws

A German privacy expert has claimed that Facebook's facial recognition software is violating German and European Union laws. Facebook uses individual biometric data that allows users to locate new friends after discovering their identity. The feature 'recognises' faces in photos so that you can connect a face in a photo, shortening the tedious tagging process.

All Facebook continues with a good article about this topic.

 

Sports stars in need of social media training

Joey Barton's public bust-up at Newcastle has resulted in the midfielder being transfer-listed for free. It has highlighted the impact social media can have on a professional athlete's career. After questioning his own club's transfer policy on his personal Twitter page, Newcastle United have issued him with a two week fine. The current Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew, admits he risks being seen as a dictator by his disgruntled players after firing a warning shot at his Twitter-mad squad - a legal letter designed to stamp-out the kind of cyber-ranting that has left Barton's future on Tyneside hanging by a thread.

 

Foursquare pages are now self service

Foursquares business pages are now self service, meaning that brands can now independently update their profile pages on the located based service.The updates make it easier for brands to publish information for consumers such as discount promotions and photos, via their Foursquare pages. For more information please visit Foursquare blog.

 

The Man Without a Face

Below contains a mini film that is play on The Man Without a Face that was created by writers and directors Dan De Lorenzo and Ben Stumpf, promotes the merits of being “untaggable,” which seem to include writing with pens, coming up with words sans Google and understanding why men and women like each other.

Have you still been using the Old Twitter? Would you update your Facebook family with an unborn child? Should sports stars be told not to use social media for their outbursts? Do you feel that your privacy is at risk with Facebook facial recognition? Please leave your comments in the section below...

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This Week In Social:

Facebook App for iPad revealed, The White House brings back the Rick-Roll, Google+ traffic falls, Sergio Aguero tweets his arrival to Manchester City and Twitter will add flagging option to links

 

iPad Facebook app found hidden inside iPhone app

TechCrunch didn't waste any time getting hold of the Facebook iPad app that was hidden in the iPhone app update, they even took a dozen pics and showed off the app that Apple fans have been craving. The app makes the Facebook experience far richer and more in-depth, such as giving happy snappers out there access to direct uploads to their iPad.

You can read the story from TechCrunch here.

 

The White House tweets out a Rick-Roll

You may remember the craze of RickRolling that even YouTube got involved with on April Fools 2008, it was where your friend sent you a link and instead of seeing a trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV you got Rick Astley's greatest hit Never Gonna Give You Up. 

The official White House Twitter account posted this response to David Wiggs regarding fiscal policy, "@wiggsd Sorry to hear that. Fiscal policy is important, but can be dry sometimes. Here’s something more fun tinyurl.com/y8ufsnp". 

This garnered a lot of attention by the mainstream press such as the BBC but most importantly got positive retweets and mentions from Twitter.

 

Google+ traffic sees first fall

It has been reported by Mashable that the latest social media craze Google+ has seen a dip of 3% in traffic. Not only that, users average time on the site has also fallen by 10%. This is the first time that Google's latest social product has seen a stumble in terms of growth. Last week in social showed that Google+ had reached 20 million users and was first to reach 10 million out of the major social media platforms.

 

Sergio Aguero tweets before official announcement from Manchester City

Twitter is often first for breaking news but in this case, Argentinian superstar footballer Sergio Aguero broke the news that he was signing for Manchester City before any official announcement. The player had a arrived for a medical but Manchester City had said that talks were still ongoing. This tweet from Sergio Aguero was retweeted by many fans and was used by news outlets to announce his signing.

You can read more about the transfer here on MCFC.

 

Twitter gives option to flag tweeted links

After seeing an unfortunate but predictable rise in spam links that are not safe for work on Twitter, there has been an option added to flag links so that other people will get a warning before they click it. This will help to reduce the power of spreading viral links that try to scam individuals or just aren't suitable for certain audiences. 

You can read more on Gizmodo.

 

After such a good week for Google+, has it fallen victim to the novelty-factor? What do you think about the option to flag tweets? We think it is an excellent feature because it will help to stop those @ mentions from suspicious accounts we all see from time to time. Will you be counting down the days until the official Facebook iPad app gets approved in the App Store? Please leave your comments in the section below...

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This Week In Social:

Facebook Chat Announcements, BackType Acquired by Twitter, 2 Million HootSuite Users, Timberlake The New Cowell?, Eminem Sends Fans to Hell & An Elaborate Recruitment Drive

 

Facebooks Big Announcement

Over the last year, the Facebook messages team has been working to make it easier to have one on one conversations with your friends. In November, Facebook launched the new messages, which brings together your chats, texts, emails and messages all in one place. On Wednesday they announced they are introducing video calling and other improvements to chat. The new chat design includes a sidebar that lists the people you message most. Now it's easier to find your friends and start a conversation. The sidebar adjusts with the size of your browser window, and it automatically appears when the window is wide enough.

 

Facebook Group Chat

The group chat announcement comes as an add-on to Facebook’s already existing chat function. When you’re chatting with a friend on your Facebook page, a button allows you to add other friends to the chat. Finally, the company redesigned the chat window, so your Friends list can now vary in size relative to your browser window. A list of friends who are online will appear, as well as those who are offline that you message with the most.

You can read more on Wired.

 

Twitter Acquire BackType

This week it was announced that BackType has been acquired by Twitter! BackType will be bringing their team and technology to Twitter’s platform team, where their focus will be on developing tools for Twitter’s publisher partners. BackType's aim has always been to help their customers understand the value of engagement on Twitter and other social platforms. They also created BackTweets to help publishers understand the reach of their tweets and content, who they are reaching, and how Tweets convert to web traffic, sales and other KPIs.

 

HootSuite Hits 2 Million

See the full gallery on Posterous

HootSuite, the social media dashboard and analytics tool, has reached a new milestone: 2 million users. Invoke Media released HootSuite in December 2008 and it is widely used by individuals as well as organizations, governments and businesses. The White House, SXSW, Zappos and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia all use HootSuite, according to the company. HootSuite hit the 1 million-user milestone in November 2010. Consumers and businesses have shared some 500 million messages to date.

 

MySpace Talent Show

Timberlake reportedly is mulling turning the faltering social network site into a platform to find new talent, possibly through some kind of competition show. While details are scarce, the idea has the potential to become a key part of the future of entertainment – and sounds like a natural step for Timberlake. Between his music career, his well-received role in “The Social Network,” his knack for comedy as seen on “Saturday Night Live” and his Web dealings, Timberlake has become kind of an Internet-era Kevin Bacon, with few degrees of separation between him and the various tentacles of entertainment media.

You can read more on NBC.

 

Eminem Sends Facebook Users to Hell

Rapper Eminem recently released an EP titled Hell: The Sequel with his side project, Bad Meets Evil, a hip-hip duo including Royce Da 5’9. To celebrate, Eminem is launching a violent Facebook game. The aim of the game (developed by Grab) is pretty simple: Become so evil that you go to hell. Users choose an avatar while tracks from the EP play. Then they gain points (by watching music videos and interviews or spending Facebook Credits) in order to buy weapons. Players use the weapons to kill friends. Get enough points and kills, and you get to go to hell.

You can read more on Mashable.

 

Owen Hargreaves YouTube Fitness

Owen Hargreaves has launched a bid to prove his fitness - by posting daily exercise videos on YouTube. The 30-year-old midfielder is currently without a club after being released by Manchester United in May. Hargreaves was plagued by injuries during his four years at Old Trafford, making only 39 appearances after signing from Bayern Munich for £17m. Looks like he could do with some proper shorts though.

You can read more on BBC.

 

Some really cool announcements by Facebook this week. Have you tried the video chat feature? Can Justin Timberlake make a success of MySpace? Will we see social media used more often by job seekers? Lets us know your thoughts in the comments section below...

 

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This Week In Social:

Google+ Released, Bringing MySpace Back, New Google Metrics, Twitter for Developers, StumbleUpon Widget and the Pope's First Tweet

 

Google+

This week the search giant unveiled its rival to Facebook, Google+. However, access to the "limited field test" had to be halted almost immediately after its launch, due to demand by users (it is now possible to buy invites on ebay). Google+ is the companies social initiative that brings friend streams, group video chat and group texting to Google's millions of users. For more information you can check out the mycleveragency blog post on Google+.

 

Bringing MySpace Back

Singer Justin Timberlake has joined forces with Specific Media to purchase MySpace for a fee of $35 million. This represents a significant loss for News Corp. who bought the site in 2005 for $580 million. The singer will not be taking a back seat however, and is set to be involved in the creative process of updating MySpace. This comes despite Sean Parker (who Timberlake played in The Social Network) recently explaining the collapse of MySpace. There is more on the mycleveragency blog.

 

Google Metrics

See the full gallery on Posterous

It has been a busy week for Google. As well as announcing Google+ they have also unveiled an improvement to their Webmaster tools. It will now be possible to measure the effect of 'Tweet', 'Share' and +1 buttons. This will show the added value of the +1 button in search results, whilst also showing the effect of other sharing buttons whilst users are on the site. There is also a sneaky preview of the new Gmail.

 

Twitter Site for Platfrom Developers?

Twitter is working to develop and launch a dedicated site for developers working on the Twitter platform. The new site could be launched sometime in July, company officials said. The fast-growing company has had a hot-and-cold relationship with its developer community, to put it mildly. Many early developers built products 'such as Twitter clients' and helped the network grow but later found themselves in competition with the company itself, which ended up buying clients.

You can read more on Gigaom.

 

StumbleUpon Widget

StumbleUpon has this week released a share widget for websites. Working in much the same way as the 'Tweet' or 'Share' button, website owners can create a widget for their page. By using the Widget Creator, you can insert one line of code into your blog or website that includes either your favourites or sites that are rated the highest within an interest and/or domain. You can choose from three different sizes including square-ish (300×250), wide rectangle (600×250) and tall rectangle (160×600).

 

Pope Sends First Tweet

Pope Benedict XVI has sent his first tweet to launch a Vatican news and information portal on the 60th anniversary of his ordination. His message read: "Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI." The Pope, 84, used an iPad to activate the portal and send the tweet.

You can read more on the BBC.

 

Google is certainly dominating the news this week, closely followed by Justin Timberlake and MySpace. Do you think either social network has the power to rival Facebook or even Twitter? Or are you more interested in the new Google Analytics or Twitter developer site? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below...

 

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This Week In Social:

Twitted and LinkedIn Ads, American Express and Foursquare, Skype and Facebook, Foursquare Reaches 10 Million, Klout Comes to Facebook, Google Photosharing and Harry Potter

 

Twitter Ads

After nine months of testing in-stream Promoted Tweets on third party client Hootsuite, reports have surfaced today that Twitter’s head of monetization Adam Bain has been pushing a new in-timeline Promoted Tweets product during this week’s advertiser-heavy Canne Lions awards. To the two of you that this comes to as a shock, one word: Inevitable. Twitter has made no secret of the fact that in-stream Promoted Tweets have been an eventual business model goal since April of 2010. 

You can read more on TechCrunch.

 

LinkedIn Social Ads

See the full gallery on Posterous

LinkedIn today announced that they plan to roll out changes to the advertising platform across LinkedIn which will surface actions from your network, like recommendations and company follows. The focus is to deliver ads that are more useful and relevant to you. Above are a couple of examples that illustrate these changes well. 

 

American Express & Foursquare Team Up

Last March, foursquare rolled out a small test with American Express: link your AmEx and foursquare accounts, spend at least $5 at a local merchant in Austin, and get a $5 savings applied directly to your monthly statement. They have now announced that the partnership is going national. Across the whole country, at select merchants, you can now check-in with foursquare, pay with your American Express card, and get big savings on your monthly statement.

 

Skypes Facebook Integration

With the announcement of Skype 5.5 Beta it has also been confirmed that Skype is continuing to bring people together whenever they are apart by introducing an easier way to connect with family and friends on Facebook. You can now instant message your Facebook friends directly from Skype, helping you stay connected with the people that matter the most to you. Simply use the new Facebook contacts tab within Skype to see when a Facebook friend you want to chat with is online and then start an IM conversation right from within.

 

Foursquare Reaches 10,000,000

See the full gallery on Posterous

This week foursquare reached its 10,000,000th user. This is a massive achievement for the company that already has over half a million brands and companies, and over 10,000 developers taking advantage of its API. The company is also thought to be planning another round of funding as its value is now believed to have exceeded the $1 billion mark.

 

Klout Comes to Facebook

Klout have announced that they're partnering with Involver to allow brands to provide customized experiences to their Facebook fans based on Klout Scores. Besides the number of fans, brands know surprisingly little about who those people are, their potential reach, and have little ability to message them individually. Now, with this partnership, brands can choose to give different offers, promotions, or messaging to fans based on their Klout.

 

Google Photosharing?

Recent reports seem to indicate that Google is aiming to launch a new photo sharing platform called “Photovine”. The reports surfaced from The San Francisco Chronicle that Google secured the trademark “Photovine”. The clever move is predicted to be a small part of a wider strategy to offset the positive growth of the expanding territory belonging to Facebook.

 

Pottermore

JK Rowling shocked and thrilled her fans in equal measure today, with the revelation that her new venture Pottermore was set to feature a wealth of new and previously unpublished material about the world of Harry Potter. Although the author made clear that she had "no plans to write another novel", the fresh Potter material – to be unveiled later this year - already stretches to 18,000 words about the novels' characters, places and objects, with more to come.

You can read more on the Guardian.

 

This week it is all about ads and partnerships. Can Twitter or LinkedIn Ads improve on the Facebook model? What would be your ultimate social partnership? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below...

 

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This Week In Social:

Twitter Link Shortening, Facebook Facial Recognition, Apple and Twitter Partner, AddThis Measures Social Sharing, World's Most Exclusive Website and A Birthday Party Meltdown

Twitter Link Shortening

See the full gallery on Posterous

It has been announced by Twitter that there will now be automatic link shortening on Twitter.com. Simply just paste a link of any length into the Tweet box and after you've composed your message hit the "Tweet" button and Twitter will shorten your link so that it only takes up 19 characters.

Twitter has also added content from Amazon, FourSquare, Meetup and more. 

You can read more on the Social Times.

 

Facebook Facial Recognition

Facebook has been rolling out a facial recognition feature that makes it easier to tag friends in snaps, and it has introduced this feature as a default setting. It basically means that when you try to tag groups of your friends in an album, Facebook will use its facial recognition technology to group similar faces together and automatically suggest the friend you should tag them with.

 

iOS 5: TweetEverywhere

Twitter and Apple have announced a partnership to make Twitter even easier: Twitter is built right into iOS 5, coming soon to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices worldwide. This means you will be able to sign into your Twitter account once and then tweet with a single tap from Twitter-enabled apps, including Apple's apps-Camera, Photos, Safari, Contacts, YouTube, and Maps.

 

AddThis Launches New Way To Measure Social Sharing

AddThis has launched a new way for publishers to track the sharing that happens in its simplest form -- copying and pasting a URL from the address bar and then sharing it out to a social network, email or IM. For AddThis, which is owned by Clearspring, that could represent a huge new trove of data that the company can provide to web publishers. 

You can read more on Yahoo.

 

World's Most Exclusive Website

See the full gallery on Posterous

Unless you have a verified Twitter account there's no way for you to get into The World's Most Exclusive Website. Mashable editor Ben Parr managed to access the site as you can see in the slideshow but couldn't make it to the final room which you need 5 million followers to access (someone let Lady Gaga know!). Without a verified account you are re-directed to the Olive Garden, a clever marketing ploy perhaps?

 

Birthday Party Meltdown

More than 1,500 people turned up for a 16th birthday party after a girl accidentally posted an invite to millions on her Facebook wall. Around 100 police officers, some on horses, were needed to control the crowd and there were 11 arrests – plus two fires breaking out. Some of the revellers even brought birthday presents and homemade cake.

You can read more on the Mirror.

 

Lots of cool developments for Twitter fans this week. which are you most excited about? Is Facebook facial recognition a blessing or a curse, or does it depend on how your night out went? Do you have any chance of getting in to the World's Most Exclusive Website? (I wonder if we have any secret celebrity readers?). Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below...

 

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This Week In Social:

Twitter Photo & Video Sharing, Google +1, Twitter Follow and LinkedIn Apply Buttons Unveiled, Amazon Goes Live With Groupon Killer, Shaq Tweets Retirement, Laptop Thief Caught Red Handed and Malaysian Writes Twitter Lines

 

Twitter Unveils Photo & Video Sharing

Millions of people share photos on Twitter every day. Over the next several weeks, Twitter will be releasing a feature to upload a photo and attach it to your Tweet right from Twitter.com. And of course, you'll soon be able to easily do this from all of their official mobile apps.

Twitter also announced that they are starting to roll out a completely new version of Twitter search. Not only will it deliver more relevant Tweets when you search for something or click on a trending topic, but it will also show you related photos and videos, on the results page. 

 

Get Your Google +1 Buttons

Google have this week announced that it is taking its +1 feature beyond just search results. The +1 feature allows you to recommend content to your friends and contacts directly from Google search results and ads. But from today you will begin seeing the feature appearing not just on search results but also on web pages. 

You can read more on the MCA blog.

 

Twitter Follow Button

When you follow interesting accounts on Twitter, it’s easy to stay connected with what’s most meaningful to you. Now Twitter have launched the Follow Button, a new way to discover and instantly follow Twitter accounts directly from the websites you visit everyday.

 

LinkedIn To Launch Job Application Button

LinkedIn is preparing to launch a plug-in for employers’ websites called “Apply With LinkedIn” that will allow job candidates to apply for available positions using their LinkedIn profiles as resumes. The feature indicates LinkedIn’s increasing focus on making money by facilitating employee recruitment and hiring.

You can read more on GigaOm.

 

Amazon's Secret Groupon Killer is Live

Amazon quietly rolled out a daily deals service in Boise, Idaho called Amazon Local, but thankfully TheNextWeb caught on. At first, it looks like a straight daily deals site by Amazon in the mould of Groupon: the deal today is 50% off ice cream and shakes at a local store. But it's not. The deal actually comes from LivingSocial.

You can read more on the Business Insider.

 

Shaq Announces Retirement on Twitter

Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal has announced his retirement from the NBA via Twitter and a short video he linked to from the microblogging site on Wednesday. In the video, which was posted to startup Tout, O’Neal says, “I want to thank you very much, that’s why I’m telling you first I’m about to retire.”

You can read more on Mashable.

 

Laptop Thief Nabbed

Oh, the power of the Internet. Earlier this week Joshua Kaufman put up a Tumblr featuring pictures of the man who stole his laptop taken with security app, Hidden? Well, it seems the cops have now nabbed the thief.

 

Malaysian to Tweet Apology

A Malaysian social activist will apologise 100 times on Twitter in an unusual settlement with a magazine publisher in a defamation case. The penalty has sparked debate among internet users about the pitfalls of social media in Malaysia, where authorities have warned people to be more cautious about what they write on blogs, Facebook and Twitter.

You can read more on the Guardian.

In a week of buttons, the big question is, would you rather have a Google +1, a Twitter follow, a LinkedIn apply or a chocolate button? Will you be using Twitter's own photo & video sharing service? Could Tweets spell the end for writing lines in school? Let us know your thoughts...

 

We are a full service social media agency