Social Media from the Frontline: Anna Doble

Welcome to the latest “Social Media from the Frontline”. This time we hear from Anna who works at Channel 4/ITN. If you fancy getting involved drop us a tweet @mycleveragency.

NAME: Anna Doble

COMPANY: Channel 4 News/ITN

ROLE: Senior Online Producer

TWITTER HANDLE: @annadoble 

FACEBOOK URL: http://www.facebook.com/anna.doble1

WEBSITE: http://www.channel4.com/news/

A little about myself...

I am a writer and producer for the Channel 4 News website. I began my career as a radio reporter, then moved to Independent Radio News as a bulletin reader and later news editor. I moved into online journalism in 2008 when I took over as head of news at ITN Productions. I have been at C4N since 2009. I am also a music writer for the Spectator Arts Blog.

My likes...

Like many news junkies, I am a Twitterholic. The fact that Twitter can often be wrong is not a problem; in fact the cock-ups are part of the appeal. We all hate polished marketing speak, don't we? So it follows that we all like the sense of "real" that Twitter provides, even if it exposes Jon Snow's spelling mistakes. I like the democracy of Twitter and the fact non-celebs sometimes have a louder voice than society's supposed leaders. Elsewhere I am still a big fan of Last.FM, even though it's one of the old guard now. It has led me to some amazing music - the digital version of your mate's big brother's mixtape.

My dislikes...

I'm not keen on tweeting for tweet's sake. If you don't have anything to say, don't! There is a lot of pressure for people to be "seen" engaging on social platforms. Don't force it!

Any Social Media tips...

In a newsroom environment, don't try to force correspondents to "do social media"... just show them how others are using Twitter, Facebook et al  to get stories, interviewees & higher profiles  - they'll soon follow! Storyful.com is great for monitoring foreign news. GoogleMaps are a gift to news websites, if used smartly: http://www.channel4.com/news/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-interactive-video-t... , @faisalislam is the man to watch as the eurozone train crash continues.

Any Social Media predictions...

Social media as "archive tool". I want the capacity to see who was tweeting about what, on this day last year... and the year before.... in a particular place. I want to search tools & filters. Facebook's timeline appears to be a step towards this. But why not apply it on a grand scale?

Big thanks to Anna for answering our questions!

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This Week in Social

Google Music

This week Google has taken Google Music out of Beta and made it available to all.  Google want Google Music to help people spend more time listening to their collection and less time managing it. They have fully integrated it with the Android Market and offers more than 13 million tracks from artists on Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI. Unfortunately Google Music is only available in the United Staes at the moment.

Read more here.

Paypal Intergates with Facebook

PayPal has launched a Facebook application designed to let users of the social networking site send money to each other. Facebook users can now send money to their friends and family, whether it’s for a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary or just because along with an e-card, photos, videos and a message. With just a few clicks and a PayPal account money can be sent.

Continue reading on the Paypal Blog.

Facebook Updates

Facebook this week rolled out two new changes to their photo uploads and Events. Now, when you upload photos to an album, you can see each photo as it uploads and watch the upload progress in real-time. The Events feature update involves several key changes — including a Bing-generated map that allows viewers to get directions to the venue, grouping all response actions in one place on the page, and removing the emphasis from the “Not Attending”.

More on the photo uploading on the Facebook blog and the Event changes here.

Simon Cowell Joins Twitter

After dozens of spoof and fake accounts, Simon Cowell finally gave in and joined the social networking site Twitter, with the words: 'It's official, I know it's taken a while. It's really me! We're live in 10 minutes. I'll keep you posted. Lots of love #iamsimon'. Cowell had described the adoption of social media as a means of voting as "fantastic", saying that it offered the X Factor's audience "more and more choice".

Follow Simon.

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Facebook Falls Victim to Porn and Violence

You may have noticed recently that your Facebook newsfeed has taken a turn for the worse, a 'Self-Inflicted Javascript injection' was the cause; what this means is that when you click on a link posted in your newsfeed, a piece of code worms its way into your profile and likes some truly shocking links. A piece of code similar to this, was responsible for previous Facebook attacks, including, “Hey are you still there?,” “You look so stupid in this video,” and various scams related to the death of Osama Bin Laden.

The images, which included hardcore pornography, extreme violence, animal abuse and even photoshopped images of Justin Bieber in a risky situation were visible to your friends, but not yourself. Facebook rep Andrew Noyes told Mashable, "We have recently experienced an increase in reports and we are investigating and addressing the issue".

No one has stepped up as of yet to take responsibility for the attack, although a lot of fingers are being pointed at Anonymous, who threatened to attack Facebook earlier this month.

Whoever is responsible for the attack they seem to have succeeded in damaging Facebook's already delicate privacy reputation, with Gawker reporting that groups such as, "I remember when Facebook WASN'T a porn site!" springing up left right and centre.

An attack such as this is the last thing Facebook needs right now,“It’s precisely this kind of problem which is likely to drive people away from the site,” wrote online security firm, Sophos' senior technology consultant Graham Cluley in a blog post. “Facebook needs to get a handle on this problem quickly, and prevent it from happening on such a scale again.” With Google's social network growing at a rapid pace, reporting their 3rd biggest week in new users last week, integrating 3rd party apps such as Hootsuite, and recently launching their Android music platform, Facebook can ill afford to let anything slip.

Did you or any of your friends fall victim to this latest attack?

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This Week in Social

Facebook News Feed Update

Facebook now have a new way of sorting your News Feed: most recent stories first. You can also continue to view highlighted stories first, followed by recent stories. If you don't have the updates to News Feed yet, you can expect to see them over the coming weeks as the rollout continues.

Read more on our blog.

Google+ Brand Pages

Google has launched Pages for brands and businesses, creating a new type of profile similar to Facebook Pages. Google+ Pages show a verified account symbol as well as a new, square icon, both at the top and on a ‘Share this page’ button on the left sidebar.

Continue reading our blog post on it.

 

Twitter Activity Stream

Twitter has begun the rollout, or at least a significant spot test, of the Activity and @Username streams it announced in mid-August. The @Username stream replaces the @Mentions and Retweets streams, combining those with stories about new followers, people favoriting your tweets, and more. The Activity stream shows the follows, favourites, and retweets of the people you follow.

Read more here.

 

Facebook Users Share Their Songs 1.5 Billion Times in Six Weeks

Music discovery services such as Spotify, Rdio, Mog, Slacker and Earbits are attracting significantly more users since their integration with Facebook at F8. Since F8, people have shared their listening activity more than 1.5 billion times with their friends using the music apps that have integrated the Open Graph.

Continue reading this story on the Facebook Developers Blog.

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This Week in Social

Twitter Stories

Twitter launched the first in a series of Twitter stories. You can read about a single Tweet that helped save a bookstore from going out of business; an athlete who took a hundred of his followers out to a crab dinner or a Japanese fishermen who use Twitter to sell their catch before returning to shore. You can tweet them your story on @twitterstories or use the #twitterstories.

Read more on the Twitter Blog.

 

Twitter tests "Top News" and "Top People"

Twitter is testing a new feature that highlights a link labeled as “top news” or a profile labeled “top people” at the top of its real-time search results. For a small percentage of users, searching for a topic such as “South Park” or a hashtag such as “#OWS” returns a link to a news story at the top of the page in addition to the usual relevant tweets.

Continue reading on Mashable.

 

Facebook Silences Official Music Player

Facebook’s music player and Discography apps, the last traces of the long-rumored but never-launched music dashboard, went silent this week. Instead, the social network is steering its users toward music services it has partnered with so far: Spotify, Rdio, and Mog.

Carry on reading here.

 

Google+ Intergrates with YouTube

Google is adding more Google+ features this week designed to increase user engagement and sharing. These include a YouTube slider that lets you watch and share YouTube videos with your Google+ friends and two new Google Chrome extensions for sharing webpages and tracking your Google+ notifications.

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This Week in Social

Twitter's Expandable Timeline

Twitter is testing an expandable timeline that allows users to see media and related information inside the timeline instead of in the sidebar. The redesigned timeline allows users to click on individual tweets to expand conversations, media, and retweets. Read more on the changes to Twitter on our blog.  

 

Google+ Comes to Google Apps

Google has announced several new features for Google+, including the ability to use Google+ from a Google Apps account. When Google made Google+ available to all users earlier this Autumn, people who use Google Apps for work or personal use were left out in the cold. Google Apps users will now have access to the same set of features that are available to every Google+ user. Continue reading on Google Enterprise.  

 

The Guardian Luanches Twitter-Based Search Bot

The Guardian unveiled a Twitter-based search bot Thursday. Users can search for content on The Guardian‘s website by tweeting a question or keyword(s) to @GuardianTagBot. The bot will immediately tweet back a link to a search results page on guardian.co.uk. Read more on the Guardian Blog.  

 

Klout Tweaks To Make Score More Accurate

Klout has tinkered with its method for determining social media influence and it may affect your score on the platform. The new scoring model “represents the biggest step forward in accuracy, transparency and our technology in Klout’s history,” Ash Rust, director of ranking, announced on Wednesday.

More information on the changes is available on the Klout Corporate section.

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This Week in Social

 Timelines are suing Facebook

This week Timelines have begun pursuing Facebook in a law suit over the apparent copyright infringement relating to Facebook's new Timelines feature. Timelines feel that the people at Facebook could have at least contacted them for permission to use or license the name but they have not.

Continue reading on the Timeline website.

 

 Facebook improves mobile Messenger

Facebook are excited to announce an update to Messenger. In this version, they've included several new features and performance improvements designed to make the messaging experience even better. Now you can see who's online and who's on mobile, and know when the other person is typing. It's also easier to send messages to the people you message most.

Carry on reading on the Facebook Blog.

 

 Foursquare announces Plan Your Next Trip

Plan Your Next Trip uses Foursquare’s Explore API to build an engaging travel itinerary for your next destination by sourcing the best, most popular places to fill your day and night with. With suggestions starting with breakfast in the morning and ending with watering holes at night, as well as points of interest and places to rest in between, you’ll never have a dull moment.

Read more here.

 

 LinkedIn Classmates

LinkedIn Classmates provides high-level insights about alumni of your school, as well as access to the more detailed professional profiles they’ve shared.  It can help people explore possibilities, see what classmates have accomplished since graduation, make connections with old friends and find opportunities.

More information about this is available on the LinkedIn Blog.

 

 Google+ adds Hashtags

A feature has been released in Google+ to support hashtags, meaning that including one on a post will link your word to a Google+ search on that subject. Basically, including a “#” before a word in your post will turn it into a clickable link which leads to a Google+ search on that specific word.

Read more here.

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