You might think that with Christmas holidays, December might be a month when people turn off their gadgets and laptops and spend time with their loved ones, but some statistics fromExperian Hitwisewould show the complete opposite, at least as far as the UK is concerned. There is no denying the surge in social media use in the past couple of years. In 2009,social media use doubledin the space of one year in the UK....
As more and more case studies and ‘how not to do’s’ emerge, more companies are beginning to realise the importance of social media in a crisis. I recently spoke at a seminar on crisis communications, and every single presenter, whether from a traditional background, B2C brand, state body, ended by stating the importance of using social media when your company faces a crisis. It’s certainly encouraging that so many practitioners are advocating the use of social media beforehand, instead of waiting to figure it out when the crisis hits, but there still seems to be confusion over how you can effectively use social media tools and platforms to effectively communicate, or control a crisis....
A colleague recently sought my advice on covering a queer-related tech topic and I’m not ashamed to admit I advised them against it. I’m queer. I made the decision to come out in my professional life after a lot of consideration and long discussions with my family. In the time since, I’ve learned that millions of people who’ve never met me hate me. They despise me for existing. They think I should go away, shut up, and stop being who I am....
Facebook appSocial Memoriesscans your profile and makes a book out of it, drawing on photographs of yourself and a range of statistics such as your most active friends, and their horoscope distributions. Like the majority of Facebook apps, it has no practical value and serves to massage the ego above all else, but that’s the fun of social networks, right? Make sure you’ve got a fair amount of pictures of yourself floating around....
My bet is that you’d be really surprised to see how many apps and sites that you’ve given access to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. While the overwhelming majority of sites don’t have anything nefarious planned, there’s always the bad egg. Unsubscribe.com, the site that lets you easily unsubscribe from the spam in your Internet life, has released a new product called Social Monitor that will not only scan the ones that you have installed presently, but will also monitor the authorizations you’re asked to give via its plugin for Chrome, Firefox and others....
