Facebook tells users they can’t hide from searches

31

October

2013

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Facebook has announced new changes to its privacy settings that mean users can no longer choose to hide their profile form searches on the site. The “Who can look up your Timeline by name?” setting had previously allowed individuals to stop strangers from finding them in searches, giving them the option to let their profile appear only to friends or friends of friends.

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The option to restrict these searches was removed last year but this latest update means that even those who had told Facebook that they did not want to appear in searches will no longer have the ability to do so. Facebook has defended the changes by claiming that only a “small percentage” of people ever used the setting and that the best way to stay private on the site was to restrict who could see “the individual things you share”. These changes to privacy settings have been implemented to increase the reach of Graph Search: a ‘semantic search engine’ that allows users to find based on factors such as location and interests. Facebook has described the new search function as a way to increase the connectivity of the site: “Want to start a book club or find a gym buddy? Connect with friends who like the same activities—and meet new people, too.”

Source:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/facebook-tells-users-they-cant-hide-from-searches-8874562.html

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Twitter timeline includes images and videos

31

October

2013

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Twitter updated the timeline and let to show the photos and videos from Vine application. This action has made Twitter timeline similar to a Facebook page, because now it is not a platform which just shows text-based messages. The company wrote in a blogpost: “Starting today, timelines on Twitter will be more visual and more engaging: previews of Twitter photos and videos from Vine will be front and center in Tweets. To see more of the photo or play the video, just tap.”Image

 

“We’ve also made it easier for you to reply, retweet or favorite a Tweet without leaving your timeline; you can tap to do that right inside the Tweets you see in your timeline.” Now with this change, twitter users could interact with others without having to expand Tweets, and the buttons will be more clearly visible. The website has been heavily text-focused since its 2006 launch but the updates make it more visual. Twitter users only need to update apps on their Android or iOS platforms to receive the new updates.

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/10413928/Twitter-fills-feed-with-images-in-visual-makeover.html

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Homework assignment- social commerce

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October

2013

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E-commerce provides benefits to customers and companies such as online customers could reach large amounts of products and information. Online shoppers discover new products on websites and they post recommendations in order to give an idea to other customers. On the other hand, the impact of the social media on e-commerce cannot be always positive. For example, the “keeping up with the joneses” attitude can supply higher sales and increase revenue by 5%, however seeking distinctiveness can have negative impact on sales by 14%. Also, the other trend “minimalism” has attracted many people in these years by aiming to minimize purchase as a result of economic breakdown. Thus, social media sometimes affect people not to purchase

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Social media will have a wide impact on the entire retail environment. The rise of social commerce and social marketplaces will increase the online community aspect of shopping. Social media will become more integrated place and companies will provide to their customers to share with their social connections. Thus, these developments would enable companies to give their messages beyond their own website, reaching a much wider audience. Beyond the online shopping, social media will also play a role in the physical world of retail, with some companies incorporating social media into their stores. For these reasons, they would interact with their customers and their social connections effectively. Besides all these advantages and disadvantges of using social commerce, I believe that by using the right tools in the right way, companies can increase their profit with social commerce and decrease their costs. Companies should choose right strategies in order to benefit from in social commerce and shopping, because it is decision making step. Different strategies should be applied according to different products and target group of people. In the perspective of customers, people who do not have enough information about a product or service are eager to learn from other customers. Human psychology claims that people are interested to own what their friends have, whether they need it or not. Customers need to view the products and hear about them. I believe that social commerce is beneficary especially to inform other customers. Recommendations can encourage or discourage people easly to buy. Companies should be aware of this fact and encourage people to interact more for providing products and comments on the social media. Right social commerce strategies are vital for managers and future of the company.

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The downsides of social media: cyberbullying

31

October

2013

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The rise of social media has many advantages. Nowadays it just takes a couple of clicks to share anything with your friends, create events, know what your friends are doing, etc. However, social media use has some disadvantages. A major disadvantage is cyberbullying. Because of the fact that it’s very easy to contact a person on a social network platform, it creates a lot of potential cyberbullying, and it happens a lot more than you would expect. Just a few findings of a study on cyberbullying:

– Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once.
– 70% of students report seeing frequent bullying online.
– 81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person.
– 90% of teens who have seen social-media bullying say they have ignored it. 84% have seen other tell cyber bullies to stop.
– Girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying.
– Bullying victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide.

The last fact is something that we, unfortunately, experience more and more these days. In October 2012 15 year old Amanda Todd from Canada killed herself after repeatedly being bullied online. She uploaded a nine-minute video to YouTube describing years of bullying that she said drove her to drugs and alcohol, all told with a set of handwritten note cards.

In 2013 there were 2 more suicides caused by cyberbullying. 14 year old, Hannah Smith was found hanged. Her father said she had been sent abusive messages on social networking site, Ask.fm. Just a month ago, a 12 year old girl jumped to her death from an abandoned cement factory tower in Florida. She was picked on for months by as many as 15 girls through online message boards and texts.

The big question now is: Is it possible to stop cyberbullying and how should we do that?

Sources:

http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/24364361
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/15/cyberbullying-parents-internet-guide/2988651/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/15/florida-bullying-arrest-lakeland-suicide/2986079/

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Crowdfunding: My free implants

31

October

2013

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When doing  my homework assignment about niche social networks in week 5, I found an interesting online networking site. It’s called myfreeimplants.com. Basically, this is a website which makes it possible for women to get free implants because of contributors wants to help these women to get those implants. This is a good example of crowdfunding. The only thing that the women need to do is register on the website, create their own profile, choose their goal, set their limit and make friends. Contributors can chat with the women and when they think that a particular women needs financial help, they can just donate money to these women to make their dreams come true. In exchange they receive photo’s, video’s  and messages. Surgeons can also register themselves on the website. The clinic gets paid directly from the website, without fees, forms or delay. I was actually quite surprised that according to this website, they have almost 9 million page views per month.

Source: http://myfreeimplants.com/how-it-works

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Funk-e: Animated Explanations

31

October

2013

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A few years ago a friend of mine started his own little business. While still studying business administration at RSM, together with a friend he responded to the shift in ways companies and departments communicate content to followers and consumers. The idea was to explain and launch different situations, varying from new business products and concepts to politics, by creating short animated videos. Together with a team of creative people and a large freelance network around them, they now produce all kind of animated explanations.

The marketing department, as well as the personnel themselves actively promote and share videos they created not only on the Funk-e website portfolio, but also on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Already they managed to sign big clients such as UPC, Rabobank, Deloitte, NS, Siemens but also non-profit organisations such as the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Erasmus University. Furthermore they have prominently been mentioned and interviewed in Dutch business magazine Quote. What characterises Funk-e the most is how the personnel actively participate on behave of the company on social media platforms, spreading the awesomeness of Funk-e. Not too long ago they opened their second office (the first being Rotterdam of course) in the heart of Berlin.

One to watch!

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Turning tech into a lifestyle

31

October

2013

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Sometimes I wonder what causes Apple to be a leader in almost any market they operate. The iPod, iPhone and iPad are each the top selling product by far for years in their department. But why? Is the competition that bad? Are there no devices with more capacity, speed and/or allure? The answer is no by a long stretch, which raises the question if success even depends on the product itself? And if it does how much. I mean I too have an iPhone, iPad and in the good old days an iPod, but if you ask me what was the deciding factor I would be guilty of an answer. Before purchasing these products I did research and multiple alternatives were available for just a part of the price Apple sells. So how did Apple managed to become market leader?

–       Focus: Instead of launching 10 devices per year such as Nokia, LG and Samsung Apple concentrates on one or two devices per year, increasing curiosity, attention and desire. ‘We do few things here at Apple, but we do it well’.  

–       Simplicity: ‘Make complex things simple’. This goes not only for the product’s user compatibility, but for the marketing ads, the layout and communication as well.

–       Be brave: ‘Never play safe’. Sometimes Apple will fail but trial and error and learning by doing is a key factor for success. Originality will always overpower improved content.

–       Maintaining reputation for trendsetting and social exposure: Apple creates, other companies edit and improve. The reputation as a trendsetter creates desire. Having an Apple product is regarded by some more as a fashion item than a functioning device.

Concluding one might say Apple turns technology into a lifestyle.

Why did or didn’t you buy an Apple device? 

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Caught by Facebook & Twitter

31

October

2013

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Two weeks ago I read an article about a manager of a gas station who caught a thief with help from Twitter and Facebook. A guy refuelled his car and drove away without paying for the gas. The manager posted a tweet and a Facebook tweet with the guys’ license plate and a screenshot of the camera images and asked who recognizes the car, license plate and person. The message was retweeted and shared a dozen times. A few people recognized the person and car and the guy is now sued for stealing.

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Another gas station manager happened the same thing. He also decided to post a tweet and Facebook message with a screenshot and license plate. Within a few hours he received many phone calls from people recognizing the perpetrator. That same afternoon the phone rang and a man asked the manager whether he could remove the screenshot from the internet because it was violating his privacy. The manager told him that he would remove the screenshot, if he would come by and pay the €96 he owned him. Finally the guy paid the €96 and the manager removed the screenshot.

Both managers recommend doing this, because they think it is way more effective then calling the police. I think it is actually pretty amazing what social media can do. It is so easy to share stuff with so many people at the same time. And of all 16 million people in the Netherlands, within only a few hours there were so many people who recognized these guys. However the question is whether it is allowed to violate people privacy like this.

Do you think that social media should be used more frequently in cases like these, or do you think that peoples’ privacy is more important?

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Air France’s version of United breaks guitars. Did something change?

31

October

2013

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Today I read an article about Air France. A traveller, flying with Air France, posted a letter on twitter. 

It’s a letter with complaints about a flight that Air France should have operated from New York’s JFK international airport. But the flight got delayed, canceled and passengers were stranded on the airport, waiting for a next flight.

The way they were treated was ashamed, Jay Shah, the writer, said. 

The letter went viral on social media platforms, especially on twitter. It just happend days ago, years after the United Breaks Guitar case. Air France’s reaction was incorrect and too slow. Didn’t the aviation industry learn anything about the case in Chicago?

I think it’s even more weird that Air France didn’t react correct, because Air France is part of the Air France-KLM group. KLM is considered to be one of the best performing companies on social media. Why did the other side of the company not know how te handle in this case.

What do you think? Why didn’t they learn anything frow the past and is there a way in which airliners can reactie properly on this kinds of events?

 

http://www.firstpost.com/business/one-blog-post-gets-air-france-to-crash-on-social-media-1201891.html

http://jayharishshah.blogspot.sg/2013/10/one-night-in-paris.html

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The comeback of B(l)ackberry messenger (BBM)

31

October

2013

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Last week on Facebook I saw many people posting messages such as “add me, new PIN 29E9114C!” and I thought ‘Since when is everyone using BBM again and why?’. So I googled and found that since last week BBM became also available for Android and iOs. In the meanwhile the amount of active users increased with 20 million people. Which makes a total of 80 million users.
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Blackberry was the first who made it possible to send free messages by mobile phones. It became very popular among the youth and for some of them became The reason to buy a Blackberry, since BBM was only available for Blackberry. But then there came substitutes for BBM, such as WhatsApp and Facebook messenger, which could also be used on other smartphone then Blackberry. From this moment BBM became less and less popular.

So now they made the app available for iOs and Android as well, but Whatapp is still more populair with their 300 million users and other services are raising popularity as well.

What service do you use to send free messages and will you use BBM (again)?

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