Facebook and Instagram Users Upload IDs To Regain Access

Facebook and Instagram Users Being Asked To Upload IDs To Regain Access | TPM Idea Lab: "As it turns out, the requests are official and are being done by Instagram and Facebook in response to suspected violations of the two social networks’ distinct terms of service. “This is just a general practice for both Facebook and Instagram to request photo IDs for verification purposes depending on what type of violation may have occurred,” a spokesperson for Facebook told TPM. “Unfortunately, I can’t share more with you beyond that as we don’t go into details beyond that.” Facebook declined to state exactly why a number of users would collectively receive notifications to provide government issued IDs this week or what specific violations of terms prompted the notifications."


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LinkedIn magic number is 50 connections

LinkedIn: Is quality more important than quantity? - CBS News: ". . . In the professional world, quality always matters more than quantity, especially when it comes to business contacts. You could have a Rolodex full of "contacts," but how many of those contacts can you rely on to answer your emails instantly, find you a new hire or help you out when you're in a jam? The magic number is at least 50 connections. Once a member meets 50 contacts, they'll start to unlock many more networks and doors via their second- and third-degree connections. What makes someone a worthwhile connection? Before you connect with someone, ask yourself how you can help that person down the line and how you might benefit from connecting with them. Are they in a similar industry or an industry you're thinking of switching to? Working at a company you admire or one that's a competitor? Or are they an expert in their field or alumni with similar hobbies? . . . "


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Small Firms Say LinkedIn Works and Twitter Does Not

Small Firms Say LinkedIn Works, Twitter Doesn't - WSJ.com: "Many owners, including Ken Lopez of Washington, who started using social media to market his consulting business in 2011, tend to think the "value" of social media comes primarily from measurable factors, such as pageviews, click-throughs or direct sales. "We will tweet 10-plus times a day, and we will put roughly the same number of posts on LinkedIn per day, yet we get dramatically different results," says Mr. Lopez, whose A2L Consulting offers services to law firms. Two days every week for the past two years, he has focused on driving traffic to his website using LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. And the work has paid off. He says A2L now gets 12,000 website visitors a month, up from 800 in 2011, and his Web-driven revenue has increased fivefold. But A2L gets little traffic on its site from Twitter, compared with other social-media outlets. "LinkedIn is the dominant traffic driver," says Mr. Lopez. "Twitter is a small percentage by comparison." Richard Alfonsi, Twitter's vice president of global online sales, says Twitter needs to do more to educate small businesses on the benefits of using its service to reach potential customers and on the most effective ways to use the service. . . . "


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Google Notification Center in Chrome

Google to add a new Notification Center to Chrome, paving the way for Google Now integration - The Next Web: "The release has been spotted by François Beaufort over on Google+ today, and appears to be a way for the technology giant to bring Android’s critically acclaimed Google Now cards to the desktop. After downloading the latest build, Beaufort says users simply need to toggle on the “Enable Rich Notifications” under chrome://flags. He also snapped up a screenshot of the new notification center in action, giving us an idea of how it might look and feel in everyday use. However, it’s important to remember that because this feature is in a developmental stage, Google could still change its appearance before a final release on Chrome."


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Coming and Going on Facebook

Coming and Going on Facebook | Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project: "Two-thirds of online American adults (67%) are Facebook users, making Facebook the dominant social networking site in this country. And new findings from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project indicate there is considerable fluidity in the Facebook user population: 61% of current Facebook users say that at one time or another in the past they have voluntarily taken a break from using Facebook for a period of several weeks or more. 20% of the online adults who do not currently use Facebook say they once used the site but no longer do so. 8% of online adults who do not currently use Facebook are interested in becoming Facebook users in the future. We asked the 61% of Facebook users who have taken a break from using the site to tell us in their own words why they did so, and they mentioned a variety of reasons. The largest group (21%) said that their “Facebook vacation” was a result of being too busy with other demands or not having time to spend on the site. Others pointed toward a general lack of interest in the site itself (10% mentioned this in one way or another), an absence of compelling content (10%), excessive gossip or “drama” from their friends (9%), or concerns that they were spending too much time on the site and needed to take a break (8%)."


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Things to Know about Facebook Privacy

New Stuff I've Learned Since My Facebook Privacy Tool Kit - NYTimes.com: " . . . One is called My Permissions, and it tells which Facebook applications have access to what kinds of information. When I tested it, I wasn’t exactly surprised, but I did find it revealing. My Mitt Romney campaign app had permission to post status updates in my name. Two music streaming apps had round-the-clock access to my information, even when I wasn’t using them. The presentation is simple. The app can be installed on your browser of choice. Harper Reed, chief technologist for the Obama 2012 campaign, spotted it a long time ago. My bad for not noticing it until now. The second, Scrambls, is designed to let the user decide who can read what. It encodes — or locks with a key — what you post on Facebook (or what you send through Gmail for that matter) and lets you choose who should have the key to be able to read it. A friend of mine, for instance, posted pictures of a house he is renting out. He posted several pictures and offered a pretty good idea of where it’s located. Had he been worried about a break-in into a clearly unoccupied house, he might have encoded it for a set of friends only. . . . " more at http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/07/new-stuff-ive-learned-since-my-facebook-privacy-tool-kit/?smid=pl-share


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LinkedIn as professional publishing hub

LinkedIn eyes future as professional publishing hub | Internet & Media - CNET News: "The professional social network doesn't have a timetable for when it plans to release the units more widely, but Weiner did indicate that sponsored content will be what LinkedIn serves up to smartphone users in lieu of showing them display ads. Currently, 27 percent of LinkedIn's unique visitors are coming through mobile, which means this group's attention has giant revenue potential. In essence, content is quickly becoming the new connection on LinkedIn."


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Iceland MPAA Quit Facebook After 4 Days of Fail

Iceland’s MPAA Quits Facebook After 4 Days of Fail | TorrentFreak: "The Icelandic Film and Movie organization SMAIS is known for its tough anti-piracy stance. In an attempt to engage a debate and address a recent report which accused SMAIS of not paying for software themselves, the group joined Facebook. However, the discussion on the social networking site quickly turned into a flame war. After just four days the group decided to call it quits and left Facebook, with an unlikelihood it will ever return. There is a good reason why the MPAA and RIAA are not on Facebook. They would become cannon fodder, and every word they post would be carefully dissected by an angry mob."


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Use Twitter Search To Find Old Tweets

Twitter Search Lets You Once Again Find Old Tweets: " . . . In a post today, Twitter says that some older tweets are now going to be available. How far back? That’s not said; but, it seems like tweets that are particularly popular or notable will be available. From Twitter’s post: As we roll this out over the coming days, the Tweets that you’ll see in search results represent a fairly small percentage of total Tweets ever sent. We look at a variety of types of engagement, like favorites, retweets and clicks, to determine which Tweets to show. . . ."
See also Twitter’s advanced search feature.


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Pinterest testing new faster design

Pinterest testing new, faster design - latimes.com: "Pinterest announced . . . . that it is testing a new design with a small number of users. The pinboard-based social network, which exploded onto the scene last year, said its new design makes navigating more intuitive "so it’s faster to get to where you want to go." A screen shot of the latest design shows a new icon on the top left corner of the site's layout with a drop down menu that holds several categories and subcategories."


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Twitter is a machine for continual self-reinvention

Twitter is a machine for continual self-reinvention: ". . . Matt Haughey wrote an essay called Why I love Twitter and barely tolerate Facebook. There's no memory at Twitter: everything is fleeting. Though that concept may seem daunting to some (archivists, I feel your pain), it also means the content in my feed is an endless stream of new information, either comments on what is happening right now or thoughts about the future. One of the reasons I loved the Internet when I first discovered it in the mid-1990s was that it was a clean slate, a place that welcomed all regardless of your past as you wrote your new life story; where you'd only be judged on your words and your art and your photos going forward. Facebook is mired in the past. . . . For a certain type of person, changing oneself might be one of the best ways of feeling free and in control of one's own destiny. And in the social media world, Twitter feels like continually moving to NYC without knowing anyone whereas Facebook feels like you're living in your hometown and hanging with everyone you went to high school with. Twitter's we're-all-here-in-the-moment thing that Matt talks about is what makes it possible for people to continually reinvent themselves on Twitter. You don't have any of that Facebook baggage, the peer pressure from a lifetime of friends, holding you back. You are who your last dozen tweets say you are. And what a feeling of freedom that is."

7 Bold Ways to Build Brand Personality | Business 2 Community: "Social media and blogs account for 23% of all time spent online, and reach over 80% of Americans with an internet connection. Your consumers want to digitally connect with your brand, but that doesn’t mean they want to buy from a faceless, electronic corporation. Building brand personality and showcasing the people who make your company tick is essential, and it can be accomplished online. We’ve compiled 7 of the sharpest, new ways to build brand personality as part of your company’s inbound marketing strategy: 1. Personalize Your Social Media Interactions . . . "


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Social Media Has No Impact On Sales

Social Media Has No Impact On Sales - Business Insider: "Retailers may have hit record sales over the shopping weekend from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, but the impact of social media campaigns many of them invested in is less certain. Offerpop, which helps retailers including Amazon, Sears and Walmart run social-marketing campaigns, says it saw a 40percent increase in social-media campaigns by its clients for the Black Friday shopping weekend compared with last year. Yet social media made up less than 1percent of online traffic and sales on Black Friday, according to IBM Smarter Commerce, which tracks sales for 500 of the top retail sites. And that's down from last year. That's based on customers who were referred to a retailer's site through social media and made a purchase right then. It may not be a bad thing though, given that retailers were using social media more to raise brand awareness than to push sales this year, says Jay Henderson, strategy director for IBM Smarter Commerce."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-has-no-impact-on-sales-2012-11#ixzz2DvC2iyCT

Facebook: A waste of time for most Advertisers: "So, why did Google make 10 times as much as Facebook last year on just over half as many advertisements? The answer is “Commercial Intent”.  When people are shopping, they have what is called Commercial Intent, which means they are looking for something they want to  purchase. It is no different from back in the days of searching through the Yellow Pages for a business that is selling what you are interested in buying. Your Commercial Intent is to find those who provide what you are looking for. Commercial Intent does not exist on Social Media, . . . "


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Privacy and Security Issues

Second of a series: Privacy and Security Issues for 2013 | Mintz Levin - Privacy & Security - JDSupra: " . . . In order to protect the corporate reputation, prohibit unlawful competitive activity, including the theft of trade secrets, or to affirmatively comply with certain government regulations, some employers now require employees (and prospective employees) to provide their social media passwords or other account information. Fourteen state legislatures (like California) have recently enacted laws prohibiting this practice, and other states are likely to follow suit. Social media privacy bills are under consideration in Missouri, Texas, and other jurisdictions. Whether a particular state prohibits this practice or not, employers must give serious thought before implementing (or continuing to implement) this practice. Specifically, they must be mindful of the “Big Brother” perception and the potential exposure to claims under the anti-discrimination laws, labor laws, and state privacy laws. In 2013, employers, employees, lawmakers, regulatory authorities and courts will continue to struggle to strike the right balance between privacy, corporate culture, ownership of business information, free expression, and creativity. Recommendation for action in 2013: If your business has a social media policy, review it in light of emerging state laws and the NLRB cases. If your business does not have a social media policy, 2013 is the time to take another look."

Why the Instagram debacle just taught every tech company to be shadier than ever | The Verge: "That's advertising on your photos, in case it wasn't clear. Whatever kind of victory all those protests achieved, it wasn't one for consumer rights — if anything, Instagram is the real winner here. The company just managed to score a round of positive press for retracting an unpopular change and give itself the ability to actually use photos in ads. Worst of all, the Instagram debacle is destined to be discussed in boardrooms and business schools for years to come as an object lesson in keeping terms of service vague and hard to understand. Had Instagram just left its existing terms in place, the company would have been totally fine . . . "

Why Facebook Can't Be The Center Of Your Social Strategy - Forbes: "While 86% of companies today maintain a Facebook page, many have discovered that simply following the heard isn’t much of a strategy. The fans and likes may roll in, but meaningful results like improved customer satisfaction and increased sales revenue remain elusive. Why? Because the real power of social media lies in its ability to engage and enlist, not just tally. We must deliver social customer experiences that entice customers to interact with us, share their passions, their insights, and their ideas. When only 2% of consumers ever return to brand pages they “like” on Facebook, the platform clearly isn’t a tool for engagement. When the only way our customers can interact with us to “like” us, we aren’t doing much to enlist their help in making our brand more successful. . . . "


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