John Romant's Technology Blog
If it's technology, I want to know about it.
Category Archives: Social Media Revolution
Infographic: How often do criminals use social media technology?
Are criminals using technology like Facebook, Twitter, Google Street View and/or Foursquare to help them commit their crimes? Click here to visit original post.
How Facebook Affects You and Your Relationships Infographic.
Infographic created by onlinedating.org. Read entire article at mashable.com
Ze Frank’s web playroom
Very inspiring TED.com talk. It’s nice to run across a video like this after crunching code and designing over the last few weeks.
“On the web, a new “Friend” may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation — and reward it with something more nourishing. You’re invited, if you promise you’ll share.”
Check out the video:
Lady Gaga Breaks the 1 Billion YouTube Video View Barrier.
John Romant
I cannot believe I am even typing the name Lady Gaga, but this is Social Media History.
Lady Gaga just broke 1 billion YouTube video views. I wish I could see the raw data, like unique views, returning visitors, etc. Either way, 1 billion YouTube video views in incredible. Maybe the time has come where alternative media is officially becoming mainstream and mainstream media is officially being shoved aside.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the news of Lady Gaga breaking the 1 Billion YouTube Video views mark will create a spike in her views. I know I added a few extra views by just writing this article. Crazy! Give it another year and we will see more people like Justin Bieber and a few others break the 1 billion Youtube Video views mark.
By the way, I wonder about the total data on ALL video hosting views is. How many video hosting sites are there besides YouTube? I wish I had time to compile the data myself. If anyone has an idea, let me know.
Be Careful Not To Tweet Away That Job Found Via Social Media
By Catherine Ngai
Mitchell Strobl is your average college junior at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., but the way he landed his new job is distinctly 21st century. “I came across this website [through] a link that was posted [on my Facebook wall],” said Strobl, 20. The site lined up with his interests perfectly, and after contacting the president of HuntingLife.com, he was soon hired to become a writer and then a product reviewer for the hunting and conservation news site.
Stories like Strobl’s are rare, especially in a job market as tough as this one. The U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate is 9.6%, according to the U.S. Labor Department. As a result, new graduates and young professionals are trying new tools to improve their chances of finding work.
“Social media is a great way to learn about different employers as well as build professional networks that will help create opportunities and open doors,” said Holly Paul, PwC‘s U.S. recruiting leader. “I do think now that social media is so prolific and being used by students that…it’s an additive to what they’re doing to connect with other individuals that can help them in their job search.”
A month ago, the buzz about finding work via social-media sites hit a new high. After creating YouTube Instant, a replica of real-time search engine Google Instant for searching videos on YouTube, a 19-year-old Stanford student received a job offer via Twitter–even less than the 140-character limit–from Chad Hurley, co-founder and chief executive of YouTube.
While the success stories generate a lot of excitement, and may prompt some job seekers to rely solely on social media, career experts say that’s not a smart move.
“You really have to be careful with Twitter or Facebook, because it can seduce you into an informality that can really backfire,” said Lonnie Dunlap, director of career services at Northwestern University. “I do think that the traditional methods have to be there. And they have to be very well done. You can get someone’s attention through LinkedIn, but your goal is to get an interview.”
And keep in mind that the hard-copy resume and cover letter are far from obsolete. Mary Spencer, director of career placement at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, said she’s seen an increase in employers asking for paper rather than electronic portfolios at job fairs.
Also, a problem with social media such as Facebook and Twitter is that they may reveal too much personal information to potential employers. Paul, of PwC, oversees new hires and she said social media can cause an unnecessary mix-up of work and personal life. Her suggestion is to keep certain types of social networks completely personal–she says that’s how she uses Facebook–and other types completely professional, such as LinkedIn.
She said job candidates who don’t use social media aren’t likely to be penalized for that by prospective employers. “I personally don’t think that we’re there yet. The employer isn’t there yet,” she said. “The issue with students not using those [methods] means that they are not using a channel and an avenue right there in front of them for free.”
Tips To Improve Your Chances
The degree to which your job hunt on social-media sites is successful may depend on the type of position being sought. For instance, most public-relations firms already connect to people through Twitter and have designated Facebook pages. Same goes for corporate communications positions. However, Kevin Nicols, the chief executive of a small publishing company, said that a search for any job–entry level and professional–can be enhanced through social media.
Three years ago, Nicols started two LinkedIn groups in the San Francisco Bay Area; they now have about 1,500 members. He said social networking is a tried and true method that has worked for him, as well as many of the people in his group. With social media, applicants are able to connect with people within certain companies who can act as an advocate for them within the company.
Nicols offered the following tips for using social media to enhance your job search:
-Become an active participant on a social network.
-Find people within your desired industry and let them know you’re searching.
-Once you become introduced to someone online, even though that might “soften the blow of cold calling,” don’t forget that meeting people face-to-face is still the ultimate goal.
-Practice what Nicols calls “good job karma”–rather than just asking for help from others, do your part to give back and help others out.
Finally, don’t forget that it’s not always as easy as some make it seem. Brittany Sykes, a recent graduate of Penn State University, has been on the lookout for a public-relations job in the entertainment industry since May. Sykes, 22, said she hasn’t had too much luck, although she follows many PR firms on Twitter and has seen a fair amount of job postings.
The job search can be challenging, she said, but the use of social media is bringing a little hope in her search. “I get stressed out sometimes when my parents drive me crazy [about finding a job]”, she said. “But I get really excited when I make some type of connection.”
(Catherine Ngai is a freelancer for MarketWatch. She can be reached at 415-439-6400 or via email at AskNewswires@dowjones.com.)
Have you checked your Facebook PhoneBook yet?
Image via CrunchBase
Facebook has shamefully added all of our friends phone numbers for everyone to see. Was this a mistake or the evolution of facebook? See it for yourself, go to the top right of your screen, click “Account” the “Edit Friends”. On the upper left side of your screen is the “Phone Book”. Everyone’s phone numbers are now being published. You need to manually change your privacy settings to fix this problem.
Unless Facebook changes their ways, you better get very familiar with the user interface on the facebook privacy page.
Harrisburg University’s attempt to block Facebook, Twitter and IMs fails.
Several days into the “shutdown,” the college’s inability to keep students away from social media is showing.
It was a bold ambition to begin with. Nationwide, 92% of students log into Facebook and spend an average of 147 minutes there per week, according to the Student Monitor. Harrisburg will not have a firm idea of how many students actually abstained from using Facebook and other blocked sites until it does exit surveys and focus groups. But Eric Darr, the provost behind the plan, says that based on his own anecdotal observations, the proportion of students who are actually going cold turkey is probably around 10% or 15%.
Meanwhile, some students have gone to great lengths to foil the university’s attempts to block them from accessing the sites on campus. Darr says he talked to three who hiked three blocks to log into Facebook from the lobby of a nearby hotel. Some particularly tech-savvy students have tried hacking the campus network to get around the block administrators put in place on Monday, says Charles Palmer, director of the university’s Center for Advanced Learning and Entertainment Technologies.
Still, the provost says that even if only a slim percentage of students actually renounce Facebook and Twitter for the week, the project will have been a success, if only because of the conversations it has started. The university never expected full abstinence from students, Darr says, nor was it trying to conduct a scientific experiment. “This extreme media coverage in and of itself is forcing more focus on social media,” he says, noting that he had just gotten off an interview with a radio talk show based in Seattle. “That was the whole point of this in the first place,” he says.
The proposed moratorium, originally reported last week by Inside Higher Ed, spread to some unlikely reaches, including a Latvian news site and NBC‘s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In his monologue on Monday, Fallon quipped that students assigned to write about the experience might title their essays, “We all have smartphones, dumbass.”
Not all, but some. “The blackout isn’t really that bad,” says Noel Stark, a junior at Harrisburg. “Anyone with a 3G phone can still view these sites on campus.” A number of faculty have also availed themselves of this workaround, says Palmer.
Then there is the fact, omitted from much of the media coverage (including Inside Higher Ed’s), that Harrisburg is nonresidential. Many students live nearby, but not under the umbrella of the campus wireless network. This means that while the college can try to prevent students from accessing social media sites in class, it cannot make students honor the spirit of the project once they get home. And it appears most students are not.
This is not to say the project has failed to inspire reflection. “Direct social interaction (aka the old fashioned face-to-face kind) seems to be increasing this week based on observation,” writes Rene D. Massengale in an e-mail. Massengale, an associate professor of biotechnology, says he has had thoughtful discussions about the project in his class. He says it has affected his interactions outside the classroom as well. “Sometimes I see a student I know with their head out of their PDA or computer, and I have to resist the urge to go introduce myself,” he says. “‘Hi, I’m Dr. Massengale — you know, that person who teaches your class.'”
Students in Harrisburg’s degree programs are required to have laptops, and, perhaps more than at many other colleges, students have their computers open in class. (“We are a paperless school,” says Mehdi Noorbaksh, coordinator of general education at the university.)
“It turns out that a number of them were on Facebook or chatting online,” says Palmer, the educational technologist. “We had one student who said, ‘I guess now I’ll have to pay attention in class.’ ”
“Some like it, some don’t,” says Gio Acosta, a junior. “Some say they’re getting [more] work done; some of them say, ‘I need my Facebook!’ ”
Acosta says he has been feeling the itch himself. Since being blocked from accessing the site on his laptop during class, Acosta has noticed an impulse to browse Facebook every 10 minutes or so. “I don’t know if that’s because it’s restricted, or because it’s part of me right now,” Acosta says.
He says he misses unwinding with Facebook between classes, when he does not have to be following a lecture but is still beholden to the proscriptions of the campus network. And Acosta has found it hard to keep track of his friends like he is used to, since most of them, remarkably, are more responsive to Facebook than to text messages. But while he is in class, the computer and information sciences major says, being barred from Facebook has helped him focus.
Once he gets home at night, though, Acosta says he makes sure to scratch that digital itch. “It’s fair game at home,” he says. “They didn’t make any rules about that.”
John Romant's Technology Blog 