Posts Tagged ‘2010’

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week (01/29/10)

Friday, January 29th, 2010

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest and coolest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place (and if the answer is yes, leave a comment with your favorites). I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:

iPad:

On Wednesday, Apple had their much anticipated press conference, where Steve Jobs introduced apple’s latest product, the iPad. Here’s the facts:

  • 9.7 inch display
  • Runs iPhone apps
  • Can be used as an eReader
  • Holds music, photos, and movies
  • Has Wi-Fi capabilities
  • Comes in 3 different memory sizes
  • Starts at $499

The verdict? Well, according to Twitter, it’s split down the middle. A study from Trendrr revealed that 48% of tweeters reacted positively to the iPad unveiling & 52% did not.

Twitter’s Local Trends:

After a test roll out last week, Twitter has finally made local trends available to all. As of now, everyone can view trending topics for 15 different cities and 6 different countries. So, if you want to see real time results of what’s trending in D.C., or even Brazil, now you can. Worldwide trending is still available, and Twitter is working to get more locations added to the list.  Learn more from Twitter’s Blog spot here.

The Facebook Friend Study:

An interesting study documented this week says our brains can’t keep up with the amount of friends we have on Facebook. It’s similar to a study done in the 1990’s known as Dunbar’s number, which concluded that the human brain is only capable of managing friendships with 150 people. The study is now in the process of being done again, and this time it’s taking online relationships into account, such a Facebook friends. The preliminary findings are out, and the interesting thing is that it appears nothing has changed…our brains are still only capable of maintaining 150 relationships- be it online or offline.

Data Privacy Day:

Yesterday, January 28, 2010, was International Data Privacy Day. Data Privacy Day is a day used to raise awareness and promote online privacy education. Many social media publications “celebrated” by providing a bit of privacy education. AllFacebook has an article on the 5 Facebook Privacy Tips You Need To Know Now, Wired has an article discussing the necessity of safe passwords, and a ReadWriteWeb wrote an article on some of the issues with privacy online.

LinkedIn’s Connection Browsing Updates:

It was announced this week that LinkedIn will soon be rolling out new ways to browse connections. LinkedIn is adding a panel that makes it easier to browse contacts by location, company, or industry. The social networking site  is also tagging connections with keywords, such as “colleague”, “classmate”, and “friend,” and has added an option to browse by recent activity.

-Anna (@alucas9)

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Social Media In Richmond: A Story of the Year?

Monday, December 28th, 2009

My suggestion for Richmond BizSense’s stories-of-the-year:

I think I’d have to say that there are some obvious Richmond-related stories of the year (recession, Flying Squirrels, Ukrops, blizzard) but I would be remiss not to point out that 2009 was the year that social media really conquered Richmond. Not meaning just social media “gurus” squeezing tightly around the tactics, but a true floodgate open of the average consumer, non-profits and small to large businesses hitting the ground running. So much so that every one of your likely year-end events has a traceable footprint in social media due to the buzz or bust the news created or the ineptness of some to respond quickly or appropriately to the activity. It mirrored an adoption rate (in the public sense) of the rest of the country, but Richmond, as always, tends to do things its own way and at its own pace. Consider that one of the most surprising and swiftly-large, multi-generational Richmond groups is the brand-new Social Media Club of Richmond (SMCRVA) who routinely sells out their excellent events despite having come into existence seemingly out of thin air, even before Ashton Kutcher and Oprah put their hands in social media.

Even though this is coming from me, I don’t mean for this to be an all-glowing, positive take on social media as a story-of-the-year. Social media is what it is, defined by the online community and real-life cultures it reflects. Richmond learned some lessons this year in its embrace, but the starkest one was clear: this is a medium run by the people. Businesses of all shapes are just guests. As I tell those I teach for the Virginia Department of Business Assistance or the day-long workshops at University of Richmond’s Institute on Philanthropy (two types of classes that show you the reach of emerging media in Richmond): make sure you listen first before you get into this space at all, because the party has already started. We don’t own the house where the party’s at, and nobody needs us to get to or from the event. In 2009 the party was joined by such a massive amount of Richmond in some way, from a surge of LinkedIn and Facebook joiners to individual restaurants within hotels being on Twitter, that it certainly warrants its place at the table among any other respected medium for our region — like it or not.

-Dean (@dbrowell)

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