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. 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:
Haiti Relief
Since disaster struck Haiti this Tuesday, with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, social media has become a huge mechanism for disaster relief. Here are some ways social media is involved in helping:
- There have been over $5 million in donations to the Red Cross for Haiti, via Text Message
- Facebook pages and groups have rallied support, such as Facebook’s new Global Relief Page
-Google donated $1 million to Haiti Ground Support
- Word of mouth spreading via Facebook and Twitter users
Google Considers Pulling out of China
In December, Google’s infrastructure was attacked. The attack, which originated in China, was an attempt to hack email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Google has now decided to take a new approach to China. At the risk of having to pull out of China altogether, Google has made the decision to no longer censor results on Google.cn. Read the full Google Blog post here.
I’m with COCO
Last week was all about bra color on Facebook; this week, it’s all about CoCo. You may have heard the rumors that NBC was going to move The Jay Leno Show to later in the evening, pushing back the Tonight Show and The Late Night Show. Conan O’Brien wasn’t the only one upset by this decision- his fans have taken to social media to spread their disapproval. “I’m with CoCo” is a Facebook Page dedicated to supporting Conan regardless of what happens with the network…and it already has over 150,000 fans.
Growing Matters
Growth matters to Facebook, which is trying to expand our friend lists. This week, Facebook has made the automatic friend finder front and center on your news feed, showing three of your current friends who have used this feature, in attempt to get you to use it too. Growth also matters to Twitter, which is defending their growth. On Monday, Mashable posted an article showing stats on how Twitter hasn’t grown for several months. On Tuesday, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams tweeted about how usage is on the rise:
“Across all metrics that matter, yesterday was Twitter’s highest-usage day ever. (And today will be bigger.)”
Facebook Criminal Caught
In other social media news, the “Facebook criminal” has been caught. Craig “Lazie” Lynch escaped from a minimum security prison in September 2009, where he was serving a seven year sentence for burglary. After his escape, he taunted police on Facebook by posting pictures and status updates while on the run. It is not known whether Facebook lead to his arrest, but Lynch was apprehended in England on Tuesday night. When he escaped, he had 199 fans, and now has over 11,000 fans. He also had a Page, which has since taken down by Facebook, that had over 40,000 fans.
13
Could Pinterest Knock Facebook Off Its Perch?
by FeedbackLately, Pinterest seems to put the “P” in popular. The social network is on fire, and if you’ve seen the latest stats on the virtual pinboard you should know why. Natalie Brandweiner of MyCustomer.com shared that “According to Compete, the number of Pinterest’s unique visitors increased by 429% from September to December 2011 to reach 7.21m users and research by Shareaholic indicated the site has overtaken Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn for site referrals, generating 3.6% of referred traffic from January.”
Even as recently as this weekend Techcrunch reported that Pinterest has over 10.4 million registered users, 9 million monthly Facebook-connected users, and 2 million daily Facebook users. (It is important to keep in mind that some of these stats are still speculation or determined through number of Likes on Facebook so are not true active user stats, yet.)
Okay, so we know that Pinterest is popular. But the question is, just how groundbreaking will it be? Dean Browell, PhD and EVP at Feedback, tackles that question in the UK’s MyCustomer.com:
So there you have it. It doesn’t look like the interest with Pinterest is going to wane anytime soon. My interest, however, is now more focused on how its success is going to influence the leading social networks.
-Anna (@alucas9)