Captivating Connections.

Google+ gets made over, Hangouts integrate all senses & FB bonds w/Bing: Whit's Weekly Rundown 5/16/13

Check out this week's issue of Whit's Weekly Rundown, giving you the top 3 need-to-know headlines that happened in the social media space!

 

UPDATE: Google+ Gets A Makeover

At Google I/O, Google announced a slew of major renovations to Google+ focused on upgrading and enhancing its look and user friendliness. The redesign features a multi-column image-heavy layout, which feels inspired by Pinterest and Facebook’s respective layouts. Other upgrades include:

- Adding related hashtags to the Google+ stream

- Adding photo features such as ‘Auto Awesome’, which uses a set of photos in a user’s photo library to create a custom animated GIF, and ‘Auto Backup’, which will automatically back up a user’s mobile photos as they are taken.

Google also announced that there are currently 190 million people active in the Google+ stream. Are you one of them? Will these updates inspire you to become even more active (or active at all)?

Check out the new Google+.

LAUNCH: Google Hangouts App

In another I/O announcement, Google showed off a rebranded Google Hangouts, restructuring it a cross-platform, unified messaging system. By integrating G+ chat and Gmail, Hangouts users can now use Hangouts to text, share photos, and do group video messages across Google Hangout’s apps. Hangouts will be replacing Google Talk (aka GChat) and G+ Messenger, positioning itself as a potential challenger to Apple’s iMessage and to Facebook’s Facebook Messaging.

Check out the new Google Hangouts App.

UPGRADE: Comment On Facebook Posts Via Bing

Bing has introduced a new feature that allows users to see comments from Facebook that relate to their Bing searches via a sidebar. From any Bing search, the user can engage with the comments that appear, including commenting a post, Liking a post or accessing the entire post on Facebook. Other social layers Bing added include being able to post to Facebook directly from Bing.

These extensions of Bing’s social features mean that users will now not just see pertinent social results from their searches; they will be able to interact with them, adding a new layer of interactivity.

Read their full announcement.

YouTube tests fees, TweetDeck dumps FB & Facebook Home goes stealth: Whit's Weekly Rundown 5/10/13

Check out this week's issue of Whit's Weekly Rundown, giving you the top 3 need-to-know headlines that happened in the social media space!

 

BREAKUPS: TweetDeck & Facebook

If you use TweetDeck to manage your Facebook activity, you’re going to have to find another option. Tuesday will be the day TweetDeck discontinues support for Facebook feeds, part of its move from being a mobile app to focusing on web- and desktop-based apps (being acquired by Twitter doesn’t hurt, either). If you don’t remember to remove Facebook from your dashboard, TweetDeck will automatically remove it for you Tuesday, so don’t worry.

It will be interesting to see how TweetDeck’s move from being a social network aggregation tool to being solely focused on becoming a Twitter power user service will play out.

Read TweetDeck’s original announcement regarding discontinuing their apps.

 

UPDATE: Facebook Home Rolls Out To More Devices

After recently hitting the one million downloads mark, reports claim that Facebook Home is no longer only available on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung Galaxy S III and Samsung Galaxy Note II, or only available via preload on the HTC First. They claim that Facebook has quietly added Facebook Home support for HTC’s flagship HTC One and the flagship Samsung Galaxy S4. This is a bold push if true, showing how Facebook is aggressively going after the mobile phone takeover market.

Read more here.
Read about the 1 million downloads here.

 

TEST: Is YouTube Moving Towards A Pay Model?

YouTube has announced that it is launching a pilot program that enables YouTube’s select group of partners to charge subscription fees for access to their YouTube channels. Starting at $0.99 a month, the subscriptions will provide free 14-day trials, as well as discounted yearly rates. Among those partners is Sesame Street, who will be offering full episodes on their paid channel, as well as UFC, which will be offering full versions of events from UFC’s new channel.

Interested YouTube users can subscribe to paid channels from their desktops and laptops and watch across devices, but YouTube is looking to add the ability to subscribe from any medium/device.

What do you think? Would you pay?

Read the announcement here.

Check out the pilot list of channels here.

 

Instagram focuses on community, Twitter tailors & LinkedIn gets creative: Whit's Weekly Rundown 5/3/13

Check out this week's issue of Whit's Weekly Rundown, giving you the top 3 need-to-know headlines that happened in the social media space!

 

UPDATE: Instagram Isn’t Getting Ads Anytime Soon

 During their Q1 call, Facebook shared a lot of interesting information. For example, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that, in Q1, 3,800 developers bought mobile app install ads last quarter to drive 25 million app downloads. He also noted that 30% of its Q1 ad revenue came from mobile ads, up 23% from last quarter. With the major focus on mobile and on mobile advertising, it may have come as a surprise to some when Zuckerberg announced that, despite Instagram’s rapid growth (it is currently growing at a faster rate than Facebook did at the same age, and currently has 100 million users) and massive brand interest, Instagram will be focusing on building community vs. building an ad platform. While Instagram is inherently a great place for marketers to be, thanks to the power of images and it’s highly engaged community, it’s interesting to hear that commercialization isn’t in its immediate future.

Zuckerberg is right in regards to the power of community; while Instagram’s 100 million users pales in comparison to Facebook’s 751 million (for now), the choice to leave Instagram to grow ad-free is a testament to power of connecting.

Read the Q1 results: http://investor.fb.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=761090

Watch the call: http://www.shareholder.com/visitors/event/build3/stage/stage.cfm?mediaid=58501&mediauserid=0

 

UPGRADE: Twitter Adds Tailored Trends To Its Apps

Twitter has released updated apps for both Android and iPhone, adding the ability for users to look at Trends both from around the world as well as their local area. By selecting the Discover tab, not only can users see what is trending across Twitter globally (the default option up until now), but also they can now focus on tailored trends based on a user’s current location and who they follow on Twitter. Ideally the result would be a tailored trends feed that is reflective of a user’s interests and lifestyle.

Update your Twitter app and check it out: https://twitter.com/download

 

UPGRADE: LinkedIn Provides Creative Ways To Show Your Skills

LinkedIn has introduced a new way to showcase a user’s talents and skills, allowing users to add pictures and video for a more visual approach to self-promotion. This provides users the chance to show what they do and what their abilities are by including image-based content in their Summary, Work Experience, and Education sections of their LinkedIn profile.

While there are plenty of obvious applications (e.g. a photographer sharing their favorite photos to show their skills), this opens the door for unique and new ways to stand out (e.g. Vine resumes). Can't wait to see who gets creative and how they choose to do it!

Read about how you can upgrade your LinkedIn profile with images: http://blog.linkedin.com/2013/05/01/visually-enhance-your-professional-story-on-your-linkedin-profile/

 

Tumblr get ads & upgraded, FB Home hits a milestone & Twitter tests: Whit’s Weekly Rundown 4/26/13

Check out this week’s rundown of the 3 big things happening in the social space:

 

UPGRADE: Tumblr’s Big Week

This week, Tumblr made two big moves:

1. Tumblr introduced mobile ads. This means that the mobile Tumblr experiences on both iOS and Android devices will now include native ads, which will show up in a user’s feed. Unlike a traditional banner ad, these native ads will be marked by an animated ‘$’ sign, allowing Tumblr users to reblog or like the ad.

2. Tumblr launched an updated iOS app, adding features designed  to make the experience increasingly social. Users can now share posts via social networks (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), as well as save content for later (via apps like Pocket). Other updates include streamlining the content posting experience, as well as including animating GIFs (vs. non-animated GIFs) that users can view, even while scrolling through their feed.

 

RUMOR: Twitter Testing Two-Factor Authentication

Rumor has it that Twitter is testing two-factor authentication, a response to the recent slew of Twitter hackings (including the Associated Press @AP handle). Currently being  tested internally, the hope is that this process (which Google launched in 2011 and Microsoft launched last week) would make high-visibility accounts, such as Verified Accounts, a bit safer without negatively impacting engagement (because who wants to go through a slew of logins just to get to their content?).

 

UPDATE: Facebook Home Hits Half-Million Downloads

That was fast! As of this past weekend, Facebook Home (the recently announced Android “Facebook takeover” software) has been downloaded 500,000+ times. Not bad, considering it arrived at the Google Play store April 12 (it should be noted that this number does not include sales of the first phone to come with Facebook Home pre-loaded, the HTC First). While this number is small compared to the number of Android accounts, and user response has been mixed, it hints at user interest in integrating Facebook more deeply into the mobile (and everyday) experience.

Twitter plays a new beat, Facebook gets safe(r) & Snapchat has growing pains: Socializer 4/19/13

Welcome to this week's issue of Socializer, featuring the 3 big things that happened this past week in the social space!

 

LAUNCH: Twitter Launches Twitter Music

Twitter has announced the launch of Twitter Music, a new service that pulls in music from Rdio, Spotify and iTunes, while using data from a user’s Twitter follower graph to deliver the best music for any user & their distinctive tastes. If a user has an Rdio or Spotify account, they can sign into them within the app and stream full tracks. If not, any Twitter user still has access to iTunes’ music preview to discover music.

 

PARTNERSHIP: Facebook & The National Association Of Attorneys General

 

Facebook has announced an alliance with the U.S. National Association Of Attorneys General, focused on providing teen users and their parents with more tools and information to help them better manage their Facebook profiles and feel more confident abut their privacy. This consumer education program, which has all elements housed on Facebook’s Facebook Safety page, includes content like:

1. “Ask the Safety Team Video” series
2. “What You Can Do to Control Your Information” tip sheet
3. State-specific public service announcements with participating attorneys genera

Helping users understand their options and feel more educated when it comes to online privacy will be increasingly important to Facebook, especially as they work to add more and more features and options to the Facebook platform.

 

MILESTONE: Snapchat Reaches 150 Million Pictures Daily        

Snapchat, the auto-destroying picture-messaging service known in the press for how teens often use it, has reached 150 million pictures a day. However, like many companies, they have been experiencing some growing pains, this time in the form of spam. As a result, they are beefing up their security options to ensure a safe sharing environment.

 

BONUS POST: THE INTERACTIVE HISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA

This interactive site features the complete history of social media, starting out at BC and taking you through today!

Vine tries trending, MTV launches visual voting & Foursquare gets (more) personal: Socializer 4/12/13

Welcome to this week's Socializer, giving you the weekly rundown of the 3 need-to-know things that happened in the social space this week.

Upgrade: Foursquare 6.0
4 years and 3.5 billion check-ins later, Foursquare has launched its latest redesigned version. The redesign shines a light on Foursquare's focus on search, discovery and recommendations.

Key features include:

- Search now plays a more prominent role to provide options and potential places to explore in real-time.
- Mapping has been improved to include friends and trending places.
- Check In button has been improved to let people share and save the places they check-in to. 

 

UPDATE: Vine Launches Trending Hashtags
Exploring Vine content is now easier thanks to Vine’s new trending hashtags. Trending hashtags allow users to see which hashtags are increasingly in popularity in real time. The goal is to provide greater focus to Vine’s wide variety of content. 

 

SOCIAL TV: MTV Adds Live Instagram Voting To 2013 Movie Awards
The MTV 2013 Movie Awards is getting even more social this year, leveraging Instagram to let fans vote for the Best Hero category. By using Instagram photos and hashtags, viewers can now vote via both Twitter and Instagram, layering a new level of social conversation to the voting process (calculated live and displayed on the homepage). Any Instagram photo using one of the Best Hero category hashtags will be filtered into MTV’s ever-evolving grid, giving users a chance to get involved and be seen. 

 

BONUS UPDATE: Facebook Testing Emoticons
Anyone who has Emoji programmed into their phone knows just how much fun emoticons can be.

Facebook is currently testing emoticons that users can access in the status updates part of their profiles, allowing users to add even more depth (if you consider a smiley face or slice of pizza depth) to their update messages. The idea is to provide visual ways to describe what you’re doing and/or feeling instead of actually writing it out. It also provides potential ways to connect how you’re feeling and what you’re doing to actual content and brands.

This brand connection could lead to possible Facebook dollars sometime in the near future.

Facebook's phone takeover, Twitter wants app access & more: The CIC Socializer 4/5/13

Welcome to this week's issue of The CIC Socializer, giving you the weekly rundown of the 3 need-to-know things that happened in the social space this week.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Facebook Home
After a slew of rumors, Facebook finally addressed the chatter about the ‘Facebook phone’. While there are no plans to create a smartphone, Facebook announced Home, a new way for users to integrate Facebook into their smartphones, designed to turn an Android phone into a Facebook device. Home is a launcher service that is designed to work with apps users already have on their phones, and has a customizable interface that works with all apps (not just Facebook apps).

Starting April 12th, Home will be available on select Android smartphones via the Google Play store. Users can either run it as an application or as a deep launcher; Facebook is betting on everyday users opting to use it as a deep launcher for their mobile experience.

Check it out: https://www.facebook.com/home

UPDATE: Twitter Wants To Be Your Portal
Twitter is making moves to become the new portal to the mobile app ecosystem. What does this mean? It means that Twitter is working on finding ways to connect Twitter users to content found in mobile apps outside of Twitter’s app, such as content, shopping deals, etc. found on other apps. This could have a major impact the eCommerce universe, since the ability to link and connect to other apps, such as eCommerce apps, could create more seamless shopping opportunities.

Read more: http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/02/twitter-introducing-new-card-types-including-photo-galleries-at-developer-meetup/

UPDATE: Facebook Makes It Easier For Brands To Monitor Conversations
Facebook has updated its API to allow brands the opportunity to better monitor and respond to comment replies on Facebook. With the new ability to set up different comment “views” on Facebook posts, brands can better understand and track conversations as they unfold, providing them the chance to engage in more meaningful and real-time ways.

Read more: https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2013/04/03/new-apis-for-comment-replies/

BONUS FUN FACT: Half Of Instagram’s Users Come From Android
Who says iPhones have all of the fun? According Instagram, almost half of its 100M users come from Android users. This is especially impressive considering the Android app has only been around for about a year.

Read more: http://blog.instagram.com/post/47035276788/instagram-for-android-one-year-later-one-year

LinkedIn search improves, Google+ gets GIFied, Fitocracy grows: The CIC Socializer 3/29/13

Welcome to this week's issue of The CIC Socializer, giving you the weekly rundown of the 3 need-to-know things that happened in the social space this week.

UPGRADE: LinkedIn Search Functionality
Linked in has announced an upgrade to it’s search features, designed to make searching “even smarter and more streamlined.” New features include improved autocomplete functionality, suggested phrasing via way of a new algorithm, unified searches across multiple product categories & filters, and an improved ability to save user searches.

Check out a slideshow of the new features.

UPGRADE: Google+ Users Can Use GIFs For Profiles
Google+ has announced that users can now use animated GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) for their profile photos. These GIF-based profile photos will animate on a user’s profile page on both mobile and desktop, making the profiles more engaging (and potentially entertaining). Alongside the announcement, Google+ also shared a link to a Google search for “How To Create A GIF,” providing newbies with tips.

Google also announce a mobile update (for both iOS and Android) that features some of the upgrade functionalities that have been rolled out for desktop over the past months.

Here’s Google’s link to find out how to create your own GIF.

Read about the app update.

 

MILESTONE: Fitocracy Reaches 1 Million Users
Fitocrazy, a gamified social fitness tracker, has officially reached the one million mark, hosting over one million users via their gamification program. With the goal of requiring fitness motivation to help users take their fitness to the next level, the app is a free and useful way for those who need incentive, and enjoy aspects of gaming infused into everyday life.

The app also announced a partnership with Arnold Schwarzenegger to “help people find their Spark and spend at least 15 minutes a day doing something toward their health and fitness,” which includes a series of challenges leveraging their gaming platform and their growing community.

Read more.
Here are 160 of Arnold's greatest one-liners in one amazeballs video (because it's Friday).

Google spring cleans, Twitter turns 7, & YouTube hits 1 billion: The CIC Socializer 3/22

Welcome to this week's issue of The CIC Socializer, giving you the weekly rundown of the 3 need-to-know things that happened in the social space this week.

RIP: Google Reader
Google Reader, Google’s content application and platform aggregator of content served by web feeds, is being put out to pasture. The 7-year-old RSS Reader is being shut down due to “declining usage” as a part of Google’s “Spring Cleaning.” Reader users will be able to export their data, including subscriptions, before the service is shut down.


BIRTHDAY: Twitter Turns 7
HBD Twitter! This week marked 7 years since co-founder Jack Dorsey sent his first tweet in 2006. Today, Twitter is one of the world's largest social networks, with over 200 million active users and 400 million tweets sent out each day. 

MILESTONE: YouTube Reaches 1 Billion Monthly Users
This week, YouTube, founded in 2005, hit 1 billion monthly unique users. While Facebook hit that milestone in October 2012, and Twitter has more than 200 million actives users to day, this is an incredible feat for the video-sharing site. According to the YouTube, this means that now “nearly one out of every two people on the Internet visits YouTube.” Mazel!

Tumblr, Twitter, & Netflix, oh my! The CIC Socializer 3/15/13

Welcome to this week's issue of The CIC Socializer, giving you the weekly rundown of the 3 need-to-know things that happened in the social space this week.

 

UPDATE: Twitter Opens Tweet Archive Access To Users In 12 Languages

Twitter announced that they will be opening up its archive tool to users who use Twitter in 12 non-English languages, including German, Hebrew, Spanish, and Polish. This is a great way to provide users with new ways to engage with the service. For those English-language users, access to archives just became more widely available outside the U.S. Fun Fact: Did you know that 70% of Twitter’s 200 million-monthly user base comes from its international audience? True story!

Read the announcement here, and read about international users here.

 

UPDATE: Tumblr Updates iOS App

Tumblr, known for its image-heavy shared content, has launched an updated iOS app for iPhone and iPad. Updates include a brand new camera, allowing users to create photosets directly from the app. Other updates include increased URL connectivity and a more seamless interface, such as the ability to double-tap posts to like.

Check it out.

 

LAUNCH: Netflix Facebook Integration

Facebook has launched its Facebook integration for U.S. users, allowing Netflix subscribers who opt into the integration to see what their friends have been watching. Users can also share TV shows or movies to their Facebook wall, and share comments on what they have been watching. The hope is that this integration will give Netflix greater exposure and conversation opportunities. So now you’ll be seeing even MORE posts about House Of Cards and how “OMGit’samazingIloveit.”

Read more here.

 

BONUS POST: YOUR KIDS’ NEW FAV APP? Pheed

Could Phead be the newest "hot" app your kids are using? Declared “the new Twitter” by Forbes, Pheed is a new social media platform that lets you share text, photos, videos and audio. While the app is not ONLY for teens, not only did Pheed top the App Store’s social networking category in late February 2013, but Pheed recently told Mashable.com that 81% of its user base is between the ages of 14 and 25. It is currently available for free via website and mobile app, so check it out and thank me later for finding a new way to relate and connect with your kids.

Check it out.