Social Media

Twitter In The World Of Sports

As we all know, 2009 has been a year of growth for Twitter.  It seems like anyone who is anyone is updating their tweets frequently and that’s including high-profiled athletes from around the globe.  Here in the U.S. athletes, coaches and other team personnel who are part of either the NBA, NHL, or NFL, have all been given restrictions when using their Twitter and other social media accounts. 

This has recently caused some controversy, questioning if leagues are violating the First Amendment, which protects the Freedom of Speech.  Twitter actually falls under the First Amendment, but after a little bit of research, there can be restrictions as long as there are alternative methods available.  At the current time, the NBA has banned teams from using social media sites 45 minutes before, during and after the game, while the NFL will not allow twittering 90 minutes prior to the game until press interviews are done afterwards.  The NHL has said there is to be no Twittering from 30 minutes before the game until the game is over.  (more…)

Social Media & App’s Reaching The World

It seems that we can find just about anything on social media sites.  Whether it’s breaking news about Balloon Boy, looking for the latest gossip about Jon & Kate, or commenting on our friend’s status’, the world is only one click away from seeing what we post.  And while the point of social media is to have your voice heard and to share content with the rest of the world, Toyota & MySpace are trying to get voices heard even more.

Toyota, the Japanese car manufacturer, is using its social media app to showcase drawings on jumbo-trons in New York’s Times Square.  The Experience Prius app, which came out in August has added a new feature this week, which will allow you to take what’s on your iPhone screen to the big screen.

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Nigeria Uses Social Media For Electricity

Nigeria is thought of one of the poorest countries in the world.  Surprisingly, Nigeria is the most populous and oil rich nation in Africa, and every day millions are left out in the dark because the government does not offer constant electricity for many places through the country.  But now thousands are trying to use the power of social media to encourage the government to bring electricity through the nation.  

The Light Up Nigeria movement is an effort to bring constant electrical power to Nigerian homes and businesses.  Since the 1980’s the Nigerian Government, has been inconsistent in the supply of electricity, because of the corruption and sabotage within the governmental system.  Light Up Nigeria, which is citizen formed, states on their website that  ‘everyone in Nigeria is affected by the lack of constant power supply so everyone in Nigeria is part of the movement.’  That has become the way of life for Nigerians and a known fact about the country.  The lack of electricity has been blamed for the nation missing out on new investments and business opportunities.  (more…)

Social Media: The Swine Flu Vaccine

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is experimenting with social media sites to connect with the rest of the world to encourage people to get vaccinated for the Swine Flu. The CDC which has partnered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has created accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, MySpace, along with offering text message services, widgets for your personal website and several other ways of e-communication. 

The CDC has said they want to inform as many people as they can about possible outbreaks of the Swine Flu, and other future diseases.  Dr. Anne Schuchat, member of the CDC said, “We might see another wave after first of the year. It’s going to be important for people to take steps to protect themselves. We can’t predict what’s going to happen.” (more…)

Facebook & Myspace Teaming Up?

What seems like a bizarre move, Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, told The Telegraph, a British newspaper that Facebook and MySpace are in talks about teaming up and letting users share videos and music content.  This would also mean, that users could sign into their MySpace using their Facebook account information. 

Sandburg said to The Telegraph, “Facebook is focusing on building the best technology which helps people share content, while at MySpace they are focusing on more a content-led strategy. We would like to have their content, as we already do with many other sites, shared across our network because it is good for our users.” (more…)

Retailers Gearing Up For Holiday’s With Social Media

The National Retail Federation (NRF) released a survey this morning which stated that more online retailers are gearing up for the upcoming holiday season, and will be using social media too attract consumers.  This comes after the NRF reported on Tuesday, that they anticipate holiday shoppers to spend about 3.2% less than they spent last year, averaging about $682 a person.

The new survey said that over 47% of online retailers who were polled stated they would be increasing the use of their social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, realizing that shoppers are continuously on those sites, and that using these tools could be more effective.  Just over 60% said they have created or beefed up the companies Facebook page, while 59% have done that with Twitter.  And 66% of online retailers have added and improved on their company blog. (more…)

Microsoft’s Bing.com Teams Up With Twitter

Qi Lu, Microsoft’s Online Services President, announced at the Web 2.0 Summit today, that Microsoft’s new engine, Bing, has stuck a non-exclusive deal with Twitter.  The deal is an important one because it will be the first search engine to bring in real-time updates.  It is also important because there have been reports that Google, Bing’s biggest competitor, has been in talks with the social networking site, and hasn’t been able to come up with a contract.  Many Internet users are saying that this is a “big-blow” for Google.

Twitter updates have been available for search on Bing for quite awhile now, but today will be the first time, Bing users will be able search keywords and watch real-time tweets from Bing’s website.  Lu also said that this will open up many opportunities for future business deals among business’s world wide.    (more…)

U2’s YouTube Tour

One of the biggest band’s in the world announced via their YouTube Channel on Monday that they would be offering fans a live online concert .  U2, which will be ending their 360 World Tour next week in Vancouver, will broadcast their concert live from Los Angeles on YouTube Sunday night for fans around in the globe in 16 countries.  The concert has been sold out for quite some time but tickets on Craigslist are going for up to $1000 for those hoping to get a chance to see the band first hand. 

The band has apparently been wanting to reach out to their fans through social media according to U2’s manager Paul McGuinness. “The band has wanted to do something like this for a long time,” said McGuinness. “As we’re filming the LA show, it’s the perfect opportunity to extend the party beyond the stadium. Fans often travel long distances to come to see U2 – this time U2 can go to them, globally.” (more…)

Social Media Sets World Record

Over the weekend the social media world had the keyword #beatcancer tagged all over the web.  EVERYWHERE, an Atlana based Social Media Marketing firm had asked bloggers at BlogWorld, & the New Media Expo, which both took place in Las Vegas this past weekend, to put #beatcancer in their posts to spread awareness and raise money for cancer, which then started a trending topic on Twitter.  Radian6, who was the online monitoring company, announced this afternoon, that #BeatCancer broke the Guinness World Record for Most Widespread Social Network Message in 24 Hours. (more…)

Hollywood Banning Social Media

We have all had it happen at one time or another, where we post something that we shouldn’t have and later regret.  Although it hasn’t happened yet many film studios are working on banning the use of social media sites all together to the cast of their films, so that no details of projects will be released.

Dreamworks, which is known most specifically for their computer-animated films, is the first studio to announce that they are currently working on new contracts for Mike Myers & Cameron Diaz, who are scheduled to reprise their roles in the next Shriek saga, which will ban the use of social media sites.   The new contract will state that that the actors will be forbidden from posting any information on any Internet sites. (more…)