twitter Tag

A Social Media Guide To Black Friday

It’s hard to believe, but the 2009 holiday season is upon us.  For the past several weeks, we’ve told you about companies gearing up for the holiday season.  While the ‘official’ start to holiday shopping doesn’t begin until Friday, companies have been using the power of the Internet in order to attract customers. Black Friday 2009 will definitely be different from years past, as Twitter and Facebookhave become a regulare part of our everyday life. (more…)

Twitter Founder: Site Not for Sale

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone assured reporters Monday that, contrary to popular belief, the microblogging website is not up for sale, and there are no plans for a sale.  However, Stone said Twitter may eventually go public on the stock market for funding if necessary.

“We are definitely not interested in selling the company,” he said.  Later on he suggested that Twitter could eventually eye an initial public offering (IPO). “If an IPO’s the only thing, then sure. But if there is some other way, then that would be great too. Maybe some other new way will emerge.” (more…)

News Corp and Microsoft Team Up against Google

It was just two weeks ago when News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said to Sky News Australia that he wanted to take News Corp websites off of Google.  This week, Microsoft has teamed up with News Corp to remove the sites from Google.  And at the same time, Murdoch paid Microsoft to include their results on their search engine, Bing.  (more…)

Record Exec Arrested after Failure to Tweet?

Over the weekend, James Roppo, vice president of Island Def Jam Records was arrested in Garden City, N.Y.  His crime: not tweeting.  Yes, as in not using the popular social networking site, Twitter. 

Roppo was in Garden City with Canadian teen pop sensation Justin Bieber, who was supposed to perform a free concert for the several thousand screaming teen-aged fans who had waited for him, lining up as early as 4 a.m., at the Roosevelt Field Mall.  Several hours before the 15-year-old’s concert, things got out of hand and five people were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries.  (more…)

This Week In Social Media: November 20, 2009

From “what’s happening” with Twitter, to Facebook becoming one of the top video sites, this is what happened this week in the world of social media. (more…)

‘What’s Happening’ With Twitter?

Twitter users around the world have a few questions to ask themselves.  “What’s happening?” In what might seem like a minor change to some, Twitter users are now implored to answer that question rather than “What are you doing?”

Twitter’s company blog had the following to say this morning: “Twitter was originally conceived as a mobile status update service—an easy way to keep in touch with people in your life by sending and receiving short, frequent answers to one question, ‘What are you doing?’ However, when we implemented the service, we chose to leave something out. To stay simple, Twitter did not require individuals to confirm relationships. Instead, we left things open. (more…)

Fortune 100 Companies Confused By Twitter

A recent report from Weber Shandwick, a New York-based public relations firm, shows that many of the Fortune 100 companies are still trying to figure out the Twitter phenomenon taking over the planet.  However, they are going to need to get onboard soon if they want to keep up with the world.  The social-networking site has been very useful for companies by giving customers another way to stay in contact with their business.

Surprisingly, 27 of the 100 companies had never even touched Twitter, while the other 73 companies had created a total of 540 Twitter accounts for various departments within their company.  While that seems like a lot of accounts, the report found that only 32% showed personality on their profile along with well-designed backgrounds in addition to names and/or photos of those who posted tweets. 

Four percent of the accounts were no longer used and was due to either the account being “set up specifically for an event that had since ended or the account was simply abandoned. “Eleven percent of the accounts were quiet, and were categorized as placeholders to prevent what is known as “brand-jacking.”  The term comes from companies creating an account so that no one else will take the account.  This can cause confusion and potentially damage company reputations.  This shows that companies realize the important of Twitter, but aren’t necessarily using it. The remaining 53 percent would post, but with no personality, and only posting company news or product information. (more…)

Can You Tell Me How To Get To… Twitter Street?

Traveling through a foreign country where you can’t really speak the language,  and looking at street names that you can’t even begin to pronounce can be quite challenging.  I know this from previous experience, traveling all over Europe and South America. 

I remember most specifically in Berlin, Germany, the streets of Kurfürstendamm and Dimitroffstraße.  Trying to ask for directions to these streets was near impossible.  I later learned that locals can’t even pronounce these streets, and that they resort to nicknames.

When I was little, I remember thinking how cool it would be if I could name all the streets in my town.  I’d name a street for every member of my family, and then have meaningful words become street names as well.  While I’ve been able to do this virtually in games like The Sims for some time now, being able to actually name a street  is finally possible. (more…)

Posting Photos to Twitter Simplified in U.K.

No matter where you go nowadays, someone nearby is either tweeting, taking a new profile picture for their MySpace page, or shooting a video to post on YouTube. 

The world of social media is all around us.  Twitter has been a great source of information for breaking news this year, since you are able to tweet from just about anywhere. You are able to update your status through text message, aka SMS (Short Message Service).  However, when it comes to posting a picture from your phone onto Twitter, you must have a smartphone and a Twitter app.  Starting today, that all changes.  Twitter users in the U.K. are now able to post pictures directly from their mobile phone via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).

(more…)

Social Media Words Enter Official Lexicon

“Word: something that is said. A speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use.”  That’s the definition of a word, according to Merriam-Webster. 

The world is full of them.  In fact, there are more than 258,000 words in the English language.  They range from everyday words to silly words like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  While most of us can actually pronounce supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, the longest word in the English dictionary is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which I’m not sure anyone can really pronounce.  Want to try pronouncing Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahul? No, I didn’t just hit a bunch of keys on the keyboard, either.  It’s actually the Maori name for a hill in New Zealand, and is officially the world’s longest name for a place.

These past few years, pop culture influenced which words make it into the English dictionary. Beyonce’s “Bootylicious” was added to the dictionary a few years ago, while the world of Harry Potter helped “muggle,” a person who possesses no magical powers, reserve a spot in the English dictionary as well.  While pop culture has had a significant impact on the world, it looks like it has stepped aside as social media starts to influence the world even more. (more…)