Was I Part of a Test Group and Did Not Know About It? The Facebook Emotion Study

Almost all of my spare time is spent on social media – Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. It’s my way to connect with the outside world from the comfort of my home. Recently it was revealed by Andrew Ledvina, a data scientist at Facebook that from 2012-2014 these data scientist were allowed to run emotion manipulation studies. As a way to defend himself Mr. Ledvina’s published his viewpoints in the blog “10 Ways Facebook is Actually the Devil” as he said his words were taken out of context when talking to the reporter from the Wall Street Journal. If you are a person who spends most of your time on social media take the time to read the Forbes article “Ex-Facebook Data Scientist: Every Facebook User Is Part Of An Experiment At Some Point.”

The Forbes article points out some of Ledvina’s viewpoints, “The fundamental purpose of most people at Facebook working on data is to influence and alter people’s moods and behavior. They are doing it all the time to make you like stories more, to click on more ads, to spend more time on the site. This is just how a website works, everyone does this and everyone knows that everyone does this, I don’t see why people are all up in arms over this thing all of a sudden.”

I’m not one to notice how my newsfeed is set-up or how items are delivered to me in the feeds however I will be more aware in the future by watching which friends post are revealed and which advertisements are shown to me.

Photo credit: www.livescience.com

Spamming on Social Media

Many times we as individuals find ourselves in trouble with social media.  And although not done on purpose receive the much dreaded warning from Facebook or Twitter that I am spamming. Spamming on social media is easy to do without even knowing it. Facebook, for example, offers a great way to find friends using an algorithm to show mutual friends. I like having friends on Facebook, lots of them to be exact, but have gotten in trouble because I’ve sent out too many friend requests.

The user on the other end rejects my request and therefore I am marked as a spammer.

Here is a handy guide to know when and what happens in the various social media sites and what they consider spamming.

Photo credit: http://mashable.com/2012/07/09/social-media-cheatsheets/

Quick Social Media Image Size Cheat Sheet

Very often I find quick reference cheat sheets and guides to help me in the world of Social Media. Our friends at Constant Contact recently shared this handy guide. Enjoy!

Facebook by the Numbers

Did you know if Facebook were a country - it would be the 3rd largest country in the world? Andrea Vahl, social media coach, speaker & strategist talks about Facebook's staggering numbers and how your company can create a successful formula for social media success.

Are you using social media in your company?  We'd love to hear about your successes and challenges, we'll dig up the experts on topics that you want to hear more about.

Let us know in the comments below.

It's Not OK to NOT Know Social Media

"Dear Today Show," writes Andrea Smith in her recent obliteration of the popular morning show's hosts, "It's not OK to know nothing about social media or the internet anymore. I couldn't agree more.  I happened to catch the offending banter live as it aired and I made the comment to my husband, "How can all 3 of the hosts of NBC's morning show be so completely clueless about social media?"

Here's the clip, if you missed it. Skip straight to 2:20 for the bewildered repartee.

Granted, Willie states "Clearly, we're not the panel to have analyzed this story" and Savannah's ending note of "What's the take-away? We don't know either." Duh. Right?

As Andrea Smith says in her article;

"Reading the news and then proclaiming you don’t understand any part of it is the epitome of failure.  Social media and digital technology is no longer news; it’s part of the way we live our lives, how we communicate, how business is conducted. Kids use technology to learn in school, to get their entertainment, to compete in the world. They don’t call it technology; they call it life. Saying "I don’t get it, so I will just skip this part of a global revolution" is like saying "I don’t know how to drive a car so I'll keep riding my horse and buggy to work." Technology is not something we can choose to ignore."

Bravo!

You can read Andrea Smith's entire Mashable.com article here.

Stop Pitching and Start Connecting

Recently, GNIP hosted the Big Boulder Conference in Boulder, Colorado and Sandy Grason got a behind-the-scenes look at what the conference was all about. In this video, Sandy talks with Foundry Group and Tech Stars co-founder, Brad Feld about what Big Boulder Conference means to entrepreneurial communities like Boulder and what YOU can do to foster this kind of support and excitement in your community too.

This invite only event brought together the top publishers, industry leaders and consumers of publicly-available social data to discuss trends, best practices and how this data is changing industries of all kinds.

Brad said the main event is really what happens around the event, beyond people just pitching each other their sh*%, the conversation gets to "how are we going to solve this problem".

Technology Solutions Company iGivefirst

Technology solutions company iGivefirst facilitates donations to charitable organizations.  Sharif Youssef is the founder and CEO, of Giving Tools, Inc.  iGivefirst is a tool of Giving Tools and a for-profit professional fundraising company focused on philanthropy.  They are based in Denver, Colorado and have a national reach.

Using technology solutions reduces fundraising costs for nonprofits.   Nonprofits that use the iGivefirst button are able to redirect their work focus.   Not only is the charity’s end of the process made easier but donations can be made with a simple click—similar to the Facebook like button making the giving process easier.  They also centralize tax reporting to give the charity one receipt.

Technology solutions are needed because in the United States three billion dollars are donated a year to charity.  75 percent of that comes from donations that on average come in as $60.00 increments.  That is roughly 230 billion a year.  And only eight percent of the three billion comes from online donations.  Youssef, explains this is in part due to three online problems, donations online are not easy, trustworthy or secure.  iGivefirst.com solves these problems by having a 256 bit-encryption and taking on the donation receiving process.

Technology solutions will increase the eight percent of online donations to charities.  Through iGivefirst, Youssef would looks forward to increasing the eight percent online figure to 50 percent.

Media companies, bloggers and other digital media publishers can put their GIVE button on their websites. iGivefirst is currently open to partnership with nonprofits.  Having publishers add the iGivefirst icon to articles for readers to take the next step and donate is what they are reaching for.

For more information on iGivefirst, visit; www.igivefirst .com

Related articles

• Tis The Season for Giving (socyberty.com)

BranchOut

 

BranchOut opens avenues in job matching.  They are about connecting people with career opportunities.  With three million job posts and 20,000 internship opportunities it is no wonder that there are 1 million users on BranchOut.  80 percent of jobs are found through connections within networks.  BranchOut is a network within a network for job seekers and recruiters.  It’s all about whom you know and who knows you.  November 11^th is Veterans Day and BranchOut will has tools to translate military jobs skills into civilian job skills.  BranchOut also provides networking, referrals for hiring, sales leads and collaborative partners.  Being a network within Facebook allows the tapping into friends and friends of friend’s networks making degrees of separation to a job less degrees away.  Facebook has 800 million users so BranchOut’s networking possibilities are stunning.  The products BranchOut provides to sales and recruiters are: 1. Job posting; 2. Career connect and; 3. Recruiter connect.  Some users have found their ideal job, higher paying jobs, and leverage in having their network.  For more information, visit: www.branchout.com.

Related articles

• BranchOut Launches Facebook Recruiter Search Service to Compete With LinkedIn (insidefacebook.com)