LinkedIn vs. Twitter & Facebook

Everyone seems to forget about LinkedIn due to the massive popularity among other social media networks including Twitter and Facebook. These two social networks have been in control of the marketing and media world, especially in the United States. However, LinkedIn has made the decision to further expand into China. On a side note, Twitter, Facebook, as well as Google are all generally blocked by China's government. As a result of LinkedIn's growing presence in China, LinkedIn has already acquired approximately four million new users. 

The new Chinese-language website aims to broaden the LinkedIn business world. "Our mission is to connect the world's professionals and create greater economic opportunity—and this is a significant step towards achieving that goal,” Derek Shen, LinkedIn’s president of China, wrote in a blog post. In addition, Shen wants to continue upgrading the technological world at the same rate and pace of the business world. Because of China's hands-on government, this could become very difficult. 

Due to China's strict government regulations, censorship will definitely come into play. The company must regulate and censor any content from the users in China. Any information outside of China will not be censored. The creation of the Chinese website makes it much easier for the Chinese government to control the content of their users. Traditional LinkedIn users do not typically or traditionally censor content. However, this massive expansion into a huge business-oriented economy is a major step forward for LinkedIn. 

In my opinion, social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook all can not only serve as personal profiles, but as well as business profiles, professional portfolios, and any other business-oriented utility. LinkedIn's expansion into China really sets them apart from Twitter and Facebook, especially in the business world. In general, this is LinkedIn's opportunity to finally become the definitive professional publishing platform.

For more information, here's the link to the whole story.
http://qz.com/180755/linkedin-is-doing-what-facebook-google-and-twitter-cant-expanding-in-china/

How to avoid experiencing a #overload.

Hashtags are nearly a language all their own. They can be helpful tools to find related topics and conversations. They've found their way from Twitter to Facebook, Instagram and Google Plus.

Let's be honest though, we all have that one friend who just doesn't seem to be doing right. #Every #word #they #write #needs #to #have #a #hashtag. Annoying, right? There is help!

There are multiple resources on the Internet on how to better use the  overworked hashtag and start making more sense of your posts.
Ken Mueller on socialmediatoday.com provides insight on how to make better use of these overabundant markers.

Mueller warns his readers to "use your hashtags sparingly". Your friends and followers will greatly appreciate your selectivity and your results will greatly improve.

Not sure if you're a compulsive #hashtagger? Watch this video, and see if it sounds familiar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA

















http://mashable.com/2014/02/24/hashtag-etiquette/

http://socialmediatoday.com/kenmueller/1613406/hashtags-proper-use

From Sky Drive to One Drive, It's More than a Name Change

After loosing a legal dispute Microsoft changed the name of it's cloud storage service SkyDrive to OneDrive. Microsoft has gone through an extensive list of names for it's storage services such as FolderShare, Windows Live Sync, Live Mesh Beta, and Windows Live Mesh. However, OneDrive is more than just a name change. This service includes new features and emphasizes that OneDrive is the one place for all of your content.

The old SkyDrive offered automatic camera uploads from your iOS and Windows phone but now OneDrive is opening up this feature to android users. Anyone who turns on this feature will get an extra 3GB of storage, including existing users. Additionally, anyone who signs up for OneDrive receives 7GB free, and the more friends you invite the more storage you can get. However, they did put a limit on this bonus for a maximum of 5GB.

Microsoft has made some other changes to specific features such as their Office 365 app, a web based collaboration software. The change allows for instant collaboration by letting users see characters others are typing. OneDrive has also decreased uploading time for videos by using something called MPEG-DASH, which allows for high quality streaming. Also, Microsoft is offering monthly payment options for this service which used to be sold yearly. Lastly, to promote OneDrive the first 100,000 customers will be given 100GB of storage for free. How long will Microsoft stay with OneDrive? I guess we will have to wait and see.

Read the article at Mashable.com

Image retrieved from techspot

Love is in the Tweets!

Valentines Day is a great excuse to share adorable pictures of you and your loved one. Sharing updates on your love life has always been a part of social media and this year politicians got on board.

Subscribers of twitter were no doubt bombarded by messages of love and romance; two things hardly associated with politics. So, this year seeing the human side of some of the most powerful men and women in the country was a simple reminder that at the end of the day we all want to be loved. 

For this blogger, it was refreshing to see a human side to people that can come of cold, uncaring and down right scary sometimes. On this day that we celebrate the loved ones in our lives, it's a good reminder that we all have people we love and maybe, just maybe, if we let the spirit of Valentines day carry on throughout the year, we'll all be a little sweeter to each other.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/02/michelle-obama-tweets-a-valentines-day-love-note-to-potus/

Facebook's new gender options provide trans* recognition

New gender neutral options on Facebook provide more options
to its trans* community users, among others.

If you were to ask someone who uses social media frequently, they would most likely tell you that sites like Facebook and Twitter seem to make changes every day. Formats to profiles, the layout of the site itself, even the logos of sites can change in a heartbeat; it comes from having a platform that needs to adapt and adjust so often to a changing environment. Recently, Facebook made one such change that works in the favor of a large section of its user base. Until recently, when someone signs up for a Facebook profile they would have had two options for gender: male and female. These would be reflected both in their profile and in other, smaller ways across the site: write on Bob’s wall for HIS birthday, send Marie a gift for HER anniversary, things like that. After the most recent change, though, Facebook has now made gender neutrality an option for its transgender, genderfluid, and other nonbinary users (users who may not fall under the traditional “male” or “female” identity). Allowing the input of a “custom” gender makes it so users can now identify themselves to their friends as a transgender male or female, bigender, gender questioning, and a number of other options. The change may not seem like all that large of one, but for those whom it affects it makes a great deal of difference. Now those who do not fall under a binary umbrella can accurately and authentically express their identity, and maybe help raise awareness of the trans* community as a whole. If you'd like to read more: http://on.mash.to/1eKxPc6

Hackers can be Heroes

The article this blog is based upon was posted on February 11th and can be found at mashable.com

The term “hacker” automatically has a negative connotation, but Christian Lopez Martin turned his name “hacker” into “hero.”

Martin is a self-identified freelance security researcher and as such, he found an intense bug in the coding of mobile Instagram. The bug would have allowed strangers to view users’ personal photos, but Martin brought his work to Facebook and they have since corrected the problem.

Martin reported the problem through part of Facebook known as the White Hat Program, which is known for compensating the security researchers that show responsibility. The minimum payment is actually $500 whereas Martin was able to receive a number within the four-digit realm due to the “severity and creativity” of the bug.

Apparently the fix time on the bug was six whole months, but the majority of the problems were resolved only a month after Martin brought it to their attention. The article urges that “given the fact that Instagram rolled out private messaging in December, it seems as though Instagram dodged a bullet when Martin brought the bug to light before the new feature was introduced.”

I actually question if security researchers like Martin, look for companies that are launching something new or even just ones that are well off and then plant their own bugs to which they can provide the solutions to and receive compensation. I can only imagine that if they are smart enough to find and stop a bug, they can make one. 

Facebook Knows About Changes To Your Relationship

     Facebook knows about the changes in your relationship - before you even tell the website.

     We all know Facebook collects personal data. The company tracks our locations, how often we post, what we post, what websites we visit, etc. What you might not know, perhaps, is that Facebook tracks our relationships. Now, according to an article posted Friday on mashable.com, Facebook can predict the status of our relationship before its public.

     Facebook has been collecting data about our relationships since 2010. They now have enough metrics, they say, to predict when a relationship will start, when it's at its peak, and when it will end, all based on the amount of times we post on our significant other's wall.

     I always knew to be cautious about what I post on Facebook, and I knew that Facebook collected some personal data. I did not know that Facebook stored that data, however. It's a big leap, at least in my mind, from keeping data that's relevant to website metrics and storing data for extraneous studies. I can't think of anything useful that would come from Facebook knowing about our relationship statuses - they aren't a part of our relationships, so why should they care what our personal relationship statuses are? I think this is the new beginning of 'privacy' on the Internet: everything we post, no matter how inconsequential, will be used for new "studies" that are actually just invasions of our privacy and personal lives.

If you want to read the mashable article it can be found here.