• The Problem With Flash Mobs: The Word 'Mob' Is Your First Clue
    Earlier this week, Los Angeles experienced the power of social media -- and not in a good way -- after a popular DJ named Kaskade tweeted an invitation to his 92,000 Twitter followers to attend a "block party" to celebrate the opening of a music documentary about the Electric Daisy Carnival, a series of raves (I just totally dated myself), at Hollywood's famous Grauman's Chinese Theater. "Let's see if the magic of social networking will work today," Kaskade tweeted -- and boy howdy, did it ever.
  • Google+ Minus The Frenzy
    It's hard to know whether Google+ will succeed in attracting the large, stable user base it needs to be a viable social platform. I think even preliminary judgments on that score will have to wait at least three more months, considering it was just launched in late June. However, the latest traffic data from Experian Hitwise suggests the initial, publicity-fueled feeding frenzy surrounding Google+ is subsiding, giving us a better view of its actual appeal in the long term.
  • One In Five Users Regret Social Media Activity
    As ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner discovered to his detriment, careless posting on social media can have dire, humiliating consequences. But at least he's not alone. It turns out that 18% of Americans say they regret something they sent or posted online, according to the Marist Poll, a national telephone survey of 1,003 adults conducted by the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in mid-June.
  • Social Networks for Business Expanding
    While big mass market social networks like Facebook and Twitter grab the headlines, a new generation of social networks for businesses is quietly expanding alongside. They include companies like Bizzingo, which is launching a business-to-business social network, and Socialcast, which allows businesses to create their own proprietary social networks for employees.
  • Social Media Is Ideal for Publicizing Your Utter Insanity
    Spectacular, premeditated acts of violence like the bomb attack and mass murder at a political meeting for young people in Norway always leave questions about the motives of the assailant. While no one really expects to make much sense - let alone provide real justification - we do feel compelled to at least try to understand what the perpetrators were thinking. For their part the perpetrators are often eager to explain what "forced" them to commit mass murder. But like so many other things, in recent years the business of publicizing one's crazed beliefs has been transformed by social media.
  • Social Media "Incidents" Cost Companies
    Social media "incidents," including security breaches and negative publicity, have real financial costs associated with them, according to Symantec, which recently reported the results of its 2011 Social Media Protection Flash Poll, surveying 1,225 executives in 33 countries around the world.
  • How Big Is Google+, Anyway?
    Google+ has clearly been getting a lot of traction, both in terms of new users and publicity, but what's not clear is exactly how many people are using this social thing (which is not a network, thank you very much).
  • Facebook Scores Low in Customer Satisfaction
    Ubiquity does not equal quality, and that applies to social media sites as well as cable providers, according to a new survey of social media users by the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Specifically, the ACSI found that Facebook, by all accounts the dominant social network, has one of the lowest customer satisfaction rankings both on the Web and among major companies generally. How low? We're talking down by the airlines... ouch!
  • Pentagon Will Track Social Media Movements, Memes
    While there are still plenty of social media skeptics out there, one group of hardnosed pragmatists -- the U.S. military -- appears to be convinced that social media has considerable potential for organizing popular movements. And it makes them nervous.
  • Small Biz Ambivalent About Social Media
    Owners of small businesses are lukewarm about social media, even as they recognize its potential for connecting with existing customers and reaching new ones, according to a survey of 304 U.S. small business owners and managers by Hiscox. The findings suggest how far social media still has to go in proving its utility, especially in the area of measuring and demonstrating ROI.
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