by Erik Sass on Sep 16, 12:10 PM
People who use Facebook a lot are more likely to fall for phishing attacks, for example by giving up sensitive personal information like usernames, passwords, or credit card details to cyber-criminals masquerading as trustworthy institutions. That's according to a new study titled "Habitual Facebook Use and its Impact on Getting Deceived on Social Media," published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.
by Erik Sass on Sep 15, 1:23 PM
Whether you're kicking back with your friends and watching the game, carousing with your Viking buddies in a 9th century mead hall, or preparing the deceased Pharaoh for the afterlife, nothing says "good times" like giving someone the gift of beer. Now there's a new way to share beer with friends through the magic of social media.
by Erik Sass on Sep 12, 11:56 AM
While a lot of attention has been paid to social media's potentially harmful psychological effects (including ample coverage on this blog, basically because I am a Debbie Downer) the fact remains that social media in itself is just a tool and therefore value neutral, meaning its effects can be good or bad; it all depends on how people approach it and use it. On the positive side of the ledger, there's a growing body of evidence that social media, in the form of online support groups and interventions, can help people lose weight.
by Erik Sass on Sep 11, 12:38 PM
Social media provides a treasure trove of self-reported information about pretty much every aspect of human existence, which researchers and forecasters are exploiting to forecast everything from disease outbreaks to economic growth to movie box office returns. Now regulators from the U.K.'s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency are studying how to use social media data to identify possibly dangerous drug side effects and interactions.
by Erik Sass on Sep 10, 11:45 AM
College campuses are hormonal hotbeds for social media, and collegiate entrepreneurs keep on churning out new social apps targeting the college population, just as granddaddy Facebook did back in '04. One of the more recent new entrants into the college social arena is Friendsy (not to be confused with dear, departed Friendster), which was started by two Princetonians, Mike Pinsky and Vaidhy Murti, back in 2013.
by Erik Sass on Sep 9, 11:10 AM
America's fearless corporate overlords have heard about this social media thing and they know it's important (that's what their caddy says anyway) but they're not exactly setting the world on fire when it comes to maintaining an active social media presence. Or so it would seem from the latest Social CEO Report from CEO.com, which recently checked up on the social media activity of Fortune 500 execs, and found it to be lacking.
by Erik Sass on Sep 8, 1:33 PM
Chief marketing officers plan to devote 21.4% of their total marketing budgets into social media spending over the next five years, according to the latest edition of The CMO Survey, a poll of 351 marketing execs by the American Marketing Association, Duke University and McKinsey and Company. That's more than double the current proportion of 9.4% of marketing budgets devoted to social media today, and the 13.2% predicted for a year from now.
by Erik Sass on Sep 5, 12:24 PM
Incredible as it may sound, an important part of the U.S. federal government may actually be, gasp, good at using social media -- or at least, better than the clueless traditional media. That's according to a new study showing that the U.S. State Department is better at using social media to connect with the general public in strategic places like the Middle East and North Africa than are many traditional news outlets.
by Erik Sass on Sep 4, 11:58 AM
Sometimes a round of mockery and derision works wonders: after blistering criticism from normally placid golf fans, the Ryder Cup's organizers have swiftly, and wisely, changed their minds and decided to allow fans to share pictures and video from the event pitting Europe and America's best golfers against each other, scheduled to take place from September 23-28 in Gleneagles, Scotland.
by Erik Sass on Sep 3, 12:08 PM
Some professional sports organizations seem to really get social media, and others just really, really don't. In that latter category apparently belong the American PGA and PGA European Tour, which have banned spectators from uploading pictures, video, or audio from the upcoming Ryder Cup in Scotland to social media, according to the Telegraph, which reported the news this week.