Social Round-up #37

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams. 

This week: judges can Google; the Conservative's Great Social Media Adventure; and marketing on Chatroulette… in Lycra.

Plus: we'd still love your feedback on these updates: tweet Yay! or Boo! to @emodkate. It'll take ten seconds, promise. 


THE HEADLINES ...

THE LOWDOWN ...

NEWSBYTES ...


THE HEADLINES ...

So: after months of tossing and turning; of agonized grimaces and broken nights, Google has finally pulled the tooth that was ailing it, and quit China: an April 10 pullout is mooted. In an effort to continue offering uncensored results to its Chinese users (and not at all to cling on to the revenue potential attached to 800 million Chinese internet users – don’t be ridiculous), Google began redirecting users to their uncensored Hong Kong site, announcing that they’d be ‘carefully monitoring access issues’.Sure enough, the Chinese government began disabling certain search results, and China’s national mobile provider dropped Google as its default search engine. Chinese netizens found themselves back where they first began: censored.

But to be perfectly frank, they don’t seem all that fussed. China’s increasingly affluent middle class have, till now, been avid Googlers; but even amongst this key constituency there was little sympathy for Google’s position, with many, according to the Telegraph, feeling that the company had been disrespectful of local mores, a feeling even more pronounced amongst ‘mainstream’ Chinese. So when, for a short while on Tuesday morning, Google’s corporate pages were displayed in Chinese, many cried ‘hack’ - despite Google’s protestations.

Meanwhile, Dell and Go Daddy want to join the Leavin’ Train, with the latter telling a US Congress committee hearing that the company no longer had the stomach for domain-registrations in China, where new regulations now demand photo ID from anyone registering a .cn domain.

But Westside, Google’s self-penned profile as ‘stout defender of internet freedoms’ is increasingly under scrutiny. Co-founder Sergey Brin’s Guardian interview, in which he positioned Google as Poster Corp. for digital liberation whilst berating Microsoft for working within China’s rules, got backs a-bristling: several commentators pointed out that this was Google’s own strategy until – ooh, three months ago? Fred Teng in the Huffington Post, meanwhile, calls for tolerance for China, whose journey from feudal island to globally-connected digital nation has, he points out, been laudably swift.

There’s not many matters in this world upon which we can all agree – but the proposition ‘Nestle’s week has been a bit ...meh’ might, I suspect, be one of them. Item: their Facebook page was targeted by Greenpeace. Item: their response went from ‘placatory’ to ‘I’m deleting yo’ account’, then dashed back to ‘I never meant to hurt you’ - in what felt like moments, with bystanders gazing on in open-mouthed horror. At the time of going to press, Nestle’s Facebook page was best described as a sit-in - and this painful episode can’t fail to spotlight the huge variation in the quality of brands’ moderation policies. Jake McKee has some useful thoughts here – upon which we were delighted to comment.

Brace yourselves - Facebook’s latest privacy battle could have huge implications for all UGC platforms, potentially shifting the responsibility for protecting personal privacy away from users, and onto social networks. European regulators are investigating whether the privacy of people whose photos and videos are posted on social networks is being habitually breached.

There’s been a deal of huffing and puffing about the upcoming ‘Social Media Election’, with BBC journalists explaining Twitter to social slowpokes, and expounding on how both parties are utilizing it to sway voters. Facebook launched a new page called Democracy UK, where its posting news of a political nature for all and sundry to comment upon); our clients ITN hosted a live online debate during their Budget Special; and new tools for tracking party-political sentiment - like Yomego's, pictured here - are being launched Left, Right and Centre.

The Tories were first out of the gate: it emerged that they were outpacing Labour on Facebook by a ‘connection’ ratio of two to one. Alas, their social success went straight to their heads and, minded to build upon their initial victory, they launched a rather snazzy Facebook campaign which incorporated a Twitter feed of the hashtag #cashgordon.

Alas, opponents discovered that the feed was entirely unmoderated, and took the opportunity to bombard the site with an awful lot of – how to put it? - brand-negative comments. Worse still, they discovered that the site didn’t strip html, allowing those less-than-positive reviews to really, you know, shine out. The website was removed later that day.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown has described ‘superfast’ broadband as the “electricity of the digital age”. Outlining Labour's plans, he promised ziptastic speeds for every citizen, as well as a webpage through which to manage their interactions with local government – a proposal which, according to the government, could slash billions from the public service budget, and generate a quarter of a million jobs.

Best not to mention, then, the ongoing brouhaha over the government’s plans for our digital future which, it must be said, are not meeting with unqualified support.

THE LOWDOWN ...

Following a tip-off from the FBI, French police arrested the man responsible for hacking Barack Obama’s Twitter account late last year - then released him, after he claimed that, far from being a master-criminal, he’d simply guessed the President’s password (His birthday? “ThePrezz”? or [gulp].. “password?”). All rather embarrassing for the man they’re calling the first president of the digital age.

Then, in an intriguing instance of plot-thickening, ReadWriteWeb revealed unconfirmed reports that the hacker was the very same bounder who leaked Twitter’s confidential business plans to TechCrunch, who chose to publish them, despite a flurry of controversy.

Truth is, there’s not much in digital life that can truthfully be called ‘secure’ – this was the takeaway from the annual Pwn2Own contest at the CanSecWest security show, which challenges hackers (sorry, ‘security experts’) to break into a roster of everyday devices and software. This year, the scallywags succeeded in hacking into nearly every major browser (Safari, Firefox and IE8), as well as stealing the entire SMS database of a non-jailbroken iPhone.


Eew. Director of Public Health Peter Kelly this week claimed that the rise of social networking has produced an alarming spike in reported cases of syphilis. Sites like Facebook, he said, were “making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex,” and several of the syphilis cases he’d seen “had met sexual partners through these sites.” Facebook, understandably keen to quash the ‘ridiculous’ idea, pointed out that correlation is not quite the same as causation. Nevertheless – yikes. 

Ah, hindsight is always 20:20; foresight - not so much. All the more impressive, then, is the inspired guess made by Nik Tyler, who a year ago registered three domain names: ipaddownload.com, ipaddownloads.com and ipaddownloads.net. They are now on the market; a million bucks will snag all three. 

You have your lycra tiger-suit ready? And your scary clown-mask? Good, then we’ll begin our ‘Marketing on Chatroulette’ 101, as taught by Stage Two Consulting. They advise marketing execs wishing to explore the potential of the latest social craze to “have several masks/outfits available in case the occasion arises.” Bless.

Facebook’s Gross National Happiness Index has landed in the UK, revealing the emotional ineptitude of the average Brit in all its glory - we are, it seems, only really free with our emotions in the matter of family, TV and the Weather. Disappointingly, the Index focuses on extremes of emotion – happiness, or sadness – and so fails to track those sentiments which, in my experience, are most frequently demonstrated by we Brits: ‘mild annoyance’, ‘qualified enthusiasm’, and ‘schadenfreude’. 

This is genuinely rather impressive – Franklin Page, a fleet-of-thumb employee of text-software company Swype, has beaten the World Record for texting at speed: you can watch and marvel here.

Huzzah – the astonishing and bizarre viral clip of a Russian lounge singer warbling something called ‘Trololo’ has been given it’s own iPhone app! If you’ve not yet had the pleasure, do take a look: you will be tickled pink, or horribly disturbed – one or t’other.  


NEWSBYTES ...

Online dating is now so mainstream an activity that it’s now bigger than the online adult industry, and is worth a humungous one billion dollars per year, according to this new infographic from Online Schools.

A US federal appeals court has ruled that a judge who is unsure about a matter of common knowledge may use Google. Never again will a member of the bench be flummoxed by the name of a popular beat combo.  

Analysts are predicting that Apple will bite 40% of the tablet and e-reader market this year, sending shares zooming. And the iPad is already attracting high-end and big-name advertisers to its apps, causing ripples of relief to bloom throughout an anxious ad industry. The New York Times reporting that the going rate is anywhere between $75,000 and $300,000, and adds that it’s already sold its first two months of post-launch inventory. 

Schoolkids in Japan will be using Nintendo DS's in class before the end of the year, the education authorities there having spotted the platforms wealth of educational titles. 

Global web use continues its relentless upward trajectory, with users on average spending 5.5 hours on social networks last month – up more than two hours on the previous year’s figures. 

New data from Hitwise suggests that users who come to news sites via Facebook are more loyal than those who are directed by Google news.

And finally, stop counting those Twitter stats. New research finds very little correlation between Twitter counts and actual influence – so there.  

That’s all folks!

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Tweet, meet, give at Twestival 2010

As my boys set off for school this morning in a welter of habitual protest, I was inspired to write about Twestival, this year supporting those children (and adults) who'd give anything to have the opportunities my boys were trying so vocipherously to avoid.

Twestival's nearly upon us, and the rate of tweets about it are reaching crescendo level. In case you've had your head down a different social media hole for the past couple of years, Twestival is a great way that social media-ites can a) have fun and b) raise money for charity.  (Should I have put that the other way around?)

Twestival started in Feb 2009 - a simultaneous event in 202 cities worldwide, it raised over 250k USD for @charitywater, which resulted in more than 55 wells in Uganda, Ethiopia and India and a direct impact for over 17,000 people. Watch the videos of the first Twestival well drilled in the village of Mai Nabri, Ethiopia to feel good about yourself if you donated.

Then in September last year, 130 cities took part in Twestival local - the same idea, to raise money for charities, but this time they got to choose their own causes.  Collectively, these cities raised over 450k USD for 135 charities, bringing the total fundraising effort in 2009 to over 750k USD.

This year, the event on 25th March will raise money for @Concern, and help the 72 million children in the world who can't attend school.  Concern Worldwide has been selected by the Twestival global team and local organizers to be the recipient because of their comprehensive and well respected approach to education. 

Watching my column roll on the #Twestival search is fascinating. Tweets are flooding in from Hong Kong, Bangalore, Exeter, Galway, Deli, Cape Town, Jerusalem, Rio ....it's all giving me a Live Aid kind of lump in my throat.  If just 30 of my followers on Twitter came to @LDNTwestival it would be enough to send FOUR children to school for a whole year.  That's quite something. And because Twestival is organised, staffed and entertained by volunteers, ALL the money raised goes to the charities.

Watch the video here   Then book your ticket.  And if you can't make it to a Twestival event to meet friends, network and carouse, then you can bid on the Twestival auction. The hashtag is #twestival for the worldwide event and of course each location has its own Twitter address - @LDNTwestival in London's case. 

If you can get to the London Twestival  at the Cable Club  at London Bridge, eModeration have donated some iPod Nanos to what looks like being a fantastic auction - just one of the events in a great evening planned. Please tweet me @emoderation and we'll try to meet up.  (I promise I won't sing in the Karaoke, honest).

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Gaming Communities In A Nutshell

NeoGAF is a popular and influential game discussion forum, notable for being one of the few online communities where industry insiders dare to out themselves. Accordingly they’ve got a comprehensive set of rules and etiquette guidelines, but this is a games forum and flame wars are likely and frequent occurrences. It’s vital to have moderators with their heads screwed on but one in every thousand profanity-filled, Godwin’s Law-invoking riots manages to produce something remarkable.

Recently, member “cuyahoga” started a thread to tell the forum about how surprised he was to be enjoying Imagine: Babyz Fashion – an E rated game designed for young children. Naturally the community couldn’t resist the opportunity to tell someone that their taste in games was wrong, nor miss out on a chance to call someone a paedophile, so that’s the direction the thread took. cuyahoga fought back, alluding to the strong language and violence in more conventional video games:

“So, I'm a pedophile because I don't want to play Dudebro, My **** is ****** Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time? To throw around these sort of accusations at someone who seeks to do something different suggests quite the insecurity on your part.”

From here things could have gone one of three ways. The thread could have been deleted or locked to prevent the argument escalating further. Alternatively cuyahoga’s comment could have been the seed for a spirited debate on the morality of adult content in games. The most likely scenario was the continuation of the flame war but what actually happened was quite surprising.

cuyahoga’s fictional title struck a chord with posters who began to discuss what a game called “Dudebro, My **** is ****** Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time?” might be like. It took just one hour for someone to mock up an image of the game’s box art and that was the first of many imaginings of character design and marketing material.

On the next day a 3D model of the titular “Dudebro” was created in ZBrush, a professional digital sculpting tool, and all of a sudden “D:MSIFUSIHTS/SY2” started to look like a real game. Programmers, sound designers, artists, and writers came forward volunteering to work on a community project to design, build, and release a PC game.

Three months later, the game is some way into development and is getting coverage in respected magazines like PC Gamer. Something that will interest the – dare I say – nerdiest of eModeration Blog readers is the recent acquisition of professional voice actor Jon St. John, best known as the voice of Duke Nukem. (If that means nothing to you, you have either passed or failed the test, depending on your perspective).

This may all have started from a flame war and a fairly juvenile joke, but what a fantastic example it is of what online communities can achieve, even without any significant influence from community managers. If you’re a community manager, perhaps you could be asking yourself what you could have done to turn the situation around if the members themselves hadn’t done so? What have you done in similar situations?

NeoGAF are now proudly displaying their members’ work and they’re responding in kind with affectionate references to the community within the game and on its own dedicated website.

That’s gaming communities in a nutshell; extremely volatile but wildly creative, highly motivated, and fiercely supportive of the community name and culture. Managing one is a very high maintenance job but if there’s a more rewarding role in the industry I’m yet to hear of it.

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Why a CEOP panic button may not be right for Facebook ...

 .... but their moderation certainly need a fix.




I was just having a little think about Facebook’s news yesterday  that it won’t be putting a CEOP panic button on all of its pages. Instead Facebook says it will have links to organisations including the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) centre on its reporting pages.

Although I’m a huge supporter of CEOP’s marvellous work, I have to say I can see Facebook’s point.  


Grooming activity is not the only reason why people may want to report a post – think of bullying, copyright, hate crime, terrorist activity, inappropriate language or imagery – there are a multitude of reasons why one user may wish to report another.  If a CEOP panic button were prominent on each post, the danger would be that all these issues would be reported to CEOP and not Facebook.  This would potentially be extremely counterproductive.  CEOP would be drowning in issues it cannot directly act on and potentially missing time-crucial grooming complaints. 



There would probably be a significant delay in take-down time and user accounts being blocked if the wrong route was taken to report inappropriate material. (Interestingly though, the CEOP report button does take you to a page where children can get help with dealing with cyberbullying: it's top of their list actually, well above sexual behaviour).


Although it’s part of the Virtual Global Taskforce, CEOP is a UK police organisation (though obviously with links to international forces).  Facebook cannot offer the same facility on all its sites, but it could offer tailored local links to help centres on each national site.


If my understanding of the recent tragic murder of Ashleigh Hall is correct, (a seventeen year old girl who was lured by a man using a false identity on Facebook), then a CEOP reporting button would probably not have helped.  She didn’t think she was being groomed by a much older paedophile.  She thought she was starting a relationship with a handsome young man her own age.  And we have to be realistic about this: research shows that there are some vulnerable teenagers who welcome the attention, even when they know the relationship is not appropriate, and are unlikely to report it.  What they don’t realise is the huge danger of emotional and physical damage they are courting, and it is education (both of the user and their parents/carers) which will be the key here.


I think therefore that the linking of the Ashleigh Hall case to the CEOP button is a bit of a false one.  What is true is that a lot of approaches made by adults to children online are actually very direct.  This is in contrast to what I think is the general perception, that it's mostly about long drawn out relationship/trust building before eventually turning conversations towards sex (i.e. creating a situation where the child wouldn't want to make a report). Where the button would make an impact is with kids who are approached with an overt sexual proposition straight away. Having a quick/easy way to report that behaviour (by whatever system) may result in more convictions of predators trying the direct approach.

Certainly, Facebook’s reporting systems need to be far more prominent.  Personally, I’d like to see ‘report’ offered alongside ‘like’ and ‘comment’ against posts, or at least to be much more visible.  Currently the path to report is this: Click through on the profile of the offending poster, then scroll right down (under their friends, photos etc.) on the left hand column, to find this rather recessive link:

If you didn’t know it was there, you’d have a hard time finding it.  Why don’t they run a page from the main navigation telling you how to report someone?  Run a ‘Report It to Facebook ‘ button on every page?   It may not be the most efficient reporting system either, since it’s the user profile which is reported rather than the offending post and so it may be hard for Facebook moderators to locate the offending material and view it in context.

When making a report there is a choice of 1. blocking this person from communicating with you, or 2. reporting the user to Facebook.   The dropdown under reporting offers categories of offence: Nudity or pornography / Fake profile / Racist or hate speech / Cyberbullying / Threatens me or others / Unwanted contact.  I’m assuming Facebook is proposing help links based upon the choice at this point.

Update 22 Mar 10:  Malcom Coles' critique of Facebook reporting procedures reminded me that I hadn't looked at the separate reporting procedure in Facebook for Fan Pages and Groups (versus personal profiles).   Many thanks to Malcom and to Blaise Grimes Viort for the link.  (Malcom, I've reproduced your screengrabs, for which thanks).

Entire Fan Pages: It is possible to report the whole Fan Page (in the left hand column of these pages is a "Report page" link), but the options offered as to why you may be reporting it are very limited, and there is no free text option.

 Note that you won't get any communication from Faecbook about their actions.

 Fan Page Posts: It is not possible to report individual pieces of content created by the Fan Page owner (you'd have to report the whole page, see above).  However, a 'report' link exists on each comment posted by  Fan to that content.  Again though, the reasons why you may report are very limited - there is no free text option to explain anything not completely obvious - for example, that a case is sub judice or an image copyright.  You'd have to rely on Facebook moderators being very well informed about - well, pretty much everything.

Fan Page Discussions: As Macolm Coles points out, there's no way to  report an entire discussion thread in Fan Pages in one go: you would either have to flag each comment or report the Fan Page (and have no way of telling the moderators what it is you are objecting to).

Groups:  The reporting system for a group is a big improvement: here you are invited to categorise the nature of your objection and say where it was you found it.

So what do you think?  Facebook are due to meet with CEOP again in Washington on 12th April to ‘discuss it further’.  I hope the network can put some really good plans on the table which will satisfy CEOP that they really are doing all they can to make the site as safe a place as it can be.  At the moment it seems sorely lacking.


Update 12/07/2010:  An interesting compromise appears to have been reached today.  Here's the press release from CEOP:

Launching today, all young users of Facebook – and their parents – are invited to add the new ClickCEOP ‘app’ to their profile. Through this app, they will be able to access advice, help and support from the CEOP Centre.  Crucially, young people will be able to report instances of suspected grooming or inappropriate sexual behaviour directly from their profile to specially trained investigators.

The ‘app’ is the outcome of collaboration between CEOP and Facebook who have combined Facebook’s expertise in connecting and communicating online with CEOP’s expertise in helping young people stay safe. 

Once added to their profiles, young users will receive regular messages from CEOP and its partner organisations who operate ‘behind the button’ to make children safer. CEOP’s new Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ClickCEOP) will also contain polls, news alerts and status updates. The page will look at topics that teenagers care about, such as celebrities, music and exams and will link these subjects to questions about online safety. 

Users can either add or bookmark the ‘app’ so it appears on their profile, as not only a constant source of help and reassurance for them but also as a strong visual signal to their friends, family and others that they are in control online.

The move is also being supported by an advertising campaign on Facebook that will encourage take up. This will include an automatic advert appearing on every profile of users aged between 13-18 years inviting them to add the app.

Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre said:  

“Today represents a huge step forward. By adding this app, Facebook users will have direct access to all the services that sit behind our ClickCEOP button and this should provide reassurance for the many parents whose teenage children use Facebook.

“We know from speaking to offenders that a visible deterrent could protect young people online. We urge all Facebook users not only to add the app, but also to bookmark it so that others can see that they’re in control online. Our dialogue with Facebook about adopting the ClickCEOP button is well documented – this is a good day for child protection.” 

 Joanna Shields, Facebook’s Vice President for EMEA said:

 “Nothing is more important than the safety of our users, which is why we have invested so much in making Facebook one of the safest places on the internet. There is no single silver bullet to making the internet safer but by joining forces with CEOP, we have developed a comprehensive solution which marries our expertise in technology with CEOP’s expertise in online safety.  Together we have developed a new way of helping young people stays safe online and backed this with an awareness campaign to publicise it to young users. It is only through the constant and concerted effort of the industry, police, parents and young people themselves that we can all keep safe online – whether on Facebook or elsewhere.”

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Social Round-up #36

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams.

This week: Nestle's Facebook Furore; Evan Williams' and Gaga; The Bing Thing in China; and social media in the loo.

Plus: we'd still like feedback on what you think of the updates: tweet Yay! or Boo! to @emodkate. It'll take ten seconds, promise.



THE HEADLINES ...

THE LOWDOWN ...

APPLE JUICE ...

NEWSBYTES ...

UNDER THE GAVEL ...


THE HEADLINES ...

After Twitter’s damp squib (Squitter?) of a keynote at SXSW on Monday, CEO Evan Williams gamely tried to claw back some goodwill from the grumbling hordes by announcing that he would take ten questions from the Twittersphere. The quality of the cross-examination varied wildly (“What’s your favourite bourbon?”) - but the exchanges did throw up a few golden nuggets, including an insight into the thinking behind new Twitter service @anywhere; a definitive answer to the question “will Twitter be sold or merged in the next 2 years?” (“No”); and a brief but tantalising insight into the interior landscape of a thirty-something tech whizz (“What am I thinking right now? Lady Gaga.”) Mashable catalogues the Qs and unpicks the As.

Amid growing speculation that Google is on the verge of quitting China, the company has received a letter purporting to come from its Chinese advertising vendors. The note demands to know whether the company is staying or going – and financial compensation if the answer is “um, going.” Predictably, the origins of the letter are murky, with Associated Press reporting claims that it was signed by only one firm, who then fraudulently added the names of 26 others.

It seems Microsoft is listening intently to Google’s Chinese whispers: chief research and strategy honcho Craig Mundie this week added his voice to that of boss Bill Gates, who recently appeared to back Team China by criticising Google’s behaviour in the PRC. Could this all be [drumroll] .. a Bing Thing? The Wall Street Journal speculates that Microsoft is rubbing its hands at the big space in search, which will open up if Google leaves China.

Meanwhile, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey announced that the company’s developers are cracking on with a workaround for users in China, where the microblogging service is blocked. In response to Chinese artist and regime critic Ai Weiwei, who’d demanded “a clear answer, yes or no?" to the question of whether Chinese users would ever have a Chinese-language registration page, Dorsey responded with a "Yes” - though he qualified that with a more wibbly “it's just a matter of time”, and admitted that he’d had no idea that the Chinese authorities had blocked the site till three weeks earlier.

No-one could say Facebook’s trajectory hasn’t been stratospheric (well, they could, but they’d be wrong). But - sticking with the Chinese theme for just a moment longer - some new figures throw Facebook’s success into sharp relief. Chinese internet megazord Tencent, whose reach encompasses IM, social networks, and mobile, just posted 2009 revenues of an astounding $1.8 billion: that’s three times the Book’s estimated 2009 takings. What’s more – ponder this, Facebook - over 75% of Tencent’s revenues came from virtual-goods related services, according to Venturebeat.

Growing rumblings of dissent over the Digital Economy Bill, which many feel is being rushed through parliament with indecent haste. The bill, regarded as both draconian and ill-conceived by entities as diverse as TalkTalk and the British Library, has drawn the fire of online democracy group 38Degrees; their service lets individuals contact their MP to demand that the bill is properly debated, or abandoned.


THE LOWDOWN ...


A scabrous new US tech-based comedy series is being developed, you say? A “savage satire centring on a fictional Silicon Valley CEO whose ego is a study in power and greed"? Who on earth could it possibly be based upon? The show is being developed by Twitter legend (SPOILER ALERT) @FakeSteveJobs and Borat director Larry Charles, who declared, with characteristic underplay, "we are attempting nothing less than a modern Citizen Kane."

Dude, those aren’t Friends, they’re Feds! If you are of a criminal bent and active in the social media space, all may not be quite as it seems: it emerged this week that U.S. law enforcement agents have taken to social networking like ducks to water and are actively using it to gather evidence.

Freaky times for the owners of over a hundred cars whose horns suddenly began relentlessly honking - and wouldn’t stop till the batteries were removed. Wired reports that a disgruntled employee had hacked into the remote vehicle-immobilisation system operated by a car dealership to nudge recalcitrant hire-purchasers who fall behind with their payments. Which is, in and of itself, a rather creeptastic infobyte, no?

When a company which is all about getting us connected warns that we’re in danger of developing some serious social media ‘issues’, you gotta sit up and listen. A new survey by Retrevo found that we can barely take a break from social sites to – erm, powder our noses or – ahem – nurture our relationships. 48% of those surveyed checked their networks upon waking, and 24% of under-25s are happy to receive messages whilst (shall we say) clearing their inbox ...

Much glee and retrospective smugness from those who couldn’t attend SXSWi due to “previous engagements”, as a flurry of posts with titles like ‘Why SXSW Sucks’ pinged round the blogosphere. Seems that this year, creatives, start-ups and developers are being crowded out by yer actual social media users - many of whom like to party while uncouthly ogling Tech Slebs. As one commenter put it: “The web is no longer the domain of the nerd, it’s the domain of the internet-enabled socialite as well.”

The Guardian reports a sudden brake on what was all set to be the most expensive domain-name auction in history: the owner of sex.com has been forced unexpectedly into bankruptcy by a major creditor, and has pulled out at the last minute.


APPLE JUICE ...


Squeal! Keen-eyed observers at Patently Apple report that the company has filed a patent on a social app for the iPhone. The app is called iGroups, and lets users geo-connect, and exchange info without throwing privacy to the wind. If you are au fait with this sort of thing, you might wish to peruse the detailed patent docs here.

Meanwhile, conflicting estimates of the numbers of iPad pre-sales: though most predict buoyant stats, some question whether the high ‘first-hours’ figures were actually sustained. In the confusion, though, one intriguing snippet caught our eye – despite predictions, wi-fi-only presales outscale the (considerably) more expensive 3G option by 69% to 31%. Seems even Apple’s famously well-cushioned demographic is feeling the pinch.

A new report by Flurry says that the iPhone is now dramatically outpacing Facebook as an apps platform. The latter lags despondently, with a mere 60,000 - while Apple now boasts 140,000 different apps, and a mind-boggling 58 new companies launching apps each day.


NEWSBYTES ...


A bumpy end to a bumpy week for Nestle:  first it had YouTube take down Greenpeace’s viral, which hauled the company over the coals for alleged destruction of the Indonesian rainforest; Now, the argy-bargy has spread to its Facebook Fan Page, where – to be frank – things are not going too well.  Whilst it's obviously the right thing to engage in conversation with your critics, perhaps Nestle should provide some training for its community managers? @blaisegv has helpfully provided them with excellent article from Lisa Barone: When To Respond To Negative Reviews (and not).

The mobile app market is expanding at an explosive rate, according to a new study for app-developer GetJar. App downloads, which hovered at a fairly impressive 7 billion in 2009, are predicted to shoot towards an almost inconceivable 50 billion by 2012 - by which time the apps market will worth a predicted $17.5 billion. Says GetJar CEO Ilja Laurs with grim satisfaction: “Mobile devices will kill the desktop.”

Lots of hoo-ha about a new set of Compete figures, which showed hefty drops in traffic to all social networks last month – Twitter’s, for example, fell by around 9%. After much goatee-scratching from industry analysts, a lone commenter on the Guardian site pointed out that February was, like, a shorter month than the others? By, erm, around 9%?

And brands who’re active on both Twitter and Facebook can give themselves a manly pat on the back: seems we’re 51% more likely to buy from brands we follow on Facebook (though possibly not Nestle - see above), rising to an impressive 67% for those we follow on Twitter. We’re also 79% more likely to recommend our Twitter brand-follows to a friend, versus 60% for Facebook.


On the other hand - and despite the constant stream of stories heralding Twitter as the new News - it seems we’re considerably more likely to get our info from Google and Facebook, according to these figures from Hitwise.

Big TV events like the Oscars and the Superbowl are generating more simul-surfing than ever: 14.5% of Superbowl users were online while viewing, compared with 12.8% a year ago, while the number of Oscar fans who did so was up from 8.7% to 13.3%. Facebook, Google and Yahoo were the most popular destinations by a long chalk.

The possibility of tax breaks for games developers was hurriedly resuscitated this week: according to the Telegraph, Minister for Digital Britain Stephen Timms announced to games companies that he was “looking at the industry in a new way”. Fancy!

Earlier this week there were reports that Facebook was ‘considering’ installing a panic button to allow children to report suspicious interactions on the site, following a ‘frank exchange of views’ during a meeting with the Home Secretary Alan Johnson. But the social networking giant subsequently announced that it was ruling that option out, in favour of developing its own existing safety structures – and that while the button might be effective ‘for other sites’, it would not work on Facebook.

The US Federal Trade Commission declared that consumer privacy was most definitely their business this week, with commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour decrying Google’s “irresponsible conduct” during the Buzz debacle as an example of corporate carelessness with personal privacy. “Unlike a lot of tech products, consumer privacy cannot be run in beta,” she said, adding that the FTC is perfectly prepared to step in to prevent privacy laws being violated.


UNDER THE GAVEL ...


A US judge has approved a controversial $9.5 million settlement to a class action lawsuit against Facebook’s famously privacy-busting Beacon system – despite complaints from campaigners. The deal requires Facebook to establish a ‘Digital Trust Fund’ to finance research into online privacy – but privacy protestors argue that giving Facebook a seat on the board means the fund will be a mere publicity-generating gimmick.

What promises to be the most excruciatingly serpentine copyright case for - well, months - kicked off this week, as Viacom and YouTube set out their cases in the suit that the former is bringing against the latter. Essentially, Viacom claims that YouTube encouraged file-sharing like Napster, and YouTube says they didn’t. That’s possibly all you will need (or want) to know till the case is concluded – but there is an excellent plain-English breakdown by Peter Kafka on All Things Digital, if you are inclined to investigate further.


That’s all folks!

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Social Round-up #35

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams.

This week: Chaps, we need feedback! Twice-weekly we slave over a hot keyboard without a clue what you, our beloved readers, think of our round-ups - so waddya reckon? Are we too long, too short, or just right? What about the news that we cover - is there an area we're missing that you'd like to hear more about? If you are an opinionated type, and would care to share your thoughts with us, we would love to hear from you: please do post comments below - or tweet me @emodkate.

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More tweets, less twaddle?

I'm just picking up here from a train of thought by Rich Baker over at his new site Conversational UK -- which he in turn picked up from the arch-tweeter @darren_bbc.  His point was about how, as your numbers within Twitter  grow, it's becoming less of a conversation and more of a broadcast shout.

Rich says in his post Feed Me, Twitter!

"Over recent weeks, I have been investing more time in unfollowing people I don’t have conversations with and seeking out new people to follow. My network is taking more and more maintenance to keep it relevant."

I'm struggling with the same issue.  I think trying to keep the number of those I follow below the 1,000 mark is reasonable.  I know myself that when I check out profiles of people who have followed me, if that person is following thousands I find it hard to believe that they are listening to any.  Or that my voice is valued at all.

Twitter is of course a time-leech. The more people you follow, the louder the distracting noise. And I do of course worry about all the tweets I'm missing.  So in a way, keeping the numbers that I follow down  is a relief (in the way that having less choice when shopping is a relief ).

To help the periodic Twitter-cull, there are two fab free gadgets which make it very easy: Twitter Karma shows when the love isn't mutual and you're wasting your time, which can be important (if hurtful) to know. * And then there's the the madly simple-to-use Twitcleaner which sorts the wheat from the chaff, finds the "time wasters, spammers, the boring, the bots" in those you follow. 

Also - I'm using Tweetdeck (though I hear that Hootsuite may be becoming the Twitter app de jour?) - and find it easy to make lots of columns of smallish groups of people whose Tweets I really don't want to miss.  Any lists you have created can also be viewed at a click in Tweetdeck also.

Does anyone else have any other Twitter coping strategies?

*A note on Twitter Karma.  @richard_baker alerted me to the fact that it isn't 100% accurate on the 'last updated' status of Tweeters (Thanks Rich).  I randomly checked a few and it was about 95% accurate - but I'd suggest you click thru and check before nixing someone only because Twitter karmna says they're inactive.

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Social Round-up #34

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams.

This week: Facebook's Daily Mail showdown; Chatroulette's tables turned; and OK Go, er... go.

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Social Round-up #33

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams.

This week: Facebook No to IPO; Twitter's brand ambivalence; and Simon Cowell's antisocial behaviour.

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Getting to know your community: breaking down the divide

by Jesse Coombe, eModeration Community Manager.  You can follow Jesse on Twitter @emodjesse

Yesterday, something Tamara said got me thinking about the word “user.”  Within this industry and others it has become the catch-all term for people who visit a site, post on a forum, or play around in a virtual world.

For a long time I’ve held the belief that we’re really using the wrong term.  “User” implies exclusion and a one-way relationship.  It suggests that they consume the services provided and give nothing back.  Shouldn’t we all strive for a sharing culture in our communities, where visitors see our content and are inspired to create something for the next visitor to read or look at?  Perhaps if we were to adopt a more inclusive term we’d be halfway there?

The other problem with the word “user” is that it’s very impersonal.  “User” is a word made for marketing and corporate back-patting.  “Our site has 1,000,000 registered users producing 100,000 ad impressions per day!”  That may be all well and good for the board room but people don’t want to feel like they’re a commodity.  Furthermore, when office buzzwords leak out into official forum posts or newsletters it serves only to fuel the reader’s belief that we’re entirely detached from them, even to the extent of speaking a different language.

So what would be a better word to use?  You could try “member” – indicating inclusion and belonging.  Perhaps “contributor” – reminding them that they provide for the wider community, just as you do.  I feel that either is an improvement on “user” but why not refer to John, or Sue, or even xXsephirothgoku1337Xx?

The larger your community gets, the harder it is to genuinely know your members.  Even so, the investment of time to establish a relationship with at least your most active members can produce invaluable results.  Read their posts, respond to them, start a dialogue.  They’ll appreciate the effort and so will anyone else who comes across the thread!  It shows that you, the community manager, are friendly and accessible but by extension these positive attributes will also be attached to the brand you represent.

Once upon a time I was the community manager for a massively multiplayer online game.  I was fortunate enough to be involved with the project from the very beginning so it was relatively easy to introduce myself to new members as they registered and give them the shock of their lives that a community manager on a gaming project was actually willing to chat with the fans of the game!

By demonstrating that I was in fact human they were much more willing to treat me as such.  I wasn’t just the shadowy supervillain, existing purely to tell them what they could or couldn’t post and periodically deliver bad news about release date slips through a maniacal grin.  They acknowledged that these were unfortunately necessary aspects of my job but they knew me and understood that I had their interests at heart.  The game missed more deadlines than I’ve had hot dinners but we never incurred even 10% of the nerd rage I’ve seen in other gaming communities and I attribute that entirely to the time my colleague and I spent hanging out with the members.  I ought to point out that I hired that colleague from within our own community and he hit the ground running as only community alumni can.  Having already fostered relationships with his peers as a member, he was instantly accepted as an authority figure.

As a community manager, as a moderator, and as a plain old “user”, I’ve seen so many communities with a profound “us and them” divide and a membership that actively rallies against the management, like teenagers against their parents.  What I hope you’ll take from this article is the knowledge that this doesn’t have to be the norm.  Treat the members of your community not as users but as people and it won’t take long at all to see the difference in how they respond.

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Social Round-up #32

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams.

This week: Revenge of the Zombie Slave Computers; human touchscreens; and robotic teachers.
 

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Why brands should write Facebook Fan Page Guidelines

by Rebecca Fitzgerald, Senior Account Manager at eModeration.  
You can follow Rebecca on Twitter at @RebeccaFZ

 In my role as a Senior Account Manager at eModeration, I work with a lot of Facebook Fan Pages. The 'must have' social media marketing item of the moment, they can be tricky devils to moderate, and that's why I was really pleased to come across this post by Nicole Landguth of Ogilvy PR, suggesting more of a two-way engagement with the fans via a full use of the avenues available on Facebook - for example, the Info tab, perfect as a customer service gateway, and (even more soothing to my internal raving) a clear explanation of page guidelines.

 

1. Who is Operating the Brand Page- Is this page run by the communications department, employee volunteers, the owner, a collaborations with fans, or someone else? Who can fans contact with administrative issues? No need to provide detailed bios, emails, and addresses here but you could if you as a person are part of the brand.

I think this is a great idea... I checked out the Info tabs for a few FB Fan pages and none of them really shows a 'personality' or gives any idea of who maintains the page.  They do, however, mostly have links through to their own brand sites and one even has their Mission Statement.

To make the page more inclusive and less of an 'advertisement', it would be very interesting to plainly see the 'face' of the brand.  This seems to be vastly overlooked  and could, in fact, open up further discussion and promotion with the users of that page and therefore the brand.  For a similar reason, it is a shame that more brands do not fully utilise the 'Discussions' tab as this would encourage information sharing and, more importantly, gathering... what do the users of your brand really think?  What good ideas do they have that could inform your marketing strategy?  Some brands do use this tab but don't maintain it, which means each discussion will languish with minimal contributions which, quite honestly, just looks rather sad and doesn't encourage others to take part.  Discussion = engagement, so don't just put the subject out there and then leave it.  Cultivate responses and ensure the fans feel 'part of' something, valued.

2. How You Plan to Interact with Fans- This is your chance to set expectations. Let fans know exactly what kind of communications your Facebook page will be supporting. Is this an outlet for customer service requests? Will you be sharing coupons and codes for your website?

A brief explanation of the purpose of the page would help to cement its 'uniqueness' and 'usefulness'.  What will the fans get if they sign up?  What will it do for them?  Competitions?  What do they win?  Discounts and special codes of access?  Companies often think 'we must have a FB presence' but forget to ask (and answer) the question... why?  What is its purpose?  How will users be drawn in and retained?  Is there a reason for this page?

3. How You DO NOT Plan to Interact with Fans - If you have specific functions you will not be supporting or issues you will not be addressing through Facebook spell it out. Let customers know you won’t be responding to service requests, that you can’t answer questions about specific franchise promotions, or maybe you represent a government office and there are certain issues that can not be handled through unofficial channels.

On this I would suggest a customer service email address, similar to the one on the brand's own site.  Then on the FB page it can be explained that individual concerns can be addressed via this email, rather than publicly on the page.  This also provides a 'get out' should the brand decide to remove criticism from their page (not something I would suggest, unless abusive) - referring users to the email address.

4. Resources Outside of Facebook- Review what you included under How the brand does not plan to interact with fans on the page and provide alternate contact information where appropriate. For customer service issues if you do not plan to support these on the brand page let customers know where to take them. If your brand partners of spokespeople have their own Facebook pages list them here.

Useful links provide cross marketing opportunities, a 'round-robin' approach and a way in which to direct the user's journey.

5. What can Get a Post Deleted or a Fan Blocked- Fans will understand that healthy discussion needs some moderation; provide a short list of reasons comments may be deleted from the page. General language is fine, something like, “comments that are off-topic, offensive or inappropriate (i.e. thinly veiled sales pitches)."

As yet, I haven't seen this used on a page that we moderate.  I think this would go a long way towards heading off problems and also cutting down on abusive and disgruntled behaviour.  Removing items without explanation can often annoy the user and also, more importantly, drive them away having tainted their opinion of the brand.  Short and concise guidelines show a responsibility to the users, and can mean that the brand will be supported in their moderation by the users actually reporting items that go against guidelines.  Obviously some users are out to cause trouble from the very start, but most will respect a clear page with well thought out guidelines and aims.

This is all such logical stuff, and it's a pity that logic sometimes appears to get sidelined in the rush to be part of the 'next big thing'.  I'm sure that once a few brands and agencies start doing it, then the rest will follow their examples of good practice. And, lo and behold, this kind of clear communication with fans will be standard and no-one would think of putting up a page without it (I can dream, can't I?). Anyway, many thanks to Nicole - we'll certainly start suggesting that our clients devise their own Facebook Fan Page Guidelines.

photo by breyeschow via Flickr

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Social Media Round-up #31

Welcome to eModeration's round-up of all that is intriguing, alarming or odd in the world of social media, compiled by Kate Williams. For more social media snippets, follow her on @emodkate - or for general twittery, @KateVWilliams.

This week: Apple's sauce; Google's woes; and Rickrollin' the trollosphere.

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