Posts in category "Social"

Yet Another Scam Being Built On The Carcass Of Social Media

It seems that someone has gotten the brainwave that they can make money off of peoples habit of saying stupid; and sometimes very nasty things, on the various social media networks.

A British company by the name of ALLOW is now hawking what they are calling the first “social media insurance” the idea of course of being that you will pay some company to project you from “reputation damage, account jacking, and other forms of ID theft”; with the plan covering the expenses for getting legal advice and expert support.

ALLOW will offer up to £10,000  ($16,250 USD) in fees and costs for any one incident or £3,500 ($5,690 USD)  towards any reputational damage for around £3.99 ($6.50 USD) a month, and will offer new customers 30 days of free coverage.

In other words paying out money to have some company supposedly protect you from your own stupidity.

via Geeks are Sexy

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Our red/blue Facebook pill moment has arrived

There has been a shitload of discussion happening around the web when it comes to the Facebook announcement at their f8 developer conference. You know, the one where they have decided that you don’t need the rest of that silly web anymore because they are going to make your electronic womb all nice and cozy with a never ending steam of mental pablum from your vast world of friends.

As Ethan Kaplan said in a post – identity has now been externalized and it will reside on Facebook (that is also where I got the title for this post); and he is right, we are being convinced that in order to have any value we need to be connected to a world created by Facebook (and yes, the same can be said for Google+). It is only by letting them present our identity and life events to the world that they exist.

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If you are using a ghostwriter on Twitter you don’t have a clue about social media

An interesting story showed up over at All Twitter about how a ghostwriter for a so-called social media and Internet marketing professional had been fired and then proceeded to out the “expert” on the self-same Twitter account after finding out that the password hadn’t been changed.

The “expert” in question is Mark Davidson who apparently has not one but three, or rather now two since the firing, ghostwriters for his Twitter account. Now with a bit of a disclaimer I have been following Mark Davidson on Twitter, and now Google+, for a long time but never clicked on the fact that it was ghostwriters populating his stream.

I don’t care so much that Mark got outed but rather the fact that the idea of using ghostwriters to populate your Twitter timeline with so-called social media gems of wisdom shows exactly how social media has become a joke.

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Another note about this “real name” nonsense

  • Category: Opinion, Social
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  • Posted 641 days ago

There is this common point that all these people pushing for us to use our real names on the web espouse – it will bring civility back to the conversation.

Ya. Okay.

What dream world are you people living in?

Just because people use their real names, whether forced to or not, it doesn’t mean that they know how to be civil. Just check any thread of a conversation about politics, sex or any subject you want to pick and you will see some of the most uncivilized comments coming from people using their real names.

Real names are no guarantee that people will think before opening their mouths and showing how nasty, opinionated, and cruel. If anything I have found people who post anonymously or use pseudonyms have more couth and express themselves with more intelligence than their named counterparts.

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The increasing, and important, need for dual identities on the web – real and anonymous

  • Category: Opinion, Social
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  • Posted 641 days ago
image courtesy of The Next Web

image courtesy of The Next Web

The whole anonymous identities on the web argument is older than the web itself. I can remember fervent discussions on the subject back in the old BBS days and the talking points haven’t changed in the intervening years. The only problem now is that the wild west days of the Web are over and companies like Facebook and Google are making themselves the final arbiters of what an identity is on the web; and that is scary.

However that isn’t the argument that I want to look at here, at least not as a major point. What I do want to point out is that now more than ever we need to fight for the right to have more than just the Facebook and Google sanctioned identity when we do anything on the web, and possibly when we aren’t hooked into it directly.

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Be afraid, very afraid because for some reason someone thinks I am an influencer

The other day I wrote about a new social media buzz phrase that is almost guaranteed to gain traction. The acronym is IRM and that stands for, are you ready, Influencer Relationship Management.

Well no sooner than I posted that, or at least very shortly afterwards I got a message on Twitter from Appinions, the group behind this idea, that gave me a link to what was apparently my profile on their service; which by the way I never signed up for.

So there you have it folks, your worst nightmare; or biggest laugh depending on your point of view. I am an influencer.

Thanks guys but I’m not really sure about your assessment but now if you’ll excuse me I am headed to the floor for a good laughing fit.

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Are you ready for a hot new buzz phrase?

Buzz words and phrases are the lifeblood of any new hot idea and social media is no different, even if it has been around for a while.

It seems that we have a new buzz phrase headed our way and it’s a doozy. Try this on for size:

IRM: Influencer Relationship Management.

Yup, you to can now manage influencer relationships, isn’t that grand?

This gem comes to us from Appinions and this is how they explain this gag inducing collection of nonsense words:

The first and vital step in IRM is to build a list of the influencers that are relevant to your organization or cause. Keep in mind, they don’t have to be fans of your product and/or service. Second, you connect with them and let them know who you are and let them use your service or product.

As influencers become more ingrained in our digital lives, they will inevitably be a greater interest in them from brands and agencies. The influencer is a huge step forward within the marketing and communications world, and IRM will become its own sustainable wing within the industry in the near future. It won’t be long until we see IRM experts and specialists pop up, just like we saw the advent of social media experts.

The sad part is they are right, we will probably start seeing this term pop up any time soon.

10, 9, 8, 7………

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Google+ moron moment – no it won’t replace your blog

It never, ever, fails.

No sooner than some new social media slash social network slash circle jerk comes along and it is being proclaimed as the big, awesome, incredible, replacement for your blog.

Uhm, No.

I realize we are all pretty well lazy and always looking for easier ways to do things; and of course maintaining a blog with intelligent thought out discussions is such a horrendous chore than anything that makes expressing ourselves in a coherent manner easier is of course, the next great thing.

The fact is that things like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Posterous, and now Google+ are really cool services and for the vast majority of people they are indeed the perfect outlet for limited forms of creativity and make sharing things drop dead simple.

None of them however is a replacement for blogs no matter how much the social media digerati might want you to believe otherwise.

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