Social Media

Why startups shouldn't be afraid of Facebook cloning them

How long does it take a multibillion-dollar technology juggernaut to clone a popular social networking app? The answer: less than two weeks.

I am, of course, talking about Poke, Facebook's clone of Snapchat, the app whose messages self-destruct after 1 to 10 seconds. As many people like to point out, it's perfect for sexting, but there are a lot of other fun and innovative uses for this clever type of messaging.

For all intents and purposes, Poke is almost identical to Snapchat. Snapchat is focused on photos and videos, while Poke adds self-destructing messages and the classic Facebook … Read more

Offbeat game recasts Xmas tune as 'Little Bummer Boy'

There's a bigger danger this holiday season than ending up on Santa's naughty list. A lump of coal in a Christmas stocking is one thing. What can happen to you if you hear "Little Drummer Boy" is something else altogether.

You know the tune: "Come they told me/Pa rum pum pum pum/A newborn King to see/Pa rum pum pum pum." It's a Christmas standard, and in cities and small towns everywhere, it emanates from department store sound systems, TV commercials, Web sites -- you name it. To the average modern-day sophisticate, "Little Drummer Boy (note: read the story before clicking the link)" is nothing more than a song to love or hate, to endure or enjoy. But to the many players of the LDB Game, the song's aesthetic merits are hardly the point. … Read more

The most Twittery journalists of them all

Which journalists have the most followers on Twitter? Not surprisingly, they are often the ones with the biggest platforms off Twitter as well. Another way of looking at it: If you've built a big brand on places such as CNN, MSNBC or the New York Times, you can drive up your follower counts easily. (Keep in mind that raw follower counts only tell us part of the story. There are many journalists who have far fewer followers than the big stars, but whose tweets are more likely to be clicked on, retweeted, etc.)

Regular readers of this blog know … Read more

Nick Kristof live-tweets his Bahrain visa crisis

This might be the world's first high-profile live-tweets of an entry-visa denial.

New York Times columnist Nick Kristof (@NickKristof), who knows how to use social media in smarter ways than most journalists (see my April 2012 post about his fans using social media to mark his birthday), found himself denied an entry visa into Bahrain earlier today. He took to Twitter to complain and bring attention to the situation there.

Kristof has written a lot about human rights abuses by Bahrain, an ally of the U.S., so that's why he was denied a visa at the airport. … Read more

Social media notes on the 12-12-12 Concert

12-12-12 was a day tailor-made for social media. Here are some notes on the day from the serious to the ridiculous:

12-12-12, THE DATE: Millions of people spent the days talking about the rare confluence of numbers (won't happen again till 01/01/01 in 2101), starting with 12:12:12 a.m. local time, on Facebook and Twitter and continued around the world, hitting a peak at 12:12:12 pm local time. I, too, gave into the hype and posted a screen grab of the official US atomic clock at Time.gov turning 12:12:12 pm. … Read more

Twitter vs. Instagram: It's all about monetization

Ever since Instagram got a new friend in Facebook, the popular photo-sharing service has, slowly but surely, been distancing itself from its old pal Twitter.

Today's news is that Instagram photos no longer display correctly in Twitter. This is because Instagram has disabled its integration with Twitter Cards in favor of links that direct Twitter users directly to Instagram.com.

"This is an evolution of where we want links to our content to go," Instagram's Kevin Systrom said of the change on stage at the LeWeb conference in Paris.

Instagram has been busy beefing up its Web presence, … Read more

8 overused buzzwords to avoid on your LinkedIn profile

Who knew the world was so creative? That buzzword, "creative," is once again the world's most overused self-description on LinkedIn, as measured by descriptions in member profiles. Unless LinkedIn users are disproportionately creative, that wouldn't be the word most of us would use to describe most professionals we know (of course, all my colleagues are exceptionally creative and wonderful).

LinkedIn has released its analysis of the most commonly used adjectives (English and translated equivalents) in the "summary" section of profiles of its 187 million members (last year, the membership number was 135 million).

"… Read more

Clay Jam: Zynga goes claymation, with help from new partner

Clay Jam -- the latest game to come out of Zynga's recent push for mobile -- launches today, bringing a new type of game to the social-gaming platform.

Update, 10:38 a.m. PT: The game shows up in the Google Play store, but isn't ready for download, which is why some people may be seeing a "This item cannot be installed in your device's country" message. The creators said this should change any minute now. Android devices need to be on 2.3.1 (Gingerbread) or greater to play.

The claymation-based game, filmed in … Read more

Lexus ads are the latest auto spots to dis social media

While there's a lot of attention paid to how much technology is being built into new cars, Lexus has at least three ads going in the other direction. 

The ads, which were unveiled this week, don't want you to sit around at home doing social media, but encourage you to hit the road. Preferably in a Lexus.

One ad, embedded above, makes fun of hitting the Like button:

This December, remember: you can stay in and "Like" something or you can get out there with your family and actually like something.

The ad below takes … Read more