Posts Tagged ‘Twitter’

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Twitter begins rolling out weekly digest emails

A few months after acquiring Summify, a startup that would email you links that were popular within your social network, Twitter has begun rolling out a weekly digest email. Sort of a cross between the Summify emails and Twitter’s new discover tab, the email is a digest of the “most relevant” tweets and stories.

In addition to links to the stories, the email will also contain the profile picture of the users you follow that have shared it. You can click on the link to finish reading the whole article, then tweet directly from the email. The digest will also contain the “most engaging” tweets in your network, meaning tweets from people you don’t follow that were replied to or retweeted by those you do follow.

The digest will be rolled out to everyone over the next few weeks and you can manage preferences or opt out of the email in the notification preferences area of Twitter.

Massachusetts ruling on jurors and social media

Massachusetts Appeals Court has issued the state’s first decision on juries and social media. It has decided that judges need to better police jurors’ Internet activity and better educate and explain the policies to them. Many jurors do not realize that “refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter.” The ruling states that “Instructions not to talk or chat about the case should expressly extend to electronic communications and social media.’’

Obama, marriage equality, and social media

Last Wednesday, President Barack Obama said “Same-sex couples should be able to get married,” and the Internet went wild.  According to the Washington Post, mentions of his name or Twitter handle (Barack Obama or @BarackObama) was mentioned over 100,000 times on Wednesday. Terms related to same-sex marriage were mentioned 1.6 million times that day, reaching a peak of 7,347 mentions per minute. According to RetweetingObama.com,  a tweet with the quote has been retweeted over 61,000 as of today at noon.

First live-tweeted brain surgery

Back in February, Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital in Houston became the first hospital to live-tweet open heart surgery. Last Wednesday, they reached more than 14 million people with their social media coverage of Dr. Dong Kim’s brain tumor resection on a 21-year-old female.

Using the hashtag #MHbrain, YouTube videos, Pinterest, and more, the hospital has demystified a complicated surgery (WARNING: links lead to graphic images and videos of the surgery). In addition to pictures and videos to help viewers visualize the procedure, the tweeters also kept the medical jargon to a minimum and explained the surgery in terms people would better understand. A brain tumor specialist was also on hand to answer questions tweeted to the hospital.

If you were having surgery, would you feel comfortable with the hospital live-tweeting it?

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

Twitter rolls out new ‘Discover’ tab

Last Tuesday, Twitter announced on its blog that it would be improving the ‘Discover’ tab, a feature introduced with the ‘Let’s Fly’ version of Twitter in December. The tab presents trending topics, suggestions on who to follow, and recommends stories. An improved recommendation algorithm will give you even more personalized content and put that content in social context.

For each recommended story, you can click ‘View Tweets’ to actually see which people in your network tweeted about the article, and what they had to say. You can also reply, favorite, or retweet those tweets right from the tab, or tweet your own comments on the article. In addition to the Twitter.com website, the tab will also be improved on the mobile site and mobile apps, both of which have also received recent updates.

French Twitter users use code names to discuss election

In France, it is against the law to publish election results before 8 p.m. on election night (Sunday night). To circumvent this embargo, French Twitter users came up with code words to discuss the election under the #RadioLondres hashtag. Radio Londres was a BBC broadcast in WWII that used code words to communicate during Nazi occupation of France.

Several code names were used for each candidate. Incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy was referred to as Rolex or Hungarian Tokaji wine, while challenger François Hollande was nicknamed Gouda cheese or Flanby. The hashtag was also used in the first round of elections last month, but a lot of the code names for the candidates differed. Hollande won the election.

National Zoo live-tweets artificial insemination of panda

For the eighth time, the National Zoo attempted to produce another baby panda by artificial insemination of Mei Xiang on April 30. This time, instead of writing a press release, the entire procedure was live-tweeted by Dave Wildt, head of the Center for Species Survival at the zoo.

Using the zoo’s Twitter account and the hashtag #PandaAI, Wildt brought the experience to interested Twitter users. Tweets included pictures of the equipment used as well as the giant panda, details about the procedure, and facts about giant pandas.

They won’t know if the insemination took or not until the summer, but the zoo will continue to update everyone on Mei’s status via social media and a panda newsletter. If it worked, I can’t wait to see TwitPics of a little baby panda!

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

Nike controlling sneaker madness with Twitter RSVPs

People love sneakers, sometimes too much. In February, the release of Nike’s limited edition Foamposite Galaxy sneaker resulted in a riot in a Florida mall. To prevent this sort of mayhem in the future, Nike is launching a Twitter reservation system to help manage product launches at Nike stores.

Nike’s FAQ explains the process for reserving sneakers and picking them up at one of the 12 participating retail stores. First, a user must follow the account of the individual store. The store will announce the RSVP date a day or two in advance, and then at a random time on the RSVP day, the account will tweet a product-specific hashtag. Within the next 60 minutes, customers must direct message (DM) the store account with the product’s hashtag, their full name, and their shoe size. The store will then send DM confirmations to those who secured a pair of sneakers in their size. The store will also specify a time for the customer to come pick up their shoes on the day of the product launch.

The new system is an interesting take on customer service via social media and will hopefully improve product launches for the company.

Twitter remembers Dick Clark

Dick Clark is probably the only person that could get New Years Eve to become a top trending topic in the middle of April. His passing on April 18 was the end of an era for the entire entertainment industry.

While it’s not unusual for lots of celebrities to tweet about the passing another, I personally felt the tweets about Dick Clark’s death were incomparable. So many celebrities shared their personal experiences with Clark, from working with him to fond memories of his fun side, such as the tweet pictured to the left by Danny Bonaduce.

William Shatner takes his millionth follower to dinner

We love writing about stories that prove celebrities really do care about their fans. Lucky for us, celebrities making grand gestures seems to be catching on. When William Shatner become close to reaching one million followers, he promised that he would take his millionth follower out to dinner. His millionth follower ended up being Troy Pound from South Carolina. Shatner recently made good on his promise while traveling to South Carolina for his one-man show, “Shatner’s World.” He took Pound and his wife out to dinner and posted a video with them on YouTube.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Betty White joins Twitter

On April 10, everyone’s favorite 90-year-old actress joined Twitter, despite saying she never would. She recognized this (with humor, of course) in her first tweet, which read: “Hello Twitter! And they said it would never happen. Oh wait, that was me.” I think Betty will find that Twitter will be a great medium for her hilarious one-liners. She has only posted 5 tweets, but she’s already flirted with Ryan Seacrest and tweeted about “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” She has also posted a video from her new hidden camera show, “Off Their Rockers.”

Betty White is no stranger to the power of social media. In 2010, a campaign on Facebook was behind her hosting the SNL Mother’s Day episode. But still, in her monologue she was skeptical of her need for Facebook, saying “Well at my age, if I wanna connect with old friends, I need a Ouija board!” Lucky for us, she realized that old friends are not the only people she can connect with online.

Kidnapped man rescued through Twitter

On April 7, a South African man was kidnapped in Johannesburg and stuffed into the trunk of his car…with his cell phone still on him. He was able to send a text to his girlfriend, who tweeted for people to be on the lookout for his car. Through retweets, the message was seen by @PigSpotter, a roadblock notification service for Johannesburg. The account shared the tweet with its over 110,000 followers, including several private security forces. Units were sent out to search and a sort of search party was organized, using Twitter to keep everyone informed.

4th annual Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt

Four years ago, skater Tony Hawk left a skateboard somewhere on his way to the ramps and tweeted out the location. This year, on April 15 over 75 prize boxes were hidden around the world.

Now in its fourth year, the Tony Hawk Twitter Hunt (#THTH) hid prizes in public places all over the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and continental Europe. Prizes included skateboards and skating gear, guitars, clothing, electronics, and gift certificates, all donated by sponsors.

Hawk tweeted clues about the locations of the hidden boxes, and winners would tweet a picture of the box to confirm that it had been found and let others know to stop searching for it. The day ended with a huge skateboarding exhibition with free food and prizes. The location was also announced via Twitter.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

Twitter opens office in Detroit

Detroit, Michigan is going through a “tech renaissance” and Twitter is the latest to join the scene, opening their office there last Wednesday. The office will be based in the M@dison Building, a historic building shared by several tech startups and will be led by Greg Myrick.

The “Motor City” office will serve marketers and ad agencies in the region, including the automotive companies that are the reason behind the city’s nickname. Automotive companies such as General Motors have already worked with Twitter on Promoted Products campaigns.

Twitter sues five spammers

We all hate spam, especially on social media. As social networks get more popular they become targets for spammers. Twitter is now taking action by suing five of the most aggressive tool providers and spammers. In a blog post, Twitter explains:

“By shutting down tool providers, we will prevent other spammers from having these services at their disposal. Further, we hope the suit acts as a deterrent to other spammers, demonstrating the strength of our commitment to keep them off Twitter.”

In addition to the lawsuit, the engineering team also launched new anti-spam measures, such as using Twitter’s link shortening service (t.co) to analyze whether tweeted links could contain malicious content. But we need to do our part too. There are people that avoid tweeting about certain topics that tend to attract lots of spam, such as hot new tech products. Instead of (or in addition to) this, when you see a spammy tweet make sure to report it.

Big week for Instagram leaves app dominating Trending Topics

Last Tuesday, Instagram for Android was released. As a result, Instagram was a trending topic for days. Also trending was #TeamAndroid as Android users celebrated iPhone users having one less “exclusive” app. This resulted in one of the frequent Android vs. iPhone debates on Twitter.

Then yesterday, Instagram was acquired by Facebook, prompting hilarious tweets about the acquisition (more here). Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram both became Trending Topics, with Instagram still being the 7th most popular Trending Topic in the U.S.

Beyonce finally tweets

Although the verified @beyonce Twitter account has existed since 2009, no tweets had ever been sent from the account…until last Thursday. As part of a complete redesign of her digital presence, Beyonce sent her first tweet to announce her redesigned website. She also launched a blog on Tumblr, titled ‘I Am.’

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Madonna’s Social Launch of MDNA

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

Madonna has never had much of a presence on social media, but she is a woman known for reinventing herself time and time again. For her 12th studio album, MDNA which came out on March 26, she has sworn off traditional methods of promotion such as posing for magazine covers and performing on morning shows. This has allowed her to spend less time traveling all over the country and more time rehearsing for her upcoming tour. Instead of interacting with middle men to promote her album, she is going directly to the fans.

Facebook engagement

Madonna only conducted one in-person interview, sitting down with Jimmy Fallon on March 24. But even that had a social aspect. The interview was broadcasted via livestream on her Facebook page, and you needed to “Like” the page in order to watch the live interview. The interview took place in a makeshift studio at Facebook’s New York office. The audio was a little hard to hear at times, but you could still hear Fallon’s hilarious comments while they listened to parts of the album. Fallon and Madonna exchanged banter about her classic ‘Borderline’ and Madonna went on to sing a few lines. Madonna even taught Fallon some dance moves, which the Facebook employees in the audience thoroughly enjoyed! Fallon also asked Madonna questions that fans were submitting in real time.

In preparation for the livestream, her manager, Guy Oseary worked with Facebook to fill out her timeline with old music videos, live performances, and photo shoots. Sneak previews of tracks from MDNA were released and shared on Facebook leading up to the album’s release, and fans can even answer polls asking which songs from her previous albums she should perform on her upcoming tour.

Madonna’s big Twitter debut

Up until a few weeks ago, Madonna had no presence on Twitter. But she began tweeting from @MadonnaMDNAday the day before MDNA’s release on March 26. Then on the day of the release she hosted a live Twitter chat using the #askmadonna hashtag. She tweeted with Ryan Seacrest, Ellen Degeneres, and thousands of fans who had been submitting questions for a few days leading up to the chat, as well as in real-time.

Fans asked questions about her vocal warm-ups, her favorite foods, and her opinions of other celebrities such as Justin Bieber. Madonna really liked the suggestion of one participant to film her next tour in 3D, giving fans yet another thing to look forward to in the pop diva’s career.

While it was originally said that Madonna was only joining Twitter for one day, she appears to still be tweeting. She is still answering fan questions as well as engaging with celebrities such as Lionel Richie and Jessie J. She has even had a Twitter conversation with Britney Spears about reenacting their on-stage liplock on her upcoming tour, and personally inviting Katy Perry and President Obama to her concerts.

Listening to MDNA

The new promotion methods aren’t just limited to live chats on social media sites. Up until April 1, members of the design-focus daily deals site Fab.com had the opportunity to buy a deluxe version of MDNA for just $7.99, almost half of what it costs from other outlets. Fab.com even dedicated its homepage to MDNA.

Spotify users can enter for a chance to win premium tickets to her sold-out U.S. tour. Users that listen to MDNA three time’s during the first three weeks that it’s out will be entered into the contest, and they can boost their chances of winning by also signing up for a “Madonna Superfans” newsletter.

 

Do you think Madonna’s latest reinvention of her image will be effective?

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

Spike Lee retweet threatens an elderly couple’s safety

As the controversy surrounding the murder of Trayvon Martin continues, more problems are popping up around it, such as an elderly couple feeling unsafe in their own home. Twitter user Marcus D. Higgins took to the social network last week to make known the supposed address of the man that shot Martin, George W. Zimmerman. He tweeted the address to a large amount of users that had tweeted about the case, such as Spike Lee. Lee retweeted the address to his 240,000 followers.

But it turned out that the address was not the address of the Zimmerman that shot Martin. It was actually the home of David McClain and his wife, Elaine. Elaine was previously married to a man with the last name of Zimmerman and George W. is her son. George has not lived at that address in seven years. David and Elaine had to flee to a hotel because of hate mail and people showing up at their house. Lee has since apologized and agreed to compensate them for the disruption.

NBA introduces line of Twitter handle t-shirts

Last week, the NBA began selling official t-shirts that feature the Twitter handles of some of the big names in the league, such as Jeremy Lin, Dwyane Wade, and Kevin Durant. The front of the shirts display a hashtag along with the logo of the player’s team. The back of the shirts are jersey-style, only instead of the player’s name above their number, it displays the player’s Twitter handle.

The NBA has always been one of the more social-savvy pro-sports leagues, and this idea seems to be a first in pro sports. Websites have sold t-shirts with similar ideas, and other sports leagues have featured Twitter handles on jerseys, this seems to be the first time a professional sports league has sold merchandise featuring Twitter handles. Would you wear one?

High school student expelled for tweeting profanity

Mere months before graduation, Austin Carroll was expelled from his Indiana high school for a tweet containing the “f-bomb.” The tweet was sent from his own home and from his personal account.

The problem is that the school told Carroll’s mother, Pam Smith, that Carroll was accessing Twitter from a school-issued laptop, although Carroll says that he was on his personal computer. Carroll is now attending an alternative high school and will be able to receive a diploma, but reports that he is disappointed that he won’t be able to partake in popular senior-year activities such as prom.

This only one of the several current examples of schools disciplining students for content posted on social networks. All examples are surrounded by controversy and debate because right now, the U.S. Supreme Court has not made clear how schools can punish students in cases involving social media.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012

Twitter turns 6 years old

March 21 marked the 6th anniversary of Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, sending the first tweet:

Twitter has come quite a long way since that one tweet and . Here’s what Twitter is like now:

New study looks at Twitter and the stock market

There have been many studies and claims about Twitter being able to “predict the future”. People have looked at how it can be used in elections, entertainment awards, and more. A recent study conducted at University of California Riverside looked for correlations between what was being discussed on Twitter and the stock market. It turns out, there is:

“The more a facets on which a company is being discussed, the stronger that company performs in the stock market. If a discussion about company centers around only a small number of news items or discussion topics, its stock underperforms.”

A four-month trial was conducted by professor Vagelis Hristidis and a team of computer engineers and scientists. Hristidis is still puzzled as to why Twitter can help predict the stock market, but according to Mashable, it’s been hypothesized that the bad news that receives lots of attention on social media is the same bad news that can drive a stock’s price down.

Twitter users want #Justice4Trayvon

On February 26, Florida teen Trayvon Martin was shot dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman, who says he was acting in self-defense. Although it has been widely talked about on social media for weeks, the awareness and support has become much more widespread recently.

Celebrities as well as the general public are standing up for Trayvon using hashtags such as #STOPZIMMERMAN, #Justice4Trayvon, and #WeAreTrayvonMartin.

Internet users are also responding to FOX correspondent Geraldo Rivera saying that the hoodie Trayvon was wearing is as responsible for his death as George Zimmerman is by posting pictures of themselves in hoodies. Lebron James tweeted this picture of Miami Heat players in their hoodies, and Dwyane Wade changed his Twitter avatar to a picture of him bowing his head with a hood on. Other celebrities and public figures that have posted pictures include Diddy, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and several others.

Twitter updates TweetDeck

The first Twitter-branded version of TweetDeck has now been updated and has restored a few of the features that went missing when the app was acquired by Twitter. Users can now edit, create, and delete lists from the app itself with a “Lists” button, view in-line media previews, and “Edit and RT” has replaced the “Quote” tweet option for retweets. Additionally, Twitter introduced “Interactions” and “Activity” columns, mimicking a feature of “New New Twitter.”

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Ochocinco invites local followers to dinner

New England Patriot Chad Ochocinco is known for reaching out to his Twitter followers: in January he brought a loyal follower from Florida to Foxborough, Massachusetts for a playoff game between the Patriots and the Denver Broncos, paying for travel and hotel stay. He may have gone even further on March 12:

That’s right, he treated 200 people to dinner. TMZ reports that the feast of BBQ ribs, fried chicken, mac & cheese, and red velvet cupcakes put Ochocinco back $7,914, but that doesn’t even include tip. Later that night, he tweeted that he had 200 new friends, and that he even gave them all his phone number. On a social network where celebrities and athletes frequently brag about themselves and get into fights with other Twitter users, it’s great to see that Ochocinco is using it to truly connect with the people that support him.

Federal Reserve launches Twitter account

The Federal Reserve’s interest in social media is not new. But it only recently launched a Twitter account, @federalreserve, as a way to reach out to the general public. After almost a week, the account has tweeted 14 times and over 16,000 followers.

The account will primarily be used to communicate news about the Federal Reserve. The account will post the Fed’s weekly balance statements as well as its monthly report on credit and liquidity programs. In addition, followers of the account will see press releases, testimonials, speeches, and Congressional reports.

The Federal Reserve also hopes to use the account to educate, through tweeting educational material and videos. For example, the second tweet the account posted was a link to a video of Chairman Ben Bernake explaining the structure of the Federal Reserve.

Chirp Clock uses tweets to tell time

Have you ever thought about how many tweets talk about what time it was when the tweet was sent? Chirp Clock has, and discovered it’s frequently enough to build a clock that runs on tweets.

It uses the Twitter API to search for tweets containing whatever time the user’s computer is set at. It will display one tweet at a time, and will show a new tweet every 2 seconds. It also works on mobile devices and displays the handle and avatar of the author of the displayed tweet.

While it may not be the best tool when you need to know what time it is ASAP, it shows how much vast the span of Twitter really is. The creator told Mashable that since launching the site, “there hasn’t been a minute for which the site could not find a tweet.”

It’s also interesting to look at the context of tweets. For example, when I check the site around 11:30 a.m., a good portion of the tweets displayed had something to do with lunch or being hungry. This could become another way to track people’s moods through Twitter.

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Weekly Wrap – Twitter Tuesday

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Bret Easton Ellis tweets plans for Psycho sequel

On Friday night Bret Easton Ellis, the author of the 1991 novel American Psycho suggested via Twitter that he was planning to write another book with the same main character, Patrick Bateman. Ellis tweeted that he was thinking about where the book’s antihero would be now.

He then spent five hours fleshing out the details and figuring out Bateman’s storyline, welcoming suggestions from his followers:

Tweets posted over the course of the brainstorming session included that the character’s favorite movie would be The Help, he would be obsessed with Rihanna, etc.

He tweeted that by the end of the night he had taken over fourteen pages of notes on where Bateman is now and is going to continue working on this idea, which was met with excitement by his followers and fans.

Posterous team joins the Flock

On Monday, March 12, it was announced that the 4 year-old blogging platform Posterous has been acquired by Twitter. Both Posterous and Twitter published blog posts announcing the news. The official Twitter blog states “Posterous engineers, product managers and others will join our teams working on several key initiatives that will make Twitter even better.” Posterous Spaces (blogs) will stay up and running as usual. Both posts also ensure that if they do decide to make any changes to Posterous Spaces, users will be given ample notice.

Twitter now available in right-to-left languages

On March 6, Twitter became available in four new languages: Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Urdu, meaning that Twitter is now available in languages that read right-t0-left instead of just languages that read left-to-right, such as English. With these new additions, Twitter is now available in 28 different languages.

The four languages were added to the Twitter Translation Center on January 25. The Translation Center uses crowdsourcing to translate the Twitter product (not individual tweets), including Twitter.com, Twitter for iPhone and iPad, Twitter for Android, Twitter Help, and Twitter Business Center.

The Twitter blog post explains that these languages present unique technical challenges, “particularly with Tweets containing both right-to-left and left-to-right content.” To make it work, the engineering team built a new set of special tools.

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