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Posts Tagged ‘Quora’

Tweetdeck takes a step back from Apps, Bloggabase and other online musings

Friday, March 8th, 2013

Facebook goes all Google+

The big news from Facebook last night was a major overhaul of its news-feed interface, the main talking point being the similarities to the layout of Google+. It isn’t difficult to see why, side by side they do appear to have been made by the same team, as Mashable’s image below demonstrates.

Looking past the design similarities, Facebook has added in multiple news feeds, which in truth have been there for a while but were much more hidden, now they form an integral part of the new look, giving access to more specifics such as photos, music and celebrities you follow.

Facebook will start to roll out the changes almost instantly but it may take time to filter through to everyone, you can however get hold of it earlier here, just scroll to the bottom of the page.

Tweetdeck to remove apps

Big news for those of us who use Tweetdeck on a daily basis, the twitter management tool has announced it will no longer be supporting its apps.

Instead Tweetdeck will be focusing on its web browser offering and Google chrome plug-in, meaning the Windows and Mac versions of the programme which many rely on will have little attention going forward. The latest update to the Windows app already has issues ( at least it does for us) and major updates have been thin on the ground for some time. It will be interesting to see with less platforms to focus on and an increased staff level what Tweetdeck comes up with over the coming months.

Google Maps Update

Google Maps, the knight in shining armor after the Apple Maps debacle, has just added another weapon to its armory with a vastly improved local search capability. For example, you can choose from a number of options to find the nearest coffee shops, along with being able to locate where friends live in your contact list are.

Nielson, famous for measuring television analytics in America, have been looking into how promoted tweet campaigns influence their audiences. Not a report for everyone but if you work within the realms of digital, marketing, SEO, etc. this is a hugely informative report on a form of marketing which is still in its infancy. It’s not very long, we promise!

Bloggabase Launched

Another one for digital marketers and bloggers, a new service launched this week aims to bring bloggers, and those who wish to reach bloggers, together in joyous digital harmony. The service was in beta for a number of months, so is well tested and contains thousands of bloggers, more than 2,000 according to the site. With the recent Interflora issues and dodgy SEO tactics this could be a perfectly timed piece of kit!

Membership rates start at £100 p/m and rise to £500 p/m if you want all the bells and whistles.

Facebook banking

Commbank have given Facebook users in Australia the capability to bank using the social media platform, here are the four activities they will allow:

-Pay Facebook friends or anyone with an email address or Australian mobile number and an Australian bank account
-Request payments from more forgetful friends
-Gift payments to friends and family on Facebook for special occasions such as birthdays
-Make payments to Facebook events

The big question is whether or not users will feel comfortable banking on a site which is more often than not associated with having privacy concerns. It’s a real question of trust and Commbank being able to show their customers that it is safe to use. Would you bank using Facebook? Let us know in the comment box in the blog.

Qoura

Quora is adding new features almost monthly it would seem, the latest from their production line is the ability to add product reviews for items such as books and DVDs. They hope to give a formal structure to the reviewing process, building on what the site does best, answering questions.

And finally….

How to cheat at Twitter

Ever wanted someone to see a direct reply but didn’t want to make it obvious?

Well check out the link above and all is revealed!

Tags: Apple, bloggabase, commbank, Facebook, Google, Google Maps, Guardian, Instagram, iPhone, News Feed, nielsen, PeerIndex, Pinterest, Quora, social media, social media campaigns, social media TV, Twitter, Umpf
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Social Media Digest: Facebook Flops, Twitter Tightens Up & Instagram Innovates

Friday, August 17th, 2012

Welcome back to our latest instalment of what’s hot in the world of social media. Now that we’ve all just about got over the loss of London 2012, it’s time to re-focus our energies and see what’s going to be grabbing our attention between now and Rio 2016.

1. Twitter has seized more control over tweets by severely tightening the rules that allow software developed by third parties to access them, in a move designed to help its fledgling advertising business turn a profit. The new regime, an update to the Twitter API, means the number of people allowed to user popular third-party clients such as Echofon and Tweetbot will be capped. Twitter’s own software is likely to benefit; the firm warned outsiders not to create competing apps. Developers who create new Twitter apps will only be allowed to have a maximum of 100,000 users. Existing software with more than 100,000 users will be allowed to double their user base before hitting Twitter’s cap. The reaction to this news has been, understandably, negative.

2. Facebook shares dropped below $20 to a new low, extending a slump that has marred the third-biggest US initial public offering and dented retail investor confidence in equity issues. The shares suffered after the first expiration of a ban that prohibited pre-IPO investors from trading their holdings, releasing 271m shares. Almost 2bn shares will become eligible for trading over the next 10 months, but analysts expect the most volatility in November, when the largest tranche – held by Facebook employees – will be freed.

3. Yesterday Instagram unveiled an overhauled version of its popular iOS app, one that lets users see their photographs arrayed on a map of where they were taken. Thursday’s launch was the second major update to Instagram since it was purchased by Facebook in April. The first update–understandably–tightened the app’s integration with its parent social networking service. The debut of Instagram 3.0, however, focuses more on improving the user experience. The most obvious difference is the addition of the Photo Maps feature. Users can opt to have new pictures automatically added to the map; they can also pick-and-choose from their library of older Instagram photos to decide which could–and should–be retroactively added to that map.

4. Quora, where did you go? After such a dramatic start, things seem to have tailed off somewhat for the platform. However, staff are busy making tweaks as we speak. The portal changed a feature that shared the content users looked at on the site with other site members. According to product manager Sandra Liu Huang, the site received a lot of feedback from people who weren’t comfortable with their activity being broadly shared with the people following them. “So we’re going to stop showing stories in feed about what people are viewing,” she wrote. The rest of the feature, known as Views, will remain in place; the only views that the site will record are from feeds, topic pages a user follows, and clicks on digest emails.

Tags: API, Facebook, Instagram, Quora, social media, Twitter, Update
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Will Social Media be our Dotcom Bubble 2.0?

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

With the latest news that Linkedin has seen an IPO pricing up 30 per cent, valuing the business-based social media platform at $4.1 Billion, tongues are starting to wag that we’re on the cusp of the second dotcom bubble bursting. The first, which took place primarily in 2001, saw the value of companies like lastminute.com reduce quicker than Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s chances of being the next French president.

Social media has taken the world by storm over the past five years. Facebook has gone from dormitory-geek to global-chic in less time than it takes to, well, update your Facebook status. Similarly, brands are fast recognising the value of promoting their goods and services on platforms such as Twitter, Quora and YouTube.

In light of the sheer explosion of social media, it seems perhaps justified that the value of these platforms has risen at a similarly rapid rate. After all, the growth in audience, advertising opportunities and routes to market make platforms like Linkedin more than just a place to connect and share. They are the advertising hoardings of the future, with brands large and small clamouring to have their voices heard and their value is intrinsically linked to the increase revenue they can generate for these companies.

Estimated values for social media platforms:

1. Facebook – $50Billion

2. Twitter – $10 Billion

3. Linkedin – $4.1 Billion

4. Quora – $1 Billion

Whether or not Linkedin is really worth $4.1 Billion remains to be seen but one thing is sure, social media platforms represent big money and, regardless of whether the market adjustment arrives, brands will continue to see them as such.

If you are interested in seeing how social media can help you reach out to potential consumers, why not speak to us? Email us on social@umpf.co.uk and we’ll get back to you.

Tags: dotcom bubble, linkedin, Quora, social media, strauss-kahn, Twitter
Posted in PR | 1 Comment »

To paywall or not to paywall?

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

Last week a sudden flurry of excitement on Twitter spelt one thing – the Times paywall had gone down. Journalists tweeted, the world scoffed and we all had a peep behind the iron online curtain. Whilst we wouldn’t want to comment on what we saw, it did reveal the aura that surrounds the now ‘less than free’ Times website. Even if visitors to the site have plummeted since Murdoch tried to make us put our hands in our pockets, The Times still has enough clout to get us talking.

When the Times decided to go behind the paywall many predicted it was the end of the beginning; how long, we asked, could other papers afford not to charge us for viewing their sites? Well, with recent news that The Telegraph is considering the paywall and others could follow suit, we asked Quora , which papers would be first to ‘cover up’ in 2011.

It was no surprise to hear that other users of Quora thought The Sun could follow suit this year. After all, as it’s part of News International, The Times trial could easily be implemented across other newspapers in the group.

The attention of the UK’s biggest newspapers might be on the paywall debate, but newspapers fail to recognise the challenge of micro-blogging at their peril. Social media platforms, including Twitter, have helped move journalism on so much in the past five years that arguments about whether or not to have a paywall could well be obsolete within a few years.

Social media has already eroded the supremacy of the traditional press, but it’s still hard to say whether bloggers or citizen journalism will overtake professional journalism as the de facto source of stories in years to come. For now, though, let’s just sit back, relax and enjoy the mud-slinging as the papers fight it out to gain the moral high-ground on the issue of paying for online news.