onstine In the wake of Cambridge Analytica, data misappropriation, #deletefacebook, calls for regulation and pending testimony to U.S. Congress, Facebook announced a series of initiatives to restrict data access and also a renewed selfie awareness to focus efforts on protecting people on the platform. What’s more notable however is that Mark Zuckerberg also hosted a last-minute, rare town hall with media and analysts to explain these efforts and also take tough questions for the better part of an hour. Let’s…
Facebook is Becoming a Social Operating System for Human Beings and Robots
At f8 2017, Facebook aims to become your social network for reality, augmented reality and virtual reality…really. In the heart of Silicon Valley, Facebook once again hosted its highly-anticipated developer conference, which, for the record, appeals to anyone who follows, designs for, or uses the world’s largest social network. Drawing an estimated 4,000 attendees from all around the world, Facebook’s news blurred the line between reality and virtual reality and human and robot engagement for users in their personal and…
CNET: Facebook Live — Where a YouTube star can earn like an Olympic icon
It’s exactly at a place like VidCon that you realize even though “internet famous” might still smack of a lower worth than “Hollywood famous,” the line is blurring.
“[Younger millennials and Generation Z] are not watching television, they’re not reading magazines the way that younger generations did before them,” Solis said. “Their idols are these online creators because their mobile phone is their television screen.”
Facebook Borrows Key Feature from Snapchat to Help Brands and Customers Connect
Conversations about the eventual demise of Facebook are greatly exaggerated. Each week it seems, Facebook finds interesting ways to improve engagement on its platforms by either innovating, acquiring or borrowing new features. Did you know that 900 million people use Facebook Messenger every month? Beyond everyday conversation, Facebook sees a promising opportunity for businesses. In fact, over one billion messages are sent between people and businesses on Messenger each month. The team at Facebook aims to help businesses benefit from further promoting…
The Twitter Diaries: Wall St. vs. Main St. and Why an Algorithm isn’t the Problem
Twitter is automating (part of) its timeline via an algorithm. Cue the panic! Signal the backlash. Twitter’s new timeline is making investor buy and sell, inciting a media storm and ironically thousands of Tweets questioning the future of social media’s loveable yet difficult-to-categorize social/broadcast network. This has culminated into a ominous theme #RIPTwitter with many citing that the “end is near.” What Twitter is Introducing Twitter introduced an upgrade to its beloved (and oft misunderstood) timeline that is rolling out to all users…
Facebook’s Messenger Becomes a Platform, The Sharing Economy Creates a Shut-in Economy + WTF Indiana – ContextMatters #8
Facebook Messenger Becomes a Platform Following F8, Facebook’s semi-annual developer conference in 2014, I suggested that Facebook was evolving from a social network into a bona fide social ecosystem. In 2015, we can see that Facebook is thinking beyond the unbundling of its popular features but also turning them into independent and connected platforms. Following this year’s F8, Facebook introduced new features for payments within Messenger as well as opening direct lines of communication between users and businesses. Additionally, Facebook…
Facebook’s Suicide Prevention, Cocaine Fueled Startups and Silicon Valley as the Hub of Innovation? – ContextMatters #5
Facebook’s Suicide Prevention System Social media bullying is an unfortunate reality. The heart-breaking cases of suicides are frequently in the news these days. At the same time, social media is serving as a new window into our ourselves, our emotions, our states of mind and being. Sometimes, expressions indicate intentions, actions are reflect signs of help. Facebook introduced a new suicide prevention feature, but is it enough? With social media comes great responsibility…and that takes technology and human engagement. Cocaine…
Community is Much More Than Belonging to Something; It’s About Doing Something Together That Makes Belonging Matter
Viginia Coutinho is a dear friend who just released a new book (in Portuguese) that helps strategists think differently about social media. She is also the organizer of Upload Lisboa, a fantastic event in Portugal that focuses on innovation and disruptive technologies. Earlier in the year, she surprised me by asking if I would consider writing the foreword. Even though I don’t write much about social media these days, I couldn’t let her down. Now that her book is available,…
Introducing N3TWORK, A Mobile Television Network Powered by Interests and Context
Early on, I was one of the first analysts to explore the dynamics of the interest graph versus the social graph in social networks. Think Twitter vs. Facebook. I learned right away that interest graphs tend to share connections based on topics rather than relationships. I also found that every person possesses a series of 6-10 interest graphs that together form a social graph. Google refers to these groupings as “Circles.” The notion of manually organizing people by interests though…
Broadcast Yourself(ie): If You Think Gen Y is Different, Wait Until You Meet Generation Z
How teens use social media and why it matters to you. Generation Z = (Today’s Teens, Preteens and Children) If you want a glimpse of the future of technology and its impact on society, study how younger generations interact with one another today. While everyone is talking about Millennials these days, there’s another, potential more disruptive generation behind them…Generation Z. With the sting of a face palm, you’ll experience a sheer rush of humility as you realize that everything you…
