I’m always amazed at the liberal view people have regarding social media moderation. The consensus around the globe seems to be that you can say what you like on social platforms and that a brand should just suck it up and leave it sitting there as some sort of homage to freedom of speech.

Now, I’m all for intelligent criticism. I truly am. If you’ve had a horrible holiday experience and you’re not getting anywhere through normal channels, why not take to a company’s Facebook page to vent your spleen. However, that’s based on the assumption that all criticism is intelligent and well thought out. I can tell you first hand it’s not. Often the comments left on brand pages are poorly spelt, pay little attention to grammar and barely have a point other than to cause a bit of a stir.

Read More »

Three Facebook users die every minute. That’s 1.78m deceased Facebook accounts in 2011 alone. What happens to your Facebook account after you die? Is Facebook slowly turning into a digital graveyard?

It’s a strange question, and one that, perhaps, only raises more questions, not in the least: Who cares? I’m dead.

Read More »

•    Social media points to a Little Mix victory
•    Contestants grow by average of 12,400 fans during live shows
•    Approximately 80.3 million views on YouTube in eight weeks

With just two more live shows to go, Week 8 (the quarter finals) saw each of the five contestants sing two songs each; a guilty pleasure, and a song by a musical hero.  Aside from 17 year old Janet Devlin forgetting the words during her first song (not her first time), the show experienced less drama.

For the second week in a row (and the third in all), Little Mix topped the list of fastest growing contestants gaining 21,461 fans across Facebook and Twitter during Saturday and Sunday.  The next closest was Amelia Lily at 18,517 and then Marcus 16,502.  For yet another week in a row, both Misha B and Janet received less than 10,000 new fans – which goes to strengthen the question we raised in Week 6: was the audience beginning to lose interest in those two contestants?

Read More »

So, Cyber Monday has been and gone – but not forgotten, unless you’re using Bing that is.

Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land picked up on the fact that the site of the trade organisation that came up with the concept quite literally got lost on Bing. Read More »

Twitter has just put out the December edition of Twitter Stories, which highlights ten remarkable and often moving moments of 2011 that played out in part on Twitter.

There is the story of Shohaib Athar, better known to millions as @ReallyVirtual, who live tweeted the moment when Osama bin Laden was found and killed. While many of us know the that story, and how we shared it on Twitter, there are other tales that are less well known such as that of the former Puerto Rican homeless man Daniel Morales, @putodanny, who found hope and his daughter who he had not seen for 11 years. Read More »

Google has given YouTube a seasonal makeover with the introduction of a new homepage, Channel design and a fresh coat of digital paint. Here are three ways these updates will improve your YouTube life. Read More »