You can not escape Pinterest this month. Even we’re at it with our infographic board.

This infographic is particularly timely and useful that looks at how the explosive popularity has made Pinterest such a fast-growing social site and how since many of these “pinnable” images are actually marketing materials brands can use them to promote their products and establish their brand personalities in a highly sharable forum. Read More »

Despite the impressive figures released by Google (600,000 sign ups a day and over 60 million users) there is no avoiding the feeling of tumbleweed that hits you as soon as you log into Google+.   The only posts seems to be from people who work for Google, and the vast majority of my friends on the network haven’t contributed new content in weeks or even months.

Whether Google+ is a success or not remains to be seen. I think it’s too early to write things off although the story of a leading brand launching a product that is innovative, well thought out and superior to the current market leader but somehow fails to capture the public imagination is a familiar one.  Remember Betamax? So don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work out either. Read More »

Yesterday we heard that Facebook users will quit the social network over ‘too many ads, ahead of its mobile ad launch, and today we hear Twitter is to extend its Promoted Tweets ads to Twitter iPhone and Android apps.

Initially, a small number of users will see Promoted Tweets near the top of their timelines from brands they already follow as Twitter pushes its ad strategy across all platforms.

This infographic picks up on that and suggests that not only are consumers getting tired of being inundated with digital ads, but that as many as two thirds of consumers say they are turned off by unwanted ads on their smartphones. Read More »

The revelation of Facebook’s censorship rules has shocked millions around the world.

Let’s recap briefly. A document given to the staff of a third party content moderation firm by a former disgruntled Facebook moderator, tells them that any obvious sexual activity, even if naked flesh is hidden from view must be deleted immediately by Facebook staff. However, deep flesh wounds and excessive blood are okay to show as are crushed heads and limbs okay as long as no insides are showing. Read More »

Twitter has signed a deal with a UK based technology company, called Datasift, that will make a two year archive of tweets available to businesses. It will allow firms to search through tweets, and mine the data for market research purposes, all the way back to January 2010. Until now firms could only search back over a 30 day period.

The move has already been attacked by privacy campaigners according to a BBC report. One campaigner said the resulting insights sold to businesses was a “radical shift in the wrong direction” while another called the move “creepy”. Read More »

Facebook: users say they'll leave, but will they follow through?

Facebook users in the UK and America are saying that they will quit Facebook if they are subjected to “too much advertising”.

The news comes ahead of an expected announcement by Facebook of a mobile advertising platform this week. Read More »

The New York Times reports that Yahoo! is looking to force Facebook into licensing as many as 20 patents for technologies, which include advertising, the personalisation of web, social networking and messaging.

It has struck some as an “act of desperation” from a company that has barely innovated in the last decade and has struggled to keep pace with competitors as the digital world went social. It is threatening to launch legal action if Facebook doesn’t pay up. Read More »

The Los Angeles Times is to become the latest major online newspaper to put up a paywall. It announced its plans at the weekend and says it will begin charging from next week.

Like the unrelated New York Times, the LA Times has opted for a social media friendly metered paywall and plans to charge an initial rate of 99 cents a month before rising after a four week trial. Read More »

Ken Livingstone’s team has launched a new website today as Labour presses its attack on Conservative Boris Johnson and his second job with the Daily Telegraph, which pays him £250,000 a year. Combined with his job as London Mayor earns him £400,000 a year.

The site “chicken feed” site refers to a comment Johnson made in 2009 during an interview for the BBC’s HARDTalk programme (below) where he called his Telegraph salary “chicken feed” despite it being many times what most London voters earn. Read More »

Nicholas Cage would have trouble driving this lot away. Every minute in social media there are millions of interactions taking place –  they happen on Pinterest, Foursquare, Flickr, Tagged, LinkedIn,StumbleUpon, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as detailed by this nice infographic here detailing what can happen in a mere 60 seconds in social media.

How many Tweets do you reckon? Enough that if you read them all it would take days to get through them all.  And forget about Facebook with 700,000 messages you could be there for weeks. Read More »