CRUSH – Your one and only source for juicy social media news in four minutes or less. Don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter, and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com

As promised, we’ve got the latest on the debate heating up over Facebook privacy. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is adding fuel to the fire, asking the FCC to provide privacy guidelines for social networks. Schumer believes “The default policy should be one of privacy, and users should be in control of how they choose to share their information, not the other way around.” This “opt-out” to “opt-in” transition sounds smart to us, but check out the Senator’s Facebook page to find out what everyone else is saying and to put in your own two cents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFWAmMXmIiw

Taking a more active approach, a group in Germany expressed their concern over “privacy invasions” by sabotaging a Google “Street View” car. The Google employee returned to find the tires let down and the camera cables slashed. However, the protestors were kind enough to leave behind the informative note, “Please do not drive away, you have a puncture”.

And perhaps these privacy issues are the source of anxiety and worry bringing an influx of users to the site “Blah Therapy”. This new website pairs random strangers together as “venters” and “listeners”, however, when we tried to unload our feelings the site was down due to an overload of users.

But our epic privacy FAIL comes courtesy of Blippy, a social media site that lets users share with friends what they purchase. Several credit card transactions were visible via a simple Google search, exposing detailed information including amount spent, specific location, and full credit card number. While we hate to say it, we predicted this case of “TMI” from the beginning.

In Twitter news, a new report by Edison Research and Arbitron reveals that while the awareness of Twitter among Americans has increased from 5% to 87% in the past two years, the population is still struggling to find a reason to use it as only 7% of Americans are active users.

However, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has now joined the 140-character brigade in hopes of spreading Bolvarian Revolution. And if Chavez, who had recently declared Twitter “a tool for terror”, can be converted to the dark side, maybe Twitter still has a chance.

In an attempt to aggregate all the “Like’s” around the world, Facebook has created the new website likebutton.me. The site operates as a directory of “likes”, showing what your friends and the rest of the world have deemed most important from popular web sites, such as YouTube, New York Times and Pandora.

And that brings us to our CRUSH OF THE WEEK – we are taking on the serious epidemic sweeping the globe, “Internet Valleygirlification”. With Facebook only allowing a “like option” our freedom of expression is confined into a simplistic, 4-letter, click of affirmation. So that’s why we are hitting the pavement for the CRUSH Road Trip 2010. Don’t worry, we will find out what American’s really have to say and of course share all the juicy with you.

Post from: Social Media Vision

CRUSH: Road Trip 2010

CRUSH – Bringing you the latest in social media news in four minutes or less. And in our own exciting news – we’ve gone HD, making our crushing capabilities that much clearer. Enjoy! Don’t forget to join us on Facebook and Twitter, and get your daily crush at www.commonsensenms.com

Facebook took center stage this week with its annual developers conference, F8. What were the biggest announcements? Although Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg displayed a dozen new tools and widgets, the most significant announcement to prepare for is the “open graph platform”. Open Graph plans to connect all corners in the web in order to “create a Web that’s smarter, more social, more personalized, and more semantically aware”. As one element of this platform, website owners will have a chance to place a “Like” button on their pages, allowing Facebook to then publish whatever a user likes directly to their Facebook profile.

Of course the privacy police have already stated concern over the new development, and with good reason. When does sharing data on what we read, view, listen to, and interact with on the web become invasive as opposed to interactive? Stay tuned to CRUSH for latest in what is sure to be an upcoming battle over personalization versus privacy.

In honor of the recent celebration of Earth Day, we encourage you to fly on over to the “We Love Birds” community on Ning. Hosted by NRDC and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “We Love Birds” is one of the best uses of Ning we’ve seen yet. View some of natures’ finest yourself with the over 7,000 stunning photos.

While social media sites continue to innovate at a crushing speed, the honorable justices of the US Supreme Court seem to be experiencing technical difficulties. The divide between “the hip justices and hip-replacement judges” was made painfully clear during this week’s court discussion over sexting and privacy rights. Embarrassing highlights from the case:

• Chief Justice Roberts asks what the difference was between email and a pager
• Justice Kennedy wondered what would happen if you were sent a text the same time you were sending one to someone else – “Does it say: ‘Your call is important to us, and we will get back to you?”
• Justice Scalia’s confusion on service providers and concern of whether they can be shared by printing them – “You mean (the text) doesn’t go right to me?”…”Could Quon print these spicy little conversations and send them to his buddies?”

In other online sex news, we would like to commend Apple’s decision to trash nearly 6,000 sexually suggestive iPhone apps. Refreshing to see some leadership within corporate America, and hats off to Steve Jobs for refusing to chose profits over the objectification of women.

And that brings us to our CRUSH OF THE WEEK – Our story this week truly reveals the power of social media, as Mayor of East Haven Connecticut donated a kidney to a Facebook Friend, Carlos Sanchez, after seeing the status update Sanchez posted saying his friends and relatives had all been tested but were not a match. Making the Mayor a hero in our books, and Facebook her loyal sidekick.

Post from: Social Media Vision

CRUSH: The End of Anonymity

CRUSH is a fast and fun weekly round-up of social media news – Join us on Facebook to keep up with all the latest.

What was this week’s theme among your favorite social networking sites? Change. Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook are all rolling out a handful of new features. Including Twitter’s addition of “most popular tweets” to its search capability, a new interactive layout for YouTube, and the introduction of language alterations and community pages from Facebook.

Facebook was especially busy, as it also acquired “Divvyshot”, a program that will allow users to tag photos by event. You can expect to see this application in the upcoming months. Music artist John Forte has already gotten a head start on how this might work, pausing mid-set during his latest tour stop in Boston to snap a photo for his morning Twitter feed.

More politicians are beginning to find audiences via social media. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is reaching out to his constituents on Facebook. He follows New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, who did a live stream chat courtesy of the Live Free of Die Alliance a few months ago.

But beware, the power of social media is a double-edged sword. Just ask the RNC, as the release of controversial financial records and activities have been blasted to the public by an army of bloggers, as well as a video mashup of RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s speeches to Fat Joe’s music video “Make It Rain”.

On a lighter note, April Fool’s Day did not go by unnoticed. Here’s a list of Mashable’s favorite pranks from this year.

And of course, we couldn’t resist pulling a prank of our own, which brings us to our CRUSH of the Week. Haven’t heard of a Rick Roll? Let us introduce you…

Post from: Social Media Vision

CRUSH: Rick and Roll

Facebook Backup Plan

It may not occur to you but have you ever though about backing up data from your Facebook account?

Recently for some odd reason Facebook has decided to go Battlestar Glitchtastica on some of my friends recently to the point of having some of my friends completely lose their Facebook account information and start over.  Crazy Right?

For the people who has lost all their friends Contacts, Wall Posts and even precious Photos, everyone pretty much said the same thing..They all wished they would of backed up their account somehow.

Socialsafe the Facebook Backup Application (http://www.socialsafe.net)

When Socialsafe first launched you could only download Facebook photos pretty much.  Now Socialsafe added some great new features:

• Backup Facebook friends & contact details

• Backup Facebook photos & tagged photos

• Backup Facebook profile details

• Backup Facebook wall posts

• View time capsule feature (view how has your Facebook profile progressed since the start)

Never worry again about losing important data on your Facebook account now.  The application is very cheap for only pricing at $2.99 its a steal!!

I love the new features and I have to admit the price is a small price to pay to backup everything you ever wanted in your Facebook profile.  Imagine getting your account hacked, Facebook glitches or ever wanted to delete your account without worrying about coming back, this is priceless.

SocialSafe Explanation .. Introducing Wall Backups from Pascal Wheeler on Vimeo.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Backup Your Entire Facebook Account, Wall & Contacts

There will always be critics, haters and naysayers out there in the real world and online world.

How many times have we heard sayings like:

“I don’t care what people are doing or where they are going, don’t tell the world on Facebook/Twitter”

The funny thing is mostly the people who do complain about this rant are usually users who have not found a benefit in using Facebook or Twitter and merely have an account just to have one.  They maybe update their account once every 2 weeks and has less than 50 friends.  However there are your emos and haters who just like to bicker and rant on things.

Honestly these people just seem to be bitter in life generally and are grumpy grandpas, if you ask me.

Then there are a few who doesn’t seem to grasp the benefit in status updates.

Take a look at a few more examples below:

Heres a Facebook Group

Twitter Comments

The benefits of Status Updates – Enough with the pointless bashing

Ok so whats the real benefit of an update of:

“I am getting ready for my trip to NYC”

“I just bought a new puppy”

“Just saw the movie G.I Joe”

Close minded people may view these updates..just babble….pointless.  I beg to differ.  Matter of fact, the millions of other users who effectively use Facebook & Twitter as an excellent medium for communication and engagement beg to differ as well, here’s why.

The main point in displaying these updates are to open up conversations and provide the lead for engagement

Its that simple folks.  Most people don’t realize that this is an excellent way to strike up a conversation and a perfect time to engage so that you are effectively using your Social Network to its full potential.  Why let anything go to waste when your not using it at full potential?  That’s like buying a Fast Expensive Car that just sits in your garage.

Now some people may say that some updates are too excessive?

Yes I do agree, some people need to learn The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook by Tamar Weinberg, however it goes back to the old saying “Something is better than nothing”

Its just like in jr.high when the boys would be afraid to dance with the girls but one boy who may not be the best dancer, dances himself silly in the middle of the gym and magically girls start to dance with him.  While the cool guys were laughing at the silly boy, the silly boy got to dance with the girls.

So stop the bickering, its only making yourself look bitter.  Go out there and Engage!  Communicate!  Do what the Social Networks were created for you to do and that’s Socialize, no matter how pointless the updates maybe, its just another way to provide communication.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Why Facebook and Twitter status updates are not useless

Social Media Scene Kids

This is a Fun Post I am merely writing about due to the fact of “Web Stereotypes” out there, it came about when I overheard people discussing about how they dislike “Group A” so much and how they can’t stand “Group B” in a local Starbucks.  So In my head, I was thinking wow those adults are Scene Kids, I chuckled a little bit and thought I would write a fun post about it.

What is a Scene Kid exactly?  While there any many variations and definitions of the “Scene Kid”, to sum it all up is simply a term used for Teens who follow the “scenes” or “trends” thus making them seem cool by association.

Whether its a current music scene, clothing trend or attitude style, the point is forming a common clique of unique individual friends trying to seem like they “Don’t Conform to the Norm” and they do things “Uniquely”, thus making them appear an outcast snob.

Social Media profiles are mainly dominant with the Adult Generation so the term “Kid” may not apply here but applying the same perception of “Scene Kids” can be found in alot of Social Networks out there from what I see.

Cliques & Labels

Regardless in any community, there will be cliques and in Social Networks, cliques are surprisingly abundant.  If you notice on Twitter for instance, you can pretty much tell who your Followers are in a category of Tweets.  Some could just Tweet about Art & Design, others are your Video Gamers and Coders, while maybe some are just your Typical Bloggers.

There are even Twitter Directories like WeFollow.com that strongly suggests all Twitter users to label or categorize themselves on there.  So in essence Labels, Cliques and certain stereo types are not new to the online world.

However, the Social Media Scene Cliques out there are becoming more and more popular.  It’s funny you can go to a local Tweetup and point out all the “Mommy Bloggers”, “SEO Heads” and the “Internet Marketers” all in one fell swoop.  Lately there has been some beef with the Mommy Bloggers and the so called “True Bloggers” calling out the Mommy Bloggers as sell outs.  Also lets not forget about the so called “True Bloggers” getting called out as sellouts too with the whole K-mart contest.

Regardless of where you stand on certain cliques and groups, there out there and many are sticking to their groups and niche streams where users on Twitter may not follow-back or even try to find new people to follow if they are not in a certain niche.  Now you may call these Twitter users snobs but I call these users Social Media Scene Kids because no matter how cool they think they are by sticking with certain cliques they are actually limiting their Twitter community and sphere.

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Celebs – These guys are the exception to the rule because they mainly are known to be snobby because of their fame and craft.  However keep in mind Celebs can become Scenesters too when they just join to be cool like Ashton or if they just joined because everyone else is doing it but hasn’t updated their account in months.  (They mainly follow other Celebs, News and close friends)

SEO – The famous SEO Heads.  These Twitter users talk nothing but shop on SEO and how cool they are when they find new SEO white and black techniques.  They will occasionally talk about blog headlines and Art designs but rarely go off topic on their craft.  (They mainly follow Tech, Business & Internet Marketers/Social Media)

Bloggers  - The main core of the Web 2.0 & Social Media world is of course the main stream bloggers.  Regardless if you are a mommy blogger, pro blogger or even a news blogger, you make up the most % of Twitter users.  The followers & friends can vary largely but some bloggers still stick with other blogger networks.  The Blogger Scene Kids out there hate being sold to by Internet Marketers & SEO guys.  The love finding fresh, new Articles so they can read and Retweet to friends.  (They tend to follow the Social Media Rockstars, Internet Marketers, Bloggers, News/Aggregators, Tech, PR)

PR -The PR scene kids are popping up more and more lately.  The PR online users are in Journalism, Marketing and of course Public Relations.  A vast majority out there are recent graduates or currently in school learning about the PR business through Social Networks like Twitter and LinkedIN.  Now many users may have witnessed that the PR users rarely follow any other crowds besides their own niche.  These guys are hard working individuals but can clearly miss the big picture of Public Relations and that is to be involved everywhere in the community. (They tend to follow other PR professionals, Journalists & Celebs)

Twitter – The Twitter fans are hardcore fans.  They constantly debate against Facebook & Myspace.  They often say things like “In before Oprah“, are avid Tweetup members and love to boast about the latest and great Twitter Apps out there.  Its kind of hard to establish whos a Twitter Scene Kid because Twitter is becoming so mainstream but the true Twitter heads will definately let you know they are one. (They tend to follow Tech, Social Media, Bloggers)

Designers – I personally love these guys because they tend to be open in who they follow and follow back but just like the SEO guys, they love talking about their own craft.  The graphic artists rarely follow other mainstream bloggers and could care less in retweeting a blog article on Social Media however they love cool and interesting articles like Design, Themes, Music and Tech.  (They tend to follow Designers & Tech)

Marketers – The Marketers are rarely Scene Kids due to the simple fact they will follow everyone and friend everyone that will at least listen or view thier business.  These guys are your main hustlers on the net ranging from E-books, MLM MArketing, Get Rich Quick and any other online business that you can think of.  Sad to say the true “Marketing” professionals have been shifted to either PR or Social Media.  (They tend to follow everyone)

Social Media – The Social Media scene kids are arguably the most common trend out there.  Social Media is the new hype in the online world out there as many variations and classifications can be implemented in this class.  There has been an increasing number of so called Social Media experts and gurus out there which makes the Social Media scene kids #1 in becoming scenesters.  Reason being behind this is due to the simple fact they want to be surrounded only by other Social Media like minded individuals, read information solely on Social Media and the ability to re-tweet other Social Media users on Twitter. (They tend to follow Social Media Rockstars, Bloggers, PR, News)

Tech – The classic Geeks & Nerds of the online world.  The Tech geeks really love Tech stories with occasional stories of Social Media, Art & SEO.  Anything cutting edge or computer related will grab these guys attention and with that you do have Scene Kids where they believe they are superior to the rest of the online world.  These are your classic Tech nerds where they will put you down for not knowing about a certain subject.  Within this group there are min sub groups that are in conflict as well.  For instance the Digg heads vs the other Social Bookmarks and event he most famous MAC fans vs PC fans.  Expect this group to be the most in conflict with other users (They tend to follow Tech, Seo, Social Media & Design)

Post from: Social Media Vision

Social Media Scene Kids

The Blame Game

Over the years, there has been many articles written about how certain Social Networks were causes for certain events.

Below are a few examples:

• Mashable writes about how Facebook Can Get You Fired, Dumped, And Yes, Evicted
• Gawker explains how a bank intern gets fired because of Facebook.
• Another story of getting fired from Facebook is from Switched, a teen calls job “boring”
• Most recently, the famous story about how a would-be cisco employee would of got hired except Twitter got him fired.
• Americanshelflife talks about how she got dumped because of Facebook

Now noticed, all the articles have one thing in common and that is doing the blame game.  It seems like placing the blame of the bad news on the Social Network is more shocking than comparing it to a normal event without Social Media involved.

It appears with the new hype and phenomenon of Social Media taking place that these stories get hyped due to having the event take place on Social Media.  This maybe the case, but they are still all missing the main point and that’s being accountable for their own actions.

Social Media Are Just Communication Tools and Mediums

Twitter, Myspace and Facebook are just Social Networks.  They are communication tools that we use on a daily basis.  Although these are great sources for communication, they are just that and doesn’t force us to do anything  against our will.

If you ever heard the saying….

“Computers don’t make errors, people make errors”

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”

These sayings imply that to not blame the tools but to blame the users.

Be Accountable For Your Actions

There is a great movement and book out there if you haven’t heard it, it’s called QBQ – The Question Behind The Question and Personal Accountability.

That’s what this is all about, these users on these Social Networks need to stop blaming Social Media for their actions and take personal accountability for what they did.

It’s not Facebook’s fault that the users got fire for posting incriminating information…..

It’s not Twitters fault for displaying a users Tweet on his careless opinion about his future employer…

It’s not Myspace’s fault that you got dumped……

Let’s look at the cold hard facts.  These users are all soley responsible for their actions and just because they have the ability to showcase their information to the world they should have the common sense to be more careful in what they put out there on the net.

Just because you entertained the idea that you will never get caught because it’s Social Media, doesn’t make it right.  If you published your hatred opinion in a book instead of Facebook, don’t think you will not fall under the same consequences.  Doing something wrong is doing something wrong regardless if you get caught or not.

Bottom line is that Social Media is not to blame….the blame is upon yourself…take personal accountability for your actions and next time make better judgement calls before you go out and do something you will regret.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Don’t Blame Twitter, Myspace or Facebook; Blame Yourself

Facebook Adults Vs Myspace Teens

So recently Facebook has surpassed Myspace in unique visitor count with a total of 150 million visitors.  It wasn’t too long ago where Myspace was king and Facebook was just a rookie.

There are many reasons and theories how Facebook over took the throne of Myspace.  The one thing I think helped contribute a lot to Facebook’s success is the shear fact that Myspace was infested with teens and young adults.  Adults and Parents were a little hesitant in joining Myspace but it looked “kiddish” and just didn’t feel right when the main audience is 12-27 years old.

Facebook on the other hand is very clean and started becoming a breeding ground for business minded adults.  Soon networking and marketing became mainstream on Facebook and encouraged other adults and parents to follow suite.  Now keep in mind, Facebook was originally only for college students who are not quite old but are not quite kids.  

This also helped ease the association of a Social Network like Facebook rather than associating with Myspace where it might make you sound creepy for being on that site if your older than 30 years old.

Social Network Comparisons

Categorizing all Facebook users as “Adults” and all Myspace users as “Kids” is of course not true, but majority of the sites are.

However, keep in mind that Facebook has just achieved a new milestone and a lot of users from Myspace are coming over to Facebook because of the hype regardless of being young or old.

Regardless, I still find many stero-types out there in the world and recently I cam across a young girl who was quoted saying “Facebook is the Myspace for old folks and parents” in which I tweeted on Twitter and got some very funny reactions.

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The Reactions

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Facebook Adults vs Myspace Teens

Below are some funny quotes caught on Twitter on the views of Myspace and Facebook.  I think its funny when the parents talk about how their kids are on Myspace and how happy they are on Facebook, or vice versa.

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Myspace looks like the inside of a 14yr old’s bedroom

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The Trend

It will be interesting to see if Facebook can keep up with their new members and to see if Myspace can win back the crown this year.  I do think Generation Gaps do play a major role with the two Social Networks and Facebook has a major lead with adults conforming over, while Myspace has a strong hold on the Tweens.

Post from: Social Media Vision

Facebook Adults vs Myspace Teens

Guest Blogger Tina Merritt

Tina is a good friend of mine who is a Real Estate Agent & Internet Marketing Trainer for Long & Foster Realtors, Founder of Wolkia a consulting company for Real Estate Agents embracing Technology, Activerain Blogger, Awesome Mother & a Virginia Tech Hokies fan.

I was honored to have her guest blog on my post with this re-blog below on Social Network Friendships.  Enjoy!

It seems every site nowadays gives you the opportunity to follow “friends”.

So, what type of “friends” are there?  Let’s take a look….

1. True friends.  People you personally know.  People you talk to at least once per month.  The people who probably know way too much about you.  The people who you would have to pay to be silent if you ever decided to run for public office.

2.  Business Associates.  Colleagues you do business with on a regular basis.  Maybe you work in the same office.  Maybe they have done your loans/home inspections/closings for the past 5 years.  People who know you personally, but probably don’t REALLY know you.

3.  Clients.  Past, present, future.  You handled a business transaction for them 3 years ago, haven’t talked to them since – but that doesn’t mean they don’t like you.

4.  Former classmates.  Gary the Geek, Popular Priscilla, Doug the Druggie, Wanda the Weirdo….you know what I mean.  The old boyfriend who is now married with 3 kids or your best friend from 7th grade.

5.  Social Networking friends.  This gets tricky.  People you have never met face to face but have watched on YouTube, read their blogs, subscribed to their feed, etc.  People you feel like you know – though you have never personally met.

6.  Acquaintances.  People you have heard of, or they have heard of you – though you really do not know much about them.

7.  Circle of Sphere.  People who know people you know.  You may or may not ever get to actually know them.

8.  Strangers.  The friend request you get that you accept and the person is some guy who builds skateboards out of his garage in Brazil.  You have absolutely nothing in common….and probably never will.

When deciding who to “friend”, keep this in mind…..what is the purpose of the site you are on and who are you trying to connect with?  Very often, your “friends” will take a look at the others you have “befriended”.  Be careful here….if you are using Facebook for business, do you want Boobalicious Brenda or Boozing Bernie to show up in your friend feed? Also, periodically check out your “friends” – you may be surprised what their new profile picture looks like and how it can reflect back on you.

Tina in Virginia

Post from: Social Media Vision

Boobalicious Brenda – Who Are Your 8 Types Of Online Friends ?

Google Friend Connect

Earlier this week on December 15th 2008, Google’s Official Blog wrote a post on how Twitter was integrated with Google Friend Connect service. 

This allows Twitter users now to sign in and join in with this social networking service by using Twitter Ids now so you tweet about the sites you join or find other Twitter users in your community.

Twitter Plays Fair

Quickly word spread that Twitter slapped Facebook & Myspace in the face with this breaking news but Twitter CEO Evan Williams had this to tweet about it, saying “For the record: Twitter did not “choose Google, not Facebook.” We’re working with both. We have more to do on the FB side before launch.”

Turns out Twitter wants to debunk rumors on siding with just Google, but what about Myspace you ask?

Twitter was originally one of the launch partners for Myspace ID (similiar to Google Friend Connect and FacebookConnect) Myspace has been using Google Friend Connect currently and is awaiting integration with Twitter.

Twitter’s Biz Stone also quoted from Tech Crunch here saying

Twitter plans to integrate with the open initiatives offered by our friends at MySpace, Facebook, and Google. We officially announced our intent to work with MySpace back in May because we believe strongly in offering the exchange of public information between our complimentary services.

Integrating with MySpace as well as FacebookConnect will require some development effort on our part. Now that we have 13 software engineers working at Twitter and our reliability continues to improve we’re getting closer to integrating with your favorite social networks

 

2 cents

So it appears Twitter want’s to be friends with everyone and is playing it very safe along the lines on who to side with.  Twitter seems at this point very smart to keep a hush hush business advertising model and playing it fair on all sides. 

Keep in mind Twitter was offered a buyout from Facebook earlier and was turned down.  More and more big players are viewing Twitter as “The Hot New Toy” recently, the question is who will Twitter play with the most?

Post from: Social Media Vision

Twitter Playing Fair With Google, Facebook & Myspace