Social media


The jury is still out: how can lawyers use social media?

Social networking services are increasingly being used in the court room and throughout legal processes, including jury selections and even in providing evidence. Zachary Sniderman asks three net savvy attorneys about the future of social media and the law.

What your Facebook photo reveals about you

You may think you’re being cool with the slightly artsy Facebook photo with you barely visible in the background, but it’s just another social media stereotype. Gawker analyses the standard Facebook profile poses.

Does quirky social media sell airline seats?

After a day of phone calls, texts and emails about Air NZ’s latest viral ad campaign, maybe this blog should help spread the virus. But will it win more customers than it alienates? asks Ben Sandilands.

Why Google needs to buy Twitter

If Google wants to keep its control of the internet, it needs to purchase Twitter and fast, says Henry Blodget. Facebook is growing in power in social media, Apple is moving in that direction and Google is being left behind.

The whys and wherefores of bureaucratic blogging

The first was a fundamental rule that every public servant must live and breathe: that your personal views must be strictly separate from your professional conduct.

The cold turkey social media experiment

Access to social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter was prohibited for one week at an American university earlier this month as part of an academic exercise to test how students would react. A social media expert has spoken out against the experiment, labeling it “too extreme.”

Kindness killed the Facebook plant

An unusual experiment combining social media and gardening has resulted in death for a plant dubbed “Meet Eater,” which was watered every time internet users interacted with its Facebook account. The verdict: kindness really can kill.

Predicting the (near) future of social media

In recent years social media has progressed in leaps and bounds and the next five years look set to be just as turbulent. Expect larger member bases, more services, more connectivity and more micro-payment models, writes Adam Ostrow

Social media is egg-cellent for recalls

It’s always awkward when companies have to announce a recall — think of last week’s major egg recall following salmonella outbreaks in the US — but at least social media has made it far easier and cheaper to spread the message.

Avoiding disaster in the social media sphere

Social media marketers cannot control what users say about their brands, but there are certain tricks that can be employed to minimize or avoid PR debacles. Here are five.

You too can be a social media expert

Are you in desperate need of a social media strategy to spruik at an upcoming company meeting? Here’s a few classic lines for when you’re desperate, like “Harness social currency to drive buzz”.

The internet taking a back seat during the campaign

So far, the major parties’ use of the internet during this election has been a bit average. I blame the media. And the parties. And the social media expert gurus (SMEGs).

O’Farrell Twitter delete scandal in shock debacle gaffe blunder-gate

Careful with Twitter — it’s hard to get rid of problematic tweets even when you’re not a public figure. Barry O’Farrell just found out the hard way with a “deeply off the record” comment made deeply public.

QUIZ: Should you become a social media expert?

You can’t say “print advertising is dead” without a social media expert chiming in with their opinion. So take this simple quiz to establish if you too should join the realm of social media gurus.

Twitter killed the video star

From the company that invented the 80s VJ, comes the MTV TJ. The what, you ask? The Twitter Jockey. It may sound daggy, but it’s an infinitely cooler name than “social media expert”.

Keane: Twitter, certainty and branding — the grim future of political journalism

The mainstream media are already preparing us for their demise. But what will politicians do when mass media is no longer available to convey their messages to voters?

Keane: Twitter and the prosaic reality of Digital Democracy

We expect too much of politicians on social media - particularly in Australia, where its benefits are less obvious compared to those of the mass media.

Facebook swings the closet door wide open

If you want to keep your sexuality a secret, then you can’t be on Facebook or Twitter. Social media makes it harder to stay in the closet, but it also makes it easier for young gays to come out.

Israel’s PR war on ‘hate boat’

This wasn’t a Love Boat,” Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says in the face of growing condemnation of the deadly commando raid on the flotilla of activists. This is a PR campaign being waged on Facebook and Twitter.

When it comes to new media, it’s all location, location, location

Location-based apps and websites are theMyTown and Twitter’s geolocation function. But who’s looking at what, where?

The Twitterverse, visualised

Taking the “Twitterverse” idea to a new level, design studio Information Architects graph the 140 most influential users on Twitter as an entire galaxy. Epic.

Who killed Instant Messaging?

Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the Twittersphere with the iPhone? Since the rise of social media, no one is using Instant Messaging services any more. Looks like MSN Messenger is set to join LISTSERV, IRC, and chatrooms in the great internet in the sky.

Behind the birth of Foursquare

Foursquare is the hottest social media property of the year. Shane Snow gives an inside perspective on how a starry-eyed start-up took the mobile web by storm.

Why the end of privacy may not be so bad after all

Yes, the internet has killed privacy — at least as we know it — but a world with no secrets is a far more interesting place, says Steven Johnson.