Thoughts From A Media Nerd.

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Google has made a big announcement today saying that they are overhauling Google+, to make it a better user experience with design in mind. The new design changes are rolling out in phases world wide, so if you don’t see it yet you may see it in the next few days.

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After the news broke yesterday about Facebook acquiring Instagram for a billion dollars, users took to their favorite social photo sharing app to express themselves. Here are the 15 best Instagrams where users were clearly emotional about the news.

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(Source: bitshare)

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Sharing your Tumblr blogs on Facebook just got a whole lot easier thanks to some new Tumblr-to-Facebook integration. In the past, you had to manually share your Tumblr posts directly into Facebook using the status update. That is now a thing of the past, unless you care to continue doing that manually.

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In case you missed it yesterday, Google Maps played a really good practical joke on the world with their NES 8-bit Google Maps April Fools prank. Although it’s not April Fools day any longer, I went again to check it out some more and see that it’s still up.

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I think I need to change professions, because this guy is making a buttload of money doing some shady, yet legal work. The Daily Dot interviewed one person, who using a network of spam bots has created a lucrative business from the new social pinning network.

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Just like a game of Risk, expanding too quickly with social media will most likely lead to disaster. You need to be strategic – so put down the dice and consider your next move before your make it.

First off you need to think about your message. When you are sitting down to decide a social media initiative, make sure to ask yourself the following questions:

·      What message is your company trying to portray?

·      Who is your audience or demographic?

·      Do they use social media?

·      If so, which platforms?

Many businesses assume they need a Facebook to be competitive, but they do not know what it is or how to use it. Make sure you have a plan. The point of social media is to interact with other people. Do you have an employee that is well educated on its uses? The worst solution to a social media problem is to throw someone in the middle of the social media mosh pit without any direction.

The number of social media platforms is constantly growing, so your company needs to figure out which ones would be the most beneficial for your needs. Here’s the main point: START OUT SMALL. Don’t over do it! If you are new to the party don’t rush to join every single platform. When you expand too quickly, you are going to take away from the focus of your message.

If you are new, start off with Facebook and Twitter. Both platforms are perfect for businesses or brands to deliver news, updates, and more to the public while also giving you the ability to interact with your customers directly.

So if you are looking for a great way to deliver your message and interact with consumers - social media is the answer. So go ahead and roll the dice, but remember it’s always better to start off small. You only have so many troops to defend you.

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Glitcher is a Facebook user that exploits the biggest social networking site in the world by using different script tricks and symbols called diacritics stacked upon each other to create chaos on his Facebook wall. It’s a bit of an art form if you ask me, and his skills display through his posts which really add some much needed flavor to Facebook which can be stagnate at times.

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It’s true I’m a recent college graduate. Yes, I am 24 years old. I double majored in Media Studies and Communication & Technology, so one would think I would be able to choose any job I wanted in this digital era, and yet I’m not.

I was on MySpace when everyone was holding their phones awkwardly taking the “MySpace pic” and I was welcomed to Facebook when it was only for college students. I am a part of a prime demographic for advertisers – so why isn’t anyone interested in my ideas?

I’m sure I’m not the only young professional to come across this – a 40 to 50 year old person telling me how to use Facebook or Twitter properly to promote my company. It’s interesting. Mind you the same individuals who questioned my social media tactics also asked me how to “What is it called “retweet” this?”

Now maybe it’s because I’m young – I find that a lot of people say this to me – but I don’t understand how everyone (and I mean everyone) is a social media expert these days. Social media is a hot topic. Every company wants to have it, but not all of them know how to use it correctly. However I find a lot of “experts” that I come across on the Internet are far from being knowledgeable in the area.

First, I find a lot of these “experts” do not even tweet themselves. They use an app like Buffer App or Twuffer. While these applications are convenient for people that have tight schedules, it’s hard to take someone seriously when they are not even interacting with others through the mediums they claim to know so well. If you cannot find time to use social media, then I do not believe you should be calling yourself an expert.

Second, if you are going to retweet articles and give people advice, you need to know the newest information about where social media is going. Last week I overheard an “expert” speaking about how Facebook and Google are working together to promote people’s information from one platform to another. Anyone in the tech world knows the battle that has been brewing between the two tech giants. Facebook and Google do not like each other after Facebook ordered a PR attack on Google. It makes me wonder, where is this “expert” receiving his or her information from?

Now I believe people are open be passionate about whatever topic they would like – However, I think that just like the term “friend” has changed through the uses of Facebook, the term “expert” is getting more blurred as social media’s importance grows.