Rachel Ramsey
Graduated from James Madison University with a B.A. in Media Arts and Design and a minor in Communication Studies
| Welcome to Social Spotlight! When I'm not covering a variety of technology and communications industries - everything from the cloud and VoIP to customer relationship management and data centers - you will find me on social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, foursquare, YouTube, Tumblr... you name it, I'm there
December 2012
You are browsing the archive for December 2012.
Happy New Year!
December 31, 2012On the last day of 2012, I’d like to wish you a very happy and safe New Year! Here’s what’s happening on the social media blogs this New Year’s Eve.
Already trending on Twitter are NYE, Happy New Year, #Best 2012Memories and #MyWishIn2013. As similar topics start to emerge as the celebrations continue, be on the lookout for a huge amount of resolution tweets tomorrow.
“Whether you aspire to something silly or serious next year, Tweeting your #resolutions can be an effective way to account for your actions.”
Foursquare Updates Privacy Policy
December 31, 2012In an e-mail to users last night, Foursquare announced updates to its privacy policy just after Instagram gained some [temporary] haters for changes to its privacy terms. Beginning January 28, users’ full names will be displayed across the check-in service and venue owners will have increased access to users’ check-in data. The company sent an e-mail to users last night:
As our product evolves, one of the things we do is update our policies to match it.
Year in Review -- 2012 on Social Media
December 27, 2012As we inch closer to the New Year, social networks are rounding up 2012 with the top highlights, trends and events of the past 12 months. Most of these reports came out before the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT shooting and Christmas -- two 2012 events that dominated social media and I think belong on all of these lists.
By now, we’ve gathered that if something big is going on, you can always count on Facebook to find out a) what is happening and b) what all of your friends think about it. As a population, it’s just what we do – share.
Share Videos Instantly with YouTube Capture
December 17, 2012If you’ve ever become frustrated with the middle step of uploading a video to YouTube through the site’s browser, today is your lucky day. YouTube has introduced the YouTube Capture app for iPod touch or iPhone that allows you to upload videos instantly to YouTube after filming. You also have the option to share to other social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ simultaneously with the upload process.
The app was introduced today in a YouTube blog post, which can basically do it all: capture, enhance and share all from one app.
Pope's First Tweet
December 12, 2012Last week, the Twitterverse welcomed Pope Benedict XVI. His handle, @Pontifex, has been untouched until today.
“Dear friends, I am please to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response.
Twitter Filters and Instagram Update
December 11, 2012Since the massive adoption and popularity of Instagram, we’ve seen a few other sites pick up filters of their own. Facebook, which acquired Instagram in April, recently updated its photo uploading feature. Users can now upload multiple photos at a time (up to 30) and edit with Facebook's own set of filters.
Pinterest Goes After the Bad Guys - Removes Spam Accounts for Good
December 7, 2012When it comes to social media, there’s probably nothing more annoying than spam accounts. Twitter is infamous for its direct message spams (which, by the way, you know to never to click to see “what U R doing in this video OMG” … right?) and its abundance of accounts with no real substance to them. TMC’s CEO, Rich Tehrani, recently blogged about a new service called fakefollowers that allows Twitter users to see how many of their followers are of high quality, or “real.” The service determines the accounts legitimate or not based on the following/followers ratio, repeat spam phrases, repeated Tweets, number of retweets, number of links and more.
According to Mark Risher, chief executive officer of anti-spam software company Impermium, spammers are responsible for creating as much as 40 percent of the accounts on popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Instagram and Twitter - 'Social Media Frenemies'
December 6, 2012Over the past 24 hours there has been a lot of talk about how Instagram pulled support for Twitter Cards, resulting in cropped or poorly displayed images if you opt to click “View photo” instead of the actual Instagram link.
Users can still share Instagram photos to Twitter, but the image on the two platforms will look different. The idea is to increase traffic to Instagram and utilize the platform and its Web presence more directly, especially now that it has released its Web profiles.
“A handful of months ago, we supported Twitter cards because we had a minimal Web presence.
Microsoft's Social Network, Socl, Now Available to Public on Beta
December 5, 2012Microsoft is joining the social media game with Socl, a service where people connect over shared interests through collage posts that take only seconds to create.
Pronounced social, Socl began as an experiment in social search for students and learning at the University of Washington, Syracuse University and New York University, providing them with a platform on which they could share their common interests through pictures and links.
From the looks of it, Socl is a Pinterest-inspired network that allows you to create your own posts, which are displayed as collages, around common themes of interest with other users. Users with a Microsoft or Facebook account can join the beta version, which just became available to the public.
