social networking

From a small microblogging site skeptics toted as a place for narcissists to share their breakfasts, to the behemoth of news and information (and yes, pictures of food) it is today, there’s no doubt that Twitter has come a long way since its inception in 2006. Today, the almost six year old site reached a major landmark in social networking history: according to Mashable, Twitter snagged its 500 millionth user this afternoon.

While data studied over the last year indicated the target would be reached today, there was still some skepticism as to whether it would actually happen. User data comes from Twopcharts, a third-party Twitter analytics tool that tracks user activity, and not from Twitter itself. However, around 1pm E.T., Twopcharts announced that Twitter had registered its 500 million user; as of this writing, Twopcharts counted 500,036,359 Twitter users.

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Create a clear, strategic approach to the way you use Facebook to market your business in our new Facebook Marketing Boot Camp. The online conference and workshop starts April 24. Learn more.

As with many jobs that are either technical in nature, or have a somewhat narrow scope, being the newsroom’s primary social media educator can have a pigeon-holing effect on ones career.

Depending on how advanced the newsroom is when it comes to understanding the basics of how to utilize social media and online communities for their reporting, the process of changing their ways could be ongoing and end up taking years.

Once all is said and done, a few years have gone by and you’re less a reporter and more a social media manager.

For some people that’s a great situation. But for others, it can feel limiting and uncomfortable.

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Every Friday I post links to a few of the blog posts that I read during the week that I found interesting and insightful.

Included in this week’s round-up is discussion about the secret to successful content strategy; why amateurs tend to build better communities than professionals; about the ‘myth’ of engagement; and why you must build engagement in an online community in order to grow it.

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Last week news broke about the new Twitter / social media policy that is being used by Sky News in the United Kingdom.

Usually when you hear the words “news” and “social media policy”, the instinct is to cringe and see how bad the damage is. This is no different.

In some ways the Sky News social media policy is a great poster child for how not to write social media guidelines for journalists.

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When the news broke that Whitney Houston had died, the world was shocked.

Social media sites lit up. On Twitter, hashtags related to Houston and her name itself dominated the trending topics. YouTube’s News channel featured her videos. Fan pages were created on Facebook. On Pinterest a search for “Whitney Houston” revealed dozens and dozens of pins. Videos and photos, from album and magazine covers to more candid ones, created what Poynter’s Julie Moos termed a “scrapbook of her career.”

While some news organizations covered it in the usual way with the standard obituary, videos, and slideshows of photos, others took Houston’s untimely death as an opportunity to experiment with using social media to pay tribute to the artist. A few outlets, such as Mashable, created Spotify playlists to honor Houston.

In particular, there were three that stood out and used social media tools to create particularly effective memorials to Houston. Read more