SreeTips

Instagram's instabillion, Hillary Clinton's texts, and online pranks - a week in social media

Another week has flown by in social-media land, which means, you -- and I -- have missed a lot of developments, new products, and so on. Most of them, of course, don't matter, but these Week in Review posts (March 27; March 19; March 12; March 5; February 26; February 19) are meant to help you catch up with the ones that do. Wherever I can, I insert Twitter handles so you'll have some new folks to follow. Each week, you can help by posting links in the comments section or e-mailing me or tweeting with @sree&… Read more

Ignorify, a social media parody that's all too real

"My new app is something that solves an age-old problem and an annoyance for all of us in the tech industry," is how the promising pitch starts. That problem and nuisance being described? "The real world."

"We are all so busy now," the "entrepreneur" continues, "We've all got emails to email, texts to text, tweets to tweets and birds to slingshot, that there's no real reason to be bothered by our actual surroundings any longer, you know. There's really no reason to look up from our phones ever … Read more

Assessing apps for the blind

This blog is meant to examine the world of social media, but sometimes I will stray into the world of apps because so many of them are inherently social, even if they aren't technically of or about social media itself.

When I review and critique apps, I plan to ask, on occasion, for experts with specific knowledge to share their insights with all of us.

So when I heard about an iPhone app aimed at the blind, I turned to someone better suited to the task than anyone else I know. More on her in a minute.

Since the … Read more

Trayvon Martin, Twitter's birthday, and a Romney music video -- a week in social media

Another week has flown by in social-media land, which means, you--and I--have missed a lot of developments, new products, etc. Most of them, of course, don't matter, but these Week in Review posts (March 19; March 12; March 5; February 26; February 19) are meant to help you catch up with the ones that do. Wherever I can, I insert Twitter handles so you'll have some new folks to follow. Each week, you can help by posting links in the comments section or e-mailing me or tweeting with @sree or #sreetips.

First stop: Mashable's 53 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed&… Read more

The downside of using text alerts for Twitter

In my social-media workshops around the country, the statement I make that gets the most incredulous response is always the same one: I take three to six minutes crafting each tweet I send.

Yes, that's right. I sometimes take even more than that much time to get every aspect of my tweets as right as possible. No typos? Check. Accurate link? Check. Accurate handle of writer I had to hunt down? Check. Accurate "via" to give credit? Check. All of that takes time and patience.

The reason for this much care is that my tweets reflect on … Read more

Slagging Goldman, pushing Daisey--all on social media

Another week has flown by in social-media land, which means, you--and I--have missed a lot of developments, new products, etc. Most of them, of course, don't matter, but these Week in Review posts (March 12; March 5; February 26; February 19) are meant to help you catch up with the ones that do. Wherever I can, I insert Twitter handles so you'll have some new folks to follow. Each week, you can help by posting links in the comments section or e-mailing me or tweeting with @sree or #sreetips.

First stop: Mashable's 46 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed&… Read more

Six things I learned from six days on Pinterest

Just what the world needs--another social network! If that, accompanied by an exasperated sigh, is your reaction to hearing all the buzz about Pinterest, then you're like me.

But because so many smart people I know (almost all of them women) are talking about Pinterest, I decided to give it a whirl. In addition to all the general buzz, three other things caught my eye:

Pinterest was the fastest independent social network to 10 million unique users, according to Comscore ( see details in this TechCrunch post by Josh Constine ( @JoshConstine). Pinterest was driving more referral traffic to many publishers than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined (… Read more

Social Media Week in Review: Kony, iPad, and SXSW

Another week has flown by in social-media land, which means, you--and I--have missed a lot of developments, new products, etc. Most of them, of course, don't matter, but these Week in Review posts (March 5, 2012; February 26, 2012; February 19, 2012) are meant to help you catch-up with the ones that do. Each weekend, you can help by posting links in the comments section or e-mailing me at sreetips@sree.net or tweeting with @sree or #sreetips.

First stop: Mashable's 49 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed by Matt Petronzio (@MattPetronzio) … Read more

Japan earthquake anniversary: Digital media lessons we've learned

I missed a chance to visit Spain last week, but this isn't a lament about that blown opportunity. Instead, it's about what I've learned since the devastating Japan earthquake on March 11, 2012. Let me explain.

I had been asked to make a presentation at Japan: One Year Later, a conference in Barcelona organized by Casa Asia and the Japan Foundation. I couldn't attend in person, so the organizer, Marta Ballada (@mballada) asked if I would consider participating in some digital fashion. Skype was the obvious answer, but the time difference would have meant my speaking … Read more