Social Media

Minding your manners when sharing in social media

Since this is a column about "Common Sense Tech," I thought I'd take that name and run with it in terms of social-media sharing. Sometimes I see a lack of common sense, politeness, and manners when it comes to personal sharing. Consider this a "things not to do" list.

Some of the suggestions below are things I personally try to follow. I love to share on social media, but I also try to be mindful of people's privacy. Some of the suggestions come from others whom I asked through... social media!

The suggestions are … Read more

How the world's biggest companies are doing social media

The graphic above show the 10 most-often mentioned companies on social media among the Global Fortune 100. That's according to the third annual Global Social Media Check-Up Study of how Global Fortune 100 companies are using social media, conducted by Burson-Marsteller and Visible Technologies. You can find the full study at BM.com/social, including the executive summary and an infographic.

Here are five findings highlighted by the authors of the study:

1. The Fortune Global 100 were mentioned a total of 10,400,132 times online in one month. Gone are the days that companies and brands … Read more

Can Digg make a comeback?

Digg's painful downfall has finally hit rock bottom. Does that mean Digg can only go up now?

As you've probably heard, the once-mighty social news Web site has sold to Betaworks for a paltry $500,000. The total price of the acquisition was around $16 million, if you include The Washington Post's acquisition of the team and LinkedIn's acquisition of the patents.

That price is still a far cry from the $200 million that Google was ready to spend to acquire Digg in 2008. And those numbers seem paltry in comparison with the billion dollar deals … Read more

Three lessons from changing jobs

This week, after 20 years at Columbia Journalism School (one as a student, 19 as a professor and seven as a dean), I changed jobs.

I have joined the office of Provost John Coatsworth, who is the highest academic officer of Columbia University. I will be the CU's first Chief Digital Officer, focusing on online learning and social- and digital media.

I will still continue to teach a few classes at the Journalism School, but my priority is going to be dealing with all the dramatic opportunities and challenges in the world of online education. Several units of … Read more

An Airbnb for your dog

One of the hardest things about taking a summer vacation is figuring out what to do with your pets while you're away. A pack of new Web sites help dog owners connect with hosts willing to take care of their pooches.

Think of them as Airbnbs for canines.

Dog Vacay is one such site, founded by Aaron Hirschhorn, who started the company after his own experience with boarding his dogs in a more or less standard way.

"When my wife and I were traveling, we would put our dogs, Rocky and Rambo, in a kennel," Hirschhorn says. &… Read more

Heads up, LinkedIn users: 93% of recruiters are looking at you

LinkedIn users hunting for a job may want to spruce up their profiles.

A recent survey from Jobvite found that 93 percent of job recruiters tap into LinkedIn to find qualified candidates, up from 87 percent last year and 78 percent in 2010. But the other popular social networks are growing in influence as well.

In second place, Facebook is used by 66 percent of the recruiters polled, up from 55 percent last year. And Twitter is on the watch list among 54 percent of those surveyed, up from 47 percent last year.

Overall, 92 percent of employers and recruiters … Read more

Twitter iPhone app appears slated for major upgrade

A new and improved edition of Twitter's iOS app may be around the corner, pleasing users who are less than thrilled with the current version.

Release notes and screenshots posted by 9to5Mac about the iOS 6 App Store seem to reveal a slew of changes destined for Twitter for iPhone version 4.3.

Among the features touted in the description are push notifications for tweets that you follow, an alert when new stories are available, better support for password entries, avatars that take you directly to someone's profile, and improvements to auto-complete.

Also promised are more interactive experiences … Read more

Even more reasons to watch what we say on social media

WeKnowWhatYoureDoing has gotten a lot of attention lately. This "experiment" by an 18-year-old programmer from England puts awkward Facebook status updates in the public spotlight -- as my CNET News colleague Amanda Kooser (@akooser) so aptly put it last week. From her post:

We Know What You're Doing shakes out into four categories in the form of questions: Who wants to get fired? Who's hungover? Who's taking drugs? Who's got a new phone number?

All it takes to land in the spotlight is a fitting keyword and a failure to have your … Read more

MetroTwit app hits Windows 8 store

The Twitter client MetroTwit is now a full-fledged Metro app available free through Microsoft's Windows store.

MetroTwit users who install the app in the Windows 8 Release Preview will find it similar in many ways to its Windows desktop counterpart.

The app starts off by displaying a column for your traditional Twitter timeline. Clicking on a tweet opens an app bar at the bottom of the screen with a variety of options. You can view the tweet full-screen, reply to it, retweet it, and mark it as a favorite. More options let you open the tweet at Twitter's … Read more

Using social media to bring attention to nonprofits

Until a few years ago, the main way to show your support for a charity was to send in an annual check. As digital and social media evolved, the number of ways you could support your favorite charities has grown.

Sending money, of course, remains, the single most important way to support nonprofits. But social-media users have learned that you can also have an impact by paying with something else. Attention -- your own attention and your friends' attention.

Hitting "Like" or "Share" or retweeting a post from a nonprofit can bring awareness to new circles … Read more