css sprites | creating social networking link icons with css sprites
You #39;ve heard of them, but... Do you really know what they mean ? A sprite is actually one single big image. Have you ever seen the CSS technique where the "o...
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css sprites | creating social networking link icons with css sprites - Video
Summary: It is often difficult to regain trust and improve perception after a social networking site has angered its users. We look at six companies that have made decisions which have stained their brand image.
By Eileen Brown for Social Business | February 7, 2014 -- 16:07 GMT (08:07 PST)
Social networking sites often make decisions which make perfect sense for the company and comply with its policies and guidelines. However, users have different views and take to social media to strongly voice their disapproval.
Almost all of the social media companies have been criticised for their gaffes and blatant errors of judgement. Take a look at this collection of stains that social companies have had to overcome to restore their credibility.
Image: DIY Life
Topic: Social Enterprise
Eileen Brown is a social media consultant and advisor who has been working with collaborative technologies for over 20 years.
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In nations where corruption is rife it seems that citizens these days find an escape from the everyday problems that trickle down to their lives by using online social media more than those elsewhere. Research to be published in the International Journal of Web-based Communities also suggests that these two factors -- more corruption, more social networking -- also correlate with lower suicide rates.
Adam Acar, an Associate Professor at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies in Japan, reports that more than half the population of developed countries is now active on social networking sites, such as Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn and Twitter. The vast majority of users are English speakers, but research suggests that the adoption of so-called Web 2.0 of which these sites are part is widespread across the globe. Indeed, it has been suggested that the use of social networking is almost culture-independent, partly because the interfaces to the online systems does not, on the whole, reflect cultural boundaries.
"Culture is directly related to country-level social media use which may also be related with country-level self-esteem, pace-of-life, happiness, suicide rates, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, median age and corruption," Acar explains. "In countries where people use social media heavily there is low suicide, high corruption, low GDP, high self-esteem and high respect for traditions. At the same time societies with low social media use rates tend to be older, less emotionally expressive, less happy, score low on openness and conscientiousness, have higher GDP and higher social capital."
However, Acar is concerned with the idea that of the almost two billion people now using online social networks and social media the likelihood is that there are indeed cultural differences in adoption, use and motivation in different parts of the world. Acar has carried out a statistical analysis of the large database represented by the comScore report "It's a Social World." The database was published at the end of 2011 and contains a wealth of information on social media activity, region, age, gender, income and other factors.
The data analysis suggests that fundamentally there are indeed cultural differences across the globe in social media use. "We found that there are low levels of suicide, more happiness and more corruption in societies that use social media heavily," Acar reports. He points out that these correlations do not imply a link, just that there are observed differences in behavior. "We do not speculate that social media increases happiness, openness, national self-esteem and corruption," he says. "By the same token we do not claim that social media use reduces suicides."
Nevertheless, one might extrapolate from the data analysis to posit a testable hypothesis that the presence of higher levels of corruption might lead to lower levels of life happiness and feelings of personal security and that social media use acts an escape or a distraction from these.
The author also points out that nation-level self-esteem is an important factor influencing social media use. Israel has the highest nation-level self-esteem and spends the most time on online social networking while Japan has the lowest nation-level self-esteem and spends the least time on online social networking.
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The above story is based on materials provided by Inderscience. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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Social media, self-esteem and suicide: Nations with more corruption demonstrate more social media, less suicide
Sharon Gaudin | Feb. 5, 2014
Facebook defines social networking but must fend off the next big thing, teen boredom
Facebook, the company that defines social networking, is turning 10 years old and looking into a future where it must evolve or risk becoming the next MySpace a company Facebook eclipsed years ago.
The last 10 years have been quite a journey, not just for the people who co-founded Facebook, but also for the more than a billion people around the world who use the social networking site to connect with family, post photos of the things and people they love, and reach out to a wider world than the one in their own home or office.
The site started out as a simple idea in co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's dorm room at Harvard University. Launched on Feb. 4, 2004, the site was set up to help college students check each other out.
A decade later, Facebook has become the most popular social network in the world.
In its early days, Facebook came up behind social pioneer MySpace and quickly surpassed its rival. Facebook was too powerful, too popular, too fast growing for MySpace to keep up.
With a new and engaging user interface, a focus on building a social network of friends, instead of following, say, bands or movies, Facebook quickly went from being a MySpace alternative to being "the" social network. It was a snowball effect. People joined because it was the site their friends, family and co-workers were using. The more who joined, the more others were drawn to follow them into Facebook's pages.
Today, MySpace is barely mentioned in the ranks of the world's top social networks. While Facebook with its 1.2 billion global users, stays ahead of its social competitors - and online powerhouses in their own right Twitter and Google+.
"Facebook's meteoric rise was part brilliance, part luck and part timing," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Facebook perfected what MySpace started, cleaned up its messy design and made it simple... The public was ready to share their lives."
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At 10, Facebook strives to not be your granny's social network
[IMPROV] WHO NEEDS A SOCIAL LIFE?
What the hell is up with people trying to talk to me in person? SOCIAL NETWORKING! EVER HEARD OF IT?
By: TommyTheTuner
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[IMPROV] WHO NEEDS A SOCIAL LIFE? - Video