The power behind blogging

There are number of reasons why people blog
http://www.google.co.za/imgres
 

There is a number popular of social networks out there which people use for a number of different reasons, blogging is one of them and many of you are aware of it but do not use it. Reason behind this might be that a number of people do not get the idea behind blogging. Blogs are one of the social networks were you get the freedom of expressing yourself.

It is said that number of blogs went up from 30 million in 2005 to almost 200 million in in 2012. This means that people are now familiar of what blogging is abouth as the number of blogs is increasing worldwide.

People do not only blog for no reason, there is always a reason behind any blogger. These are the number of resons why people blog:

· To share information with others.

· For businesses to communicate with customers.

· For the fun of it.

· Because they have to.

· To make money.

The list is endless but whay ever reason people use blogging, it is growing and people are finding it as a best way of communication. Communicating use via blogs boosts a persons skills of communication. Thus, it is of most importance for people and businesses to consider blogging as this will help them and their businesses.

 

Google just turned 14 years and yet so big.



Google's 14th birthday doodles



Google just celebrated its 14^th birthday yesterday 27 September.  Google is one of the most popular and biggest search engines you would ever find in the world. It has been established by 2 college boys, Lawrence "Larry" Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. The aim for open this search engine was to get people find another quick way to search through the internet. They never thought that it was going to be so popular in a way that it seems like the only search engine people are familiar with.

Google is only 14 this year but the way it is so popular, it is like it had been around forever. Google which was established on the 7^th of this month celebrates its birthday on the 27^th. Since 2002 Google has been celebrating its birthday with different birthday doodles, which shows how unique Google is.

Other Google Birthday doodles

 Google was just established in 1998 but the way it is so popular shows that they know how to communicate with their customers and have a very strong way of keeping that communication.  This all shows that people are really supportive and Google at the same time is not just a world’s biggest internet company but a company that is willing to cater for its customers. By the looks of things it is still going to stay the biggest.

Happy 14^th birthday Google!

DISADVANTAGES OF SOCIAL MEDIA



All social networking sites have its own disadvantages



As we all know that social media is a useful tool for communicating and engaging with other people, for businesses as well it is a great tool to use in communicating with its target audiences. Even though that is the case, social media also does have its disadvantages.  

One of the most disadvantages of social networks is privacy and protection; this is disadvantageous because most social networks always come up with problems of people getting involved in things like rape, murder, kidnaping, stalking etc. We all know that when creating an account of a particular social network people want to have many friends so they just add or accept any people without thinking and even maybe getting more information about that individual.

There are also other disadvantages besides this but we not getting in detail with them, include:

·         Negative comments whether as a business or an individual

·         It takes effort to gain credibility online.

·         Social networks can be addictive

By looking at the safety issue in a communications point of view, we all know that these social networking sites do have their policies on safety but such things still happen. People on the other hand are still ignorant about their safety when they are in these sites. Who is to blame in this issue? Did social networks put these policies just for the sake of it or are people being ignorant?  

On the front row of the Fashion Week via twitter





New York Fashion Week September 2012

Imagine watching a live fashion show at your comfort zone as if you sitting in the front row. This is the opportunity that Twitter users got during the New York Fashion week.  As the Fashion Week returned to New York this year, 06 September 2012. Twitter had given people an opportunity to watch the show with out actually being physically there. It acted as a guide to the show for people who could not actually have a chance to sit on the front row and watch the show.

"This week will be packed with the freshest fashion fun: events kick off today and run through next Thursday, September 13. Whether you’re at home or styling downtown, be among the first to spot next spring’s hottest trends and catch all of the behind-the-scenes moments." Twitter reported on it's blog. They mentioned that this will be done by joining twitter conversations and by using the #NYFW hashgtag and #DayInTheLife to see the models during their make-up sessions in the fitting room and other interesting staff. Not only hashtags were used to keep up to date with the show. It has also been mentioned that there were people who kept the twitter users updated about the show, they included:

 



A model backstage preparing for the runway

• Designers
• Bloggers
• Models 
• Fashion icons

What they did was keep people posted about the happenings of the fashion week. They did this by posting tweets and pictures about the whole show. (http://mashable.com/2012/09/10/twitter-fashion-week/).



A front row seat in the Fashion Week via twitter

It is amazing to find out how interesting social networks are. Almost all twitter users around the world had an opportunity to be part of this Fashion Week without going to NewYork , this is all thanks to twitter for bringing the show to people.

Racism in Social Media

 

Model Jessica Leandra dos Santos posted a racist tweet. 

Social networks are there for people to share whats on their minds, to share ideas and important information Though that is the case there are issues that people should first think about before they post. Racism is one of the major issues that social networks are facing all over the world. People tend to post racist posts on social networks which is a major issue in the new South Africa and the rest of the world. There is a number of racist posts that people have posted on almost all social networking sites. Majority of these posts are racial hatred posts

One of the racist posts that made people talking was of a 20 year old model Jessica Leandra dos Santos who posted on her twitter, her tweet read: "Just well took on an arrogant and disrespectful k***** inside spar. Should have punched him, should have." When this young model made an apology about this issue she said that she was very angry at this guy who was throwing sexual harrasing comments to her. Another racist post was of a Cape Town student who posted a status on Facebook, he said had heard enough of blacks and that whites do not own them anything, he also referred to black people as F***ing   brain dead monkeys.



Racism in Social Media

 Though everyone knows that they can write about anything that they want on their social networks, the reason for these sites are to help people get connected and share ideas and information. Some people tend to post statuses before they even consider what other people will think. I will advise people to think before they post anything.

Google buys a Travel Guide Book to step ahead Apple's Siri?

Google buys Frommers to step ahead Siri
 (http://www.google.co.za/imgres)

Frommer's is a Travel Guide book that is best selling in America. Now Google has decided to purchase this Guide book from current owner Wiley & Sons to be part of the Frommer's to help people find their travel guides of destination any were around the world. It is quite clear that Google wants to take over the online travel. It has shown that it is capable of answering any questions that people want to know, no matter what the question is.

Google has done something like this last year with Zagat's restuarant guides, publisher of worldwide restuarant guides. It has decided to be part of this Travel Guide in order to help people in finding answers about their trravel places.It is quite clear that Google is rolling up professional guides to local places and businesses. As search becomes a more futuristic convenience, (http://www.newscandy.com/e/KnD4).  It is also believed that Google decided to buy Frommer's Travel Guide Book in order to step ahead of Apples Siri. "Siri is the intelligent personal assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. It allows you to use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more." (http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri-faq.html.). It is also responsible for making recommendations for which restuarants to book and road directions. Although Google is more popular compared to Siri, it is quite clear that Siri and Google are in a very big competition because they are similar to each other.

Google one of the most popular searc engines
 (http://www.google.co.za/imgres)

As we all know that Google is responsible of answering all the questions that we want to know, Here are some of the questions why people will think Google purchased this book for: Is it to:

• To help travellers when they want to find a place to go?
• Get an opportunity to integrate other services in the Frommers pages?
• Wants to increase it's searching options?
• Does not want competition?
• To step ahead Siri
• Wants to stay being the best search engine?
• To take over online Travel and Restuarants?
• To gain more advertisers?

No matter what the reason is, Google did this for a good course. What we do not know is whether it will really step ahead  Apples Siri ?

Facebook pays $1 billion in cash for Instagram







  Facebook buy Instagram for $1 billion
(http://www.zealed.com.au)



Instagram is one of the social media programs most people would refer to it as "cool" . It as a photo-sharing site that uses a cellphone camera to take pics for either your Facebook or Twitter.

This program is popular in a way that Facebook together with Twitter and google were all interested in this program. It is said that Facebook payed $1 billion to Instagram's Chief Executive and co-founder (Mike Kreiger) to purchase this two-year-old -program on 9 April 2012.

Mark Zukerberg the founder of Facebook said that "Facebook was committed to building and growing instagram independently". He believes that this program will be of a good course for facebook, the reason for this is because most people uses Facebook to share photos. Thus instagram will be a much more interesting way of photo-sharing amongst people.

"Other sources suspects that Mark Zuckerberg has a fear of Facebook losing it's place, youngsters will get their social networking fix from other services". Kashmir Hill lists 8 Reasons Why Facebook Bought Instagram: (http://www.forbes.com)

1. Because it could.
2. Because it didn’t want a competitor to snap it up first.
3. Because Facebook’s mobile app sucks. Instagram’s doesn’t.
4. Because most people are on Facebook to look at other people’s photos, and Facebook wants to keep it that way.
5. More data.
6. Because it wanted to buy soul.
7. Because it’s cheaper than inventing a time machine.
8. Because it wanted to buy soul.

Instagrams foundersMike Krieger and Kevin Sytrom
(http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/09/facebook-to-acquire-instagram-for-1-billion/)

 "It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience". Mike Kreiger wrote on his blog post. This means Facebook was willing to pay such a huge amount of money for a program that is independently owned. A photo-sharing program that has been around for two years that will not belong to them. As we can see it might be possible that Facebook wanted to increase its followers, that people will be more interested on Facebook than ever before. 



Duplicated Facebook Accounts



Facebook founder: Mark Zuckerberg



Over millions of people have Facebook accounts and there is still a huge growth; this really proves the popularity of this social network. Facebook members grew to 955 million at the end of the second quarter, but some 8.7 percent(83 million) may be dodgy, the company said in its quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Obviously people may be wondering what the reasons for these fake facebook accounts may be.  The Facebook company said "there may be people who maintain more than one Facebook account, a violation of its terms of service. Parents also sign up for their children.It estimates that duplicate accounts represent about 4.8% of its 955 million monthly active users as of June 30, which amounts to about 45.84 million accounts."
The company also says it bans at least 20,000 accounts daily and estimates about 600,000 accounts per day are compromised.

These fake accounts can cause a number of following  problems:

• Facebook users will be in danger
• Revenuesfrom advertisers could ba harmed.
• Facebook would lose accounts from people.

By solving this isssue Facebook company decided to remove the number of all the fake accounts. This means Facebook has los it's members due to these duplicated accounts. There more duplicated accounts they find, the more Facebook is going to lose people. Will this make Facebook not to be the most used social network in the world?

Getting employed because of your social networking sites

 

Companies viewing your profile on social networks



Social  Networks are so popular and dominating in a sense that people now wants to use them for a number of various things. Organisations are now starting to use social networking site such as Facebook to view and search for job candidates. In January 2010, a survey for career builder.co.uk found that more than half of employers used social networking sites to research job candidates. This means that this is still going to happen more often because the number of social networking sites is increasing and so is the number of people joining them.

Yasin recommends the following DOs and DON’Ts to keep a positive image online this year:

1) DO clean up digital dirt BEFORE you begin your job search. Remove any photos, content and links that can work against you in an employer’s eyes.

2) DO consider creating your own professional group on sites like Facebook or BrightFuse.com to establish relationships with thought leaders, recruiters and potential referrals.

3) DO keep gripes offline. Keep the content focused on the positive, whether that relates to professional or personal information. Makes sure to highlight specific accomplishments inside and outside of work.

4) DON’T forget others can see your friends, so be selective about who you accept as friends. Monitor comments made by others. Consider using the "block comments" feature or setting your profile to “private” so only designated friends can view it.

5) DON’T mention your job search if you’re still employed.



Using Facebook to upload your CV



Regarding this whole thing it means that more companies are going to use social networking sites before they employ an individual. This all means that people should try and look out for what they post on their social networks as this will have an impact on their future.

 We may never know whether CVs will be outdated and companies will only use social networking sites.

Will facebook really end on July 15, 2012?

Facebook is a very popular site that connects people in all aspects of life. It so popular that it has more than 900 million users. Mike Zuckerberg is the owner of Facebook. He is the one who discovered this site, him and his friends from college discovered this site and it all started in their college then it spread to other colleges and now it is all over the world.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FACEBOOK)

Facebook is responsible for connecting people all over the world. Friends meet through this site and it also plays a role in putting together friends that have not seen each other for a very long time,all you just do is search for the name of that person if he/she have a facebook account.

On Sunday, February 19th,2012. The weekly worlds news posted that Facebook will end on July 15, 2012.
It is said that the reason for this is because Mike cannot control the site anymore, that the site is putting too much stress for him.
“Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.” Besides facebook is putting too much stress he also want people to go out there and find a real way of socialising. Mike said that he does not care about the money but it is just way to hard for him to manage this site.

Everyone is concerned about this matter as most people believe that facebook gives them a great opportunity of connecting them with the world. Now my question is that do you think Mike is really going to close down the site? It is one of the popular networking sites, and there are also new features that have been recently been created for facebook.