BBC Weather the latest victim of a Twitter hack

@BBCweather appears to be the latest Twitter account to become a victim of hacking. The series of around 10 tweets posted this afternoon appear to be by the Syrian Electronic Army, a cyber group that supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

The group took control of the account and posted 10 tweets, the tweets have since been removed from the account, the BBC are yet to comment.

 

It appears to be becoming a worrying trend on twitter, I hope business accounts are taking the right steps to safe guard their passwords.

 

Speak soon,

 

Social Garble :)

Happy 7th Birthday Twitter

Launched on 21st March 2006 Twitter is celebrating its 7th Birthday today and has release a video to comemorate the occation:

Twitter has growen massivly over the past 7 years and now boast over 200 million active users sendin

LinkedIn goes down... twice!

It first became apparent to me early on this morning that LinkedIn seemed to be experiencing some problems after each time I tried to log on I was greated with the same message:

And 4 hours later I am still seeing the same thing,  and unable to log into my account. It looks as though LinkedIn solved the first problem this morning and got the network up and running again, only to experience a second outage. 

LinkedIn has taken to its Twitter account to explain to its users that they are aware of the problem, and are looking for a solution to the problem.

 

I'm hoping the issues will be resolved soon so I can get onto my account, but until then, watch this space for any more news.

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

The hashtag takeover!

So Twitter started off using the hashtag, then it was Google+ that jumped on the band waggon, Pinterest use them, as do Instagram and LinkedIn. 

Last week there were reports that Facbeook is looking into how it can incorporate hashtags into its feeds and today I have read that Flickr is using them on the new iPhone app to.

Are hashtags taking over the world?

Watch this space!

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

Ohhh I like spacing my Tweets....

....but how many others will?!

So today Twitter has rolled out spacing in Tweets:

Which is  great, especially if you want to try and make your Tweet stand out. But how long till everyone is doing this and I get thumb ache from having to scroll so much further on my iPad? I do hope it doesnt get to irritating.

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

Facebook News Feed redesign - 1 week on

So this time last week, Facebook told us all about the all new news feed (coming soon!) We have all had time to read into what this changes are and how it will look, but what does this mean for brands?

lets first of all recap what the changes are...

In the words of Facebook, Goodbye clutter, Hello Bright, beautiful stories!

The three main feature of the update are:

• Bigger Images
• Multiple Feeds
• Mobile Consistency
  
  
• Many have compared the new design to that of Google+ and having looked at the two designs there are many similarities and I would agree with those comparisons.
  
  
  Facebook boasts that the new design is "Busting with Colour, Vibrant new visuals bring your News feed to life". This would suggest they have taken a leaf out of the Pinterest book, with imagery becoming more popular, this is the right direction for which Facebook needs to travel
  They are also going to give us more power over what we see in our news feed.
  
  
  
  So it all sounds good to me... right?!
  
  Well it certainly does to the everyday Facebook user, but what does this mean for brand pages... where are these posts going to be shown?
  
  
  
  
  I'm sure every social media marketer out there has noticed a huge drop in the number of people seeing their page posts, as little as 10% of my brands page Facebook fans now see our posts, getting above 10% is now a great result! This all appears to be down to a Facebook attempt to monetise Facebook, and every day I see more and more brands promoting their posts in order to get them seen. Cancer Research has been doing this a lot of late for the Race for Life. Is this just another move by Facebook to get us brands spending more money to tell our stories? If so, this doesn’t help the charity sector too much.
  
  
  I've signed up to try the new News Feed as soon as trails roll out, watch this space for a review as soon as I get it.
  
  Speak soon,
  
  Social Garble :)
  

A new look for Google+

Google+ have changed the sizes of their cover images - and now they are huge!

I have set this for the PDSA account, and as you can see the cover image now takes up the majority of the screen.

The profile picture has also changed, and now appears as a round image that overlays the cover photo. 

Personally, I'm not a fan, I like cover images as it allows you to get convey a brand message to your fans, however  I think the changes to the Google+ cover image is a little too large and makes the whole browsing experience rather unpleasantt, on my desktop it fills the whole screen.

Google+ revert back to your old ways!

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

A new look for Pinterest

Pinterest has me all excited once again as they test out another new feature, and lucky me gets to preview it!

I love login into Pinterest and seeing a new feature to preview. This time, they are testing a new design that involves bigger picture. 

So how does it look?

Old design

New Design

As the pictures above show, in the new Pinterest design the white boxing around each image in the old design has been removed and this makes the images appear bigger and clearer, and for an image based platform I think the new design is great. On the whole the new design makes the viewing experience much cleaner. 

It will be interesting to see if Pinterest roll out the design and if more features are to be tested in the coming moths. Last month I wrote a blog piece on a new news feature they were testing. This has now disappeared, personally I found it hard to see what images of mine had been repined with this new feature, so I was glad to see the old feed back.

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

Working from home

With the news that Yahoo! Is stopping its employees working from home, I thought as am working from home today I would write this post about the experience and why I think it's great.

So, I'm working at home today as am awaiting the delivery of my new sofa. I requested this last week, and due to the nature of my job I can't work just as efficiently, if not more efficiently than when I'm in the office.

So what makes it so much better? Well rather than starting my day at 6:15 in order to walk the dog before I set of on my commute to work, I get an extra half hour in bed, and thats always a bonus! Then I get to sit and have a cuppa before getting ready. Plus I can take the dog out for a longer walk than he usually gets. It's now 8:25 and I'm sat drinking another cuppa, completely chilled out and ready to start work at 9. Its amazing just how much time i save, by not having to commute to work.

Not only does working from home give me time to prepare for my day ahead and make me more relaxed which in turn helps me be more productive throughout the day, it also provides less distractions than being in the office and I feel I can get much more done.

So what do I think about Yahoo? I think working from home and combining this with being in the office is an option that needs more consideration. I feel bad for the people who took on the jobs at Yahoo! believing that they wouldn't have to commute each day to work. Maybe Yahoo! Should consider a happy medium of a combination of working from home and being in the office. I wish I could work from home more, I have no doubt I would get more done, less distraction, less noise and more time to prepare for the day ahead.

What's your opinion on the matter? I would love to hear!

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

The Lumineers

Afternoon all!

Today I'm just writing to say hello, and inform you all on how amazing The Lumineers were at the gig I attended on Saturday night. Having surpassed all expectations, even walking into a cleavery disguised black table, that was completely invisible in the dark of The HMV Institute didn't take away from the enjoyment of the night - although there is some good bruising from said table.

So what are you going to take from this blog post? 

Buy tickets to see The Lumineers, and look out for camouflaged tables in future!

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)

Google Glass (Glasses!)

Google Finally Shows Off Google Glass and Announces #ifihadglass Purchase Campaign!

Google finally gave us a bit more of an idea on how their  augmented reality glasses could fit into our daily lives today with the launch of this video:

Google Glass, is an exciting experiment from Google and it looks like it may be moving out of the project phase at last. Today Google launched a great new contest to let normal people, like you and me try out the head mounted augmented reality glass, just by proving they deserve it. 

To enter you have to get onto Google+ or Twitter (no Facebook) and tell Google using the hashtag #ifihadglass what you would do if you had Google Glass. 

I'll be really interested in seeing what people come up with, I may even have a go myself!

Watch this space,

Social Garble :)

Topshop + London fashion Week + social media =....

An revelation in social media!

So Topshop have taken on London Fashion Week social media, and its great to see Google+ being used so well!

Check out what they have planned:

Topshop designed this social media experience to let the audience experience their London fashion Week show from every angle. 

leading up to to the show on Sunday night, a number of Topshop models, kept digital diaries on their own Google+ accounts, here you could follow everything, from the first fittings to the final walk down the catwalk.

Before the show began, Topshop streamed live red carpet arrivals. Then, once the show began, viewers could follow models down the runway. The models wore high-definition micro cameras that streamed their point of view live on a screen at the show space, on Google+, YouTube, Topshop.com and Topshop's flagship store on London's Oxford Street!

Once the show had finished, participants could then access music from the show and purchase nail varnish worn in the show. Topshop and Google have also released a "Be the Buyer App," which allows fans to create their own look boards with pieces from the runway collection, with the help and advice from style blog partners, on Google+.

I love to see how huge brands such as Topshop are leverging social media in new ways, to really involve everyone. I particularly like how Topshop have used this to then leverage sales, from buying the nail varnish, to creating your own collection and the use of Google+ hints at it becoming a much bigger thing for the UK in months to come.

I wonder Milan and Paris Fashion Week will bring later this month?

Watch this space!

Social Garble :)

How to See When Someone Unfriends You on Facebook

Now you really can see when someone unfriends you on Facebook!

Unfriend Finder by Edouard Gatouillat is a script that can show who "unfriends" you on Facebook. 

See http://www.unfriendfinder.org/home

So, upon hearing about this immediatly I click through to download - being as nosy as I am, I want to see who has fallen out of love with me on Facebook. The script is almost too easy to install, two minuites later and the unfriend aplication has appeared on my Facebook;

As yet, I have no unfriends - so maybe everyone still loves me? 

 

It will be interesting to see if anything pops up over the next few week (I will keep you updated). I also would be very interested to learn how many people install this, and how many arguments erupt as a result of an unfriend - watch this space!

Social Garble :)

Lurpak - this is awesome marketing!

I just had to create a blog post for the best bit of Valentines Day I have seen....

Lurpak I salute you!

However looking at Lurpacks Twitter account - it appears this may not be the genius work of there marketeers - shame, I think its great!

Social Garble :)

A review of Facebook Graph Search

Facebook Graph Search....

I signed up early to get rolled out to the new Facebook Graph search as soon as the announcement was made, and sure enough, after a few days it appeared on my news feed! Now I have had it for a few weeks, I decided it was about time I noted down my review of the latest 'revolution' from the book of face.

For those that don't know, Facebook graph search was announced 15th January 2013 as a new search facility within Facebook to facilitate searches for people with similar interests as you. if you haven't already got Graph Search, you can test it out at:

 https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch

Its a great idea; In real time, Facebook's graph search aims to serve up personalised search results for over 1 billion Facebook users! That's an impressive feat.

So what can it do?

It can help me find restaurants near me that my friends have been to...

This could help me decide where to go for dinner and I could ask my friends for recommendations and what they thought about the place. After all, everyone loves a social recommendation!

I can also use it to find new pages that my friends like that similar to my interests. Using the ASOS Facebook page as an example, it appears my friends have some strange 'likes'! (Stavros Flatley?!)

I believe Facebook graph search is very much in its infancy, and could have great potential in the future. Personaly, I haven't really found it of any use in my day to day Facebook life, and I haven't yet seen any benefit to Facebook brand pages. But I do think that in the future graph search will look very different and be a great additional tool for Facebook users.

Have fun!

Social Garble :)

Would you trust Twitter with your credit card?

Pay with a simple Tweet?

Starting tomorrow, American Express card holders will be able to sync their credit cards with Twitter and purchase exclusive offers with a simple Tweet. I have just caught up with this latest foray into the world of social media commerce from AMEX and I am rather intrigued by the whole idea, and to weather consumers will trust uploading their personal details onto Twitter.

The concept seems likes a good one, AMEX will Tweet special offers, including items such as an Amazon Kindle Fire HD, a Sony Action Cam and headband mount, a Donna Karan Urban Zen bracelet, and a Microsoft Xbox 360. If you want the item, after syncing your card with the app, you simply reply to the Tweet with the related hashtag. AMEX have produced a short video to explain how the concept works.

I'm really interested in the success of this idea, the implications for social media commerce could be huge. I really do think this is all down to how much the consumer trusts the privacy of their details. I will be eagerly watching the launch of this concept tomorrow to see what the uptake is like.

To be honest - I wish I had an AMEX card myself to test this out, but I think I may find it too easy to buy, and would soon rack up a very large credit card bill!

Watch this space,

Social Garble :)

Heard it on the grape Vine....

So this weekend I have been playing around with Vine. It came under some scrutiny when first launched, but the concept is a good one. Lots can happen in six seconds, and that's exactly what you get with Vine, six seconds to make a lot happen.

After playing around with it and attempting to make my puppy look animated, I turned my attention to who was using Vine well. Obvious first stop - ASOS. Of course they are already on board, with a great concept - ASOS Unbox.

ASOS use Vine to help extend there aim of making shopping fun. They play on the excitement of getting a a package on your doorstep from ASOS, and have used Vine to spice up the online shopping experience by showing how gratifying opening up a box from them can really be. They ask followers on Twitter to use Vine to show them unboxing their order, and offer the incentive of the possibility of something new to unbox if they like your efforts!

https://vine.co/v/bJ9dTgx3wJt

From searching for the hashtag #ASOSUnbox on Twitter, it doesn't appear to have had loads of people sending in their six second unbox clips, but for idea and concept - 10/10 for ASOS!

Maybe I should send my own in and see if I get some goodies??

Speak soon,

Social Garble :)