Oh, To Never Miss a Show: Facebook Notifications for Upcoming Concerts?

The Black Shades

Yesterday as I was browsing my Facebook feed, I noticed in the new side feed that a friend of mine was attending an event of a band I liked at a local bar. I clicked on the event and got the details so I could make plans to go watch the band perform, and realized how strange it was that Facebook didn't notify me of this upcoming show. I mean, Facebook already knows my location, and I've gone through and "liked" all my favorite musicians. Put two and two together, and I should be receiving notifications for this kind of occurrence. 

I have yet to come across any kind of setting that allows for these notifications, but it only makes sense. If an artist I like is coming to the city I'm residing in, or even a surrounding area, how convenient would it be to be notified of the event? Had I not been bored yesterday and just randomly browsing through my feeds, I never would have known about the upcoming show. Of course, users receive notifications when they are invited to an event, but I would love to automatically be informed whenever an artist I like is near my location. If there does happen to be a setting that allows for these kinds of notifications, do share!

MasterCard Creating One-Of-A-Kind Experiences

MasterCard's latest campaign incorporates Facebook Places with surviving seats of the original Yankee Stadium that was demolished in 2010.

Twenty of these seats will be placed around New York City, and fans are encouraged to hunt down the seats, and scan the QR code on them to check in to Facebook Places. This will make the participants eligible to win VIP tickets to a 2011 Yankee game in MasterCard’s exclusive Batter’s Eye Café.

These efforts by MasterCard among others are aimed to "drive preference and affection for the MasterCard brand among cardholders by offering them an opportunity to enjoy the things they are most passionate about," in this case, sports. While New York may be the starting point for this campaign, the brand plans to expand to other major cities as well, offering "extraordinary experiences, exclusive offers and privileged access" to loyal cardholders.

Personally, I have been eagerly awaiting for more brands to jump on board with Facebook Places. I notice companies using Foursquare quite often, but not many seem to go for Places. This platform should work well for MasterCard's campaign, although I'm not sure if it is a better choice than using Foursquare. It should be noted though that rival American Express launched a program with Foursquare in June that offers benefits when cardholders check in.

California Bill to Change Facebook As We Know It

A new bill has been proposed in California by Sen. Ellen Corbett that could give parents access to their children's social networking pages like Facebook. If parents don't want certain information revealed on the site, they can send a request to have it removed. To top it off, any social site that does not take action can be fined up to $10,000.

Perhaps most importantly, the bill would enforce privacy settings at the beginning of signing up, rather than asking for personal information first. "You shouldn't have to sign in and give up your personal information before you get to the part where you say, 'Please don't share my personal information,'" Sen. Corbett told the San Francisco Chronicle. 


Personally, I like the idea of the bill. The revisions to the privacy settings only makes sense. I'm always wary about filling in personal information on new sites until I know they're legit. Many times, I will refuse to sign up on certain sites because I don't know what kind of privacy settings they enforce. By selecting privacy settings before entering any personal info, you're eliminating that stress factor. In addition to the privacy settings, parents should be monitoring what their kids are posting. Yeah, kids these days know how to use the Internet. That doesn't make them capable of making the smartest decisions within the online realm. Although it does seem somewhat invasive, parents should be able to look out for their children in all aspects of their lives.

http://foxnews.com 

#treyfollowmenext

I was browsing the top trends on Twitter as I do daily, and found that "#treyfollowmenext" sparked the most interest for me. My first question, of course, was Trey who? So I started reading some tweets, and the TT is directed at Trey Songz, who is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. Thousands of tweets are streaming in, begging the artist to follow them.

I felt the need to do a little more investigation, so I visited Trey's verified Twitter account. As I read through some of his tweets, I came upon one that said "I'm goin til 1,220." Trey currently follows 1,219 fans/friends. The artist seems to do an honorable job interacting with his fans, as he has many tweets wishing users a happy birthday, or retweeting something they say. But I found this particular tweet to be brilliant, and what I assumed to have sparked the TT of "#treyfollowmenext." All his followers who saw this tweet want to be that last person that he follows back. So they're all tweeting him, asking him to follow them. This puts his name out there like crazy! There is all this buzz about Trey Songz on Twitter, and it's all free! And since I'm sure the artist will be reading this post - Trey, I commend you for your genius tactic. 

StumbleUpon: Simplifying Procrastination

I'm already an excellent procrastinator. But thanks to StumbleUpon, the art of procrastination is now easier than ever! I can't recall how many hours of sleep, how many hours of studying I've lost because some voice in my head told me it would be a good idea to "stumble" just for a few minutes. Let me just warn you: once you start stumbling, it's not easy to stop.

Apparently, others share the same interest in the discovery and recommendation engine. StumbleUpon has now hit one billion stumbles per month. Users are clearly enjoying the millions of different sites you can stumble on based on your likes and interests. As an advertising major, I find the neatest thing about StumbleUpon is the subtlety of the advertising within the engine. Charlie White, Mashable blogger, explains that "it's hard to tell you're being advertised to, because StumbleUpon uses your same preferences to determine which paid sites to show you." This is potentially a great platform for businesses to use, as long as they can figure out how to use it effectively.

Twitter Takeover: Bronx Zoo's Cobra

On March 25, the Bronx Zoo released a statement saying a 20-inch Egyptian cobra had escaped. Zoo officials found the snake a few days later, but not before the poisonous snake had made a name for himself in the social media world. The cobra remained a top Twitter trend for at least two days, and a separate Twitter account was created for the snake. The account has generated over 230,000 followers and is still being updated, with tweets such as "It's one of those days where I could just eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry's Mice Cream."

The cobra wasn't satisfied with just creating a Twitter account. Even after being found in the Reptile House in the zoo, he carried on with his tweets. But in addition, the snake hijacked the Twitter account of American Idol's host, Ryan Seacrest. Seacrest elaborately staged his account to appear that the cobra had taken over as an April Fool's joke, with the tweet:
I doubt the cobra's Twitter account can keep up its success for too much longer, but it made for a good laugh these past couple weeks.

Twitter Tells Tall Tales

Do you believe everything you read on Twitter? You shouldn't. Since Twitter was created, there have been several hoaxes that have made it to top trends. In 2009, "RIP Kanye West" soared to the top of the trends, when Kanye West was, in fact, still very alive. Perhaps this occurred as a result of West angering Taylor Swift fans at the VMAs that year. Regardless of why it started,  the rumor spread to thousands of people in just a short amount of time. This week, for whatever reason, "RIP Jackie Chan" is a trending topic.

People seem to create rumors about anything. There are several instances of false AMBER alerts as top trends. These rumors spread so quickly because Twitter users will re-tweet something without doing their own research on the subject. It's easier just to believe what someone says is true, and simply re-tweet it. The Kanye West trend was the first big rumor I experienced since joining Twitter, and since then, I Google all topics before re-tweeting them to my followers.

Why do you think people re-tweet false statements without first looking into them?