Last week, we marked yet another International Women’s Day (Yes, there’s an International Men’s day, too. Don’t worry. It’s November 19th). This is supposed to be a day when we celebrate progress in women’s rights such as gender equality or reproductive rights, and ending abuse against women. The UN chose as its theme for this … Continue reading The exasperating lack of progress on women’s and girls’ digital rights
Tag: Twitter
The problem with charging for Twitter’s blue tick is not the $8 amount, but mental accounting
I found myself in the rather unexpected position of agreeing with Elon Musk and even, possibly, defending one of his initiatives. Namely, I think that one good way of generating revenues for a social media platform could be by charging for value added features that people can sign up to, if they want to, but … Continue reading The problem with charging for Twitter’s blue tick is not the $8 amount, but mental accounting
What Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter means for marketers
Elon Musk made a take-over offer to buy Twitter, and is said to want to implement four key changes at the social media company: Reduce content moderationEliminate automated accountsIntroduce new product featuresOpen-up Twitter’s algorithm The significance of Twitter for marketers According to Hootsuite, Twitter is the 15th largest social media platform in the world (slide 99). … Continue reading What Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter means for marketers
Issues to consider when using social media to collect qualitative data
Back in 2014, I contributed a short article for the book “Social Media in Social Research: Blogs on Blurring the Boundaries”. Recently, I found myself going through these same points with someone, who is looking at using social media data for a research project. In case this is useful for others in similar situation, here … Continue reading Issues to consider when using social media to collect qualitative data
Customer service via Twitter – what a missed opportunity for airlines
Twitter can be a great channel for customer service. As my own research shows, customers see Twitter as a quick way of solving problems, obtaining information, and connecting with (and learning from) other users. Yet, not all firms seem to be embracing it. Research by Priyanga Gunarathne, Huaxia Rui and Abraham Seidmann, looking at how … Continue reading Customer service via Twitter – what a missed opportunity for airlines
A peak into tech giants’ terms and conditions
I don’t think that I have ever read a full set of terms and conditions from one of the tech giants. And I think that I am in the majority, here. Most terms of service are extremely long, as illustrated by Dima Yarovinsky’s installation at the Visualizing Knowledge 2018 exhibition. The artist printed the … Continue reading A peak into tech giants’ terms and conditions
Starbucks is dealing with its social media crisis one tweet at a time
In the aftermath of the incident where two black men were accused of trespassing and arrested, Starbucks announced that it would close 8,000 of its US-based stores for race-sensitivity training. Unsurprisingly, some members of the public took to Twitter to comment on this decision. For instance: Less predictably, perhaps, Starbucks engaged with the … Continue reading Starbucks is dealing with its social media crisis one tweet at a time
The real reason behind the spread of fake news
The journal Science recently published a paper exploring how and why fake news spread. You can access it here, or you can listen to this episode of Chips with Everything (a Guardian podcast that I recommended, previously). The paper is authored by MIT researchers Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy and Sinan Aral. The researchers collected around 126,000 rumour stories on … Continue reading The real reason behind the spread of fake news
Three advantages of Twitter’s extended characters limit
After trialling it out with a handful of users, Twitter has increased the maximum length of tweets from 140 characters to 280, for all users. Some people expressed concern over how the additional capacity will be used by the trolls and harassers that litter the platform. Others have talked about the creative challenge … Continue reading Three advantages of Twitter’s extended characters limit
Which branded tweets get most retweets?
Researchers at Western Sydney University in Australia – Alena Soboleva, Suzan Burton, Girijasankar Mallik and Aila Khan – have analysed the characteristics of branded tweets that get the most retweets. They collected tweets posted by the leading brands in the automotive, the luxury and the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries, and adjusted for factors … Continue reading Which branded tweets get most retweets?
Ana Canhoto 