With elections in Russia already happened, those in the UK, France and the US to come there is much debate about how social media is now being used in both the electoral process, and more broadly as part of engagement between our world leaders and others on social media. Barack Obama has traditionally been held up as an example of using social media for campaigning and for engaging with people through Twitter, Facebook and other channels. But he is not the only world leader to use social media.
Matt Rhodes social media Twitter world leadersRussia's intellectuals, creative class and Golden Youth – Russia’s modern-day Decembrists - failed to bring about revolutionary political change this weekend in Russia despite an enthusiastic past three months that culminated in some of the greatest shows of political opposition since the collapse of the Soviet Union nearly 20 years ago. Embracing tools like Twitter, V Kontakte (the Russian Facebook), YouTube and Live Journal, these young idealists organized massive rallies in the center of Moscow and energized a heretofore politically apathetic middle class.
Dominic Basulto revolution Russia social media TwitterAccording to research from a team at Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology, we think that 25% of tweets are not worth reading. The study found that, when asked to rate tweets by people they follow, only 36% of tweets were marked favourably, 25% were marked less favourably and the balance (39%) received no strong feeling either way.
content Matt Rhodes research social media TwitterKutcher, long a pioneer in "celebrity tweeting" and the amasser of 8 million+ Twitter followers, has announced he will no longer type his own messages but rather rely on his PR team to come up with fodder to fill his stream. Social media evangelists are bemoaning the possible end of authentic tweeting because other celebs and brands follow suit.
authenticity bright lights celebrities communication Jonathan Salem Baskin TwitterAirports play an important role in many travel plans. Few people will feel that they are choosing and buying services from airports as they probably travel through an airport because the cheapest or most convenient flight goes through there. In fact in many cases the best airports are either those that make your experience so fast and efficient that you don’t need to spend much time there, or those that make you feel that you aren’t just waiting for a plane whilst you are there.
airport consumer engagement Matt Rhodes social media TwitterThis morning I presented on the importance of remembering the people involved in social media – who you are engaging and what they want from you. When brands struggle on Facebook or Twitter it is usually because they haven’t thought through what is in it for the people they are engaging. It is easy as a brand to decide how you want to use social media, and what you want people to do. It is less easy, but more important, to consider what the people you are engaging want to do.
Facebook social media followers Twitter Matt RhodesChina has the biggest market for social networks in the world. Restrictions by the Chinese government has caused several western social networks (e.g. Facebook) difficulty from entering the market, while native platforms have thrived.
microblogging Twitter Sina Weibo social media China Hamid SirhanThe latest data from the Office of National Statistics n the UK shows that, for the first time ever, over half of adults accessed social networking sites in 2011. The annual British Internet Habits survey showed that in 2011, 57% of over-16s in the UK are using the internet for social networking, as opposed to 43% in 2010. This is a significant landmark, and the rate of growth is impressive and it shows the importance of social networking in the lives of British adults.
Matt Rhodes UK Facebook Twitter social media useTwitter is expanding its staff and its efforts to communicate with the world, and in doing so is turning to a lot of the tried-and-true structures and approaches that its 140-character service helped destroy. The changes beg a few questions, most notably why?
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Certain sections of the UK media have been ascribing some blame for the riots in London to Twitter. Aside from denying that riots such as this happened long before the invention of such social media tools, such statements also show a lack of real understanding of how social media tools like Twitter are used by people, and when they are less useful.
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