Articles about Social Media

Social media technology is restlessly inventive, providing thousands of awesome ways for you to market your business inexpensively and on a large scale -- often directly into the pockets of consumers. But in the proliferating, ever-changing world of tweets, influencers, handles, and alerts, it can be hard to know where to begin and then to evaluate what’s actually working for you.

In the new edition of Social Media Marketing for Dummies, leading SMM voices Shiv Singh and Stephanie Diamond clear away the confusion and show you the smartest, most effective ways to plan, launch, manage, and assess your campaigns -- and then iterate and optimize for increased success.

Continue reading →

The ability to edit tweets is something that Twitter users have been asking for since the service first emerged. There have long been rumors that the feature is in the works, and now Twitter has taken the wraps off this much-requested option.

News of the tweet edit button was shared via the Twitter Blue account, indicating that -- as thought for some time -- that tweet editing will be limited to paying subscribers, at least to start with.

Continue reading →

Users of Twitter crave different things -- everything from an edit button (now available to some) to account verification.

For anyone seeking the much sought-after blue tick, Twitter has revamped its Help Center pages, providing detailed information about how to get verified. While not complicated, the updated guide provides clear information about exactly how to apply, and how to increase your chances of a successful application for verification.

Continue reading →

Twitter is looking to make sharing content easier and wider-reaching by cross-pollinating with other social platforms. The micro-blogging site -- which may or may not end up being bought by Elon Musk -- is adding an option for sharing tweets via WhatsApp.

For now, the new sharing option is limited to certain markets, but it is hard to imagine that it will not spread globally in the near future. The question is, will it be welcomed by users or not?

Continue reading →

Microsoft has revealed details of a high severity vulnerability in the TikTok app for Android. The Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team shares news of the now-fixed security flaw which the company says could have allowed an attacker to take over a victim’s account by simply getting them to click a malicious link.

With hundreds of millions of users around the world, TikTok is one of the most popular social platforms at the moment; the potential damage from the successful exploitation of such a vulnerability is huge.

Continue reading →

Have you ever thought about what happens after your physical shell expires? What legacy will you leave and what becomes of it with time? We can give our tangible belongings to friends and family. If the work is copyrighted, the protection will usually extend well beyond the author’s lifespan.

The law has, however, yet to catch up with the times as we also share, store and use tons of information online. That encompasses our digital identity, which is often left unattended after death, lingering at the digital graveyard at the mercy of tech giants.

Continue reading →

Twitter, possibly more than other social platforms, seems to bring out the very worst in many people. Apparently magnifying the emboldening effect the relative anonymity of posting online brings, users often find that responses to their tweets stray a long way from what most would consider reasonable. Now Twitter is working on a solution.

Spotted in the code of the Twitter app, an upcoming "Reply filter" feature will give users the ability to control the type of response they see. Importantly, the feature does not introduce any new restrictions on what others are able to post as a reply; it just gives users the opportunity to avoid exposing themselves to upsetting responses by filtering them. Think of it like a spam folder for tweet replies. It is something that will be welcome by many different types of user -- those with verified accounts, those with a degree of celebrity, those from certain societal groups, those unwilling to deal with online abuse, and others.

Continue reading →

Twitter has confirmed that a hacker was able to exploit a security vulnerability on the social platform earlier this year, gaining access to the private data of millions of users.

In total, 5.4 million accounts were affected, with the attacker able to link account names to email addresses and phone numbers. While the incident took place back in January this year, Twitter has also revealed that the exposed user data was made available to buy just last month. In what will be regarded by many as something of an understatement, the company says that "it is unfortunate that this happened".

Continue reading →

It was hardly a surprise when Twitter launched a subscription service in the form of Twitter Blue. In exchange for $2.99 a month, anyone keen to gain access to extra feature could help top up the social media company's coffers.

But it seems that the coffers have not been topped up enough as Twitter has announced a price hike. The cost of a Twitter Blue subscription jumps by two thirds for new subscribers with immediate effect, and existing subscribers can expect to pay the new, higher price in the near future.

Continue reading →

The latest quarterly report from NortonLifeLock's global research team, Norton Labs, looks at how cybercriminals are using social media phishing attacks to steal private information.

Based on analysis of a full year of phishing attacks on the top social media platforms, it finds plenty of fake login pages designed to trick victims into inputting their login credentials, but also a diversity and complexity of lures going far beyond that one technique.

Continue reading →

Facebook's love of algorithms has meant that there has been a highly polarizing focus on recommended content in users' feeds rather than posts from friends, family and pages of genuine interest. But this is changing.

In a move that will please millions of Facebook users who have become increasingly frustrated with the way recommended content is pushed into their feed, Mark Zuckerberg has announced that iOS and Android users are being treated to feed split over two tabs. While one of these will remain populated with content surfaced by Facebook's "discovery engine", the other is a chronological feed of content from friends, groups and Pages.

Continue reading →

When the richest person on Earth offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, the eyes of the world pivoted to Elon Musk to watch the drama unfold. And the drama did not disappoint, played out over several month.

There has been speculation for some time that Musk's plans to buy Twitter would fall through, and those who predicted this may just have been proved right. Musk's lawyers have written to the social media company to say that the deal is now off, citing Twitter'ss failure to provide information that had been requested. Twitter has responded saying that it intends to sue Musk and force him to complete the merger.

Continue reading →

Four dollars a month. That's all the new Snapchat+ service will cost you. Well, technically it is $3.99... but whatever. Earlier today, Snap Inc. announced this new "plus" subscription designed for power users and enthusiasts of the social platform. While that isn't a lot of money, it still doesn't mean Snapchat+ is a good value. In fact, many users will be shocked by what the premium service is lacking.

Unfortunately, despite paying Snap Inc. a monthly fee, Snapchat+ users will still see advertisements when using the app. This is very surprising (and disappointing), as many people assumed that a premium Snapchat subscription would get rid of ads. Instead, Snap Inc. is hoping users will find value in exclusive features, such as the ability to change the Snapchat icon on mobile or designate another user as your BFF (best friend forever).

Continue reading →

Like most social media platforms, Instagram has a minimum age for users -- in this instance, it is 13 years old. But verifying ages online -- particularly for non-adults -- has long proved difficult. Now Instagram thinks it has come up with a solution.

As part of measure to enforce age limits more strongly, Instagram is preparing to use a variety of techniques to confirm that younger users are the age they claim to be. One of the options that will be available to such users is uploading a video selfie which will be shared with age-checking agencies.

Continue reading →

It took quite a while, but Twitter eventually decided to increase the maximum length of tweets to 280 characters. For some people, this is still not enough, and threading is not for everyone. It is with this in mind that Twitter has started testing a new long-form writing format called Notes.

Twitter has long been referred to as a micro-blogging service, and Notes takes things to the next level, essentially giving users the ability to write blog posts of any length. As well as eliminating the character limit, Notes can also include photos, videos and even embedded tweets. Best of all, Notes are editable. This may not be the "edit tweet" option people have been looking for, but it is a step in that direction.

Continue reading →