I'm Going to Webstock 2016!

Hello,

Tomorrow I will be breathing the same air and thinking about the same topics as Adrian Hadean, George Buhnici, Dana Rogoz, Vlad Petreanu, Bromania, Zoso, Cristian China Birta and many more (sorry, names appealing only to my Romanian audience).

And that is because tomorrow I am participating to the new Webstock edition, the most important social media conference in Romania.

The conference speakers are amazing and the organizers are preparing a few surprises, so, if you are interested, go on and check them out on the event website or on their social media.

If you are into social media and live in Romania, you have no excuse not to come and join the event; you can still sign up, or watch the event online on the website.

You can also get involved through voting your own Online Personality of the Year by entering the app here . The winners in this category as well as other categories included in the competition will be announced in the event Gala carried out on the 30th of September at the JW Marriott Hotel in Bucharest. Whoever wants to participate to the Gala can solicit their own free invitation from the organizers, details here..

Webstock is an event organized by Evensys and Vodafone in cooperation with Bitdefender, HP, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Raiffeisen Bank, LG, Staropramen and Siviero Maria.


I will come back with a full account of my experience there, for sure.

Have a happy Thursday. Let me know if any of you will be there tomorrow.

Three Gems from the Web - Every Tuesday (16)

Hello there,

My favorite things to share, whether on the blog or on my social media account are useful things with a twist. I don't encounter them every week, but when I do, I cannot wait to spread the word and shout out "Good job!" to those who have put them there. I have a few previous posts that are by all means useful. You can check them out  here and here if you happen to like this one. And if you do, do not forget to let us know (it is always so fulfilling to get positive feedback) and share it with your own network.

Without further ado, here are this week's gems:

1. BugMeNot   - is an incredibly useful website. What it does is give you access to shared sign in credentials (username/email and passwords) so that you don' give your details to all the websites you want to check out. This is especially useful as websites now monetize their content through selling their email list to advertising companies, so signing up to a free website, as useful as it might be, will fill your inbox in no time. The downside is that not all the passwords do still work, and not all the websites are yet covered. nonetheless, for the big websites you have plenty of options to chose from. To use it, go to the website and type in the website address and get your bug free sign in details.

2. Soon - this is an app I've been using for the last week. First heard of it from Kevin Rose's monthly journal which I highly recommend. What it does is help you mark down the websites, movies, books, podcasts or restaurants you plan on checking out. Nonetheless, it is more than a notebook as it allows you to check what others are planning to check out in a "trending" section organized by category. thus you can watch the movie trailer directly in the app, or even listen to trending podcasts (my favorite section).

3. Instructables - is a website for creative and crafty people that would like to spend some time building their own interesting and twisted DIYs. It allows you to download the instructions or to view them online. It also works as a sharing community, if you log in you can join groups, share your own instructions, publish articles or like and share others'. Don't forget to sign in via BugMeNot (testi88/hans34).


Enjoy our gems and happy Tuesday!

Three Gems of the Web - Every Tuesday (15)

Hello there,

This week's picks are all about home decor and interior design, so if you aren't into this, there isn't much you could learn from today's post. Nonetheless, if you like redecorating, plan on redecorating or want to spice up your place in the near future, you will love my suggestions. They are all YouTube channels, so plenty of material to go through, but believe me, it won't be a waste of your time, at all. What other beautiful way to spend your free time than watching beautiful and inspiring videos?

Robeson Design channel - this is a YouTube channel for those who are looking for more chic and high end designs. The designer and her team will reveal gorgeous California mansions redecorating, but if you dig through her channel you will find plenty of videos in which she will teach design principles, interior design on a budget and even using software such as SketchUp to design your dream home/room.

MrKate - is a DIY/fashion/lifestyle videoblogger  but she has a million of videos strictly concerning home design. The protagonist, Mr Kate and her husband, filmed a series called "OMG We Bought a House" and another one called "OMG We're Coming Over". I suggest you started with these and then you will get hooked. They have a fresh and eclectic way of designing interior spaces that I am sure you will find very inspiring.

BBC Design Rules - if you haven't seen this, you  are missing out. It's the best and fastest way to learn about interior design in the whole wide world. It is a series of 6 episodes available on YouTube going through the principles of interior design that every home owner should know. The filming is impressing, the information is overwhelmingly abundant and useful, and the watching is easy and entertaining. If you are not convinced by my first two choices, try this first: Space and Planning . It is that good!

I hope you find my suggestions useful, if not today, maybe at some point when you will be owning your dream home. So don't forget to bookmark our blog to easily get back to this post, or give us a like on our Facebook page @NewSocialMediaGeek!

Happy Tuesday!

Social Media News of the Week - YouTube demonetization scandal and more ...

Hello there,

I am publishing this week's social media news as picked up from social media. I figured I could do this for you since I am reading all there is about it anyway. I am still trying to figure out which day of the week might work best for you, therefore I am publishing it on Thursday this week. Let us know what you prefer, Mondays or Thursdays?

LinkedIn - publisher changes layout features - new sleek and shiny interface with
drop in/ embed capabilities for slides, podcasts (a link to an audio file),

Snapchat - have removed local stories (curated stories in select large urban communities, such as LA or NYC) they will be focusing on events stories (content around a big/massive global event).
They are also stepping up the add game to become more profitable, and, for fear of losing their users, they will roll only 3 adds a day per user and they are also to include skip add buttons.

Pinterest - former head of Google image search is now head of engineering at Pinterest to support future changes in their strategy. They are soon to introduce a native video player so as to make shopping pins possible as well as cinematic pins (it appears they will be looking like GIFs)
It seems that they will be doing their best to keep you on the site longer and to sell you more stuff directly on the platform. Meanwhile, 80% of content on Pinteres is re-pins (professional marketers' content and not user generated content) Woooaaa! - They are finally admitting that they are an advertising platform and according to the envisaged stratgey they will start looking more and more like Amazon. Find more here in an interview with Pinterest president.

Google - shop the look available on native google search, only on mobile and only in the US. Basically, you will see adds attached to images that pop up in your search results that will allow direct links to the clothing items you can see in the images.

Instagram - First of all, they are killing photo map. I've never seen it, so I do not know much about it, other that it tracked the places where you took the photos you publish on Instagram. Not very safe, I would say...
- they will be included natively on the new Iphone - they appeared at the Apple Event and disclosed having worked with Apple to develop GIF features, zoom and filters especially geared towards making the best use of the Iphone 7+ technical capabilities,
- the keyword moderation tool is finally here, rolled out to all its users. You can read more on Venturebeat and see my opinion on it here.

Facebook vertical videos went live for adds only. They are also testing a new feature - "what friends are talking about?" that will pick up conversations in your friends list and pop them at the top of your newsfeed.

Youtube -  recently had a not too little demonetization scandal. Video creators just became aware of the fact that YouTube has been sorting through the video content and pulling out clips that they weren't considering add worthy for various reasons (language, theme, topic, etc). As a consequence, Youtubers didn't get paid for those videos in spite of their traffic. Once they started getting notified about their demonetization issues, they started  protesting and declaring it a form of censorship. What is indeed troubling is that they are using an algorithm, and not human moderation, and creators have little chances to appeal the robots' decision, On another note, they've started testing a new community button with select creators for now that will allow creators to share photo and text on top of their videos and get their subscribers notified about their updates.Here is a link to an explanatory video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9V0p29u_UE.

Twitter - direct messages now include read receipts, typing indicators and web link previews looking more and more like a messaging app. It also started sending out alerts when someone in your network is live streaming  Read more here.

Apple - well, there is a lot to say about the new Apple launches, but I will leave the tech guys do this, I am only mentioning that with the Apple iOS 10 update Siri will be able to search Pinterest, send message on Whatsapp or LinkedIn, send money on Squarecash and plenty more. That is cool and scary at the same time.


Thank you very much for reading, and remember: likes are great, shares are even better! :)

Three Gems from the Web - Every Tuesday (14)

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

This week I am in a happy mood, in part because I am travelling, but also because of this week's three picks. They are three gems to bring a little playfulness and inspiration to our lives. I am sure you will like them once you give them a try:

1. Pick number one is my favorite of the three, is an app/game/website called drawastickman.com. It is an interactive and innovative platform that will require your basic drawing skills to create beautiful and entertaining story lines. Start by trying episode one and two on the website to get a sense of what it is, and then, go on and opt for one of the available apps to play the full game.

2. Zoobe -  is an app that allows you to create beautiful animated messages to share with friends, family or colleagues that will turn your voice message into a beautiful and amusing cartoon. You have plenty of characters to chose from, and the videos you will create will be very vivid and professional looking. The app is free and available on all platforms. All you need is a good occasion and a little imagination.

3. Makeup Genius - an app developed by L'Oreal to enable women to try on their products before buying them online, is much more fun than it seems. You literally try on lipstick or eye makeup just by holding your phone in front of your face. To give you a sense of how it works, it is very much like the stickers on Snapchat, only that they apply makeup. It is funny and for women could be even useful, at some point, as you can discover new makeup options or L'Oreal products that you like. And yes, make sure, when picking the country you live in, to opt for US or UK so that the selection of products you can try on is the largest available.

These are my weekly picks. Have fun and please try out at least one of them. You will like them for sure!

My best!

Three Gems from the Web - Every Tuesday (13)

Hello, hello,

Since I figure you are at least a little bit interested in social media, and so as to invite you to think further about its impact, I want to propose three films that have to do with social media, or the future of social media. I would be delighted if you already saw any of these three and you would want to start a conversation on them.

But, without further ado, here are this week's picks:

1. Disconnect - is a very touching and profound film. 

It's been released in 2012 and I think we first watched it 2 years ago. We liked it enough to recommend it to all our friends and family. It makes you think about social media and the way it gets us connected. I am sure you will like it if you take the time to see it.

2. Her - I am not linking the trailer for this one for fear that it would take ages to open this page, but here is the IMDb link. This film isn't particularly plausible right now, but could be in the very near future. It's the story of a man falling in love with an AI. 


3. Inside experience - I am not sure you are familiar with the social film concept. If you are not, read more here. Inside, is thus, a 2011 social film thriller financed by Intel and Toshiba, with the scope of marketing their new laptop release.  It was directed and written by D. J. Caruso and starred Emmy Rossum as Christina. The film was broken into several segments across multiple social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Viewers were then challenged to help Christina successfully survive her predicament. The first part of the series premiered on July 25, 2011 for anyone participating in the “real-time experience”. The whole film became available for online viewing on September 6, 2011. Below is the link to the entire film and details of it's making can be found here. 

Enjoy watching these wonderful films ad let us know what you think!

Happy Tuesday!

Social Media News of the Week: You can finally zoom in on Instagram ... and more

Hello there,

Since we're spending so much time trying to understand the social media world and to scratch under the surface so as to get the subtleties and, hopefully, the tendencies of this great human and technological  phenomenon, we thought it might be a good idea to let you know on the latest news that we come across in this area. We thought it could be a way to help you up your game in the social media, or make your journey more pleasant. Let us know what you think.

Instagram:

I am going to start with the biggest news: you can finally zoom in on Instagram photos and videos. Yes, you can now enlarge by pinching it with your fingers. Just go ahead and try it or read  more details here. They are also stepping up the Instagram Stories game with new tweaks and improved discoverability. Since, according to Instagram 1/5 of the users habitually stay on the Search and  Explore tab, Instagram is planning to roll out an algorithm that will include stories suggestions specifically aimed at your interests as drawn from the way you engage with the platform.

Twitter:

Is planning to start sharing revenue with video creators (more details here). They've recently launched a US only feature to include pre-rolled video adds before the Twitter videos and offer up to 70% of the revenues to video creators. If you are in the US and publish video on Twitter go ahead and read further here .

Facebook:

Facebook has started showcasing vertical videos on mobile, for now in live streams and in adds, but soon to be seen all over our news feeds. Apparently they will still be cropped in the news feed although they would still be larger than the horizontal video. This is a good tip for drawing more attention to your videos, in vertical. It seems that Facebook doesn't shy on following all the right moves Snapchat has done.

LinkedIn:

After being criticized over and over again about its lack of searchability, LinkedIn is finally introducing searchable and clickable hashtags, for the moment, only for the mobile versions.

YouTube:

Has recently launched several creator studios across the globe. They are basically branded video studios where selected youtubers can go and film and create content for the platform. For this matter, LA and New York have special studios dedicated to the US presidential elections. This move is particularly interesting when looking ahead at the future of video sharing platforms. They will probably start professionalizing video creators so as to achieve higher quality content.

Pokemon Go:

Announces a new feature that allows players to pick their favorite Pokémon from their own collection and become best friends with them, helping them earn in-game rewards. The Buddy Pokémon will appear next to the Trainer avatar on the profile screen, and can be switched any time. Details, like whether or not a Buddy Pokémon might help catch other Pokémon, are scarce at the moment. But, Niantic has promised the buddy system will go live soon. Check out more details here.

That is it for now!

Hope you'll find this info useful. Don't forget to share to support our growth.

Have a happy happy week!