Mashable and American Express OPEN Forum have been debating the merits of traditional business cards. After all, in today’s day and age, after receiving such a card, it is still a necessity to transfer the names, phone numbers and email addresses into one’s phone or contact database.
Business networking site LinkedIn has created a solution called CardMunch iPhone app which allows you to take a picture of a business card and then converts the contact information as text. It then stores the information into contacts. LinkedIn also integrates the person’s information from his or her profile onto the network.
Business cards will not become obsolete anytime soon. There are some who love collect business cards, but there are options out there for those who tend to lose cards easily, do not want to carry extra paper or those who find it easier just to have the contact information on their phones.
While the CardMunch app takes away some of the hassle in transferring information from a card to your contacts, it does not take away the need for business cards since one party will still require a standard business card for the image capture.
If you do not ever want to give out another business card, there is another option called Cardcloud, which is a free app which allows you to create a digital card that you can just email. Once again, there is integration with LinkedIn, and in this case, Facebook too.
Surely in the future, there will be an app which makes it possible for two phone users to quickly and easily swap electronic business cards through email by just clicking a button.
What do you think about these new developments? Do you think that social media will replace the traditional business cards? Or is there something special about traditional business cards?
Two pieces of legislation are currently making its way in the US House of Representatives and the Senate. The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Personal Information Protection Act, or PIPA, will potentially change the way users exchange and facilitate information in the Internet.
The SOPA and PIPA will work together to oblige internet service providers to block websites that posts or links to copyrighted content. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! likewise cannot display results from websites that violate the proposed law.
Twitter Movement Map. Image Credit: Eric Fischer via Flickr.
This map depicts the physical movement of and movements of tweets. Created by Social Media cartographer Eric Fischer, this tracks the physical movement (in green) and @ replies from someone in one location to someone in another (in purple) and a combination of the two (in white).
Fischer has also created maps on the use of Flickr and Twitter, including a map that illustrates the movement of tweets in the United States, a zoom of a subsection of the world map above.
The biggest surprise on the above map is the high level of social media movement in and out of Indonesia. According to a 2010 study, Indonesians are the most Twitter addicted country, with about twenty one percent of the population on Twitter. This could be attributed to the fact that there is a large population of almost 240 million with access to cheap mobile phones and a prevalence of spoken English.
The map about reports trips with the exception of Null Island, with all other geotags trusted. The endpoints of the trips are based on data but routes between is fabricated and the brightness of the lines are logarithmic. The data is taken from the Twitter streaming API through September 1, 2011.
While Google+ does that have the user numbers to rival Facebook yet, it could potentially catch up to the social media giant, as analysts expect Google+ to reach 400 million users by the end of this year, just half of the users of Facebook. It is not bad for a system that is so new to the game.
The site has had a massive increase in numbers and has doubled its traffic in the month of December. This means that there were more than 49 million US users and a increase of 55% in that month. The site has also show grown eight weeks out of nine.
These numbers are not official as Google+ has declined to publicize the actual number but social media analysts have found that the a quarter of the site’s users have only signed up in the last month.
The advantages of Google+ over Facebook are numberous. The relative ease of adding people to your network and more tools to allow for different privacy settings, categories and friend circles, direct connections to websites, more interactions with followers, and the ability to use “Hangouts” as chats with up to ten people. It also a feature called “Sparks,” which is an online sharing engine that allows people within our network to easily find common content. There are location-based apps, direct uploads and an integrated login with the very popular free email service Gmail.
The biggest hurdle for Google+ is to reach the critical mass where there are enough users to connect a social networking community.
When Google+ rolled out its feature for companies to create branded pages, a lot of brands rejoiced over this news. Finally, another way for companies to connect with online users! But before you go ahead and create a Google+ account for your business, you should probably hold back a little. There are, after all, a couple of reasons why you should and should not create a Google+ account.
Administration can be difficult.
Administering your social media accounts is no easy task. What more if you add another complex networking site like your Google+ account on the list? You might not want to tip the balance and add another burden to the situation.
Create a “hangout” for your target market and employees.
This feature of Google+ makes it convenient to create a place where your customers/clients and employees can interact among themselves and with each other.
Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
This can be pretty tricky. You don’t want to fix what’s not broken, but at the same time, you have to deal with the changes. you should only go ahead and create an account if you’re sure it would benefit your business.
Make your company more searchable.
Since Google+ is inter-linked with Google search results, you are ultimately allowing your business to be more searchable to potential customers. Isn’t that the point of enriching your online presence in the first place?
If, taking into account all of these reasons, you think there’s more reason for you to create a Google+ account, then by all means do so. The steps are simple enough and can be done in a few steps as outlined here.
Google has put together a year in review in the world as reflected in social media. Alot has happened this year and the following clip shows what was important around the world in 2011:
Today, Facebook has released its data showing the top ten status trends for the year globally and by key countries.
When millions of people post on their Facebook account to share what’s cool, what’s important and what’s of the moment, this data is tracked. The information shared then spreads around the world like wildfire.
The top ten global topics this year includes the following:
Facebook Memology 2011, Top Ten Global Topics. Image Credit: Facebook.
The most buzz surrounding the entertainment world include the following for the categories of movies, TV shows, and musicians include:
Movies:
1. Harry Potter
2. The Twilight Saga
3. Toy Story
4. Avatar
5. Jackass
6. Shrek
7. Saw
8. Pirates of the Caribbean
9. Fast & Furious
10. Titanic
TV Shows:
1. House
2. Two and a Half Men
3. The Simpsons
4. Family Guy
5. South Park
6. Grey’s Anatomy
7. SpongeBob SquarePants
8. CSI: Miami
9. iCarly
10. The Big Bang Theory
Musicians:
1. Rihanna
2. Bob Marley
3. Avril Lavigne
4. David Guetta
5. Enrique Iglesias
6. Usher
7. Lady Gaga
8. Metallica
9. Green Day
10. Black Eyed Peas
The most shared articles and links include:
1. Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami (New York Times) 2. What teachers really want to tell parents (CNN)
3. No, your zodiac sign hasn’t changed (CNN)
4. Parents, don’t dress your girls like tramps (CNN)
5. (video) – Father Daughter Dance Medley (Yahoo)
6. At funeral, dog mourns the death of Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan (Yahoo)
7. You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook (CNN)
8. Dog in Japan stays by the side of ailing friend in the rubble (Yahoo)
9. Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines (Yahoo)
10. New Zodiac Sign Dates: Ophiuchus The 13th Sign? (The Huffington Post)
