Social Media Predictions for 2014 (survey)

Image Source: Sofiaperesoa

What does the future hold for social media? How will social media management change during the next 12 months?

In the era of fast and constant changes, 12 months seem like a big period to be predicted. However, if you have studied 2013 in more detail when it comes to social networks and their performance, you can make at least a few initial predictions on the changes to expect.

Facebook algorithm update: do we see what we really like?

Facebook has announced during the week an update to their algorithm that defines what is shown on our News Feed. According to their press release, their new focus is on high-quality content, leaving behind photo memes, and call to action posts.

Many of us were confused with these recent changes, since it’s not clear yet why Facebook decided to focus on the quality of the news sources. However, since we’re playing with their rules, we should become familiar with the update, in order to maintain a good Facebook presence.

Thus, as of now, Facebook will ‘promote’ articles from reputable sources on the News Feed, while it will slightly ‘ignore’ photo memes and low quality content.

And here comes the question: “How do you define quality?”

When was the last time you visited the homepage of a website?

Social networks have significantly changed the way we consume the news and this also has an effect on our news sources.

How many homepages do you visit every day to read the news? You might have a couple of favorite websites that you check from time to time, but in general, do you need to visit a homepage to read the daily news you want?

Post-IPO Twitter: will it lose its identity?

Source: nymag.com

Twitter has gone public and a new era has just started. The problem begins though when it should actually now reach the wider public. There was a big comparison this week with the Facebook IPO time, with many people being unsure on whether Twitter can really make it big.

It's good to evolve and seek to reach a bigger audience, but are you really capable of doing it? Most of us know that Twitter is very useful for being updated on important news almost in real-time, but we still admit that it hasn't reached the popularity of Facebook, not even close (which isn't necessarily bad for all of us that hate something when its goes big). How does it evolve then from now on?

What's really (left) on your mind?

Facebook is asking you every day "what's on your mind", while Google is always there for you, for everything that is not on your mind. After the constant use of both of them, you can't help but wonder, what's really left on your mind nowadays?

Facebook, Google and the Internet in general, have signficantly affected the way we think, and the way our mind works. When Facebook is asking 'what's on your mind', we feel an urge to answer, which leads to a brand new status update.

Facebook: Are you the customer or the product?

'If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you are the product being sold.' -- Andrew Lewis, under the alias Blue_beetle, on the site MetaFilter

 In the era of social media, we all enjoy using social networks for personal or professional reasons. Facebook seems like the ideal network. Everyone is using it. Communication gets easier than ever, borders have disappeared and the world feels closer to you. You're even more excited by the fact that everything is in your own hands for free, without paying for its use. Is it so? Is it really free?

The Internet effect on Generation Y (a.k.a Millennials)

WHO are they (we)?

Generation Y, or Millennials, is referring to the demographic of people born between the '80s and the early '00s. It mostly refers to teens and young adults and is considered the most tech-savvy generation. Most of them grew up along with the Internet and this makes them an interesting generation to study on the use of social media.

Facebook Graph Search Includes Posts and Status Updates

Facebook has decided to extend its Graph Search by incorporating on its search engine the ability to look for posts, status updates, or comments.

This makes Graph Search more powerful than ever, since users will be able to find any post/comment of their favorite artist/TV show, they could spot their status updates from last year, or the comments they did. What's more, marketers will have an even better idea of their audience and would be able to trace every single mention of what they are looking for.

Is it time to unplug from social media?

Do you live and breathe on social media? Do you enjoy discovering new networks and communicating with your friends and coworkers through the Internet? Even more, are you working on digital media? Time to question yourself, when was the last time that you unplugged?

We live in the era of constant connectivity, of fast paces and of 'over-plugging'. A power outage can drive us crazy and a day with no Internet is like our worst nightmare. We love using the Internet and we appreciate its usefulness. However, we all have a time when we feel like we need a break. And that's when unplugging is required.

Facebook email on proposing updates to our Data Use Policy

Just received a mail from Facebook, referring to the proposed updates on the way they collect our data and the rules of the Facebook usage. Although I was cautious at first on the vailidity of the mail, as it seems, according to the redirecting links on the Facebook Site Governance Page, it is something that we must all carefully read.

I still haven't read all the documents, but I'm keeping this as a start:

"we may share information with service providers when they help us provide services."