Tag Archives: facebook

Instagram Adding Video To Compete With Vine? Facebook Announcement On Thursday

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If you can’t beat ‘em, join them. Sharing of Vine clips has surpassed those on Instagram images on Twitter, so what does Instagram do? Well it looks like Instagram is adding functionality to support videos. [If you're reading this and haven't a clue what Vine is, check out the blog we posted when Twitter's Vine first launched.]

According to reports, Facebook will unveil the new feature at a press event on Thursday, while other sources suggests that the social network will be announcing its own RSS reader.

The idea of Instagram offering a competing service to Vine first spawned a few weeks ago when technology blogger Matthew Keys wrote that internal testing of a video service allowing for 5-10 second clips was occurring at Instagram. At this point it’s still unclear whether any such functionality would be within Instagram or as part of a separate app, nor indeed if users would see the videos in the stream of the other users they follow on the app.

What do you think? Is this a good move on Instagram/Facebook’s part? Would longer clips and therefore a requirement for more user effort take away from the appeal of what makes Vine so popular? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

SocialSafe v6.5.3 Released – Here’s what’s new …

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SocialSafe v6.5.4 Released - Here's what's new ...

The all new Scheduler gives you much better granularity and works in the background, keeping out of your way! You can also get a quick snapshot of your most popular posts and photos based on comments and likes after each sync.

Other notable improvements include performance boosts, bug fixes and support for Facebook friends’ comments on 3rd party app postings – for example comments your friends make on your Instagrams you shared on Facebook

An important note for users of our older version. If when you run the updater your SocialSafe does not say v6.5.3 you will need to uninstall and download the latest version.

Your data will be completely safe – this just updates the application so you can benefit from all these new updates, and many more coming real soon.

Any problems please get in touch.

Facebook Messages & Twitter Experience Downtime – How To Protect Your Content

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In the last few days there have been reports of outages affecting Facebook Messages and Twitter. Both services seem to be running smoothly again now, but at the time when they were unavailable there must have been a large number of people who wondered what was going to happen to their data.

It’s easy for people to make jokes about soaring office productivity whenever a social network experiences downtime, but as more and more businesses utilise these sites for marketing and customer communication, being unable to access records of interactions – even temporarily – can be very problematic indeed.

The case for keeping a local copy of your social network data grows stronger with every further outage. So whether or not you need to access Twitter DMs in order to find a friend’s phone number, or whether you need to reference a customer enquiry that you received via your company’s Facebook Page, there’s every reason to back up your online content.

With SocialSafe you can ensure that any social network downtime doesn’t affect your ability to look back on your customer interactions. By creating an offline record of your content from different social networks that is also searchable, SocialSafe affords businesses not only peace of mind, but also allows them to get more out of their data than they can when it is all held on separate social networks.

Whether you’re an individual wanting to keep a log of your personal activities, or a company looking for a compliance and archiving tool for online customer engagement across social platforms, download the free trial of SocialSafe to start keeping this content secure on you own machine.

 

Facebook Vows To Review Censoship Policies After Pressure From Women’s Rights Groups

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Facebook has admitted that it has been slightly off the pace when it comes to how and when it censors content on the social network, adding that changes will be rolled out immediately. In a blog post, the social network said that the current practices for dealing with “controversial, harmful and hateful” content are not effective, adding that “we need to do better – and we will.”

This acknowledgement comes after a turbulent few weeks for Facebook, that have seen a number of recent outcries over content. Earlier this month the social network reversed a decision that originally chose not to remove a video showing a man being beheaded, as oddly enough it did not break Facebook’s policy.

More recently, women’s rights groups – including the Everyday Sexism Project – have mounted large-scale online campaigns in opposition to some of the content that has been allowed to remain on Facebook. As well as writing to Facebook directly, the groups also encouraged advertisers to boycott the site, pointing out that their advertising appeared alongside user-created pages showing images of violence towards women that were “shared, boasted and joked about”.

In the blog post addressing the issue, Facebook said that it had become “clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like”.

Marne Levine, VP of Global Public Policy at Facebook, went on to say:

“In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want… In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria… We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards.”

What has your experience of controversial or harmful content on Facebook been? Have you ever felt compelled to report something, and was the request heeded? Let us know in the comments.

Pakistani Boy Kidnapped After Facebook Meeting – 10 Essential Online Safety Tips For Parents

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A story has emerged this week from Pakistan, detailing how a 13-year-old boy was kidnapped in the city of Karachi after being lured into a meeting via Facebook. Thankfully the teenager was rescued by police, but unfortunately kidnappings by militants and criminals are commonplace in Pakistan.

Police reports say that the boy was the victim of a gang masquerading as an online gaming friend, and convinced the 13-year-old to meet up after contacting him through Facebook. While in this case the boy was rescued, his mother hopes that this will serve as a warning to others:

“This is my request to all the parents to never let their children make friendship on Facebook. I beg you for God’s sake that you never do.”

Trying to be watchful over your children’s internet activities without invading their privacy can be a very difficult line to tread. However, at SocialSafe we believe that the best way to protect your children from some of the dangers that lurk online is to be open and honest with them, working together to establish boundaries and agree on what can be monitored and in what manner.

We’ve also pulled together 10 essential tips to ensure your child’s online safety into one pdf that parents especially may find helpful. Download it here.

Backupify recommends SocialSafe (6 month free licence offer)

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Backupify is recommending SocialSafe to its customers after announcing that they are phasing out their consumer services for social media backup.

We’re super happy to be helping Backupify and are offering a special welcome bonus for all Backupify customers. Grab a special copy of SocialSafe today and get 6 months of social media backup absolutely free!

SocialSafe enables you to back up your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other social network accounts straight to your computer.

You can also use SocialSafe’s RSS back up option to download your latest photos on Flickr and latest posts from WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and other blogging platforms.

SocialSafe isn’t just about backing up your social media though. Our mission is to help you maintain and enjoy the whole story of you. You can view all your photos from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and your blogs, complete with comments and likes. You can travel back through your online timeline and relive those special moments. You can even get interesting insights on your content and on your friends’ and fans’ interactions with you. And that’s just for starters!

A quick note on privacy as it’s very dear to our hearts. Everything is stored on your computer and as such is never seen or accessed by us. We believe you should own and control your online social life and having your own personal copy is the best way to achieve that.

Get in touch or leave a comment below if you have any questions.

To get your free 6 month licence you need to download SocialSafe from here.

How To Remove Facebook Adware From Your Profile

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Facebook users should be aware that there is something called ‘Adware’ that might set up camp on their profiles. One Mashable writer discovered the big ad banner at the top of her profile, just beneath her information and profile picture.

Initially they thought the huge ad (measuring approximately 730 x 90 pixels) on Christine Erickson’s profile was the sign of things to come, fearing that Facebook was testing a new ad display unit. However, another writer for the tech site was more familiar with the situation and recognised the banner for what it was - Adware.

Facebook even have a dedicated page explaining what Adware is and how you can go about removing Adware from your profile if you discover a banner on there. The page also reiterates the social network’s policy on ad positions:

“Facebook ads will never appear as banners in the center, top or left column of Facebook web pages.”

But how would one of these Adware banners wind up on your profile in the first place? In the case of Mashable’s Christine Erickson, she believes it may have happened while uninstalling another extension on her desktop.

If you find that your profile has been the victim of Adware, then it’s best to follow Facebook’s instructions and remove it – chances are that leaving it there will cause Facebook pages to load more slowly and it may also compromise your security.

Advertising Dropped For Official 2012 Olympic Facebook Page

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Facebook have been forced to strip all advertising from the official Olympic Facebook Page that was launched today at a large press event in London, attended by representatives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and 1993 gold medalist Boris Becker.

In the same way that the Olympic stadia themselves will be ‘clean venues’ with no adverts visible inside, all of Facebook’s Olympic pages must also follow suit, as Christian Hernandez, head of international business development at Facebook, stated:

“We [Facebook] will not be running adverts against these [Olympic] pages.”

The Olympic Games and London 2012 logos have been very heavily protected by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG). This is understandable, given that all companies which are officially allowed to use the Olympic Games logo in any way will have paid millions for the privilege.

Twitter suspended the account of a group last month after LOCOG complained that they were using a doctored version of the London 2012 logo that was being used in a way that could be confusing or misleading with regard to brand affiliation.

But Facebook aren’t the only companies to have made “non commercial” arrangements with the Olympic Games, as dedicated Olympic Twitter and Google+ pages are expected to appear soon and a Foursquare partnership launched last month.

What Will Happen To Your Social Networks When You Are Gone?

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While the digital age has heralded incredible advances in communication abilities, it also leaves us open to the possibility that all the work we put into writing blogs, posting messages on friends’ walls and such like, can all be deleted with one click, never to be seen again. When the time comes to sort through the belongings of a recently deceased friend or loved one, diaries and journals are the sort of things that are kept.

But it’s hard to imagine that the same sense of catharsis will be experienced by a social network – who are essentially landlords of a house full of belongings left for them to deal with by an intestate – when it comes to dealing with the profile of the departed. There is no emotional connection between the host website and the user who posted updates every day for several years, so the likelihood is that they will simply delete it. However the friends of that userwill have an attachment to the photos, the wall posts, the comments from that user on their own updates etc.

And before we spend too much time dwelling on the mortality of man, all of this content could also be lost while someone is still alive. Perhaps digital’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. While information can be shared so quickly and in a virtual environment, it also means that it can disappear without a trace just as quickly.

Thankfully backing up social media accounts and taking control of the content you create just got easier. With SocialSafe you can unite your social networks and create your own copy of the digital stories you tell as you forge your own path through the world of online networking. Safely store all the content and contacts from Facebook, Twitter, Viadeo, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+. For more information about how to start your own offline backup journal visit the SocialSafe website.

Cop Adds Crime Suspects On Facebook, Gets Tip-off From Status Update

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There have been many instances of social media being used in criminal investigations, and a number of people are now in jail for Twitter posts or Facebook updates that weren’t suitable for public airing. But it appears criminal stupidity has reached a new low (or should that be ‘new high’?) in Brooklyn.

Officer Michael Rodrigues was desperate for evidence on a gang suspected of carrying out regular burglaries in the Crown Heights area. His idea? Send Facebook friend requests to the suspects. A number of them accepted, giving Officer Rodrigues the ability to monitor their walls and posts.

Fourteen members of the gang – known as the Brower Boys – ranging from 15 to 19-years-old have been charged with a series of crimes that span over 12 months.

Having been allegedly carrying out crimes uninhibited for a year, it was a Facebook status that undid the whole operation. Officer Rodrigues noticed on March 2nd that one member posted the status “It’s break-in day on the avenue”, so police officers were dispatched to trail the man,  and they arrested him as he broke into an apartment.

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that one of the other gang members warned the perpetrator against bragging online about criminal activities, saying “you all just gave yourself away”.

So there you have it. For the overwhelming majority of us who live within the law, there is still a message to take from this story: accepting friend requests from people you don’t know can lead to problems.

Obviously in this case you could say that justice has been served. But there must also have been situations whereby innocent people have accepted friend requests from fictitious users who turn out to be identity thieves or other miscreants. Just be careful who you decide to give access to your personal information.