Washington Post issues new social media restrictions

The Washington Post has joined the ranks of newspapers and online publications to take strides to restrict how its writers can use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. According to Paid Content, Senior Editor Milton Coleman sent a memo to staff on Friday afternoon outlining the paper’s new social media policy, including a stipulation “all Washington Post journalists relinquish some of the personal privileges of private citizens” when they begin writing or editing for the newspaper.

Many critics have seen this as a blatant abuse of personal freedom and say that the Washington Post has missed the point of social media by trying to take away the “personal” touches from their writers’ content. But the paper is taking the point of view (echoed by Gannett, Dow Jones and others) that in terms of their writers, “any content associated with them in an online social network is, for practical purposes, the equivalent of what appears beneath their bylines in the newspaper or on our website.”

Social media’s impact on email use

While trying to prove the firm’s theory that consumption of social media decreases email use, researchers at The Nielsen Company discovered the opposite was true. After analyzing data to test their hypothesis, Nielsen found that social media use makes people consume email more, particularly for the highest social media users.

“Intuitively this makes some sense,” said Jon Gibs, VP of Media Analytics at Nielsen. “Social media sites like Facebook send messages to your inbox every time someone comments on your posting or something you’ve participated in, and depending on your settings, can send updates on almost every activity.” In addition to these reasons, Gibs added that people make connections through social media, and it is only logical that they would maintain those connections outside of the specific platform and may extend those connections to email.

The simple experiment opened the door to new ideas for research. Nielsen plans to analyze the correlations between platforms to understand if the relationship is different across specific demographics and behavioral groups—rather than by levels of consumption.

Washington Post issues new social media restrictions

The Washington Post has joined the ranks of newspapers and online publications to take strides to restrict how its writers can use social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. According to Paid Content, Senior Editor Milton Coleman sent a memo to staff on Friday afternoon outlining the paper’s new social media policy, including a stipulation “all Washington Post journalists relinquish some of the personal privileges of private citizens” when they begin writing or editing for the newspaper.

Many critics have seen this as a blatant abuse of personal freedom and say that the Washington Post has missed the point of social media by trying to take away the “personal” touches from their writers’ content. But the paper is taking the point of view (echoed by Gannett, Dow Jones and others) that in terms of their writers, “any content associated with them in an online social network is, for practical purposes, the equivalent of what appears beneath their bylines in the newspaper or on our website.”

Ad Spend sees dramatic increase on social network and blog sites

Time spent on social network and blogging sites accounted for 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet in August 2009, nearly triple the percentage of time spent on the sector a year ago, according to data from The Nielsen Company. In addition, Nielsen reported that estimated online advertising spend on the top social network and blogging sites increased 119 percent year-over-year, from nearly $49 million in August 2008 to around $108 million the following year.

“This growth suggests a wholesale change in the way the Internet is used,” said Jon Gibs, vice president of media and agency insights at Nielsen’s online division. “While video and text content remain central to the Web experience – the desire of online consumers to connect, communicate and share is increasingly driving the medium’s growth.”

Although many industries reduced their overall online ad spend year-over-year in August, spending on the top social network sites increased across the board. Coming in at first place in growing its online ad dollar was the entertainment industry, increasing ad spending on the top social network sites by 812 percent in August. Travel advertisers came in at second with 364 percent.

The growth of social networking sites has been responsible in part by the dramatic growth of Facebook — a place where many industries turn to when planning their online ad dollars. In fact, in August of this year, Facebook was the top social networking site advertised on by 10 out of 13 industries, including the automotive, consumer goods, entertainment, and health sectors. Myspace was the top choice for the other three industries.

Researcher claims Marines’ social media ban is misguided

A public policy researcher studying the Marine Corps’ ban of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook from military networks claims that it might be doing more harm than good. Chris Bronk, a research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that the potential damage to soldiers’ morale by not being able to freely communicate with friends and family would likely outweigh any security benefits.

“The ban is at odds with realities of the 21st-century military and, instead of keeping warfighters safer, might hinder the development of an information-sharing culture in the military while demoralizing our troops,” Bronk wrote in Federal Computer Week on Sept. 17. He also added that while security concerns have some validity, “the Marines’ ban, however well-intended, is misdirected. Even with the new policy, military personnel can still access the Web for other purposes at work and, once off the job or off duty, log on to Facebook and other social media to share information. By contrast, the benefits of social media are considerable, particularly for personnel who are continents away from their loved ones.”

Digg Gets New Designer

Digg has announced that Jeffrey Kalmikoff will be stepping in later this month as the new director of design and user experience , replacing Daniel Burka. Burka, who has been with the company for four and a half years, will be moving on to a new project called Tiny Speck. However, he will continue to be involved with Digg as a frequent advisor and design consultant.

Of the announcement, Burka wrote on the company blog, “Jeffrey has very strong experience designing a thriving community-driven website. You are the ones who make Digg tick and I am very confident that Jeffrey will be able to support you with Digg’s design. He’ll be looking for your feedback to design the future of Digg and I’m sure you won’t be shy in offering it to him!”

Kalmikoff is best known for his work on the community-centered online apparel store Threadless. In addition, he has been the chief creative officer at both Threadless and KinnyCorp.

The Twitter Tim.es

With more and more people turning to Twitter as a source for new and interesting links, the microblogging site has become a useful way to receive news and filter it. A new site, The Twitter Tim.es, has taken this idea and created an online newspaper-style format, reports TechCrunch.

The Twitter Tim.es is a real-time personalized newspaper generated from your Twitter account. The new service finds tweets with links in them and creates a custom newspaper based on those links. Instead of a compilation of recent stories, the service takes into account how many people have linked to the article. In addition to creating a personalized newspaper, the service allows users to view newspapers of other twitter users such as Tim O’Reilly and many others.

Stay-at-home moms dominate social media

There might be a perception that social media sites are made up of hip, urban young adults, but according to research announced by the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, that’s just a myth. Survey results show that stay-at-home moms are much more likely to be using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace than the average person.

While the 50 percent of average adults are “likely” to use Twitter, the study showed that stay-at-home moms were 60 percent more likely to be posting on the site. The study shows that targeting moms on social networking sites is an area where retailers should focus.

“Retailers who aren’t engaging customers through social media could be missing the boat,” said Mike Gatti, executive director for RAMA. “Twitter, Facebook and blogs are becoming increasingly popular with moms as they search for coupons or deals and keep in touch with loved ones. The web provides efficient, convenient ways for brands to stay in front of their most loyal shoppers and attract new ones.”

Twitter Updates Rules, Tweets Now Belong to Users not Twitter

Twitter last week updated its Terms of Service with revisions regarding key issues such as ownership. The following are some of the highlights of the rules, provided by Co-founder Biz Stone on the Twitter blog.

“Advertising—In the Terms, we leave the door open for advertising. We’d like to keep our options open as we’ve said before.

Ownership—Twitter is allowed to “use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute” your tweets because that’s what we do. However, they are your tweets and they belong to you.

APIs—The apps that have grown around the Twitter platform are flourishing and adding value to the ecosystem. You authorize us to make content available via our APIs. We’re also working on guidelines for use of the API.

SPAM—Abusive behavior and spam is also outlined in these terms according to the rules we’ve been operating under for some time.”

Nokia Buys Social Media Sharing Company

Nokia announced today that it has acquired certain assets of Plum Ventures, Inc., a privately held company that specializes in cloud-based social media sharing and message services. According to Nokia, Plum will be responsible for complementing Nokia’s Social Location services.

eWeek.com calls the move by Nokia an attempt to strengthen its mobile application offerings against the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion, reporting that it will use the technology to improve its own Ovi Store.

In a post on Plum’s blog, founder Hans Peter Brøndmo said, “We have come a long way since 2004 when we made our first ‘napkin sketch’ on a sailboat. Today, Plum Groups is a service for those of us that want to share the more private parts of our lives with smaller groups of people we are close to such as family and friends. It fills the need for ‘private’ sharing and conversations.”

Although the terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, Plum reassures its loyal users that it will continue to operate unchanged.

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