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| High School Football Coach Resigns After Nude Facebook Photo | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:37 PM | Sam Laird |
|  A high school football coach in Maine lost his job after accidentally posting a nude photo of himself to Facebook. Paul Withee said he intended to send the photo privately to a friend but it ended up appearing on his Facebook page for his entire social network to see. Withee was the varsity football coach at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School and a middle school science and math teacher. He resigned from all three positions on Monday, a week after the photo went up, according to the Associated Press. Withee said the photo was posted for less than half an hour before he realized his mistake and took it down. But a parent had already seen the nude shot and reported it to school officials. "I'm embarrassed, I'm ashamed, I'm humiliated," Withee told Maine's Sun Journal newspaper. School Superintendant Rick Colpitts told the AP that he believes Withee's claim that he did not intend for his students or players to see the photo. No students were among Withee's Facebook friends, according to Colpitts. "You have to be careful with what you do with social media," Withee told the Sun Journal. "You can get yourself into a lot of trouble and something you love can be taken away from you just like this." Assuming this was an accident, do you think Withee should have lost his job? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments. BONUS: 10 Athlete Gaffes Aided by Social Media Online snafus in the sports world are not uncommon. Here are a few recent memorable digital mistakes. |
| Why Zoosk Wants to Make Online Dating More Like LinkedIn | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 9:04 PM | Sam Laird |
|  The Internet dating routine is relatively straightforward, if tough to progress from step to step: Make a profile, find some dates, pick a mate, get offline. But the dating site Zoosk wants to change that by incentivizing its members to stay online after they've found romance. The company is beginning to unveil a host of new features and services designed to make its service more sticky. "I use the example of LinkedIn versus Monster," co-founder Alex Mehr said in a Valentine's Day interview. "Monster just focuses on the job-seeking phase of your professional life, whereas LinkedIn covers your entire professional career. We want to provide a service like that for your entire romantic life." Mehr said that Zoosk will be able to do this with relationship-enhancing bonuses such as reminders of key dates including birthdays and anniversaries, deals on events and activities for two, and advice centers for couples. While Zoosk is looking to add a new twist to the online dating world, the site is already successful. Founded in 2007, it now claims some 15 million monthly active users and company representatives say that its sales revenue surpassed $90 million in 2011. Zoosk works differently than most dating sites already, Mehr says. It integrates a variety of social networks as well as functionality as a social network of its own with a news feed and interest graph. But it's the new features, set to debut over the next month, that Mehr thinks will truly set Zoosk apart. "What we want is for it to have 2 benefits," he says. "It will capture more value for the customer so that they don't just turn it off when they find someone. At the same time, we'll know the transition points, we'll know when you will want to find someone else if it doesn't work out, so that gives us a natural advantage." When a Zoosk user finds a boyfriend or girlfriend, they will be able to change their relationship status to begin capitalizing on the couples' features. Change that status back to single, and personal ads will reappear. Mehr said that reviews of the new features with small groups of test users have been "very positive." Between now and the end of March, Zoosk plans to roll out a host of different iterations of its new features to see which ones most users prefer and then finalize the site's added element. Relationship advice, for example, could be syndicated from outside sources or user generated -- though Mehr said he hopes Zoosk eventually relies more on content provided by its members. And, just as Zoosk already integrates with other social networks, all of its new features will as well. Post a photo of you and your significant other to Facebook, and Zoosk will pull it to your profile there. Post that photo to your Zoosk profile, and the site will push it to Facebook. "One way to think of it will be as a romantic filter for all your social networks," Mehr said. "There is no other site out there where, if two people are in a relationship, it provides this type of service to them." Do you think Zoosk's idea will become successful or be a flop? Let us know in the comments. |
| Pinterest: Everything You Wanted to Know About 2012's Hottest Startup [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 5:43 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  Pinterest has emerged as the runaway social media hit of early 2012. You probably knew that already. But did you know the company just has 12 people? Or that 97% of Pinterest's Facebook fans are women? Lemon.ly, a visual marketing firm, took a deep dive into the data to catalog Pinterest's stunning rise and produced the infographic below. What's clear is that with 10 million users, Pinterest has already made its mark in terms of web design influence, if nothing else. It also has the potential to become a forum for satire, as this fake Mitt Romney account illustrates. Since the company appears to be the hottest thing going -- at least at this writing -- consider this a snapshot of the next social media giant or the answer to tomorrow's trivia question. |
| You'll Love Sharing TED Talks With New Quotes Feature | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 5:26 PM | Brian Anthony Hernandez |
|  Look at any social network and you're bound to find countless quotations strewn throughout the sea of posts, tweets and status updates. TED -- the non-profit that brings you 18-minutes-or-less speeches by influential leaders -- wants to capitalize on the trend of people sharing others' words with the Valentine's Day launch of TED Quotes. The new feature displays TED's vast library of 1,147 talks. It uses standout quotations from each recording to make them more accessible, digestible and shareable. TED Quotes allows users to search all quotes, view only top quotes or browse by topic. Under each quote are two buttons: a play symbol that takes you takes you directly to that specific TED talk and a share button that lets you push a talk to Facebook, Twitter or email. TED also touts the feature on the regular search page. Previously, TED focused on distributing its recording through emails, blog posts and apps. "As media habits have evolved, we've added opportunities for people to share the talks through Twitter, Facebook and other platforms," TED Media director June Cohen told Mashable. "But this is our first fundamental shift in how we think about sharing. It's not just the level of video but at the more micro level of the quote." TED Quotes is a permanent feature, but TED plans to highlight specific types of quotes in a seasonal and current ways from time to time -- for example, during holidays or breaking news events. As part of its Feb. 14 launch, TED promoted some of its "heart-fluttering favorites" for Valentine's Day: "A world without love is a deadly place," said Helen Fisher. "My wife could turn to me and she may say, 'Why do you love me?' And I can with all honesty look her in the eye and say, 'Because our pheromones matched our olfactory receptors,'" said Robin Ince. "People live for love. They kill for love. They die for love. They have songs, poems, novels, sculptures, paintings, myths, legends. It's one of the most powerful brain systems on Earth for both great joy and great sorrow," said Helen Fisher. eight hugs a day. You'll be happier and the world will be a better place," said Paul Zak. The talks come in array of topics such as technology, entertainment and design, business, collaboration, DNA, happiness and changing the world. |
| Facebook Statuses Reveal Top 10 Cities for Getting Engaged | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 3:58 PM | Yen Lee |
|  Yen Lee is the founder and president of Uptake, a social travel company that pairs personalized recommendations from friends with an extensive, searchable catalog of expert and consumer travel insights. Just in time for Valentine's Day, check out the world's most romantic cities -- according to Facebook, that is. My travel planning company dove into Facebook's vast stream of status updates in order to bring you the top U.S. cities where couples are getting engaged (and subsequently talking about it on Facebook). Perhaps these cities are more romantic than the rest, or maybe they just put something in the drinking water - in any case, check out this list and see if a proposal is more likely to come your way this Valentine's! SEE ALSO: Social Media Marriage Proposals: 10 Clever Ways to Pop the Question Technology behind the data: My company analyzed over 29 million Facebook status updates in our database for excerpts and phrases related to "engagement." Then, we created a list of cities by mapping the resulting text to users' locations. Finally, we ordered this list according to frequency of occurrence. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, kzenon |
| 'Occupy Valentine's Day' Tumblr Protests the Romantic Industrial Complex | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 3:24 PM | Christine Erickson |
|  Valentine's Day is often filled with candy hearts, red roses and cutesy rhyming cards. But let's be real -- that's not exactly what the day was intended for in the fifth century. Today, we know there's a mixed review of the holiday -- women are worried about buying gifts for their significant other, while men are sharing their dislike for the holiday. What's supposed to be an innocent celebration of love has, to some, turned into a day of dread due to loneliness or pressure to buy the perfect gift. In light of this, Tumblr users have been flocking to a site called Occupy Valentine's Day. "Celebrating love and romance is a wonderful thing, but it shouldn't depend on buying certain products for the perfect experience (hello, romantic industrial complex) or on your gender, sexuality, race, class status or marital status," the site states. Although the site has been up since January, creator Samhita Mukhopadhyay (who is also author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life) says she's seen a significant spike of 15,000 unique visitors in two days. Normally there are about three to four thousand. "I think that Valentine's Day is frustrating for people because it puts unnecessary pressure on the state of your relationship, single or coupled," says Mukhopadhyay. "It's also a little corny -- people have lots of ways to celebrate love. " Some of the ways Occupy Valentine's Day suggests to celebrate love include making a commitment to have healthy, loving relationships in all areas of your life, or not settle for anyone who is not good enough for you just to avoid spending Valentine's Day alone. In other words, Occupy Valentine's Day hopes to change the culture of romance. "The site is definitely to celebrate love and all the different ways that we find love in our lives -- not just romantic love," explains Mukhopadhyay. "It is more a criticism of the romance industry than it is about interpersonal love." According to Mukhopadhyay, the site has received an "overwhelmingly positive" response from an even amount of males and females. "People seem to really appreciate a place to creatively express their criticisms and frustrations of Valentine's Day while celebrating love," she says. Image courtesy of iStock, pearleye |
| Adorable Puppy Rescue Has Happy Ending, Goes Viral [VIDEO] | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 2:23 PM | Kate Freeman |
|  Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks. So you're unmoved by Valentine's Day? Feeling all "bah humbug" about human relationships? Here's something to melt even the coldest heart: A tale of love between human rescuers and trapped puppy. Five days ago, a 4-week-old pugle dauschund got himself trapped in an underground pipe in Detroit, and was stuck overnight. Workers could hear squeaking sounds coming from the tiny pup, but could not see it. The Michigan Humane Society called plumbers who brought camera to look inside the pipe and a Bobcat excavator was brought in to dig around the pipes. By about 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 workers reached the section of the pipe where the little critter was stuck. The pugle dauschund mix was in surprisingly good health after his rescue, just a little dehydrated and cold. Kevin Hatman, spokesman for the Michigan Humane Society, said it's too early to tell how this video has affected donations. But he said he's been receiving calls and messages from people around the world who were moved by the video. It has received more than 200,000 views since it was uploaded on February 10. Have you seen any other touching animal rescue videos? Tell us in the comments. |
| Hashtag Marketing: 9 Ways to Avert Disaster | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 1:37 PM | David Berkowitz |
|  David Berkowitz is vice president of emerging media for digital marketing agency 360i, where he develops social media and mobile programs for marketers spanning the media & entertainment, retail, travel, and CPG industries. Marketers creating campaigns centered on hashtags need to be cautious. Hashtags can easily turn into flashing targets that scream, "Hijack this brand!" In the past few weeks, McDonald's launched a hashtag campaign that was promptly hamburgled, and then Research In Motion's #BeBold campaign was similarly brandjacked. Fortunately, there's a way to avoid these types of situations. Hashtag campaigns happen all the time without any press coverage, usually because there's no horror story. Here are nine ways to prevent your brand from winding up in a story about social media mishaps. 1. Figure Out Why You're Using Hashtag Brands tend to use hashtags, predominantly on Twitter and sometimes other services like Instagram, either to create a centralized discussion around their campaign or event, or to jump into conversations that are already happening. Assess what you want to get out of the hashtag before diving in. 2. Be Upfront About the Risk No matter how good your intentions are and how well you execute the campaign, hashtags can get hijacked in unexpected ways. Make sure any relevant brand managers, agency account executives, and other relevant parties are aware of what can happen, and share some real examples like those noted above. Also be clear that brands use hashtags in campaigns every day, and there are very few that generate any negative publicity. 3. Determine What Kind of Hashtag Makes Sense for Your Goals Branded hashtags like #McDstories are very transparent and often descriptive, but they might turn off people who don't want to include that brand in their messages. They also can give brand haters more motivation to upend the hashtag's meaning. Generic hashtags like RIM's #BeBold have more creative potential both for the brand and for consumers, but the hashtags can be brand-jacked just as easily, especially if the brand isn't perceived as a match for the tag. Either way, the hashtag should be informative and concise rather than conceptual. You only have a few characters; make them count, and don't make consumers think too hard. 4. Be True to Your Brand Jeff Bezos once said, "Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room." What do people really say about your brand? If you're a fast food burger chain, having salad on the menu wouldn't justify a #BeHealthy campaign. Airlines shouldn't try using #ComfortingThoughts unless their coach seats are really more comfortable than a typical passenger's living room sofa. 5. Think of the Worst-Case Hijacking Scenario Then share it with some of your snarky and cynical colleagues. Does it hold up? Would more conservative brand managers be comfortable with it? If it's too easy to hijack and the brand bashing is too harsh, this is a good time to come up with other ideas. 6. Avoid Piggybacking on Humorous or Risqué Hashtags Very few brands can credibly contribute to conversations around tags like "#ThingsWomenWant" or "#WorstMondayEver." 7. Have Your Crisis Plan Ready, With Key Members on Speed Dial No matter how cautious you think you are, people can be pleasantly unpredictable, even if that can create the occasional unpleasant experience for brands. Make sure it's absolutely clear what everyone's roles are should an unfortunate event happen. 8. Monitor the Campaign Religiously It should also be clear upfront when determining everyone's roles and responsibilities. When creating an original hashtag that hasn't been used before, hashtags can simplify reporting on buzz generated, as community managers and analysts can view all relevant tweets in one shot. 9. Spring Into Action If you wind up in a snafu, be ready to do whatever you can to stop the bleeding, such as ceasing any media support, engaging consumers to steer the conversation back to the original idea, or perhaps taking it on the chin and acknowledging when consumers are right. McDonald's realized, for instance, that by pulling its Twitter ad, negative comments using the hashtag stopped almost immediately. Brands shouldn't overreact to the potential downfall of using hashtags, but marketers need to accept that there will always be a risk when using them. Many more marketers will choose to accept that risk. Twitter's only growing, and hashtags are a fundamental element of Instagram, Tumblr, and other services. Brands can learn from their peers who tried to #BeBold before them, some more successfully than others. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, tumpikuja |
| 10 Reasons Twitter Is Sexier Than Facebook [INFOGRAPHIC] | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 1:16 PM | Matt Silverman |
|  It's no secret people behave differently, depending on the social network. Sometimes it's the audience you're speaking to. Sometimes it's the people you know are following your every move (hi, mom). The differences are especially apparent in regard to sex. In anticipation of Valentine's Day, marketing agency Euro RSCG surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults who use either Twitter or Facebook daily. The agency discovered where people talk about sex, and whether they identify themselves as "sexy" or "sexually adventurous." The survey also explored how tweeters and Facebookers perceive themselves sexually in relation to others. On the whole, Twitter users appear to be more consumed with sex than their Facebook counterparts. While the sample size of this survey is relatively small, anecdotally, you might find these results ring true. I have a working, unscientific theory -- that people shy away from flirting and sex talk on Facebook because they are connected to family and hometown friends within that space. Twitter can be a more anonymous place, especially since it still lags behind Facebook in terms of true mainstream adoption. What's your experience? Do you flirt on Twitter? Is it different from your interactions on Facebook? Share your stories (the more embarrassing, the better) in the comments below. Graphic courtesy of Euro RSCG. |
| Twitter Investors, Including Employees, Can Only Sell 20% of Their Stock [REPORT] | | Tuesday, February 14, 2012 12:48 PM | Todd Wasserman |
|  In a move designed to forestall an IPO for as long as possible, Twitter has a rule barring any investor, including employees, from selling more than 20% of their stock, according to a report. Twitter initiated the rule about a year ago, but it hadn't been made public, according to CNNMoney. The guideline is somewhat controversial within the company and allegedly prompted Senior Technical Engineer Evan Weaver to resign last August. According to the article, Weaver's departure prompted an explanatory email to staffers from CEO Dick Costolo. The email outlined Twitter's reason behind the policy: To keep to the SEC-dictated limit of under 500 investors. Beyond that number, Twitter would have to go public. "We don't want to be public until we have very predictable quarterly earnings growth," Costolo wrote in his August email, according to the article. "We're not ready to be a public company for a couple years... There is one reasonable way to do this: Let everybody with vested common stock sell only some fraction of their shares," Costolo added. Twitter reps could not be reached for comment on the report. Costolo's stance on going public mirrors his other recent public statements. Like other social media firms, including, for a time, Facebook, Twitter appears to be holding off an IPO as a way of limiting outsider investors' influence. That approach has hardly dimmed enthusiasm for the stock, though. Last March, Twitter's valuation hit $7.7 billion on Sharespost, which trades shares on the secondary market. Limiting shareholders means catering to deep-pocketed investors, including Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who sank $300 million into the company in December. Like Facebook, Twitter has also stopped giving out stock to employees instead offering them restricted stock units (RSUs), which can only be converted to actual shares after an IPO or a corporate buyout, according to the report. Image courtesy of Flickr, eldh |
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