Imagine how useful it would be if you could set up a Google Alert for a keyword but only be notified if that word or phrase were mentioned in a news story that had more than 50 shares on social media. And would you find it even more useful if you were notified not by email but within an RSS reader?

Consider a tool that could tell you when a news story mentioning a particular word had more than 500 Facebook likes or 100 Twitter shares.

New functionality in free tool Ping.it does just that. And it lets you to determine the number of shares, Facebook likes, Twitter mentions or comments a story has before it is flagged up.

Privacy-protecting browser Brave is introducing a new news reader, Brave Today, per Ars Technica. Brave’s news reader masks users’ reading behaviors by divorcing IP address details from content delivery requests. Once a user clicks on a news item in the feed, Braves reader directs traffic to publishers own pages. Brave Today is supported with privacy-protecting offers and promoted content.

This all sounds vaguely reminiscent of an RSS reader, and Brave is not the only one revisiting the potential for news aggregation. Substack has also launched at creating a distraction-free space to consume email newsletters that isn’t the inbox.

Facebooks Path to Global Social Network Domination
From just a few thousand users in 2004 to 2.7 billion monthly active users (MAUs) in 2020, Facebook is by far the worlds largest social network.

But its massive global footprint did not grow overnight. While Facebook is the most popular social network in many countries, this traction didn’t happen overnight. And in other places, it still has not quite taken off.

To see Facebooks path to domination, we mapped each countrys most popular social network from 2008‒2020. The data was tabulated by Vincenzo Cosenza at Vincos.it by examining annual traffic data from Alexa and SimilarWeb.

Facebook Grows From the Americas to Southeast Asia
What famously started as Mark Zuckerbergs late-night intoxicated project called Facemash—a hot or not type website for students at Harvard University—soon evolved into the worlds predominant social network.

Before 2008, the social network landscape was populated by social network pioneers such as Myspace and Hi5. Googles Orkut was the most popular network in Brazil and India, and Friendster found a foothold in Southeast Asia.

But the Facebook wave came in earnest. By 2009, the social media giant took the title of most popular network for the bulk of the Americas, Europe, South Asia, and Oceania, with Orkut in Brazil being the sole holdout until 2011.

The coronavirus pandemic boosted social media usage around the world, as many people stayed home for weeks or months. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter are all gaining new users, though not all will benefit equally from 2020s growth.

How many internet users worldwide visit social platforms regularly?

An estimated 3.23 billion people, or 80.7% of internet users worldwide, will use a social network at least once per month in 2020.

Which countries have the largest populations of social media users?

China and India continue to rank first and second. As a result, Asia-Pacific remains the leading region, with 1.89 billion people using social networks in 2020.

Where will the most new users emerge?

China will post the most sizable increase, with 58.3 million more users than in 2019. India will gain 31.8 million social network users, while Brazil will add 10.0 million.

Facebook is often considered the 800-pound gorilla of the social networking market. Its family of apps -- which includes its main app, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- grew its monthly active users 14% year over year to 3.21 billion last quarter. Facebook also shares a near-duopoly with Alphabet's Google in the digital ad market.

However, several major social networks are still growing in Facebooks shadow. Lets take a closer look at three of them, how they withstood competition from Facebook, and what that resilience means for Facebooks long-term prospects.

1. Snapchat
2. Pinterest
3. Tiktok

It is a familiar situation: a compelling discussion develops on Tw­­itter, Facebook or Instagram - it could be about any topic - but instead of working constructively towards a common solution, the tone becomes increasingly aggressive. The rift between the differing opinions grows ever larger. Often, intercultural differences and lack of understanding are the root causes of the conflict. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen now wants to develop a "moderator" using artificial intelligence (AI) that can recognise hate messages in social media and intervene to de-escalate the situation. The Volkswagen Foundation will fund the project for four years from April 2021 with a total of around 1.5 million euros.

There has been a growing change in the style of communication in social media in recent years. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to questions of cultural identity. There is increasing conflict: users become emotional and attack each other; always anxious to emphasise what divides rather than what they have in common. A constructive exchange of information, facts and arguments takes place to a very limited extent. This leads to the well-known phenomena of filter bubbles and echo chambers in social media.

Adweek continued its acquisition spree this morning with the announcement that it has acquired Social Media Week, the 11-year-old events and content company that provides deep insights and data for brand marketers, media and technology companies.

Rather than using aggregated statistics and sentiment analysis, the research team used a qualitative approach to drill down into all the tweets posted around the two case studies, and divided them into key topics, positions, purpose and arguments, in order to determine how users engaged in the debate around sustainability and ethics in fashion.

They found that the two main ethics and sustainability issues raised by social media users were environmental concerns, in the first case study; and labor conditions in the supply chain, in the second. Analysis revealed that only a small proportion of tweets were explicitly critical and that those that were, were actually prompting a relatively sophisticated debate that fashion brands may benefit from engaging meaningfully with.

Although social media is typically filled with posts saying farewell to the past year, this New Year’s looked a little different. While the typical Happy New Year! post could be seen, others used the moment to be serious — or use humor — to reflect upon the difficulties of 2020. The posts ranged from inspirational messages, to serious reflections, and funny memes.

Many physicians have reported being sexually harassed and personally attacked on social media platforms on the basis of their religion, race or medical recommendations, a new joint study from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago revealed.

While the data were collected before the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings highlight the intensity of online harassment, which the authors stated has intensified since the crisis.

According to a news release, the study found one in four physicians reported being personally attacked on social media, including being barraged by negative reviews, receiving coordinated harassment and threats at work and having personal information shared publicly.

Trump was the most searched term among Chinese social media users last year, a report claimed, despite a severe public health crisis that brought the country to a standstill in the first quarter.

This Might Be What Finally Makes Me Quit Facebook in 2021. It is an Example of What No Company Should Ever Do.

There are a lot of reasons that might persuade someone to quit using Facebook. There are privacy concerns, data leaks, and incendiary content, not to mention the monetization of your personal data. Any one of those reasons should be enough, but most people aren't persuaded to quit Facebook. Most people just keep using it--almost three billion of them every month, in fact.

The real problem, however, is that Facebooks primary goal is to seduce you into spending more time on Facebook through a variety of different features and notifications. Then, it makes it harder and harder to find the setting to opt-out of those features, even if you have no desire to use them.

That, by the way, is my main complaint with Facebook. The company isn't trying to build features that make it better or more convenient for you to use. Instead, it's designing its product solely to make it better and more profitable for Facebook, even when that results in a worse user experience.

As the world faced lockdowns, people restricted themselves to the four walls of their homes, increasing the amount of time they were spending on social media platforms and behind their screens, but this was not necessarily a bad thing. Social media kept the world connected when the harsh reality of the new normal kept everyone physically apart. This magnanimous increase in screen-time presented brands and organizations an opportunity to connect with their audiences like never before. As we look towards 2021, we must understand that 2020 has changed how we will do business forever. Clearly, there are no effective marketing strategies without social media going forward.

In researching the landscape ahead for social media, I spoke with entrepreneur and social media expert Brandon Mimms. Brandon has built over 10 million followers combined across various pages on Instagram, including @USA, @SantaClaus, @Shoes, @NiagaraFalls, and others.

Organic social media traffic is really struggling right now. Reach and engagement numbers are low. For example on Facebook, it's estimated that the average reach for organic content is roughly 5%. One of the reasons is that there is so much content out there.

Using social media is an excellent way to expand your client list, but you have to make sure you approach it in the right way to stand out from the pack. Here are three steps you can start with to put your best digital foot forward and build the connections that will help your business grow.

1. Choose your Channels
2. Build Your Brand
3. Find Your Leads

One of the most important things to learn is that misinformation and especially disinformation do not just affect us cognitively, they affect us emotionally. They often trigger an emotional response. They can make us outraged or angry, and self-righteous. And this can activate us to do something, like press the share button. Tuning in to our emotions, to how information makes us feel, can help us recognize when someone might be trying to manipulate us into becoming part of their disinformation campaign.

Figuring out a strategy that improves social media engagement and conversion rates — and aligns with business goals — is a common challenge for marketers. There are many solutions for improving social metrics and business ROI, but no part of a digital-marketing plan works in isolation, and social media engagement and conversion rates are a perfect example. Despite being on different levels of the marketing funnel, they can improve simultaneously.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic ramped up social media usage across all major platforms across the globe—and there's no sign of a decline anytime soon.

social network users worldwide
The coronavirus pandemic ramped up social media usage across all major platforms. eMarketer
But just how many people actually use social media? Insider Intelligence analyzed social network usage trends across multiple platforms and localizations. Here are some of the key social media stats to help navigate this shifting landscape.

How many people use social media?
Over three billion people, or 80.7% of internet users worldwide, will use a social network at least once per month in 2020. This is nearly 150 million more global social network users than Insider Intelligence's pre-pandemic estimate.

I want to help you avoid those costly and time-consuming mistakes so you can build the business you deserve, serve more people and bring more value into the world. So let's talk about some of the common mistakes people make in social media, how to avoid them and what you should be doing instead so you can maximize your results.

1. Inconsistent posting activity
2. Posting off-brand content
3. Topical
4. Platforms
5. Asking friends to like/follow your page

Social media and technology have evolved tremendously over the last two decades. Each one has helped the other evolve in unique ways. Technological advancements have allowed people to engage with social media on smartphones and computers. Now people are connected through social media wherever they go because everyone has a smartphone in their pocket or purse.

On the flip side, social media is changing technology as well. Computer programmers are incorporating social media networking into their software programs. There are also cases where social media influences which software programs get developed in the first place. Business technology has become largely dependent on social media in more ways than one.

RSS feeds are great for getting alerted to new articles on your favorite sites. But your personal time should not be taken up with reading work articles. Split your professional and personal subscriptions by adding work feeds to Microsoft Outlook instead.

Managing feeds in Outlook is super easy, although it can only be done in the desktop Outlook client.

Slack is a great communication app, but it can do much more than just hold a back-and-forth conversation between you and your colleagues. Here’s how to keep up with your favorite websites by adding RSS feeds to Slack.

Despite social media feeds and mobile apps, RSS feeds are still one of the easiest and simplest ways to consume the output of a website.

Like SMS and email, RSS feeds are robust, simple, and supported just about everywhere, which is why—like SMS and email—they are likely to be around for a very long time. So if you want to keep an eye on whats published by a website or blog, then RSS feeds are the best way to do it.

Slack allows you to connect as many RSS feeds to whatever channels you like as you want. The first thing you’ll need to do is install the free RSS app from the Slack directory.

A man with no social presence does raise a few flags at first. What is he hiding? Who is he hiding? Specifically when it comes to dating, having no easily found information has always been a cause for concern from both parties. Those who do not subscribe to any social platforms worry about how it can affect their persona and dating prospects, while those dating someone with no social media always ask the inevitable question to friends, family or strangers on the internet: Is this person I am dating a weirdo?

Relationships come and go, but friends are forever. At least, that is the direction dating apps are swiping.

Social media is getting crowded, with nearly half of the worlds population using one of Facebooks apps every month. The market for connecting with existing friends may be well saturated, but it seems finding new ones is still something of an unmet need.

Friendship finding is, apparently, very hot right now. An analysis recently published by venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz showed friend discovery is the fastest-growing category of mobile social app in the U.S. Citing data from Apptopia, the firm showed friendship apps like Itsme, Wink and Yubo are some of the fastest-growing apps nationwide, solving for various pain points that exist in social media today.

Facial recognition technology is getting more sophisticated, more reliable, and more pervasive as the world eases its way toward becoming an all-encompassing surveillance state. That surveillance state does not even have to be built; it is increasingly ready for deployment as law enforcement agencies cut deals with private companies that have already assembled the tools and databases for use. As with cell phone tracking, that plug-and-play quality does an end-run around safeguards that, at least nominally, restrict government actors, and invites legal challenges based on civil liberties concerns.

When I teach social media, I commonly am told that not all people are on social media, particularly the older population. What I want you to consider is that many members of the families of those older residents are on social media, and they can share a departments information with their older relatives. Yes, local newspapers, radio stations and local cable access channels love to share fire department information, and that information is being read, heard and watched by more of that audience that is not on social media. However, social media is another vehicle that transports a department’s information to many other forms of communication.

1. Say goodbye to one-man-shows.
2. Be mindful of response times.
3. Hire social-centric experts.
4. Have backup resources.
5. Educate leadership on social media basics.
6. Provide social teams with ample resources.
7. Establish clear escalation and brand guidelines.
8. Encourage days off.

Social media moderation services gradually dominated every online business and most industries. Thanks to the unceasing number of new customers flocking to use and try it, social media became a catalyst for introducing and sustaining big and small businesses today. Several entrepreneurs and business owners have taken to the digitally fueled networking channel to spark discussions with their customers and market their brand to the people they want to be a part of their growth and success.

What is social media moderation? And why is it essential for businesses at present? Simply, content moderation enumerates what needs to be carried out to review, check, and filter posts sent by your followers to align with your company’s branding and strategy.

Hiring and retaining top talent is vital for any organizations success. However, attracting and recruiting top talent is getting a lot more challenging thanks to a competitive hiring market. As such, most companies are turning to social media, notably Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to share job openings, research top talents, and network with potential candidates. Research shows that 92% of recruiters use social media as part of their everyday hiring processes.  

Social medias presence and influence have increasingly grown in recent years, therefore, presents a suitable platform for captivating potential hires, highlighting open job positions, and enhancing an organization’s culture. This piece looks at five tips to implement a successful social media recruiting strategy.

There was a time not all that long ago when Facebook was considered to be the absolute pinnacle of social media in general. Because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up being no longer the case without widespread innovation, Facebook has worked quite hard to diversify its offerings. However, recent data suggests that in spite of the fact that this is the case, Facebook has now lost its dominance among key demographics as well as social media users in general.

According to research conducted by the EdisonResearch, two very intriguing statistics have emerged. The first is that Facebook is no longer the social media platform of choice for people between the ages of 12 and 34. This is arguably the single most important demographic out there due to the reason that these are the people that the vast majority of advertisers are going to want to target at any given point in time. Only 21% of users between 12 and 34 years of age say that Facebook is their social media brand of choice.

Is your social media marketing approach in line with the latest usage and behavioral trends?

The use of digital platforms changed significantly over the course of 2020, with the lockdowns and COVID mitigation efforts forcing people to find alternate ways to socialize, to shop, and to work, all of which have flow-on effects. That's sparked new trends, like audio social, and new approaches in how businesses connect with their target markets.

If you're not aware of these shifts, you may limiting your marketing performance. To provide some more perspective, the team from tech.co recently put together a listing of six key digital usage trends that could influencer your strategic approach.

You can check out their six key trends in the below graphic, which might help in your planning.