Until recently, social media platforms have needed to build and remain inside their walled gardens to avoid sharing their competitive intelligence.

However, Facebooks recent announcement that it would collaborate with third parties to verify its viewing metrics signifies the inevitable and long-awaited validation phase of social media.

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Lets travel back to a simpler time, shall we? It’s November 6, 2007, and Facebook has just launched something called Pages. Now, companies can have an official presence on the network, just like real people! The first day, 100,000 Pages launch, with brands from Coca-Cola to Verizon and Blockbuster getting onboard. In the years afterward, millions of companies raced to build up audiences they can reach directly and on-demand, through the sheer magic of social media.

Fast-forward to the waning months of 2016, and the magic is a little harder to feel. Certain corners of the social world have become uglier places, with some in the business world calling for a draw-down.

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The US government has begun requesting foreign travelers to submit their social media information to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before traveling into the country. The practice is claimed to be part of broader efforts to identify potential terrorist threats.

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As we wind down the year and look back on 2016, we find that social media is on everyones lips–but perhaps for different reasons than we social media marketers would imagine or prefer. The discussion happening around social media at the end of the year is about responsibility and control.

The outcomes of the EU Referendum in Great Britain and the American presidential election were no doubt influenced to a greater or lesser degree by social media, from President-elect Donald Trump’s insistence on using Twitter as an unfiltered direct communication channel with his followers and critics, to the soul-searching happening in some quarters about the role social media played in serving up news stories to the American electorate.

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1. Avoid use of headlines and writing of tweets that misrepresent and/or oversimplify the content of linked-to articles. Headlines matter as they frame the stories for users.

2. Call racism racism.

3. Call sexism sexism.

4. Call terrorism terrorism, and be consistent in the use of the term regardless of the ethnicity, religion, national origin and ideological motivation(s) of the perpetrator(s).

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Teens spend more time in front of screens than they do sleeping.

According to a 2015 report by Common Sense Media, teens spend upwards of 9 hours a day consuming media on screens. And while the National Sleep Foundation recommends that teenagers get a 9 and 1/2 hours of sleep each night, the average American teenager sleeps around 7 hours each day.

A lack of proper sleep has been connected with reduced cognitive functions and lower academic performance. Teens may be tired because instead of sleeping soundly they are sleeping with their smartphones.

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In 2006, I set out to brand myself. I had an idea that I shared with the owner of the small company at which I was employed. I called it Publish or Perish, and despite the lack of originality, the idea was simple, but purposeful: We needed to elevate the name recognition of our company -- quickly.

The company had made a fortune working with a niche client, but unwisely, it chose to fly under the competitions radar. In other words, it did the opposite of marketing for fear that if competitors knew how much money it was making from this niche client, it would face stiffer competition.

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Social media can be a great way to promote your MIT department, lab, center (DLC), or group and to engage with your audience. For those who are new to it, though, running multiple sites for outreach can be daunting. Jenny Fowler, the manager of social media strategy in MITs Communications Initiatives, shares some tips for those starting to build a social media presence.

Which platform?
The most popular platforms are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with Snapchat on the rise. Fowler recommends Facebook for those new to social media.

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With social media substituting real-life communication, one-third of people communicate less face-to-face with their loved ones, a key factor for damaging relationships, a study has found.

The findings showed that a significant third of people communicate less with their parents (31 per cent), children (33 per cent), partners (23 per cent) and friends (35 per cent) because they can see and communicate with them via social media.

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Chances are if you are in sales, social media is already a prominent part of your personal life. And now, thanks to social selling, it is hopefully a big part of your professional life as well. Incorporating social media into the workplace has brought many opportunities, but also many questions. You may be wondering how to best navigate social networks with your sales prospecting goals in mind.

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Chances are if you are in sales, social media is already a prominent part of your personal life. And now, thanks to social selling, it is hopefully a big part of your professional life as well. Incorporating social media into the workplace has brought many opportunities, but also many questions. You may be wondering how to best navigate social networks with your sales prospecting goals in mind.

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Dlvr.it is Here to Stay. Now that I got that out, lets talk about social media automation and RSS feeds. Keeping social media accounts active is one of the most important components of having success with social media. With that in mind, I am going to introduce you to a great RSS feeding tool called dlvr.it. Dlvr.it is used to RSS feed posts to your social media accounts.

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In Manilla a  technology law expert casts doubt on the effectiveness of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez's proposed bill seeking to regulate social media use in the Philippines.

Under House Bill 5012, a person can be penalized for creating a social media account using someone elses identity. Alvarezs proposed measure also mandates social media networks to verify the identity of their users.

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Last week, the APA released a study finding that Americans were experiencing the first statistically significant stress increase in the surveys 10-year history. In January, 57 percent of respondents of all political stripes said the U.S. political climate was a very or somewhat significant source of stress, up from 52 percent who said the same thing in August.

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Anyone who has invested time managing and growing a social media following knows that it can turn into a time vacuum. Open up Instagram and suddenly you find yourself scrolling through beautiful photos from your friends excursion to Iceland. Those ponies are so photogenic with their manes blowing in the icy wind! Logging in, posting and getting out without being distracted is a challenge even the most self-disciplined struggle with.

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What was once a world of snail mail, magazines, and newspapers is now a world of cell phones, email and social media. There is no mistaking the up rise and importance of new technology in what is now a digital age. In the past, advertising was a more simplified process. You could advertise in a newspaper or magazine, or leave flyers on someone’s doorstep or mailbox. You could buy air time for a commercial or buy space on a billboard. However, as technology grew and evolved, so did our methods of advertising.

What should I do to advertise my business?

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If millennials are the yardstick by which we measure what drives communication on social media, then it would seem that all eyes should be on social messaging platforms such as WhatsApp this year. This is the view of Dominique Pienaar, CEO of DUO Marketing & Communications, who says these platforms are becoming increasingly popular due largely to the immediacy of contact and response and are certainly preferred platforms among the millennial market when it comes to one on one, broadcast and group communication.

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Now, analysts at New Yorks University of Rochester are fighting back with an AI of their own.

The team collected about a quarter of a million unique English tweets from between Sept. 23—the first reported incident of hate-code words—and Oct. 18—a week after the second US presidential election debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

There were some interesting observations that we noted.

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Social networks are here to stay, and they are constantly evolving. Globally, more than 2.8 billion people — or 37% of the world's population — use social media, but the way those users interact with each other, and the platforms they adopt, vary widely.

Social Media Demographics

When it comes to social media, especially Facebook and Twitter, I am guarded when it comes to whom I friend or follow. I use Facebook almost exclusively to connect with friends, family or business acquaintances. I use Twitter mostly for news and commentary that's of interest to me personally.

But there is another social media site I use a lot, and that is LinkedIn. LinkedIn differs from Facebook and Twitters generalized social interactions by focusing on helping people make and maintain professional connections. LinkedIn was purchased last year by Microsoft for $26.2 billion, and has become Redmonds foray into social media.

Social Media Security

Back in 1970, the technology writer Alvin Toffler published a book called Future Shock, which became an international bestseller. The book is about how humans struggle with too much technological change in too short a time—and it is all-too relevant today. Social media now dictates how people interact with friends, read the news and navigate their day-to-day existence.

What is all that doing to the human psyche?

Is Social Media Making Me Miserable?

The popular social media platforms are obvious to most people – Facebook has a UK audience of some 40 million, LinkedIn and Twitter both exceed 20 million, and Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat have close to 10 million each. The reach of these platforms makes it clear that social media is now ubiquitous. But for all the big name players, what is the definition of social media? Where did it come from? And how did it gain such an important role in our lives so quickly?

What is social media and how did it grow so quickly?

As of this year, about 81% of the United States population uses at least one social media platform. That number is growing by roughly 5% per year. At this rate, 100% of the United States will have a social media profile on at least one platform by 2021.  

Businesspeople searching for the ideal marketing channel to engage prospects should look no further than social networks. Social media provides companies with ample information to create messages targeted to valuable niche audiences, and given the statistics, it is inevitable that the audience you are trying to reach is on at least one social network.

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Facebook anonymously launched a photo-sharing app in China in a new effort to make inroads in the worlds most populous country.

Facebook Anonymously Launched Social Media App In China

Social media is everywhere. The big players in the industry carry billions of users and boast massive layers of data and content. These days, though, social media may be in for a major change, possibly due to the rise of blockchain.

Will Blockchain Reinvent Social Media?

Currently, the world’s population is 7.5 billion, 3.8 billion are internet users and 2.8 billion of them are social media users. 1.8 billion of the entire world population is made up by teenagers from the ages of 13-19 years old. Instagram alone has 500 million active monthly users. Instagram users have shared over 40 billion photos to date and share an average of 95 million photos and videos per day. Snapchat has 166 million daily users. Although adults do also use some social media, teenagers are the majority of users.

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2018 is only four months away, and brands have to prepare to take advantage of the opportunities social media presents -- or their competitors will.

When it comes to reaching audiences, effectively distributing your content, and building a following around your brand, social media offers a wealth of possibilities. It's where your audiences already live and engage with content, which makes it a convenient platform for brands. Its built-in analytics allow you to track and improve your efforts over time. Plus, all the free social-media tools make it easy to use and maintain an active presence.

As you look ahead to 2018 and begin planning for ways to strengthen your social strategy, it is important to keep a pulse on trends.

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It is important for entrepreneurs to understand how social media is evolving and changing -- 2.8 billion people use social media. In terms of advertising new products and services, there are few things more potent and ubiquitous than social media.

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Have you tweeted, posted an Instagram photo or just generally engaged in social media before? Then it’s possible you have been part of a research experiment of sorts. Think that raises some ethical questions? You are not the only one.

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With more and more brands trying to connect with audiences across an array of social channels, the attention span of people is on a decline.

Businesses need to quickly figure out what’s best for their audiences in order to generate better engagement and increased brand loyalty.

Here are five crucial social media trends that will have the maximum impact on your social media strategy in 2018 and ahead.

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Remember the good old days (a la 2009) when social media was fun?

Think back to a time before all talk turned to fake news, algorithm hacks and carefully curated influencer feeds.

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For a growing number of people, their activities online have become their real jobs. Achieving influencer status on Instagram or YouTube can help a onetime enthusiast who filmed videos from his childhood bedroom earn a legitimate six-figure salary. Today, social-media stardom is no longer a springboard to a mainstream career but a career in and of itself. For these tech-savvy self-promoters, there’s a lucrative world of freebies, sponsorships and other moneymaking opportunities at their fingertips.

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Over 90% of medium and large businesses have used social media in their marketing for five years or longer. Yet the CMO Survey reveals that nearly half of marketers are unable to show the impact of their social media investments. That’s why, no matter what your social media strategy is, it is always a good idea to go back and make sure you have the basics covered. Your company may discover that it needs a strategic do-over.

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For retailers, the line between online and offline shopping experiences no longer exists. Todays consumers expect consistent branding and service across all platforms, whether they are physically in a store, browsing products on a website or reaching out on social media.

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If you get the urge to revisit that cute photo you posted some time last year, you'll have to scroll through your timeline for what feels like hours to track it back down. Instead, when you share a post on social media, also save it to your phone for safe-keeping. This will not only save your social media hits for posterity, but also make them easier to find if you ever need to rediscover them.

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Just how dominant a business tool was social media in 2017? Despite being involved in an investigation by Congress, Facebook reported its highest earnings ever in Q3, up nearly 50% from a year ago.

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Ten years ago if we told people that social media management will be a full-time job, they might have laughed at us. As simple as they are to use, managing a number of platforms for businesses can be quite challenging. With so many platforms and changing algorithms, and hashtags to choose and use, you can easily feel that things are getting out of control.

I spoke to my colleague Sarah who manages different social media accounts for our clients and asked her about the common mistakes that people make when managing their brand accounts, and what should business owners avoid doing on social media:

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CJ Marple wanted to teach his young students how quickly information can spread on the Internet.

So earlier this year, the third-grade science teacher wrote up a tweet with the help of his students, asking for other users to retweet the message, or even reply to the message with their location.

The Kansas teacher says he expected 1,000 or so retweets, but within days the tweet went viral and gained more than 227,000 retweets and 75,000 replies from users all over the world. His students, who are probably a little too young for their own social media accounts, learned a lot that week about the power of social media.

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As you get older, one of the ways life remunerates your increasing irrelevance is you gain a measure of self-knowledge. And I know my brain is, essentially, like a bird pecking at a mirror.

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Facebook is taking a hard look at the impact it has on the democratic process after announcing it could no longer guarantee that social media is beneficial to democracy. One critique of social media is the ability to create echo chambers -- online spaces that only surround users with like-minded people and ideas.

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Social media marketing plans can decide the future of a business and a brand. As the technologies advance, the boundary between social media marketing and mainstream marketing is becoming more blurred than ever. Chalking out a social media plan is no easy task for a first timer, but getting a few tips from the pros certainly helps. Very simply put, every social action must culminate to a larger social media marketing strategy. People, their likes, shares, replies, and posts should all be a part of a larger plan that generates leads, drives sales, or contributes in other ways to a business goal.

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Sure, we all get information from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

But a growing trend of law enforcement using social media to communicate with the public has led to growing concerns that they are not responding to questions from journalists or not being fully transparent with the public.

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For years, we have known that social media platforms inspire jealousy. A 2013 study showed that people fall into a spiral of envy when Facebook reveals that their friends are excelling or leading glamorous lives. Scientific American reported that many studies indicate that spending a lot of time on Facebook is linked to diminished well-being, with Facebook-inspired envy increasing feelings of depression. FOMO (fear of missing out) has become a very real thing

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In this hi-tech, pre-armageddon, screen-filled modern world, social media is all pervasive.

It has sucked us in. It is the new God. We are now its slave.

That might be over-egging things slightly, but for some people, social media has become a true addiction.

So, how do you know if your social media habit has descended from a harmless pastime into a full-blown addiction?

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Have you ever seen someone on social media, maybe someone in your profession, with a hundred thousand followers and wondered, how the heck did they get so popular?

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Imagine if someone could scan every image on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, then instantly determine where each was taken. The ability to combine this location data with information about who appears in those photos—and any social media contacts tied to them—would make it possible for government agencies to quickly track terrorist groups posting propaganda photos. (And, really, just about anyone else.)

That is precisely the goal of Finder, a research program of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's dedicated research organization.

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According to a new study, people with certain personality traits are more likely to develop a social media addiction.

The study found that three personality traits in particular — neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness — were related to social media addiction. Two other personality traits, extraversion and openness to experience, were not linked with social media addiction.

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Fears about the potential effects of propaganda and fake news remain high, and American officials are determined to keep track of media outlets in a bid to curb these misinformation campaigns. The Department of Homeland Security has put out a call for companies that could create a database tracking over 290,000 media influencers around the world, including online news outlets, bloggers and prominent social network accounts. The system would identify contributor details (such as contact info and their employers), and would allow searching for individuals and outlets through categories like their locations, the focuses of their coverage and their sentiment.

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The appropriate frustration and disappointment resulting from the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica disclosures are making it easy to forget the personal and economic benefits of social media.

For example, let’s not forget that we choose to integrate these services into our daily lives because they allow us to deepen social connections and enable us to exercise our individual agency in a fashion that was impossible before their emergence. Or that these services have created millions of jobs, new business ecosystems and helped fuel the rise of the digital economy that brings broad societal benefit.

But it is important not to forget the learning of lessons and the hoped-for change. We are seeing some of these changes now. There is no playbook for addressing the principles at play here, and so it will not be all smooth sailing. But you can be certain that the effort will be earnest and that these services will be better as a result.

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People are angry at Facebook. People are angry at YouTube. People are angry at Twitter.

With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set to testify before Congress less than a week after an enraged YouTube user wounded three people before killing herself at the companys headquarters, the growing debate over what Silicon Valley’s social media giants do with the content and information we give them has hit a new pitch.

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