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Written by Malek Tuesday, 19 June 2012 21:50


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Google+ may have been slow to catch on in the wake of the larger and more popular Facebook, but don’t write the social network off just yet.  This infographic shows a side-by-side comparison of the two networks, each of which caters to a slightly different audience. Which one is right for your brand?

With 170 million registered users, Google’s social layer, Google+, is finding a niche among young, tech-savvy professionals who like to post and share content.  Oddly enough, pictures are what Google+ users share the most.

On Facebook, the photo-sharing feature is ranked fourth behind “likes,” status updates, and comments. Facebook users spend more than seven hours per month on the social network, engaging with one another on a personal level.

This may be why Google+ is better for promoting content, while Facebook works well for traditional marketing aimed at a broad audience. The most popular brands on Facebook are consumer favorites like Coca-Cola, Disney, and Starbucks; while Google+ favors its own products, like Android and Chrome, as well as the tech blog Mashable.

For more surprising statistics and tips for creating a marketing strategy, check out this infographic from Pardot below:

Written by News Wednesday, 13 June 2012 21:43

 

.- An ultimatum from the Syrian armed opposition’s military chief caused over 1,000 Christians to flee the west Syrian town of Qusayr, adding to fears that believers may be forced out of Syria.

“The Christian communities fear being targeted, destroyed or driven out,” said Neville Kyrke-Smith, Aid to the Church in Need’s U.K. director. “We all need to stand in prayer and solidarity now.”

Kyrke-Smith, who returned from Lebanon on June 11, told CNA that the report of Christian flight echoes the concerns he heard from bishops, priests, and religious communities concerned about Christians’ fate in neighboring Syria.

“The message time and again was ‘please do not forget the Christians of the Middle East,’” he reported.

Syrian opposition military chief Abdel Salam Harba had given an ultimatum for Christians to leave Qusayr, a town near Homs, by June 8. Some mosques in the city repeated the message in announcements from their minarets, Fides news agency reports.

Only 1,000 Christians remained in the town, which was home to 10,000 Christians before the conflict began between the Syrian government and opposition forces.

The reasons for the latest ultimatum are unclear. Some sources say it helps avoid more Christian suffering, while others say it reveals “a continuity focused on discrimination and repression.” Others say Christians’ open loyalty to the state is the reason they are driven away.

Some sources told Fides that Islamic Salafist extremists groups in the ranks of the armed opposition consider Christians to be “infidels” and are ready to start a “sectarian war.”

The extremists reportedly confiscate Christians’ goods and conduct executions.

 

Written by News Monday, 11 June 2012 23:04

By Habib Battah

 

Average Daily Viewership Share in Lebanon

LBC 38.4%
Jadeed: 35 %
MTV 28.7%
OTV 25.4%
Future 16.7%
NBN 12.3%
Manar 12%
TL: 11.6%
Future News: 10.9%


*Source: IPSOS STAT Beirut

 The television drama unfolding across the Middle East has gripped Lebanese audiences the same as any Arab country. But while the images of upheaval broadcast over the last year have ignited a fury that has gone viral, ejecting viewers off the couch and onto the streets in one city after another, Lebanon remains relatively quiet, seemingly immune from the contagion of revolution. As the walls of fear crumble around them, the country’s decades-old leaders are as entrenched as they have ever been. One major reason why change has so far eluded Lebanon can be attributed to the nascent, if not enabling role played by the country’s news media or lack thereof.  

While Beirut is often lauded for having the freest and most vibrant television landscape in the region, the reality is that most Lebanese stations produce very little journalism. And ironically, the Lebanese are spoiled for choice with a whopping eight local TV news organizations--roughly the equivalent number of stations serving Los Angeles, which is more than double Lebanon’s population. It’s not that Lebanese channels face the kind of government interference present in most Arab states, where networks of stations are state-owned, and thus limited to a monolithic regurgitation of platitudes. In fact, Lebanon’s sole government-held broadcaster is woefully unpopular and the privately-owned stations convey such diametrically opposed views of reality that even the concept of breaking news is disputed. Major political speeches, visits by foreign heads of state and even explosions are carried live by some and dismissed as unimportant by others who may refuse to interrupt a regular programming slot of cartoons or soap operas.

Neither are local stations particularly friendly to authority. Local channels parody and vilify Lebanese leaders with abandon, even adding music and special effects. Everyone has a laugh and yet little changes. Of course viewers know that most Lebanese ‘news’ channels openly function as audiovisual instruments of the political machines that sponsor them: Al Manar is Hezbollah’s “beacon” of resistance, Orange TV proudly doses itself in the colors of former general Michel Aoun’s orange movement and Future News is little more than a communications wing of Saad Hariri’s Future movement. Yet despite its newly refurbished multi-million dollar glass studios, encapsulated in futuristic corten steel panels, it is now the most unpopular channel in Lebanon according to figures obtained by Ipsos. At a 10.9 percent average daily viewership, Future News trails closely behind state broadcaster Tele Liban at 11.6 percent and Al Manar at 12 percent. Perhaps encouragingly, Lebanon’s top three performers-- LBC at 38.4 percent, Al Jadeed at 35 percent and MTV at 28.7 percent-- do not claim to directly represent a political party or particular politician. But they’re not doing much better job at informing audiences.

 

Written by News Wednesday, 6 June 2012 21:39

Lady Gaga might have more Twitter followers than anyone else, but some new insights from Twitter itself suggest that she’s not the most influential.

In fact, she’s not even up there in the upper echelon of most influential tweeters. Neither are Justin Bieber, Britney Spears or even Barack Obama.

The most influential tweeters appear to be religious leaders, many of whom are evangelical Christians with large offline followings.

Robin Sloan, a Twitter employee, asked himself the question “Why are some tweets more popular than others?” ten months ago. And he got his answer.

According to the New York Times, Sloan explored retweet and @mention data surrounding a set of tweets that were “punching way above their weight.” But he didn’t recognize the names of the tweeters as pop stars, executives, actors or sports stars.

 

Rather than celebrities or business leaders, it was Christian leaders like Joyce Meyer, Max Lucado and Andy Stanley who were sending waves through the Twitter-verse, their tweets averaging 30 time more interaction than tweets from Lady Gaga, despite the latter’s 25 million follower count.

With just under a million followers, Joyce Meyer is packing quite a punch with every tweet she sends, getting 170 reactions per 50,000 followers on average. Compare that to Justin Bieber’s 59 reactions for every 50,000 followers (and his 22.6 million follower count), and you’ll begin to see just how influential religious messages are on Twitter.

Written by News Wednesday, 6 June 2012 21:22

 

 

Twitter unveiled a new logo today and I must need another cup of coffee because I needed a lot of help to see the difference. Thank goodness for TechCrunch, which breaks down the differences thoroughly (“haircut, sleeker, upturned beak”) and characterizes the logo as “optimistic.” The before-and-after image at left is courtesy of the site.

Twitter describes the new logo’s origins as such: “Our new bird grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints, and simple geometry. This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles — similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends.”

After the jump, we have a short video about the logo. What do you think?

 

 

Written by News Sunday, 3 June 2012 14:07

 

So you’re new to this whole social media thing. Maybe you’re savvy enough to know your Facebook from your Twitter, your Pinterest from your Spotify. But what about Tagged? Xing? Futubra? Where do they fit into the social media ecosystem? Just learning their names is enough to make your head spin, let alone how large they are or what kind of numbers they’re pulling down.

Never fear. Mashable has got you covered.

This comprehensive infographic whipped up by social media strategist firm Hasai, below, serves both as a cheat sheet for the newbies and a scorecard for old hands; there’s sure to be a stat that surprises even the most jaded social guru.

Did you know Club Penguin has more employees than Twitter? That Spotify has larger revenues than Tagged, which in turn has more users than Twitter? That Pinterest may be a hot property, but Foursquare still has more users? (All revenue figures are in U.S. dollars, by the way.)

 

Facebook remains at the top of the social media tree, of course. But as Thursday’s trending Twitter topic, “RIP Facebook,” suggested, that can’t last forever. So who is best positioned to replace them? Take a look at the chart, and let us know in the comments what you think.

 

 

Written by News Sunday, 3 June 2012 13:52

 

Written by News Saturday, 2 June 2012 15:20

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Pew have updated their annual look at who is using Twitter – you may recall that in their 2011 report it was revealed that some 13 percent of online adults were using the micro-blogging platform (up from 8 percent in 2010), and that the typical user skewed towards an 18-29 year-old non-white male.

Fast-forward another year, and what has changed?

Not much, to be honest. While Pew’s latest findings reveal that overall Twitter usage is up a couple of percentage points to 15 percent of online adults, the service still performs strongly with minorities, with more than one quarter of black internet users (28 percent) and 14 percent of Hispanic users active on the platform. Conversely, just 12 percent of whites use Twitter.

The 18-29 demographic continues to be the most highly represented at 29 percent, ahead of those aged 30-49 (14 percent) and 50-64 (9 percent).

The only notable difference: women (15 percent) have taken the lead from men (14 percent), albeit marginally.