Category: SOCIAL MEDIA

Study: Retailers Ignore Over 80% of Customers’ Requests via Social Media

Staff Writer

Sprout Social has found most that merchants fail to respond to consumer questions on Facebook and Twitter, a problem compounded during the holiday shopping season when the volume of requests increases. The stats from the Spout Social’s Q4 2015 Index are damning. Retailers failed to respond to more than 80 percent of consumer questions and requests on social media in the last year. And the cold shoulder from merchants was coldest when you’d think they could least afford it, during the holiday shopping season. During the fourth quarter of 2014,…

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Liquid Telecom sees sudden increase of African content on network

Staff Writer
Liquid Telecom

African Telco, Liquid Telecom revealed a sharp rise in the proportion of local content on its network, from 20 percent three years ago to now 50 percent. According to the company, this has been driven by the deepening of Africa’s internet infrastructure. Mathew Chigwende, Head of Data Networks at Liquid Telecom, reported that three factors – the ongoing climb in the number of Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) serving the continent; the expansion of CDN Content Delivery Networks in Africa; and the interconnection between telcos and ISPs – were together seeing…

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Twitter removes the 140-character limit from Direct Messages

Staff Writer
twttr

Twitter has today removed the 140-character limit on direct messages (DMs) for all users. The move was first flagged in June, hours after CEO Dick Costolo announced he’d be standing down as CEO of the social platform. From today, the change becomes reality, as the update is rolled out to users across the world. The changes referred to here being the removal of restrictions on who can DM whom – previously you could only DM those following you, now users have the choice to receive direct messages from anyone –…

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Google Maps has new update to let you visualize all of the places visited

Staff Writer

Google on Tuesday announced a new update to its Google Maps program which will allow people to visualize all of the places they’ve visited, so long as they were carrying smartphones at the time. It’s called “Your Timeline,” and it’s currently rolling out for Android devices and desktop browsers, meaning users should be able to access it over the next couple of days if they can’t already. A spokeswoman for Google told The Huffington Post that there are “no specific plans” for iOS. Read more Both the location history and Your…

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WhatsApp could be BANNED in the UK if ‘Snooper’s Charter’ legislation passes

Staff Writer

The popular messaging service WhatsApp could be BANNED in the United Kingdom if the controversial ‘Snooper’s Charter’ legislation is passed. The online messaging services like WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat encrypt the communication between users, they fall under the cross hairs of the bill. Prime Minister David Cameron is pressing ahead with new legislation that plans to stop people from sending any form of encrypted messages. “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?” said Prime Minister Cameron earlier this year. “My answer to…

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Finally After Six Years President Obama’s @POTUS is Live on Twitter

Staff Writer

“Hello, Twitter! It’s Barack. Really! Six years in, they’re finally giving me my own account.” So, it’s official. After years of signing “-BO” at the end of @BarackObama to signal the tweets he crafted himself from an account operated by the Organizing for Action staff, the President now has his very own handle @POTUS, tweeting for the first time. Sometimes, they said, Mr. Obama will type the words himself, as he did Monday, when he was captured in a photo released by the White House. Other times, he might dictate…

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Digital Firms Dominate Top Media Companies, Emerging New Media Owners Gain Ground

Staff Writer
Mobile Apps

Power in the digital advertising market is concentrated in the hands of a few large platforms, and New Media is becoming even more concentrated. The five purely digital media owners — Google, Facebook, Baidu, Yahoo and Microsoft — generated $71 billion in New Media revenue, which represents 68% of all global digital ad spend, up from 67% a year ago, according to a just-issued report from ZenithOptimedia, part of Publicis Groupe. Google’s dominance as the world’s largest New Media owner has increased, with the gap between it and its nearest competitor…

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Facebook Study Says Users Make Their News Feed Less Diverse

Staff Writer

But some have already questioned the results The long-held notion that Facebook’s algorithm leads to the creation of “echo chambers” among users isn’t exactly true, according to a report published Thursday in the journal Science. After studying the accounts of 10 million users, data scientists at Facebook found that liberals and conservatives are regularly exposed to at least some “crosscutting” political news, meaning stories that don’t conform to their pre-existing biases. The algorithm for Facebook’s News Feed leads conservatives to see 5% less liberal content than their friends share and…

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Announcement of keynote speakers for E-Learning 2015 Conference includes Sophia Bekele

Staff Writer

CIO East Africa, one of the media sponsors for the event, reported on the announcement from organizers that the keynote speakers at this international conference of E-Learning Africa 2015. The event the will take place from 20 – 22 May in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the keynote speakers include Ms. Sophia Bekele, Founder/CEO of DotConnectAfrica Group & CBS International USA, Founder of Yes2dotAfrica Campaign; Ethiopia/USA,  Mr. Shai Reshef, University of the People, USA; and Mark Surman of the Mozilla Foundation, USA. CIO Reports: One of the interesting scenes in this event…

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Website not mobile friendly? Google is making major Algorithmic change to rank you lower

Staff Writer
Privacy

On Tuesday, April 21, Google is making a major update to its mobile search algorithm that will change the order in which websites are ranked when users search for something from their phone or tablet, making it mobile friendly. The algorithm will start favoring mobile-friendly websites (ones with large text, easy-to-click links, and that resize to fit whatever screen they’re viewed on) and ranking them higher in search. Websites that aren’t mobile-friendly will get demoted. About 60% of online traffic now comes from mobile and Google wants users to have a good…

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