Pure CSS Social Media Icons
This is an experiment that creates social media icons using CSS and semantic HTML. It uses progressive enhancement to turn an unordered list of text links into a set of icons without the use of images or JavaScript.
Archive for: Social Media
Burnt Wood: Free Social Media Icon Set
Burnt Wood is a collection of wood-tiled icons branded with various social media network logos that are perfect for your next grunge-styled web design.
The package contains 12 icons for many of the popular social sharing sites. Each icon is a 420×420px PNG file that can be scaled down to any size needed.
This set was designed by Chris Thurman of Visual Swirl exclusively for the readers of Six Revisions. It was inspired by a burnt wood text effect tutorial and created entirely in Photoshop.
Is Foursquare the Perfect Crime?
Most recently a site popped up that has Foursquare users questioning whether their use of the application is putting themselves and their home in jeopardy. Those unfamiliar with Foursquare, it’s a geo-locating application that pinpoints your location and notifies the Foursquare community and your social networks where you are. For example if you’re at the local grocery store, you can Foursquare it, users earn points that translate into badges depending on how often and where you check-in, and ultimately people are able to see the types of places you like to visit. On the other hand, it’s made cyber stalking that much easier.
A recent site called PleaseRobMe.com has highlighted the risk of sharing your locations for the most paranoid of the bunch. It stands to reason that anyone can know anything about you if they really wanted to, with or without Foursquare. Though the site appears to be a joke, the seriousness in which someone’s property could truly be in jeopardy is something that is not easily overlooked.
Illegal? Does this site incite people to do harm to another? Some say that if you choose to share your location you deserve what happens, but that seems a very narrow minded point of view.
So tell me, where do you stand? Do you use geo-locating services? Do sites like PleaseRobMe.com exist as a wake up call or as a way to incite theft?
Free 23 Vintage Stamp Icon Pack: Social Media Icons
The team over at Tutorial9 have release a great free icon pack. This 23 Free Vintage Stamp Icon pack was designed by the team over at Dawghouse Design Studio.
Download the icon set for free here.
Twitter De-stablizing Celebrity Presence
For those of us who are heavy Twitter users, we can remember the day when we signed up for an account and were offered suggestions of people to follow. Typically that list featured heavy hitter news agencies, a number of celebrities of varying backgrounds, and perhaps some large tech companies or sites. Chances are a few of these interested us, but for the vast majority it meant very little. Online networking has transcended more into a place for relevant conversation with people we feel we have common bonds with, rather than just a chat forum of open ended conversations. While others may comment in the public stream or friends us based on who we have friended, more of us are looking for real conversations as opposed to connecting with the likes of Ashton Kutcher who more than likely does not respond to his 1 million plus fans.
How do you follow people on Twitter?
So you can imagine it was interesting when I read an article on CNN from founder of Mashable, Pete Cashmore, on this very topic. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Pete at a variety of tech events, and a celebrity in his own right, is naturally a down to earth guy. Nevertheless, the article he wrote discusses how Twitter has altered the focus on specific celebrities and news agencies in their suggestion methods and now offers up categorized lists based on general interests.
Does this work any better?
Pete Cashmore seems to think it’s a step in the right direction. I’m inclined to agree, but I still feel like the suggestions are not people I would communicate with on a regular basis. More than likely I’m going to seek out local thought leaders and conversation instigators. Why should third party developers be the ones I turn to for niche suggestions, I think Twitter could be of great service if they did that from the start. Many new Twitter users are not typically well versed in the world of social networking, so third party developers are foreign to them. They make not seek out the latest Twi-(put your own ending, everyone else is) that can help them find specific people. Their only base of reference will be the suggestion lists.
So yes it’s a good first step, but perhaps more can be done. Pete Cashmore states that celebrities might see their follower numbers start to slow down due to this categorizing done by Twitter, and perhaps they will. Ultimately if people want to follow celebrities they will seek them out anyways. Personally, as much as I love celebrities, I’m looking to connect with real people that I can carry real conversations with.
What are your thoughts?
Manchester United and City Both Ban Players from Using Twitter and Facebook
In what must be the biggest social media own goal this year, British football clubs Manchester United and Manchester City have both banned their players from using Twitter.
The Manchester Evening News reports that players were told to stay away from social media services after a number of fake accounts were uncovered recently.
Manchester United issued a statement yesterday confirming that none of its players had accounts, while the club’s rivals Manchester City confirmed to the Manchester Evening News that they had the same policy.
I find this crazy, especially when Manchester United is in so much debt! Social media could be leverage to increase their current revenue streams and even develop new revenue streams such as YouTube channels with more activity, Official twitter account with targeted ads, etc.
Foursquare Fans Check-in via Desktop with FoursquareX
Foursquare and other geo-location based apps are becoming extremely popular. There are two sides, one for the user, and the benefits for the business, and when working hand in hand, create an extremely positive relationship. Foursquare allows users to check-in where they are at and race with other local users to become “Mayor” of their location. Based on mobile devices it makes it easy to move around town and check-in as you go.
Most recently users have been looking for a rich desktop experience, something that Foursquare does not offer on their site. They offer options to change settings and such, but not a way to claim your location. Now that has changed thanks to a small development company that’s created FoursquareX. The desktop application, for Mac only, is an OSX based application that allows you to check-in but also allows you to see where your friends are based on an interactive map. Reading deeper into the way this application works, users will be happy to know that it offers the following beneficial features:
- app runs in the background, sending you notifications when updates and check-ins are made
- appears to use a Google map app and overlays your friends icons to show their location
- if you’re looking to meet new people, you’ll be notified when people check-in whether you know them or not, giving you the chance to say “hi”.
Take a look if you’re a Foursquare fan and let us know what you think. So far I’m happy with it, and hope to see some type of port to the actual Foursquare app on the mobile because I can see this becoming a fully functional aspect of the mobile app.
Seesmic’s Acquistion of Ping.fm Secures Future Goals
Seesmic acquires Ping.fm
One million posts a day you say? Very possible now that Seesmic has acquired Ping.fm. Personally it was a shock, I’m not privy to Silicon Valley chatter, but I think for most Seesmic Desktop users, this will offer a bevy of updating options. At last count there were over 50 sites that Ping.fm updated, and now Seesmic Desktop will harness this power. But this is just the top of iceberg. With some further API development and plug-in updates, this positions Seesmic closer to their goal of one million posts a day for 2010.
Personal Search for Your Twitter Contacts
Personal search for your Twitter network.
Search is has been a big topic of discussion in 2009, and in 2010 is almost assuredly going to be a bigger deal as users look for ways to distill the internet’s wealth of information to more personal discoveries. Recently, with the surge of social networking, search has become an even more contested topic because the content created by the millions of users worldwide is not just prolific, but is being done daily. Real time search through your networks and contacts postings can be useful to discover what the pulse of your network really is. Unfortunately small steps have been made in this area, and as much as Search.Twitter.com is used, it’s still not giving you a personal search, but rather having you search the entire Twitter network.
Digg’s Traffic Slump
Social media for the promotion of blog posts and other online material has really taken off in the past two years. Perhaps the most famous (and notorious for crashing websites) is Digg.com – launched a few years back with funding of just $40 million and is now the world’s leading social media promotion website. That is of course, if you only look at sites aiming to promote content alone.
Twitter on the other hand has become a social media promotion tool and a social network – a devilish combination. Because of this, Twitter passed Digg’s traffic rating back in March and is continuing to climb despite periods of stagnation in terms of traffic. Digg however, is falling. Since September, a 15% drop in traffic is indicated by the ComScore graph above and we haven’t even seen the results for December yet.
As the war between Facebook and Twitter calms down could we be now seeing Digg trying to take on Twitter in a no-holds-barred?
Linkedin iPhone Update Offers More Functionality
If you had a chance to update your apps today then perhaps you were surprised by an update for your Linkedin mobile app. The buzz across the media sites is Linkedin’s new shiny app that offers 100% more functionality than the prior version of the app did. For all purposes the prior version was useless. The limited functionality made it one of those apps you had because you hoped, but you just never used. Luckily, following Facebook’s recent app update, the new Linkedin app gives users more of what they want with a few interesting extras.
