Click here to receive the Morning Social Media Newsfeed via email.
Protest Group Gives Turkish Official a List of Demands (The New York Times)
With a measure of calm returning to a city that for days has been a caldron of anti-government passions, representatives of a group that helped incite protests that have been roiling Turkey opened dialogue on Wednesday with the government. It gave a list of demands to the country’s deputy prime minister as the police expanded security operations. CNET Turkish authorities have detained 25 people accused of using social media to spread false information and provoke anti-government riots, according to several reports. Tuesday night, police brought in several people suspected of spreading false information on Twitter and other social media sites, CNN confirmed with an official at the police station in Izmir. CNN
Worldwide, headlines and social media have spread photos of a young woman in a red dress, apparently unarmed, being pepper sprayed by police in Istanbul. She carried only a white satchel and was walking past demonstrators when an officer lunged and sprayed her. paidContent There’s been a lot written over the past few months about how unreliable social media can be when it comes to chaotic real-time news events like the Boston bombings, and how it perpetuates untruths and misinformation. But the flip-side of this equation becomes clear when you see what has been happening in Turkey this week, where the traditional media has either been asleep at the wheel or has deliberately avoided paying attention to large and ongoing demonstrations against the Turkish government. Bloomberg Businessweek Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who’s in North Africa on a previously scheduled visit, has taken a tougher line, blaming “extremist” forces and the main opposition party for the protests. He also criticized the role of social media, telling Haberturk TV on June 2 that Twitter was one of society’s biggest problems and accusing people of using it to spread lies during the demonstrations.
TweetDeck Gets a Major Makeover from Twitter (Mashable)
Twitter was true to its word: It didn’t shut down TweetDeck as many feared it would. (Well, at least not the desktop version). But it has continued to improve and enhance the Twitter dashboard since acquiring it in 2011. And now, it’s given the pro tool its most significant interface update in years. PC Magazine The update provides a sort of Diet TweetDeck experience — a “lighter and simpler” design, according to product manager Sharath Bulusu. Most notably, the top toolbar has migrated to the left side of the screen, taking with it the “New Tweet” button, as well as the general search icon and a series of navigational icons. CNET The new look appears on both TweetDeck’s Twitter Web page and the TweetDeck app for Google Chrome. But TweetDeck’s desktop applications apparently didn’t get the message about the changes. The latest version of TweetDeck for Windows still shows the old layout.
NASA’s Social Media Manager: ‘We’re Breaking Down the Walls of What People Think Government Is’ (SocialTimes)
“I can’t think of anything that’s changed communications for NASA in the last 30 years more than Twitter,” said John Yembrick, social media manager at NASA. Yembrick discussed NASA’s passion for social media at the AllTwitter Marketing Conference in San Francisco.
Buffer Teams Up with Followerwonk to Help Users Find the Best Times to Schedule and Share Their Tweets (The Next Web)
Buffer has teamed up with Followerwonk, a tool for diving into Twitter data owned by marketing analytics software company Moz, to notify users of the optimal times to send out a tweet. To access the feature, users need to head to the Followerwonk homepage and hit up the “Analyze Followers” option from the top of the page.
RIP, Facebook Credits, After Sept. 12 (AllFacebook)
Facebook continued the process of converting games from Facebook Credits to local currencies, which it initially announced in March, with Wednesday’s release of the local currency payments application-programming interface for developers, which now have 90 days to integrate the API. The social network announced the launch of the local currency payments API in a post on its developer blog, cautioning developers that Facebook Credits will no longer be supported after Sept. 12.
Videolicious: One Way Reporters Can Make and File Decent Videos from their iPhones (The Poynter Institute)
The Washington Post has deputized some of its reporters to create videos using an iOS app called Videolicious. Post deputy editor of video Jonathan Forsythe stresses that while the paper does “not have any plans for Videolicious to ever replace our high-quality video stories shot and reported by our video department,” some of its journalists have made popular Web-ready videos since it began training staff to use the tool late last year.
HBO Plans Social Media-Fueled Pre-Show for ‘True Blood’ Premiere (LostRemote)
HBO is planning a 15-minute live pre-show in advance of the season six premiere of “True Blood,” fueled by social media. The 15-minute program “#TrueBlood: Live from Set” will feature the cast answering questions from fans.
Lenovo: Geo-targeted Twitter Ads ‘Can Outperform Search’ (VentureBeat)
According to Lenovo’s search marketing manager for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, geo-targeted tweets are so powerful that they can drive better engagement and better sales than search. In a new Twitter case study, Andy Murray gave advertising on Twitter a ringing endorsement.
Laid-Off Zynga Employee Tells All on Reddit (SocialTimes)
After being laid off from the gaming company Zynga this week, an ex-employee described the “terrible” business strategy that caused a nearly 20 percent reduction in workforce in a reddit interview, or AMA. As proof of employment, the reddit user submitted a form letter addressed to “Departing Employee” on Zynga-labeled stationery and invited the community members to ask questions about the company.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
