Texting Teen Driver Goes on Trial for Homicide The trial of a teenage driver who crashed into a truck while allegedly texting and driving is underway — and it could have major implications for future texting-while-driving crimes. On Feb. 20, 2011, Aaron Deveau, then 17, from Haverhill, Mass., collided head on with 55-year-old Donald Bowley. Bowley died 18 days after the accident. Deveau sent or received 193 text messages on Feb. 20 — and allegedly got two of them minutes before his Chevy Malibu hit Bowley's Toyota Corolla head on at 2:36 p.m. Other charges include "negligent operation of a motor vehicle, being an operator under 18 using a mobile phone, being an operator reading or sending an electronic message, a marked lanes violation, and two counts of negligent operation and injury from mobile phone use," according to an ABC report. Massachusetts banned texting while driving in September 2010. Deveau's lawyers say there's no evidence supporting the negligent motor vehicle homicide charge.
5 of the best social media Apps for your Android smartphone Ever since the explosion of Facebook and Twitter, social apps have become one of the most hotly sought after and downloaded categories for apps. From helping you to find new places in town to just chatting, this group of apps has it all for you and your friends. Despite the recent purchases of startup app companies (Instagram, Beluga, Meebo) by Google, Facebook and more, there are still plenty of notable social apps left in the market. For the sake of introducing new apps, we have decided to exclude the most popular social apps (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, and Spotify). LinkedIn LinkedIn, the professional network, is home to over 160 million professionals from all over the world. ooVoo With the recent integration of Skype video call to Facebook, ooVoo has taken a back-seat in terms of popularity. Voxer Contrary to that of ooVoo, Voxer didn’t make its way onto this list with video calling. Foursquare Check-in and check it out. Tumblr Which app is your favorite?
Parents and Grads: Here's the Social Media Conversation You Need to Have More and more recruiters and employers are using social networks to screen job candidates. There are plenty of stories about companies rejecting applicants based on their social media profiles. If you’re the parent of a recent college grad, you may have read these stories and thought of trying to have a chat about reputation with your kid. But what would you say? How would you put it in the language of social media? Investigate Yourself Take inventory of what can be found online about you. Bury the Bad
Digital Royalty Says Every Employee Need Social Media Training [EXCLUSIVE] Has social media become so omnipresent that companies can no longer afford to train just marketers, sales and public relations people in Twitter, Facebook and other networks? That's the premise behind an expansion in service for the social media strategy firm Digital Royalty and its founder Amy Jo Martin. The company is preparing to roll out a new set of online courses meant to train entire corporate workforces — not just people whose primary tasks are interfacing with customers. "There's yet to be a comprehensive offering online in this customizable yet automated way," she told Mashable. Viewing the move with a wider lens, Digital Royalty's expansion seems to a signify social media's continued emergence and legitimacy in the business world. Digital Royalty was among the earlier and most recognized organizations to identify and exploit the market of social media strategy. Digital Royalty is also taking on a pair of big-name investors in Zappos CEO and NBA star Baron Davis.
Schools Use Facebook Timeline for History Lessons History classes have created a new approach to studying major historical events. Amsterdam-based school, 4e Gymnasium, has taken advantage of the popularity of Facebook and the user-friendly Timeline feature to inspire a curriculum. The page allows students to create posts, link various media, and create dialogue with fellow classmates. The class is focusing on four subjects: Magellan’s voyages, 20th century inventions, Fashion history from 1950-present, and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union. Best social media apps for Android The Internet has become part of the lives of the younger generations. What used to be a way for us to collect information and to easily access it has evolved in such a way that we can hardly live with being disconnected from other people. With how much information we can access at every second of every day of our lives, it’s hard to untangle ourselves from social media. Social media spans several types, from collaborative projects like Wikipedia to blogs and micro-blogs and content communities that allow you to upload videos. Social media has practically become second-nature to us, with a perfect place in our daily routines. We’ve put together some of the best social media apps for your Android device, so you can always be connected. WordPress Do you have something to say? Whether you’re writing about your day, that restaurant you went to, or a movie you saw, or you’re voicing your opinions on various political controversies, WordPress is your personal place. SoundCloud Instagram Foursquare
The Top 5 Social Media Managing Tools Let’s be honest: managing social media accounts can be overwhelming. Tweeting, Facebooking, checking in on Foursquare, questioning on Quora, updating your LinkedIn, pinning on Pinterest, admiring your Klout score....it is exhausting. Logging in to so many disconnected social media accounts can be a daunting and inefficient. What you need is a dashboard - a place to consume your daily intake of social media in one healthy dose. As such, here are the top 5 social media aggregation sites and dashboards, including highlights and breakdowns of what each site or app does: 1. Cost: Free Sites: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Reader, LinkedIn, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Flikr, 500px, Sina Weibo and Renren 2. Cost: Free Sites: Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Instagram, and Tumblr with more coming soon according to their website. 3. Here is Mashable’s RebelMouse: Cost: Basic service is free. $3.00/month if you want to use your own URL. $3.00/week for corporate customers 4. 5. Connect: Authored by:
RT, MT, HT, via: Giving credit on Twitter | Social Media Certificate Author’s note: Be sure to read my follow-up post to this topic from August 2011. Moreso than other social media, Twitter embraces an ethic of sharing credit. In fact, the more you recognize the work of others, the more you are engaging with the Twitterverse. It began with the simple RT, or retweet. If you liked what someone wrote or posted, you’d copy the tweet in its entirety, add RT along with his or her @name at the beginning, and post to your followers. The retweet became so popular that Twitter eventually incorporated a built-in automatic retweet function. The problem with the manual method is it truncates the original tweet if the message is already 140 characters long. That editing outrages some users, especially when the trimming changes the meaning of the original tweet. If it’s edited for length, MT (modified tweet) is used by some users (thanks to @mathewi, @ljthornton and @JeremyLittau for confirming my interpretation). The issue with MT: It has multiple meanings online.
Take An Active Role This SMW: Event Submission Now Open As we countdown to SMW12 this September, today marks an important milestone. Social Media Week is now inviting our community of communications leaders to join the global conversation exploring the cultural, societal and economic impact of social media by submitting an event. Social Media Week is founded on a of principle of frictionless involvement and participation, and our event submission process is no different. Organizations and individuals of any size or stature are invited to participate and host events. Powered by Nokia, Social Media Week returns September 24-28. The event submission process for each city begins today, Tuesday, June 5th, and runs until Tuesday, August 21st, after which point only select events will be further added. Event partners take on all shapes and sizes. The deadline for submission is August 21st, but if you get your idea in early and it is approved there is a chance of having it featured on our global blog as part of our spotlight series. TweetJams
2012 Social Media Stats = WOW! Some shocking statistics were released by Edison Research. These stats come from the best & brightest in the business (Jason Falls, Jay Baer, Tom Webster, Mark Schaefer). Some of top “wow” statistics (based on Baer analysis): 1. 47% = Facebook has greatest impact on purchase behavior Last year, 68% of Americans using social networks said that none of those networks had an influence on their buying decisions. This year, only 36% said that there was no influence. 2. 40% of Twitter users are Democrats vs. 30% of the U.S. population overall. 3. From 2010 to 2012 the percentage of Americans following any brand on a social network has increased from 16% to 33%. Click chart to download entire report 4. It’s not just for kids any more. 5. 74% of Americans are unfamiliar with the concept of checking in to a location via mobile device, and only 3% have ever checked in. 6. 54% of Facebookers access via mobile 7. 23% of Facebook’s users check their account 5 or more times DAILY. 8.