Teens on Facebook Can Now Post Publicly

Before, teens with Facebook accounts could only share content with friends, friends of friends and specific custom groups. As of Wednesday, teens 13-17 years old will be able to post publicly and gain 'followers' on their profiles, just as anyone over 18 years old has the ability to do so.

Facebook recently blogged saying, "Teens are among the savviest people using of social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism, or their thoughts on a new movie, they want to be heard. While only a small fraction of teens using Facebook might choose to post publicly, this update now gives them the choice to share more broadly, just like on other social media services."

To post publicly, teens will need to manually change their audience preferences on each post to 'public' before sharing. Note that the platform's audience settings will remain the same for all posts for all users, including the newly added teens. Having said that, a secondary reminder will pop up for teens after they choose to post publicly a following time.

Although we agree that younger generations are incredibly tech-savvy, we are curious to see how the recent changes will impact the current Facebook base. Teens naturally gravitate toward social platforms, but with the increase of the ability to share, will this simply add more noise to our already full newsfeeds, or will it simply mean that our community is better connected?

Tellus: How do you think this new freedom for teens will impact Facebook?

-- Samantha

LinkedIn Lowers Age Minimum

When Facebook first started in 2004, it felt like it was exclusive to college kids. Since then a lot has changed, including new rules allowing people as young as 13 to young the top social media platform. It comes as no surprise that more and more social networking sites are increasing their user bases, including LinkedIn who is officially allowing users as young as 14 years old, starting on September 12.

It seems that many young people automatically gravitate to social media, both for social and now for career-based reasoning. Specifically speaking of LinkedIn, the increasingly popular platform has always had strong ties to businesses, which allow companies to scout new talent or for new recruits to network and research future employers. It's been noted that many in higher education establishments are even using LinkedIn to demonstrate the effectiveness of education by highlighting where many alumni work after they're done with schooling.

Personally, Mike & I believe that opening younger users to a more "academic" side of social media could be extremely beneficial -- both to the user/student and to the business. Although networking with 14 year olds will certainly be something to get used to, we think this means bigger, smarter and more connected communities for upcoming generations.

Here's to linking up with your babysitter or little cousin, and hopefully more career-minded individuals!

-- Samantha & Mike

Social Media Regret

With social media creeping into every aspect of our lives, it comes as no surprise that more and more people are beginning to fear that they may be turned down or fired from a job because of an inappropriate social media post. Legal information website, FindLaw.com, recently conducted a survey of 1,000 "demographically balanced" adults, asking them about their social media behavior. The overall result of this study showed that 1 in 4 adults fear that their social media behavior will come back to bite them.

When this figure is broken down a bit more for age, we see that in the group of adults age 18 to 34, 29% said that they have posted something on social media that they fear could be damaging to their professional careers. In order to help control some of the potential damage created by past posts, 74% of people in this age group have removed past activity, like a photo or post, to avoid the negative reaction from current or potential employers. As to be expected, this number is lower in the next age group, 35 to 64, at 36%.

Perhaps the most simple way to avoid making these social faux pas is using common sense. Three basic pointers to follow when using social media are:

• Think twice before you post anything
• Check your privacy settings and make sure they are set appropriately
• Do not make sensitive personal information available online

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is once you put something online, it stays online. It is almost impossible to completely delete something from the internet, so it is paramount that you take a little time to make sure what you are posting is, and will continue to be, appropriate. It is so easy to post, tweet or update these days that mistakes are all too easy to make. What may seem like an innocent expression of your feelings can very easily come back to haunt you. We have said it before and we will say it again -- think before you post!

- Mike & Samantha

The Silencer

Do you have Facebook friends who are always spoiling the latest episode of Game of Thrones or the newest blockbuster flick? Do you have friends who you would rather not see activity for anymore, but don't want to go through the trouble of explaining why you unfriended them? If you do, the Google Chrome Silencer plug-in may be for you. This plug-in allows you to add terms, phrases, names, or hashtags that you want silenced in your Facebook or Twitter feed. Not only do you have the option to manually create the silenced criteria, they also offer Mute Packs. These allow you to silence dozens of terms from popular shows like Mad Men or Game of Thrones with one click. The description of this plug-in according to Google is: Silencer lets you mute and filter any content you want out of your Twitter stream or Facebook News Feed.

Avoid TV show or sports spoilers. Block people that you can’t unfollow but aren’t really interested in anymore. Take back the Internet on your terms!

Introducing Mute Packs! Mute dozens of terms from “Game of Thrones,” “Mad Men,” or “Arrested Development” instantly with one click!

Mute terms, phrases, people or hashtags quickly and easily.

If you are not using Google Chrome as your browser yet, you should seriously consider it. They offer tons of helpful plug-ins and the Silencer seems like one we could all get a lot of use out of.

-Mike

What Does Your Facebook Profile Look Like to Other People?

We have said it before and we will say it again, be very careful of what you make visible on your Facebook profile. Many may not be aware of this, but Facebook actually allows you to see what your profile looks like from the view of other people. It is as simple as going to your profile, and clicking the settings icon in the lower right corner of your cover photo. This will allow you to toggle through a few "view as" options, including the public or even a specific person. Now you can actually see what a total stranger sees when they come across your profile online. This feature can also be handy in discovering what your Mom sees when she logs onto Facebook. Take a second and check out your profile through someone else's view, you might be surprised and what you find.

-Mike

Hide Your Kids, Hide Your Wife and Hide Your Tweets, They're Hacking Everybody Out Here

The big news in social media yesterday was the hacking of the AP's twitter. A hacker group known as the Syrian Electronic Army is taking credit for hijacking the AP's twitter account Tuesday morning and falsely tweeting that there was an explosion at the White House and the President was injured. Moments after the tweet, the Dow Jones flash crashed 143 points. Luckily the AP corrected their tweet quickly and the Dow was able to readjust without major incident. Even though there were no major repercussions from this hacked tweet, it is making everyone, from Wall Street to Twitter, rethink social media security. Wall Street is surprisingly intertwined with social media. They have computer programs and algorithms that scan major news headlines and can auto-trade based on the news, this is how 1 tweet from a respected source can cause such an immediate threat to our economy. Twitter has become such an important factor on Wall Street that this month Bloomberg announced they will be adding the service to their trading terminals. This is HUGE news for Twitter, anyone familiar with Wall Street and trading knows, Bloomberg has such a gigantic influence on the industry that whatever service or practice they introduce becomes the standard.

It seems that there have been an increasing number of Twitter hacks of large brands recently. One of note was the Burger King hack back in February. Here is an infographic of the stats from that day:

Looking at these impressive stats, it is easy to see how much damage a hacked Twitter account can cause. In light of all these recent hacks, Twitter has announced they will be introducing a two-step verification system, which will help prevent fraud by requiring the user to input two pieces of personal information to verify their identity. With our increasing dependence on Twitter for the latest news, we feel that this new security measure is a must. If Twitter cannot remain a reliable source, there will be serious repercussions in the near future.

We have also included the below infographic on some of the more notable Twitter hacks in recent memory. Although this information is a bit dated, it is very interesting to see what 140 characters can do.

-Mike