Facebook now analyzes the status updates from Americans to see how collectively happy the nation is. They call it the Gross National Happiness Index and it builds on positive and negative words in the updates. In other words, it might not the most exact way to see if Americans are happy or not, but it is something. It is also interesting to see how people reacted to world events. The day Michael Jackson died was a sad one in the nation’s mind, for example.
An intriguing story hitting my inbox today is that members of Michael Jackson’s family paid USocial to buy and add 25,000 Twitter followers to the official “in memory of” Twitter account.
It’s not clear from the report I read exactly when this deal occurred, or how successful it was, but it’s surprising that the account only has around 30,000 followers. I’m surprised it didn’t have more organic adds, despite the fact that it’s only been online since 7th July this year.
Then again, three tweets in one month isn’t exactly scintillating stuff. It’s also worth noting that the account doesn’t have a Twitter “Verified” badge, but I suppose granting it one would be a rather special, and slightly macabre, case. [Read more…]
The fact that TMZ not only broke the story of Michael Jackson’s death, but also proved to be the main source of information for a lot of traditional publishing outlets makes you think. There’s no doubt that the blogs were first, and old media stumbled to verify and catch up in the wake.
In the words of Jason Preston, you can do something First, or you can do it Well.
The reasoning is interesting. If you do it first you get cited, seen, credit, traffic, readers, and so on. But if you do it well you can provide “real analysis” and “be interesting”. [Read more…]
The tragic death of Michael Jackson is still hot on the web. The upcoming memorial service aside, another proof of the artist’s former greatness is him surpassing everyone on Facebook, clocking in at over 6.8 million fans as I’m writing this. And it just doesn’t stop, new fans are added every second. It’s almost scary.
Meanwhile CNN is planning to integrating people’s MJ memories from Facebook with their upcoming live coverage of the memorial. Assuming you’re one of the millions not holding a ticket to the Staples Center, Mashable tells you where you can watch the memorial online. There is no way anyone in the social web will miss this, wether they like it or not.
The official Michael Jackson website invites its visitors to share their MJ memories in classic blog comment form. As of writing there are 354 044 memories “from Michael Jackson fans worldwide”, and growing naturally. Meanwhile, the Facebook page now clocks in 2 414 413 fans. On June 26, the same page had 880 991 fans…
