RAAK

While Facebook tweaks details, Twitter pumps News

Apparently twice as many users get their news from Facebook than from Twitter. Wait a minute, doesn't Facebook have 4 times the amount of users Twitter has? This means, normalised to the amount of users each network has, Twitter is more successful as a news delivery medium by a long shot. This makes it all the more sad that Twitter is trying to emulate Facebook features that don't suit their user base at all. Activity Feed? Twitter, your users are not interested in who's following who. They're interested in content!

Hey! What is WordPress up to?

Wordpress.com now hosts more than 60 million blogs. That is 60 million users, but with a twist: 60 million blogs engage a far greater amount of users than that, and that doesn't include self-hosted installations? So, quietly, in the background, WordPress has started turning their huge network into a social network, by adding a range of social features. They're not alone, however. Adobe has announced that they will restructure to focus on digital media and marketing. So Adobe is saying they're doing it, but not doing it (yet), and WordPress is keeping quite, but doing it. Which do you prefer?

The Plus has a Minus

Finally Google Plus launched brand pages. Fashion and Social Media Trend setter Burberry were one of the first brands to set up shop. But it's missing key features: Robert Scoble explains what's missing. Also worth a look is Econsultancy's take on it.

Truth delivered right now is stranger than fiction

Emily Bell wrote recently, with reference to the power of Twitter, that stories are most interesting as they happen. This week: two more examples. Nick Cristoff live Tweets a raid on a Cambodian brothel, and an American delivers a Masterclass in Twitter storytelling: documenting an emotional breakup in a restaurant in a way that would make Tarantino proud.

Slacktivism can kill you

When Malcolm Gladwell dissed social media recently, by saying that it has no real power and does not entails any risks, we smirked. Tunisia and Egypt showed him up. This week he was tragically and shockingly proven wrong again. Mexican drug cartels decapitated yet another blogger, warning social media users not to speak out. Horrible. Warning, graphic picture.

Tweets with High Klout scores live longer

In a fascinating piece of research it has been shown that Tweets emanating from users with very high Klout scores are shared more. A lot more. Normal tweeps like you and me can expect our Tweets to hang around for 10 to 20 minutes. Celebrities' tweets stay fresh for up to 5 hours. No wonder there's a $10,000 per Tweet market.

37signals understands content. 110%

37signals.com, the company who brought us Basecamp (a very cool project management tool), has hired a full-time filmmaker. No, they're not venturing into video production … well, not in the way you might think. Shaun Hildner, the Chicago-based filmmaker on their payroll, will constantly film the company's day to day operations. Clever!

Creative of the Week

This week's clever tinkerer is one that really tickles our fancy. Lumenoise, by Niklas Roy, is half old school electronic sound visualization, half analog synth, and half electron charmer. Yes, that makes three halves, we know. That's how great it is!