Social Media Digest:Kred launch, Heinz Facebook and Hacking

  • Social Media

Welcome back to our weekly instalment of what’s hot in the world of social media. In case you missed what happened over the past week, here’s a run-down of our top five:Steve Jobs tribute

1. The BBC is planning a news gatherer app that will let ‘citizen journalists’ file stories directly from their phones, which can be on the air within minutes. Theoretically, the ”news gatherer app” will be able to feed user-generated content into the BBC’s content-management system, which is then edited by editorial staff and aired within minutes of submission. The app is scheduled to launch using the HTML5-based web language to minimise reliance on specific handset operating systems, such as Apple iOS or Google’s Android, although a roadmap for the product is unclear.

2. Heinz has launched a new Facebook app that enables fans of the Heinz page to send personalized messages, such as ‘Get Well Soon’ to friends and family, all printed within the iconic branding of a Heinz soup tin. Of course, the added bonus is that the recipient gets to eat the contents of the tin, which, if chicken soup, is bound to make them feel better instantly!

3. Peoplebrowser have launched a new indexing service called Kred, which it hopes will challenge the supremacy of Klout and Peerindex. Peoplebrowsr says that brands aren’t as interested in influence as they’re interested in reach. Kred creates a collective reach for a range of different topics, sorted by communities. For example, your Twitter Bio data is used to define communities and then Peoplebrowsr calculates a combined influence and outreach level score for that community.

4. News this week that technological pioneer and figurehead/founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, had died was the leading story for many of the world’s media. That many people read of his death using their iPhone, iPad or Macbook is testament to his influence and how much Apple has shaped the way we interact with one another and the world around us.

5.  A survey has revealed that three out of every 10 teenagers have had their Facebook,Twitter or MySpace accounts hacked into – and almost half are left upset by the experience. Hackers have impersonated the people who own the profiles, or spy on them, by sifting through messages – and most of the time the victims know who has logged on as them. Interestingly, however, of those who have been impersonated and attacked a high number are not concerned by the breach of privacy, according to the research.