Social Media Daily News – April 18, 2011

Good afternoon. Google Video is going the way of the Dodo bird. It’s been a long time coming with Google’s ability to monetize YouTube and the push to make YouTube the all-in-one video hot spot. Facebook is looking to build their relationships with journalists by hiring a full time media liaison. The decision comes as Facebook looks to allow users to alter their news feeds to include actual, relevant world news rather than what their friends are doing for lunch. This is an interesting bit of news, since Twitter recently announced that the possibility for a real time, user relevant news feed is their main focus in 2011. An interesting article from AdAge spotlights the relationship between social media users and live television. The article goes on to speak about the correlation between viewers that interact with a show via a social site and the loss of viewer attention during commercials. Enjoy!

I. YouTube Recasts for New Viewers, wsj.com, April 7, 2011
II. Facebook trying to ‘friend’ journalists, cnn.com, April 14, 2011
III. Court Upholds Facebook Settlement With Twins, nyt.com, April 11, 2011
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I. YouTube Recasts for New Viewers, wsj.com, April 7, 2011
http://mashable.com/2011/04/16/google-video-rip/
Google‘s decided to shut down its Google Video service, and in an email sent Friday night (4/15/2011), reminded those who’ve uploaded videos to the site that they have until May 13 to download them before they are removed.

Google says that on April 29, Google Videos will no longer be viewable on the site, and the download function will still be available for a couple of weeks to allow users to retrieve their work. Perhaps many of those users will move their video clips to Google’s other video service, YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006.

II. Facebook trying to ‘friend’ journalists, cnn.com, April 14, 2011
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/04/14/facebook.journalists/index.html
Facebook is taking major steps to ensure that its News Feeds contain more actual news.
The social media giant is hiring someone to build relationships with reporters and news organizations. The new hire also will help organize journalism-focused events, the first of which will take place this month at Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

III. Is Social Media Killing TV?, adage.com, April 18, 2011
http://adage.com/article/digital/social-media-killing-tv/227028/
In fact, after years of declines in live tune-in, Twitter, Facebook and some mobile startups appear to be luring audiences back to appointment TV. While DVRs unglued us from TV schedules, the desire to tap into the tweets, posts and check-ins in real time may just bring us back.

“If you look at the tweets about a TV show, a huge proportion come from when the show is airing live, not an hour later,” said Robin Sloan, who works with Twitter’s media-partnership team. During awards shows such as the Oscars and Grammys, Twitter has seen viewers complain that those events aren’t aired live on both coasts. To appease U.S. fans forced to swear off the internet for a month to save from British tweeters’ “Doctor Who” spoilers, the BBC decided to air the show on both continents on the same day.