Social media changes so much in a week that it can be hard to keep up. Check back every Friday for our roundup of stories we think you should know about in our Social Media Snap.
It’s hard to believe with the approaching snowstorm, but this is the first official Social Media Snap of spring! Dust off your gardening gloves, pull out your warm weather clothes and get ready for a whole new season of social media. The season kicks off with – what else? – basketball.
- It’s that time of year again. Basketball has taken over and with it comes a tab of $134 million in lost productivity value in workplaces across the country. As a KU alumna, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m overzealous every March – I was trained my freshman year on “bracketology” and love talking to people about the one aspect of sports I’m actually passionate about.
It’s fascinating to watch social media take the games and fans to new levels of obsession every year. In 2012, 83 percent of fans said they checked social media during games. Surprisingly, NCAA teams haven’t embraced social media as much as their fans. Only 29 out of 64 March Madness teams have Facebook and Twitter presences. Hopefully the rest of the teams will take a hint from fans and jump on the bandwagon soon.
For those of you who can’t get to a TV to watch the madness, tech is here to help. Check out this list of the seven best apps to catch up on your games on a tablet or phone. My personal favorite is NCAA March Madness app. It curates all Tweets related to each match and shows a graph of the most Tweeted moments of the game.
- Happy seventh birthday, Twitter! When I joined in back in 2008, I wasn’t quite sure how I’d get along with the social network. Now it’s the social media site that fascinates me the most with its power to connect 500 million users in 140 characters or less. Twitter has driven revolutions, measured event successes and ruined political careers in its short seven years. Remember the highs and the lows of Twitter with Wall Street Journal’s blog post, How we covered Twitter: 7 headlines for 7 years.
- Singles, rejoice. If you’ve run the gamut of dating sites, here’s one more that promises compatibility using the power of Facebook and Google. Loveflutter organizes your interests ranging from music preferences to Google searches and pairs you with a match who has similar interests.
Organizers say the website takes the awkwardness out of getting-to-know-you first dates by being the icebreaker ahead of time, but the jury is still out on if that’s even possible. Loveflutter charges $5/month and $.50 per message, but 1,000 lucky Mashable fans will get a free subscription to meet their match.
- Lastly, have you heard? Ryan Gosling is taking a break from acting. (I’ll give you a second.)
My disappointment was soothed when I found Mashable’s 10 Ryan Gosling gifs and Twitter reactions or this clip of him poking fun at the "Hey Girl" meme that saterically made girls swoon with the two little words followed by completely nonsensical statements. Allow these to get you through his hiatus until he reunites with Emma Stone on the silver screen. (We all know it’s happening.)
We'll miss you, Ryan.
Happy Spring,
@Keavey