The world’s number one social networking site Facebook this week announced that it had acquired one of the fastest growing mobile photo-sharing app Instagram for a “mind boggling” $1bn.

The move, which comes just few months before the social networking site goes public, caught many by surprise, not least because the $1bn price tag. Instagram, which was only launched two years ago, is popular amongst Android smart phone users, because it easily and conveniently allows them to share recently taken photos straight from their mobile phones.

It has always been clear from the off that Facebook “hates” competition and as such, the move to buy Instagram could be viewed as a drive to swallow the burgeoning service and thus limit any competition. This is not a bad move at all, but the question is, will it be sustainable in the long run? And was it really necessary?

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was quoted by US media as saying the move was an “important milestone” in the company’s history. He said that Facebook would not merely attempt to integrate the Instagram platform into Facebook but rather make a commitment toward “building and growing Instagram independently.” Given the fact that Facebook was originally set up as a photo sharing platform, one could hence understand Zuckerberg’s excitement about the deal. However, one can also argue that the move was not necessary and would add little to the Facebook brand. I feel Facebook has so much going for it at the moment, and it was still going to grow significantly with or without Instagram. For me,   purchasing Instagram for $1bn, could be disastrous and prove a waste of money, at least in the long run.

Social media can be a minefield especially for a politician. The medium can arguably make or break a politician’s future and hence it ought to be taken seriously.

Democratic Alliance (DA) and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, is no doubt a social media enthusiast. She engages with most of her followers and at times throws in a joke or two-which is always nice to see. However, some her tweets have more often than not gotten her into unnecessary trouble.

On Tuesday, Zille courted controversy when she took to Twitter and labelled people fleeing the dysfunctional Eastern Cape education system for the relatively better one in the Western Cape, “refuges”. The African National Congress was quick to pounce (in an attempt to score political points) referring to Ms Zille’s comments as racist. Although it was clear that Zille merely intended to highlight a pressing issue (the crisis in the Eastern Cape) and at the same time perhaps score political points, I believe the use of the word “refugee” was inappropriate in this context, not racist.

This was definitely not the first time that Zille opened herself up for attack.  Late last year, she took to twitter bizarrely calling for the criminalisation of HIV transmission, saying that the state should not have to pay for treatment for those who contracted HIV through irresponsible behaviour. These utterances have many a time left Zille embroiled in so-called Twitter-wars . The DA leader always seems to be able to justify some of her controversial comments-which is commendable. But, how long can this go on for?

I would argue that Zille needs a social media advisor or a strategist. Someone who can help her navigate the social media minefield. At times it does seem like she says the wrong things when saying the right thing is easier.  For a politician and by extension, a political party, bad PR can be seriously damaging.  Social media offers politicians a powerful tool to engage directly with people in a more local and organic fashion, and this should not be taken for granted.

It is common knowledge that social media platforms have become a place where the world meets and where ideas can be shared.

Former president Thabo Mbeki says Twitter is not appropriate for discussing knowledge meant for the betterment of society. Speaking at the University of Stellenbosch Business School to officially open the knowledge management conference, Mr Mbeki went on to say he was sceptical about Twitter being a great conveyor of reliable knowledge.

Although Mr Mbeki’s thoughts are valid to a lesser extent, I am afraid he is absolutely misinformed. Whilst everything said on Twitter should not be taken at face value, one cannot deny the fact that the social media site has given the majority of citizens a voice and a space to exercise their democratic right to engage in conversations that can build a nation. The former president seemingly is no friend of the Internet as a whole.

“Even the internet in general, blogging and so on, is not the place where you can… put all these things under theories,” Mr Mbeki said.

It is quite ironic that Mr Mbeki said all this during the officially opening of a knowledge management conference. It is common knowledge that the Internet has become a great repository of information. It is also common knowledge that social media platforms have become a place where the world meets and where ideas can be shared. Remember how the Arab spring took off? Social media played a central role in the ousting of dictators such as Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. Social media will arguably play a much more important role in unifying and building these Arab nations and hence leaders such as Mr Mbeki should be embracing social media and the internet.

(Ed’s note : You can re-tweet this story to ensure Bekezela won’t be misquoted,  perhaps Thabo Mbeki will follow the debate?  Perhaps not.)

@bekezeep

Could Facebook become another Myspace?

Earlier this year, I think I rather unfairly dismissed Google+ as yet another futile project by Google destined to fail just like other social media projects that the search engine giant has embarked on. I take that back.

Google+ is slowly but surely making major inroads into the social media market. Facebook is clearly in panic mode as evidenced by the glut of changes that the social media giant has made on the site ever since Google+ launched. Facebook is fighting for dear life.

Google+ has certainly made Mark Zuckerburg nervous.  The new social network player is proving to be a hit amongst mostly dissatisfied Facebook users. Google+ is great if you love your online privacy and control. The site has “circles” which allows you to basically group your contacts and thus filter content, you have much more control. It is no surprise therefore that Facebook has recently copied this exact format.  Facebook now also allows you to filter the content you see on the site and thus you are able to easily control your page.

An analyst at Experian Hitwise which keeps track of websites and their traffic says it is clear that Google+ is absolutely exploding. “It experienced 30 percent growth in just 2 days and with a base of nearly 30 million members already”. One wonders what the future holds for Facebook. Will we see yet another social media giant crumble under the pressure? Only time will tell.

Twitter on the other hand looks set to be the winner. The micro-blogging site has maintained a steady growth and I would argue that the social media war will not hurt Twitter at all. Either Facebook or Google+ will dwindle; I do not think the two can co-exist.

Twitter: @bekezeep

Before the advent of social media, any controversies around the “beautiful” game were confined to the pitch and to a large extent the TV. Footballers, particularly in the UK are perceived as celebrities and therefore their every move is heavily scrutinised. This close inspection has been made even easier by Twitter and somewhat Facebook.

Twitter has for better or worse, taken the English premier league by storm. Leading players such as Manchester United’s Rio Ferdinand, Arsenal’s Robin Van Persie, and former Newcastle midfielder Joey Barton have created a second home on Twitter. This is good for the fans as Twitter is one of the few links that fans have with the players. Ferdinand is by far the most active footballer on Twitter, posting numerous tweets on any given day. Barton on the other hand, who recently joined Queens Park Rangers, is perhaps the most controversial footballer on Twitter. His tweets can be easily taken to be offensive and “wide off the mark”. Part of the reason why Newcastle let him go was because of some of his controversial tweets.

Although there is nothing wrong with footballers posting comments on Twitter per se, there is however a problem when those particular comments are by extension linked to the football club that the player represents. Very often you find that when you read a news story on any football website, a player’s comment on Twitter on any particular incident is quoted. Thus the challenge that Premier League teams face is how to regulate their players on Twitter. Premier League managers are certainly worried about how their clubs are perceived by the world and hence they would want to control their players’ behaviour off the pitch but Twitter has made this difficult. So, what do they do?

The first the thing is that they should take Twitter more seriously and treat it as a member of the media. The other obvious and simple route is to set club rules and principles on the usage of Twitter. I think the problem is that footballers such as Barton often forget that they have an image to uphold. They forget that they can’t just post “rubbish” and easily get away with it. Earlier this year Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson suggested he could ban his players from using Twitter after Wayne Rooney offered to ‘fight a fan’ online. We all know that Sir Alex is ruthless and I would not be surprised if the ban happened.

I think the other important thing is for players to simply think before they post.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/bekezeep

The recent Twitter spat between Western Cape Premier and Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille and acclaimed songstress Simphiwe Dana has got me thinking.

Ms Dana earlier this month took to the social networking platform to question the DA’s track record in Cape Town and in the province. She claimed that Cape Town was the most unequal city in SA and suggested that it was to some extent racist. Ms Zille hit back and said the DA had “excellent” policies to grow the economy and create jobs. I must say the debate was indeed riveting to a larger extent but then was it the right platform?

I would argue that although Twitter has facilitated that much needed interaction between public officials and the populace, it has in some ways trivialised debates. Do not get me wrong, I am a big fan of Twitter and think it has for the most part, positively changed communications.  In her weekly newsletter, Ms Zille said that the biggest challenge presented by Twitter was length or lack of it.

“It is possible to ask a complex question in 140 characters, but usually impossible to answer it adequately.  Inadequate responses generate many complex misinterpretations often deliberate,” Ms Zille said.

I do agree with Ms Zille that it is generally easy to misconstrue messages on Twitter. This has largely to do with the length restriction which forces people to cut the message short.  At the heart of Twitter are the small bursts of information which we refer to as tweets and for me reducing a national debate to 140 characters is trivialising the issue. I think instead of discussing hugely important issues in 140 characters, we should be having a constructive national dialogue through other mediums such as newspapers and TV.

Twitter @bekezeep

So, Google has embarked on yet another social networking project. Billed as Google’s most important project to date, Plus is expected by many to offer Facebook some stiff competition.  This is not the first time that Google has tried to venture into the social networking world. You will recall that most recently, the search engine giant came up with its bizarre Buzz service which never really took off. The key question is will Google succeed this time around? Will the new offing prove a hit and usurp Facebook’s solid grip onto the social media world?

Although Plus is on the surface fundamentally similar to Facebook and Twitter, it has unique features which might prove key in its growth and popularity.  One of the noticeable features is the circles which essentially allow users to group their contacts according to the nature of the relationship. This is an amazing feature in that it allows you to only view particular updates, which is refreshing. One at times gets overwhelmed by the number of updates and posts that come up on Twitter and Facebook.

Another important highlight on Plus is its design, which is simple and to the point. The design is also slick with a hint of professionalism.  The “sparks” feature will also prove to be a hit. It allows users to save and follow keywords at a click, just like hashtag searches on Twitter.

Will Plus survive in the social media jungle, already occupied by the powerful Facebook and the ever growing Twitter? I really do not think so. For starters, the invite tactic is such a turn off! One can only begin using the service after getting an invitation unlike on Facebook and Twitter where you can simply sign up and start networking. Fair enough, the invite tactic might generate that buzz and attract those who love exclusivity, but then again it frustrates. People do not have the time to wait for an invite, and besides the very same people that Plus want to tap into are busy tweeting and facebooking.

The other reason why I am sceptical of Plus, is Google’s track record in social networking projects. Google Wave, Buzz, Voice, and Orkut, are just some of the services which flopped. This long history of failure does not inspire any confidence.

And lastly, Plus will be a flop mainly because of saturation. I think the social networking space will be, for a very long time, be occupied by Twitter and Facebook and people throughout the world have come to accept this and are indeed comfortable. For Plus to break in, Google will have to come up with something out of the earth, something tremendously unique which will attract people at the click of a button.

The words Tweet, Facebook and Blackberry have become so commonplace that going a day without hearing or seeing these words is almost impossible. It dawned on me recently that I always fail to spend the whole day without logging on to Facebook or Twitter and this realisation has indeed triggered this blog post.  Are we really becoming social media junkies? And what could be the repercussions of “overdosing” on social media?

The word junkie loosely refers to a person addicted/dependent on a drug, in most instance heroin. In this instance, junkie will refer to an individual addicted/dependent on social media. I must concede though that using the word junkie might be inaccurate, but it does paint a close enough picture. A picture which shows how much the world has changed over the past decade or so, and how much, as a result, we have become dependent on the Internet and social media.

According to a new global study of university students by the International Center for Media and the Public Affairs (ICMPA) in partnership with the Salzburg Academy on Media  and Global Change, college students have revealed that they are, in fact, “addicted” to the Internet and social media in particular. The study, which was largely qualitative, polled close to 1,000 students in 10 countries on five continents including Chile to China, Lebanon, the USA, Uganda and the United Kingdom. The study put said students on a 24 hour “media fast,” in which no media or social media was to be used for the duration. Students were then asked to report their successes and failures of their abstinence. Some of the answers were shocking to say the least.

The students repeatedly used the term ‘addiction’ to speak about their dependence on social media.  “Media is my drug; without it I was lost,” said one student from the UK. “I am an addict. How could I survive 24 hours without it?”  Sharing analogies and metaphors made explicit the depths of their distress and likened their reactions to feelings of a drug withdrawal.  As a student from the USA noted: “I was itching, like a crackhead, because I could not use my phone.”

The students reported that media – especially their mobile phones – have literally become an extension of themselves. Going without media, therefore, made it seem like they had lost part of themselves. Just to latch on to this point, I would argue that we are now slowly identifying ourselves in terms of the media we consume. The offline and the online world are slowly but surely becoming one.

The question one needs to put across is whether or not this addiction is a problem? Is there anything such as a healthy addiction? My postulation is that there is no reason to fear. While doing anything in excess is never healthy, social media addiction on the other hand is not something to really worry about. I think we just have to look at the bright side and the good it can do in a society, take for example the uprisings in North Africa earlier in the year were social media played a pivotal role in mobilising protesters. For me really, as long as social media does not kill offline relationships, there is no reason to stress. Get addicted! Tweet hard!

It is becoming ever so common for the modern day footballer to court controversy one way or the other. Ryan Giggs, Manchester United’s Welsh “wizard” has landed himself in hot water; or rather should I say Twitter has just left the Manutd legend exposed.

The super-injunction which Giggs took out (over allegations of an extra-marital affair) seems not to have had the desired effect as the Twitter-verse went gung-ho and spread the news of the alleged affair with British model Imogen Thomas. The issue for me is really not the affair or the super-injunction, for me it is about the power of social media. Time and again we hear how powerful social media platforms are, but I really think their power is underestimated.  Giggs’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson last week came out and said he did not see why players should care about Twitter. He said Manutd would consider coming up with a policy on Twitter usage by players. I am sure Rio Ferdinand, who is unofficially the number one footballer tweeting, will have something different to say.

Twitter and other social media platforms are generally uncontrolled. There aren’t any discernable laws which govern these platforms and this is where the power lies, as Mr Giggs would attest by now. Rumours are doing the rounds on Twitter that Giggs wants to sue Twitter.

He has also asked the social media giant to trace the first person who tweeted about the alleged affair. Well, clearly Giggs has taken it too far, there is absolutely no way that Twitter would agree to such demands.

Again, it’s quite apparent that Giggs does not comprehend the essence of social media platforms-it is not something one can control, it’s a free environment where anyone can say anything. The users reign supreme and surely Giggs can sue all he wants but the bottom line is that Twitter has exposed him.

I must conclude though by saying that I am a big Manutd fan and have followed Giggs’s career from when he broke into the squad in 1993-94. I sincerely hope that this simmering issue does not affect Manutd’s champion’s league final preparations. Giggs with all his experience will be vital on Saturday against an out of this world Barca side.

President Jacob Zuma has finally joined Twitter (@SAPresident). One can only speculate that the pressure of the May 18 election is mounting and the president is pulling out all the stops to make sure the African National Congress (ANC) romps to victory, especially in Cape Town.

Mr Zuma follows in the footsteps of Democratic Alliance (DA) leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille (@helenzille) and DA Cape Town mayoral candidate Patricia de Lille (@PatriciaDeLille). A few months ago in one of my blog posts, I said SA politicians need to follow Ms Zille’s lead and take social media more seriously. Ms Zille and the DA have taken social media campaigning to a whole new level. Every Sunday in the run up to next week’s poll, the DA hosts a question and answer session on Twitter where users can ask anything concerning the DA and its policies in general. Such a campaign by the DA has helped shape the party’s image to make it look more modern.

Mr Zuma’s first and only tweet thus far was “Democracy is flourishing in South Africa, thanks to the active participation of all citizens. It’s wonderful. Vote 18 May!” In the first few days of signing up, Mr Zuma had attracted over 3000 followers, which is no surprise. The sad thing though is that he only followers one user (@PresidencyZA), it’s more or less like he is following himself! My advice to Zuma is to follow more people, even the ordinary person; it will make such a big difference to his image and by extension that of the ANC.