How people feel about sharing a name online

Thanks to the Internet, more and more of us have digital doubles: people who share our name, and may often be confused with us. I try to keep track of all the other people out there named “Alexandra Samuel”, and yet I also feel vaguely uncomfortable with...

Facebook Reactions: Campaign Edition

The advent of Facebook Reactions has brought forth a remarkable range of suggestions for alternative icons; the endless presidential campaign has produced an ever-growing range of tribute memes. But if we’re going to have the reactions we need to survive this...

If conferences were like slot machines

My Facebook friends should be forgiven if they think I’m in Vegas to try out novelty slot machines. I was actually here to deliver three presentations on “How social media drives consumer decisions” at the LeadingRE real estate conference. I got to...

Don’t be scared to Facebook your kids: A response to Amy Webb

Amy Webb has written an important but frustrating post on Facebook privacy and kids on the Slate website. Writing about a friend who extensively Facebooks photos and stories about her daughter “Kate”, Webb worries that Kate’s parents have compromised...

Which Facebook updates could you live without?

The beauty of being married to a man with absolutely no interest in sports is that I would remain blissfully unaware of the start of hockey season, at least until I get to the office Monday, were it not for Facebook and Twitter, which are suddenly overflowing with...

How to talk about tragedy online

Time out, people. In the past 24 hours we have been have been inspired, informed, comforted and mobilized by the unfolding conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. But it’s clear that we have also had moments of feeling attached, horrified, angered and...

2×2: Filtering your Facebook friends

How do you decide to view or relate to different friends on Facebook? As with all things in life, this can be described by a 2×2 matrix: Love this person Not so much Entertaining Facebooker Add to my “A1 pals” list, which is the news feed I look at...

How to crowdsource your Facebook Timeline

If you struggle to keep your Facebook Timeline dynamic and engaging, without creating what is simply a mirror of your Facebook or LinkedIn presence, the solution may not lie with you, but with your friends. For the past few months, I’ve been running a private...