Facebook and Electoral Commission Launch Voter Push
Social networking website Facebook has been brought in to get unregistered voters into the polling booth.
In a tie-up with the Electoral Commission, Facebook users who visit the site over the weekend will be asked if they have registered to vote. If they say “No” they will be sent to a page linked to the Electoral Commission that lets them enter details online.
The deadline for voter registration for the 6 May general election is 20 April – later than in previous elections. The Electoral Commission estimates that 3.5 million people who were eligible to vote in England and Wales in 2001 were not registered.
A change in the law following the 2005 general election means that the registration period has now been extended until 11 working days before polling day. In 2005 the rules meant that voter lists, based on the electoral roll, were closed by the time the election was actually called.
Youth focus
Every UK Facebook user who uses the site on Saturday will be asked whether they have registered for the coming poll.
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Those who have not will be able to enter their personal details and download a pre-filled form to sign and send off to the Electoral Commission – an offline step officials say is legally required to prevent electoral fraud.
Electoral Commission spokesman Clinton Proud said the exercise was part of the organisation’s remit to expand access to the democratic process.
“If you’re not registered, you can’t vote – it’s very simple. By downloading and printing a form through Facebook, users can now make sure that they are able to have their say on election day.
“Many people assume they are automatically on the electoral register if they pay council tax or if they have voted before. This is not the case. And if you have moved house, even within the same borough, you need to re-register with your new address.”
Richard Allan, director of policy at Facebook, said many of the site’s users were traditionally excluded from politics.
“One of the strengths we have is to try and capture that group, particularly the 18-24 year-old voters, who have often not turned out to vote, and use the fact that many of the things on Facebook are familiar to them to get them engaged.”
Potential voters can also find out how to register online by visiting the Electoral Commission’s registration website, www.aboutmyvote.co.uk.
Source: BBC News
Posted in: General
Twitter and Facebook Access for US Troops
US troops are to be allowed to use social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook following a review of internet use and security.
Defence department officials say the benefits of using social media now outweigh the risks to security. The ruling means that a number of sites blocked by the Pentagon in 2007 – including YouTube – will be unblocked. However, commanders will be able to temporarily block access to safeguard missions or save bandwidth.
Correspondents say social media and the internet are becoming increasingly important for the US military. The web is used for recruitment, public relations and for communications between troops and their families, among other things.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that social networking can help the Pentagon interact with US military employees, many of whom are in their early 20s and regular users of online services.
Source: BBC News
Posted in: General
Facebook users say yes to changes
According to this BBC article, Facebook users have voted to back changes which give them control over data and content they post on the site.
Early results suggest 75% of those who voted support the proposals.
The vote was triggered by changes Facebook made to its terms and conditions in February.
The move drew fire because it appeared to hand the social network site ownership of images, videos and data that users posted on profile pages.
To read the rest of the article click right here.
Posted in: General
Facebook tweaks site to rival Twitter
According to a BBC News article Facebook has revamped it’s site in an effort to take on social media sensation Twitter.
Starting from next week, there will be a new homepage on Facebook that lets users receive continuous updates from their friends instead of every 10 or 15 minutes. Making the application oh so similar to Twitter with its much loved instant 140 caricature ‘Tweets’.
Facebook’s also adding filters so people can choose which of their friends to keep up with and which to silence.
Check out the article on the BBC website here.
Posted in: General
President-Elect Barack Obama launches weekly video address on YouTube
This week heralded the launch of Barack Obama’s new regular video address – he plans to publish weekly on YouTube throughout his Presidency.
The President-Elect used new media tools like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to devastating effect during his campaign…you can only wonder how he might employ social media to engage with not only US citizens, but also the wider World over the next four years.
It’s also going to be interesting to see how quickly politicians in the UK start to seriously adopt Web 2.0 tools as a means of engaging the electorate - I can see them playing a major role in the 2010 General Election campaign.
Posted in: General
Facebook – the UK's top social website
Facebook seems to be garnering more column inches in the press than the England Rugby Team at the moment. The latest rumours are that Microsoft are negotiating with Mark Zuckerberg, the 23 year old founder of Facebook, to buy a minor stake in the company that would value it at $10 billion.
I guess it’s not that surprising, given that across the world more than 24 million people regularly use Facebook and they are joined by over 100,000 new users a day.
Facebook arrived in Britain little over a year ago and now claims more than 6 million users. Figures released in September, showed it overtaking MySpace to become the UK’s most popular social website. In the US, MySpace has three times as many users as Facebook, but the young upstart is growing five times faster.
According to the research conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings and published in The Sunday Times, the top UK and US social websites are:
UK
- Facebook – 6.5 million users, growth rate 541%
- MySpace – 6.4 million users, growth rate 20%
- Bebo – 4.4 million users, growth rate 64%
- Windows Live Spaces – 2.3 million users, growth rate -1%
- Friends Reunited – 2.1 million users, growth rate 1%
- BBC Communities – 1.5 million users, growth rate 27%
- Flickr – 1.3 million users, growth rate 20%
- Piczo – 0.9 million users, growth rate -40%
- Yahoo! Groups – 0.8 million users, growth rate -1%
- WAYN – 0.7 million users, growth rate 80%
US
- MySpace – 60.3 million users, growth rate 23%
- Facebook – 19.2 million users, growth rate 117%
- Classmates On line – 15.4 million users, growth rate 9%
- Windows Live Spaces – 8.8 million users, growth rate 7%
- AOL Hometown – 6.9 million users, growth rate -23%
- Reunion – 4.5 million users, growth rate 4%
- LinkedIn – 4.4 million users, growth rate 163%
- Club Penguin – 3.9 million users, growth rate 250%
- Buzznet – 3.8 million users, growth rate 405%
- AOL People Connection – 3.8 million users, growth rate -36%
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Prized People are the North West region’s Blog and Podcast Production Specialists, to find out more visit www.prizedpeople.co.uk
Posted in: General
Social media – the future of recruitment is at hand
The Sunday Times ‘Recruiter Forum’ published an article last Sunday that I’ve been meaning to post about all week… in ‘Tapping the Facebook generation’ the debate is all about how ethical it is for businesses to use social media sites as recruitment tools…should prospective employers be scanning social networking sites for information on potential employees and how will candidates react?
Some of the statistics are interesting – according to a survey by www.careerbuilder.com 1 in 10 recruiters use social networking sites to check out candidates, two thirds of those recruiters rejected candidates on the basis of what they found.
There are some interesting insights from companies like T-Mobile, Sainsbury’s and Deloitte, who are seeing big benefits from adding social media tools to their recruitment strategy, particularly for graduates.
The general advice, is to be careful about what you post of sites such as Facebook – even think about restricting access to your Facebook profile…particularly given the news this week, that in the very near future curious employers will not need to register with Facebook to search for people on its database. More significantly, in a couple of months, you’ll even be able to search for a Facebook profile via Google!
Statistics that give some insight into how important social media is becoming as a tool to attract and manage talent, are highlighted in a survey conducted by the Association of Graduate Recruiters this summer. The survey revealed that 75% of 277 graduate recruiters believed that social networking sites would be important in the future in terms of reaching their target audience. Whilst more than 90% also said they thought that interactive features such as blogs and podcasts on web sites, were quite or very important tools for attracting the best talent".
Posted in: General
