Have the Social Giants Peaked?

Last week, when Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat reported their latest quarterly earnings, all three social platforms noted a slowdown or drop in users.

Facebook’s user numbers remained flat in North America and fell in Europe on a quarter-over-quarter basis, Twitter reported a slight downturn in monthly users, and Snap posted a decline in daily active users for the second quarter.

CNBC floated the possibility that social-media growth has peaked, with no room to add significant numbers of new users—at least in the West. Facebook still hopes to use “lite” versions of its apps to secure gains in huge, virtually untapped markets such as India and Indonesia. And, of course, China, with its billions of potential users, remains closed for now to Facebook and other popular platforms.

Facebook and Twitter both blamed the European Union’s new data privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, as a factor in their declines. However, Facebook’s monthly page visits have been falling sharply for some time, according to a study by market research company SimilarWeb, from 8.5 billion to 4.7 billion over the past two years.

Thanks to that drop, YouTube, experiencing increased traffic and viewership, is poised to potentially pass Facebook within the next few months to become the second-biggest website in the U.S.

Tech/Social Face Rising Addiction Concerns

Cal Newport, an associate professor of computer science at Georgetown University, challenged readers of his Study Hacks blog (dedicated to exploring “how to perform productive, valuable, and meaningful work in an increasingly distracted digital age”) to cut out all digital interaction that wasn’t crucial to their job or personal/family life for the month of January. After that, they could gradually resume interactions that still seemed to have value.

Of the almost 2,000 people who said they’d try the unplugging experiment, many reported exploring new hobbies, as well as discovering just how dependent they’d let themselves become on phone apps and websites.

Newport’s challenge is part of a growing debate on the role social media and digital technology play in our lives and their impact on society. At the beginning of the year, the investment management firm Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System sent a letter to Apple, asking the tech giant to consider the “unintentional negative consequences” its products may be having on children and teenagers. They recommended forming a panel of experts to study the issue, more funding for research on it, and better parental controls for Apple devices.

While “technology addiction” isn’t yet an officially sanctioned diagnosis in the U.S., brain-imaging studies and other research is finding evidence that overuse of electronic devices can present problems for young people and their developing brains. Some in the treatment community view the issue as a matter of habit rather than addiction, but even without scientific consensus or official recognition, more and more facilities and programs are being established to help children and teens deal with digital or social media dependence.

As digital media becomes increasingly embedded in education, schools and instructors will need to model and encourage healthier relationships with technology.

If evidence of real harm accumulates and more people cut back in favor of “digital minimalism,” the tech industry and social media platforms may need to re-examine their business models. As noted by NPR, “as long as these companies make their money from advertising, they will have incentive to try to design products that maximize the time you spend using them, whether or not it makes your life better.”

Changes may already be emerging, as evidenced by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution to amend many of his platform’s flaws. As a first step, new standards this year mean that Facebook users will now see more content from friends, family, and groups in their News Feed and less from companies, brands, and media. Posts that facilitate more meaningful social interactions will be encouraged, and that shift will be expanded across all of Facebook’s products over time.

Virtual-Reality Tech Keeps Getting Better

Gaming and educational applications are expected to increase the use of virtual-reality (VR) devices by 85% over the next five years, according to a report from technology market intelligence firm ABI Research.  The market for those devices is changing, with technology such as headsets and 365-degree cameras becoming more affordable and effective.

“Education is on the cusp of a profound change in the way we use VR technology,” said Emory Craig, director of e-learning at the College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY. “People are starting to use it in higher ed even though the tech is very fluid at the moment.”

Headsets for high-quality equipment can cost close to $2,000 per setup, but technology firms are developing devices that work with lower-end desktop computers for the more affordable price of $299. Newer 365-degree cameras have more user-friendly features, making it easier to introduce video content into course materials. VR hand controllers are also improving to provide full-motion interactive experiences.

Content developers are experimenting with new ways to create virtual medical simulations, as well as creating applications that allow users to manipulate VR content. At the same time, Facebook is working on ways for users to connect and collaborate virtually.

“We can expect to see certain trends in VR to move forward, while others will disappear,” said Maya Georgieva, tech strategist and co-founder of the consulting group Digital Bodies. “As devices continue to shrink, we will see the development of augmented- and mixed-reality experiences that will power compelling visualizations, immersive storytelling, gamified simulations, and learning experiences.”

MOOCs Can Rely Too Much on Social Media

A recent Australian study found concerns about integrating too much social media into massive open online courses (MOOCs). Carpe Diem, a MOOC offered in 2014, used Facebook and Twitter for online communication and collaboration, but about half of the course participants didn’t use either.

According to the study,  41% refused to use social media because they felt it blurred the line between their social and professional identities. Nearly 50% were also unhappy with the learning management system (LMS) used by the course.

Respondents complained that the social media sites were intimidating to use and created confusion. Some said it took too much time to check into the LMS, Facebook, and Twitter, while others thought it would have worked better if social media worked within the LMS.

Facilitated discussions, work sharing with peers, and networking opportunities were the most-cited benefits of using social media platforms within MOOCs. However, the group that wasn’t as thrilled saw Facebook and Twitter as useless.

“It may be useful to outline in detail to students the contributions that social learning can bring to a MOOC and, indeed, to any online learning environment,” the researchers wrote. “Those who believe that conversations on social media are a waste of time may view things differently if they understand how conversations and knowledge sharing with their peers can support their learning experience.”

Facebook May Help Retain MOOC Students

A new study reported that Facebook may play a role in keeping students in massive open online courses (MOOCs). The research compared student use of MOOC message boards and course Facebook groups, noting that students seemed more engaged in the Facebook groups.

Students told researchers they preferred Facebook to the MOOC communication tools because it was a real community where they are already regularly connected, according to a report in eCampus News. Students also said they believe Facebook has better collaboration tools and instructor involvement on the social media network.

“In previous studies, we found that the real challenge for MOOC developers and instructors is trying to keep students engaged and enrolled in the course,” said Saijing Zheg, a co-author of the report and a research scientist at Microsoft. “In this study, we are finding that social media tools may be one way to keep students engaged in a MOOC.”

The researchers found students tend to be more willing to reveal their true identities on Facebook, while they make up names for the MOOC message boards. In addition, students said they had more ways to connect with instructors on Facebook.

Strong Websites Help Attract Students

A recent study found that online information helps students decide on the institution they want to attend. Digital Search for Education surveyed more than 1,500 full- and part-time students in the United States to learn how they interact with colleges before enrolling.

According to the report, 58% of the students said online reviews were highly important to the school-selection process, while 20% said online reviews had the most influence on their choice. The school’s website was the most important factor in the selection process, with 56% of students saying that was their primary source for information about programs of interest.

More than half of the students said they used search engines to research the schools they were interested in attending and 43% reported being most influenced to click on search results that had information that was relevant to them. However, 32% also said they would leave a school’s site if it had poor navigation tools.

The study reported that 32% of students follow the schools in which they are interested on social media, with 62% using Facebook. At the same time, 41% said they contact the school through email directly and 75% added they preferred schools to contact them by email, phone, or text message.

Despite the emphasis on digital communication in the selection process, 31% of the students also cited an on-campus visit as the primary reason for enrolling in a particular institution.

Technology Alone Is Not Enough

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, celebrated the birth of their daughter by announcing they would invest nearly their entire fortune in good causes, with personalized learning topping the list. While certainly a magnanimous gesture, there is one small problem: There’s little evidence that technology by itself can replace good schools.

Studies have shown that creating personalized learning tools that allow students to learn at their own pace, provide constant feedback, and recommend lessons based on previous work can produce improvement in learning results. But students still need support from teachers and parents.

Jason Reich, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reported in a paper published in Science that 38% of students enrolled in online courses from Harvard and MIT live in more affluent neighborhoods. Reich also found students with college-educated parents were nearly twice as likely to finish the online courses they take.

“The history of education technology shows emerging technologies tend to disproportionately benefit affluent people,” Reich said in a National Public Radio report. “Designing for digital equity is really hard.”

The good news is Zuckerberg has shown a willingness to do the hard work necessary. Facebook engineers are already working on a personalized learning platform with Summit Schools, a chain of technology-centered charter schools. In addition, Zuckerberg has invested in AltSchool, a Bay Area startup that blends Montessori educational concepts with high-tech tools. He also plans to build free-standing private schools for low-income students.

“The technology is important, but it’s not really the hard or the expensive part,” said Michael Feldstein, co-founder of the education blog e-Literate, in the NPR report. “These challenges are particularly hard for poorer schools where there is less money and less support for teachers.”

Mobile Use of Digital on the Rise

Mobile devices now account for nearly two-thirds of all digital minutes consumed, which shouldn’t come as much of a shock to collegiate retailers. However, that number is up 11% since 2013, according to a report from Digital Content Next (DCN).

The comScore 2015 Mobile App Report found that 62% of all digital usage is on mobile phones, with users spending more than 44% of their time using smartphone apps. The study also reported that fewer users turn on their desktops to go online, with digital usage at 38%, down from 49% two years ago.

The most mobile-app visits are to Facebook and Google, with Facebook accounting for nearly 126 million unique visitors. Millennials average nearly 26 hours a month on Facebook and spend two hours a day on social and entertainment apps.

“Mobile offers publishers a unique opportunity to expand their brand across platforms,” wrote Rande Price, research director of DCN. “It’s also a key opportunity to attract millennials as long-term and engaged users.”

Facebook Working on K-12 Software

Facebook is getting into the education business. The company has partnered with Summit Public Schools, a nonprofit organization that operates charter schools in California and Washington, to develop an online education tool that allows K-12 students to schedule and track their coursework and assignments.

Facebook dedicated eight employees to work with students and teachers to improve the software, known as the Personalized Learning Plan. More than 2,000 students and 100 teachers used the Facebook software in 2014, prompting Summit to launch a pilot program this fall. The ultimate goal is to make the software available for free to all schools.

“It’s really driven by this idea that we want to put learning in the hands of kids and the control back in the hands of kids,” Dianne Tavenner, chief executive of the Summit system, told The New York Times.

Using the software, students and their instructors work together on lessons and projects. Teachers can give individualized tests that the software will then grade and track.

“We’ve seen that there’s an opportunity to help apply our skills to the future of education, and we all wanted to find a way to help make an impact by doing what we do best—building software,” Chris Cox, chief product officer for Facebook, wrote in a blog announcing the initiative.

Teens Still Use Facebook in Droves

News about Facebook usage hasn’t been all that positive of late. There’s a Pew Research survey that said teens are turning away from the social media site because of an increased adult presence and then Princeton University reported Facebook would lose 80% of its users by 2017.

Forrester Research took another look at the data and came up with a different interpretation. It found that while Facebook usage has declined, a large majority of young people still use it. In fact, a comScore report  in 2013 found Facebook usage for college-aged adults dropped just 3%, with 89% still using the site.

“Young adults aren’t using Facebook is a fun story that some lazy people like to tell,” Jason Stein, president of the social media agency Laundry Service, told Digiday.

The Forrester study also showed that nearly 80% of the 4,517 online respondents, ages 12 to 17, used Facebook, well ahead of any other social media site except YouTube. Instagram, Twitter, and Google+ were all used by less than 60% of the respondents, while Snapchat, Vine, Pinterest, and Tumblr were all used by less than 40%.

“The bottom line: The sky is not falling,” Nate Elliott, co-author of the report, wrote in his blog. “Facebook does not have a problem attracting or retaining teen users.”

That’s good news for the college store industry, which has latched onto Facebook as a way to engage with students on campus.

Students Can Learn Together on Facebook

Researchers at Baylor University found that Facebook may provide a key to better learning, particularly in larger classes. They studied 218 students in an introductory sociology course who were given the choice of being in a course-related Facebook group.

The study, Using Facebook to Engage Learners in a Larger Introductory Course, found that the students in the Facebook group did better on quizzes and tests and wrote stronger papers than those who just listened to lectures. The students in the Facebook group also reported a more positive overall experience in the class, according to a report in Campus Technology.

“Although some teachers may worry that social media distracts students from legitimate learning, we found that our Facebook group helped transform students from anonymous spectators into a community of active learners—and this has important consequences for student performance,” said Kevin Dougherty, associate professor of sociology at Baylor. 

Facebook Partners with Computer Students

Facebook has been participating in a computer engineering program for more than a year. Now, it’s expanding the program, partnering with 22 universities around the world to pair computer science students with open-source projects that need help.

The program will provide academic credit at no additional cost, with class sizes limited to four to 10 students per school, according to a report in VentureBeat.

In the Facebook Open Academy, Facebook engineers and computer science professors match students with good open-source projects. In the spring of 2013, the academy started with students and mentors spending a weekend together “learning and hacking.” The students then returned to campus to work in virtual teams.

Mentors continued to help students find tasks and review code, while course instructors met with the teams to review progress. Students worked on a variety of sites, reducing bugs and improving efficiencies of the open-source projects.

The expanded effort will start in February with a three-day kickoff event for participating faculty, students, and open-source mentors at Facebook’s headquarters.

“We believe that contributing to open-source projects is one of the best ways a student can prepare for a job in the industry,” Facebook said in a post on its Facebook Engineering page.

Facebook Testing Mobile Payments

Facebook is testing a mobile payment platform that will let users pay for online purchases by logging in with their Facebook credentials. The platform is being developed as an in-house project for the social media giant.

The biggest obstacle facing the project is users’ distrust, Denee Carrington, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, told Information Week. Her research found that just 4% of U.S. consumers trust Facebook with a mobile digital wallet.

After it addresses privacy and security concerns, Facebook will need to focus on user experience, according to Jordan McKee of the research firm Yankee Group.

“Since Facebook profits from user data, the concept of offering payment credentials in addition to personal information may not sit well with many,” he said. “Facebook must also put tremendous emphasis on the user experience. If they don’t find Facebook’s offering to be intuitive, easy, and seamless, it will gain little traction and potentially dilute its brand.”

Are Students Turning Away from Facebook?

Could social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube be on the way out, particularly for college-bound students? Probably not, but a new report has found that high school juniors and seniors are not using the sites as much as in the past.

The 2013 Expectation Report was conducted during March and April to see how high-schoolers used social media and mobile devices to help make their college choices. Of the nearly 2,000 students who responded, 67% said they still used Facebook, a 12% drop from the year before.

“Please do not run out of the room screaming that you need to shut down your Facebook presence. That is not my message today,” said Stephanie Geyer, associate vice president of the research firm Noel-Levitz, during a webinar to announce the results. “My message is that the sands are shifting and we need to keep watching and seeing what’s going on.”

The percentage of college-bound students using YouTube was at 62%, which represents a 32% drop from 2012. Three out of 10 students use Twitter, a 1% rise, while the study listed Instagram for the first time and found that 15% of the students frequented the site. Just 5% of the respondents said they used Google+.

“It really fell off, but I wouldn’t abandon Google+ just yet,” Geyer said. “The SEO [search engine optimization] benefits are important and I think, long-term, Google Plus will stay the course and come back.”

HackEd Takes a Crack at Facebook Apps

Can 150 young developers, working in 24 teams, create educational apps for Facebook to help college students manage their campus experience better? Facebook and the Gates Foundation seem to think so.

The two organizations paired up for HackEd 2.0, the second annual competition for developing apps that students can access through their Facebook accounts. The U.S. contest recently concluded, but another is planned for London in late April.

The developers were charged with dreaming up apps to make going to college easier, from financial aid to academic support. Participants could work on apps for one of three areas: college, social learning, and out-of-school study.

Bloomberg TV reports on HackEd 2.0, including remarks from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, in this video.

Social Media’s Influence in the Classroom

Professors are becoming more comfortable using social media in the classroom. Although some may still view it as a time waster, others understand the tools available and are making the most of it in their teaching, according to the survey Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Facebook: How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media from Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson.

The survey questioned nearly 4,000 teaching faculty from all disciplines in higher education. It’s no surprise younger professors are more apt to use social media, but is interesting that subject area is also a determining factor. Humanities and arts professors reported the highest use rates and those in natural sciences the lowest.

There are, of course, concerns about the integrity of student submissions, in addition to issues of integration with learning management systems, but those are much less worrisome today when compared to a similar survey from 2011.

Video continues to be rated highly by professors. Nearly 34% create their own videos for classroom use and about 40% use video created by their institution. Those numbers jump to 70% and 80%, respectively, when referring to videos provided by education companies and those found online.

Must Read for Marketing on Facebook

A recent white paper by BulbStorm discusses 10 myths and misconceptions about marketing on Facebook.   Matt Simpson, developer of Facebook apps suggests asking the following questions before launching your Facebook marketing campaign. 

• Am I seeking virality? If the premise of your promotion is to go viral, it’s a huge red flag. That’s not to say that a creative concept and well-built technology won’t drive organic growth. But don’t expect to spam the news feed and get away with it.
• Am I using Facebook functionality? Be careful here! Do not ask fans to post, like or comment on content on your wall or photo albums. Do not use “like” buttons as a voting mechanism. You must run your promotion through a third-party application.
• Am I collecting contact information? At the end of your campaign, you’ll have to contact your winners to distribute prizes. Remember to collect their contact info in your promotion app, because you cannot contact them through Facebook.

The Facebook Mall & Retail Trends

Working through my email archives this week and I came across this message from Karen Hernandez at Normandale Community College Bookstore. She wrote:

I thought this was an interesting article about shopping and setting up a store on facebook. Might be something that stores should think about doing soon while it is still free. If you read the entire article in “All Things Digital” it appears to be something that would be attractive to students when they find out about it.

This piece relates to another story from All Things Digital that has been sitting in my archives for a while. That story was on retail technology trends in 2010 that will change the way consumers shop: mobile, social, and local. Here is an excerpt:

Mobile: There’s definitely an app for that. As smartphones go mainstream, savvy shoppers use apps to price-check and read reviews of products in the store.
Result: Retailers watch in horror as shoppers leave their stores empty-handed and drive across town to another store or go online to order a different or cheaper product.

Social: Friends and social circles influence purchase decisions through the rise of Facebook and Twitter. Users check in on apps, such as Foursquare and shopkick, for discounts and incentives.
Result: Retailers who don’t bone up on their social media skills may miss out on generating conversations across the Web that result in online sales or traffic to their stores.

Local: Advertising begins shifting to Groupon and LivingSocial, as group discounting and daily deals gain popularity.
Result: At least initially, these deals have been successful at locking in sales for local stores and restaurants looking for a bump in visitors.

The story goes on to discuss what various retailers are doing in each of these areas with ideas for driving traffic or changing business practices. The world of retail is changing--time for folks to get on board.

Readum links Google Books and Facebook

"Why should we divide our friends and fellow readers up by the devices they use?” the BookGlutton.com founder asked in this article in Publishers Weekly. The Readum platform builds a connection betweeen Google Books and Facebook. Readum allows readers to make comments on specific paragraphs in their Google Books. Those comments are then posted to Facebook groups or their Facebook wall. The app also creates an individual page for the comments and pulls any book listed into their Facebook profile.

While not yet as far along as other social media experiments for books environments (like Copia) the tool has the same idea at its base -- enabling communities of conversation around digital books. One aspect of the Readum approach that I like is that they are actively working to demonstrate the "proof of concept" by utilizing existing social networks rather than trying to build their own. That enables a more coherent strategy and focused development around competencies. It will be interesting to watch where this project goes.

A short video on Readum appears below:

Readum from Travis Alber on Vimeo.

Readum App Links Google E-Books to Facebook

BookGlutton.com founder Travis Albers felt Google e-book readers needed to connect with their Facebook friends, so she’s providing a solution with the release of the new Readum social media application. The Readum app lets users of different e-reading platforms and devices add comments and notes to books in their Google e-book library and then post them to Facebook.

“Why should we divide our friends and fellow readers up by the devices they use?” the BookGlutton.com founder asked in this article in Publishers Weekly.

Readum allows readers to make comments on specific paragraphs in their books. Those comments are then posted to Facebook groups or their Facebook wall. The app also creates an individual page for the comments and pulls any book listed into their Facebook profile.

The app is limited to Facebook users at the moment, but Twitter support is planned, according to Aaron Miller of ReadSocial. Miller went on to say that by using ReadSocial API, developed by BookGlutton.com, developers and content providers will ultimately be able to tie any e-book to any social network or community.