Britt McHenry Needs To Take Her Own Social Media Advice!

Just because your Twitter feed is nice and sweet, doesn't always mean you are.

That is my biggest take-away from this week's Britt McHenry scandal.  If you haven't heard, yesterday, a video went viral of ESPN's reporter Britt McHenry berating a parking lot attendee.  Britt, who happens to be an beautiful blonde bombshell, goes off on this woman, insulting the woman's appearance (her teeth and her weight), her education and her lifestyle.  Britt's language makes her look anything but beautiful.  The video was leaked by the attendant, who was working at the tow lot where Britt's car had been towed, and has been watched hundreds of thousands of times.  Britt has since been given a week suspension but the Twitter-sphere does not think that's enough.  Hashtags including #FireBritt have been trending since the video went viral. 

There's irony in this, as Britt has been known to tweet about kindness and post Instagram pictures with quotes like "If you can be anything, be kind."  (Update: Britt just made her Instagram private!)  Well, Miss McHenry.  You need to take your own advice!

You know what is even more strange to me?  Had Britt made these comments as posts on Twitter or Facebook, she would probably be fired.  As we have seen so many times (and I write about constantly in our #DeathByTwitter series), when people make a Twitter-error, they get fired!!  Isn't it more offensive if you are rude directly to someone's face?

Look, I get that people lose their tempers.  We all say things we don't mean.  But you don't need to insult someone at that kind of personal level.  And using your news-status as a way to act better than other people is just gross.

Have you guys watched the Britt McHenry video?  What do you think of it?  Should she be fired or is a week suspension enough?

Best April Fools' Day Jokes of 2015

Don’t trust anything you see in your Twitter Feed or Facebook News Feed today.  At least not without verifying it.  That’s right, it’s April Fools' Day.

Of course, friends will be playing pranks on each other at work and posting fake Facebook announcements.  I think, though, that the real fun of April Fools' Day is to see how big brands respond.   And this year, we’ve got some doozies.

A drumroll, please for my top 5 Social Media April Fools' Day Jokes!

HINGE’S PLAYDATEDating app Hinge released its “newest” feature, PlayDating!  A dating app for 2-5 year olds looking for playdates.  The company flirts the line of a spoof product well in its pretend advertisement, and the little kids are just adorable!!

GOOGLE’S INBOX SMARTBOXGoogle had several jokes going on this year.  My personal fave is the fake ad the google gang made for a “revolutionary new mailbox”.  The Smartbox holds your snail mail, is activated by a wave of the hand, sparks those trying to put junk mail into your mailbox and has temperature controls AND video messaging! (WEIRD!!)
Check out the video, you might just find yourself wanting a SmartBox!

AMAZON 1999In a April Fools' Day throwback, Amazon.com has redone its entire site to look like it is 1999!  Check it out!  It is fascinating, actually to see how far we’ve come. There used to be SO much text and no pictures!! Goes to show that the internet quickly learned the power of visual imagery!

SELFIE SHOEA shoe company, Miz Mooz jumped in on the April Fools' Day action with a brilliant but fake new product, the selfie shoe.  Is it bad that I kind of want a pair?!  The selfie shoe has a slot for your phone and an internal button to take a selfie with a tap of your toe!  The video is hilarious and I now want to cut slits in my shoes to try this!

HONDA’S HR-V SELFIE EDITIONAlso in on the selfie spoof is Honda!  Honda’s “new” car has built-in selfie-ready features.  As its spoof ad puts it, “Every Honda comes with a rear view camera.  But the Honda HR-V Selfie Edition comes with the kind of camera I look for in a car.  It has TEN different selfie cameras!”  This would solve some problems for all those in-car selfies we see every day!

The Day The Music Died..... #OneDirection

Today's biggest social media story has a sad, sad tune.

It broke online earlier today, with a post on Facebook from mega-star band One Direction, announcing that member Zayn Malik was leaving the group.

Immediately, the hearts of a million girls worldwide tore apart, and social media went crazy.

Usually, if a story is SUPER popular it will take up one spot on Twitter's "Trending Topics".  It is a big deal to be a Twitter trending topic, as there are only 10 at any given moment.  Well, right now, Zayn's departure is the story on 4  trending topics in Los Angeles, and 2 of them WORLDWIDE.   The most popular sentiments include #AlwaysInOurHeartsZaynMalik and #ZaynWillAlwaysBeAPartOf1D.

These cries are reaching far beyond Twitter, though.  Of course, the original post on Facebook is blowing up, with over a half a MILLION likes and comments.  But it goes even deeper than that.  YouTube has been flooded with videos of fans crying and in hysterics, begging Zayn not to leave.  

He's still alive, people!! Zayn claimed that he wants to be able to "relax and have some private time out of the spotlight." Right, just like any other normal 22-year old guy.  Except with a hoard of devastated fans in his wake.  

Think Zayn's dreams of normalcy will ever happen?  What are your thoughts on Zayn's departure?

Social Media's Hottest Dress of the Season!

Since it is the end of awards season, you would think it is the end of dresses being the top hit on Twitter. 

But last night, Twitter was overtaken with a new dress that caused a huge controversy.

Dubbed #TheDress, this color optical illusion basically divided the internet into two camps, #TeamBlackAndBlue and #TeamWhiteAndGold.

To explain a bit, depending on your brain's perception of color, viewers can see an image of the same dress as either black and blue striped, or gold and white striped.  The concept is fascinating, but since this isn't a brain function blog, I'll let you read about the science elsewhere.  If interested, I think WIRED's recap of it is the best.

Another fascinating aspect, though, is just how quickly this sensation swamped our newsfeeds!  #TheDress was first posted to Tumblr on Wednesday.  Apparently, as Washington Post reported, the dress was intended to be worn in a wedding.  And when the mother of the bride snapped a picture of it to send to members of the wedding party, they all saw the dress as different colors!  To settle the debate, they posed the question to social media and BAM.  

Tens of millions of tweets siding on either end of the debate led to trending hashtags #TheDress, #whiteandgold, #blackandblue.  Even celebrities from Taylor Swift to Mindy Kaling to Julianne Moore chimed in about #TheDress.

When I first saw it, I thought people were pranking me!  It was clearly white and gold.  But now, a few images that I've seen actually do look blue and black!  We are clearly going mad!

What colors do you see?  

Classy Lady Gaga Broke Twitter!

People usually have a lot of thoughts when you bring up Lady Gaga.  Not the least of which are flying costumes, dresses made of meat and weird gigantic head gear.

But the words that aren't usually top of mind are PURE CLASS.  At last night's Oscar's awards, though, that is exactly what she was.

Lady Gaga looked GORGEOUS and sounded even better during her "Sound Of Music" tribute performance.  And basically, the performance all but broke Twitter.  In a night of awards and great speeches, Lady Gaga's performance beat every other moment during the broadcast as far as number of tweets.

I have to admit, the whole time I was watching I couldn't keep my jaw off the floor.  She was so, so amazing.  It's no wonder she beat all the other Twitter numbers, she was the highlight of the night! 

There were, of course, other topics at play during the evening.  You know, like the nominees and awards.  Time Magazine put out a pretty cool timelapse chart to show which Oscar nominated movies were trending in real time during the show.  Of course, the Best Picture winner ended up on top by the end of the night.  Go, Birdman!

What was your favorite moment of the show?  And were you just thinking OMG the entire time Lady Gaga was on!?

How Kanye Actually Won The Grammys

Kanye West didn't win an actual Grammy Award last night, but he definitely won on social media.

If you didn't see the big show last night, then you missed Kanye's fake out stage crash. Reminiscent of his 2009 crash of Taylor Swift's award speech (gosh, that video still makes me cringe), Kanye headed up to the stage after the Album of The Year Award was presented to Beck.  The whole audience seemed to hold their breath until Kanye stopped, smirked and sat back down.  Whether he was joking all along, or just decided not to actually crash another speech, who knows.  But I am glad he sat down!  

The Twittersphere was not pleased with Kanye's antics.  The awkward interaction ranked as the most tweeted moment of the Grammys in terms of tweets per minute, and landed Kanye as the most tweeted about celeb at The Grammys.

What did you think of Kanye rushing the stage?  'So funny' or 'So rude'?

It Was A Super Social Super Bowl!

The Patriots might have been named champions last night, but the Super Bowl itself also won a prize.  Namely, the "most tweeted Superbowl ever".  

With 28.4 million tweets, almost 20% more than last year's game, Super Bowl XLIX was a huge social media success.  

The game's three most tweeted moments were stacked toward the second half: 

3) The end of Katy Perry's halftime show (284,000 tweets per minute)

2) The moment the Patriots finally won the game (379,000 tweets per minute)

1) Malcolm Butler's interception, 20 seconds before the game ended (395 tweets per minute)

But, as we know, the Twittersphere doesn't end at the game itself.  Super Bowl commercials are a huge deal in the social media world.  In fact, almost half of the 66 TV advertisements that aired during the game incorporated a specific hashtag for viewers to tweet promoting the spot or the brand.  Facebook and Snapchat took home a piece of that action too, both being mentioned in commercials including the "Pitch Perfect 2" movie spot, which was Snapchat's Super Bowl debut.  

How do you think the brands did?  What was your favorite Super Bowl commercial?