by Randy Bennett

Social Media: Verification Tools

Use: Verify sources of social media content to ensure veracity

In an earlier post, I shared information on Verification Junkie, a site that aggregates tools to help journalists assess the veracity of sources and information on social media sites. (For a good source of case studies and best practices on social media verification, click here.)

Here are couple of new (and old) tools that allow journalists to verify if a source is real by identifying that person’s presence on multiple social networks.

Pipl helps verify if information posted is from a real person. Users can search by name, user name, e-mail address, phone number and location. (Source: Tool for journalists: Pipl, for verifying social media sources).

Identify is a Firefox plug-in that has been around since at least 2009 that will automatically gather information from across the Web from a page associated to a specific person (any page that has the tag rel=”me”). The plug-in is invoked by clicking the control key and the “i” key. It is not available for Firefox version 26.0 (so I was unable to test it). (Source: Identify: Google People With Two Keystrokes).

Falcon is a similar plug-in that works on Chrome browsers. I was able to test this one and it’s pretty cool. I plugged in the facebook URL of a friend and its showed me his location, various e-mail accounts, identities on Google+, Quora, YouTube, Foursquare, Instagram, Klout and Aboutme. However, I tried it with my Facebook URL but it did not identify my Gmail, Twitter, Instagram,or Google+ accounts. (It doesn’t work, yet, for LinkedIn). Plus it identified my location as New York rather than Virginia. But if the goal is to make sure the user is authentic, Falcon appears to work.

Plus:

InformaCam, while not a verification tool for third-parties, does provide users with the ability to provide identifying information in their photos. Available for android devices, the tool allows users to attach a variety of metadata to pictures and video, including GPS coordinates, time stamps, compass bearings, etc. As developer Nathan Freitas says: it creates “a digital snapshot of the environment in which the photo or video was taken.” (Source: InformaCam Beta Preview: New Open Source Tool Helps Verify Citizen Media).

Update 1/23/14: Free book to help journalists “get a handle” on verification

11.20.13

by Randy Bennett

Social Media: Geofeedia

Use: Search content by location across social media networks to surface interesting local stories, commentary, sources and content

Geofeedia is a Web-based application that allows media publishers to search social media activity by location across Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram and Picassa. According to Geofeedia: “Once you create a Geofeed – by simply entering an address or drawing a boundary around a location on a map – you can search, monitor and analyze all social media activity from that location.” The search can be refined with additional filters such as source, date, keyword and hashtag.

The data collected can be archived so you can track trends or tie activity to a particular past event. Journalists can use the tool to uncover and curate relevant content for a particular location. Sales executives can use the tool to pin down sentiments about a particular retailer by store location.

Geofeedia offers a 24-hour pass for $49 and special plans for events

ijnet: How newsrooms can use Geofeedia to curate social media by location

Poynter: Geofeedia helps journalists locate real-time photos, tweets where news breaks

iRevolution: Geofeedia: Next Generation Crisis Mapping Technology?

09.09.13

by Randy Bennett

Social Media: Facebook Conversations

Use: Supplement news coverage with related real-time conversations on Facebook; provide added value to advertisers with real-time brand discussions

Facebook has launched two new APIs to track and integrate conversations into news coverage. According to the AllFacebook blog, the two APIs include: “the public feed API, which displays a real-time feed of public posts for a specific word; and the keyword insights API, which tallies the total number of posts that mention a specific term during a specific time period, as well as enabling news organization to feature anonymous, aggregated results based on gender, age, and location.”

These new features are additional arsenal in Facebook’s competitive battle with Twitter. As described on Facebook’s Newsroom blog: “Over the past few months, we have rolled out a series of products aimed at surfacing the public conversations happening on Facebook including hashtags, embedded posts, and trending topics. We are committed to building features that improve the experience of discovering and participating in conversations about things happening in the world right now, including entertainment, sports, politics and news.”

The APIs currently are available to only a few media companies but Facebook says they are “beginning discussions with other media partners and preferred marketing developers (PMD’s) and will make it available to additional partners in the coming weeks.”

You can imagine that the new APIs will be mostly useful to national media organizations who are covering topics that impact a larger group of users. But a big local news item — disasters, college or professional sports teams, salacious trials — could also generate enough conversation that local publishers could meaningfully tap into.

Mashable: Facebook’s New APIs Help Media Outlets Highlight Real-Time Conversations

AllFacebook blog: Facebook Releases Two APIs That Allow News Organizations To Tap Into Its Real-Time Public Posts

PCMag: Facebook Goes After Twitter with Real-Time Conversation