Israeli Company creates pre teen Facebook

Facebook and most other social networks ask you to be 13 before you are able to hold an account with them. This leaves a lot of parents in a very awkward position with children younger than 13 wanting and joining these networks. It isn't just the trouble of monitoring what your child is looking at its also the possibility of inappropriate interaction and bullying. Well a start up in in Israel believe they have the answer.

Itay Eshet has created the first ever preteen social network called Nipagesh, translated from Hebrew it means "lets meet". Eshet says that his network trains the future Facebook users how to be smart online and teaches them the dangers of social media. This is the clever part of Nipagesh, an individual can not sign up only a school can. Once a school has signed up they are able to give students log in details. This also means a user would only be interacting with someone that is a child as well.

A screen grab of Nipagesh's chat feature. When a school joins the network, its entire student body, along with parents and teachers, are signed up at once. Children can flag posts that make them uncomfortable.

Courtesy of Itay Eshet

So far 100 schools have signed up. Fifth-graders at Reut Regional Elementary School in central Israel like it. One student says she plays lots of games on Nipagesh and makes new friends there, while another says any bullying is quickly stopped.

Teachers and parents are also automatically made members also. With a report button on every page it is very easy to report a problem with something that has been seen by a user. Nipagesh also users algorithms to detect inappropriate posts and alerts administrators straight away.

"Kids like to report," says Eshet, adding that sometimes teachers have used such alerts to start classroom discussions. "It's a great way to learn what to report and what not to report. We are here to teach them."

Parents and Teachers are able to see what is posted on walls however in a private message unless reported this message will remain private however, the algorithm still runs which creates alerts and also, parents and teachers are able to find out who has speaking to who. So their is still some privacy on Nipagesh.

There is a lot of possibilities for Nipagesh and could be used socially as well as academically, currently it is only available in Israel for schools and is free to subscribe to. But how long will it be till Nipagesh or something similar hits the western world to teach children the proper and correct way to use social networks.

Social Media Marketing what to look out for in 2014

Social media has become a massive part of our day to day lives. It is also a key tool when it comes to marketing your business and its products or services. Businesses across the world big and small have been taking advantage of social media to engage with their customers. We are going to to take a look at some of our predictions for 2014.

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The Micro-Video Takeover

The revolution has already started with the increase in popularity of social networks such as Vine, Instagram and Snapchat. In a fast moving world the 3 minute video has been killed off by 6 seconds of fireworks. The rise of these networks has led to more real time video sharing, where people are creating and sharing direct from their smartphone meaning you could be anywhere doing anything and able to share a video. These 6 second wonders are sure to change the startegy of most videos going on social media now.

Pictures means success

Brands that have used images to share content have huge success with some brands saying that Pinterest and Instagram have actually increased revenue by 5%. This will continue in 2014 and can only get bigger with the likes of Pinterest becoming very important power players rather than being a female dominated network. This is already proving true with Pinterest being the fastest growing network but it also provides greater traffic as well than anywhere else.

Google+ will come into its own

Google+ has always been seen to be chasing the pack but 2014 could be the year that people start to see the full potential of Google+. Google+ currently has the 2nd highest monthly users and that can only increase, on top of this it also has a bigger ownership in terms of of search power. As more and more people begin to use Google's products users will find that they are using Google+ more as integrates all interactions in one place across all Google products. Google authorship will also become a major part of its rise as it will play a huge part in Google's new ranking algorithm.

Social Media is a must if you want to survive

While social media is a big marketing tool at the moment in 2014 it is going to become essential for every business not to just have but be using to engage and promote their brand with customers. Many are seeing how the positive influence of social media is increasing traffic, creating more leads and gains in revenue. Businesses will realise that they will need some knowledge to make sure they take advantage of social media so training or management of a business social media accounts will be needed.