Facebook Adds Organ Donor Option to Timeline

Facebook Adds Organ Donor Option to Timeline

Facebook on Tuesday exposed an organ donor status option for Timeline, a move designed to help more than 114,000 people in the U.S. and millions more around the world that are waiting for a live-saving heart, kidney or liver transplant.

“Many of those people — an average of 18 people per day – will die waiting, because there simply aren’t enough organ donors to meet the need,” Facebook notes in a blog entry explaining the move. “Medical experts believe that broader consciousness about organ donation could go a long way toward solving this crisis.”

As the video above explains, designating yourself as an organ donor is easy. All you need to do is go to your Timeline, click on “Life Event” and then “Health & Wellness.” Then, you’ll see the option for “Organ Donor.” At that point, you can add when and where you registered and your personal story. 

For those who aren’t organ donors, Facebook is providing a link to the appropriate registry. As with other Timeline entries, you can make your organ donor status public or private.

The move, which Facebook had alluded to on Monday, comes as the 901 million-strong social network has adopted more socially conscious policies of late, including an anti-bullying initiative and a referral system for friends expressing suicidal thoughts.

Twitter Leads Social Media Sharing Growth over Facebook

Twitter Leads Social Media Sharing Growth

According to an info-graphic released in October 2011 by Unruly Media indicates that from its inception until now, shares on Twitter grew an astounding 35,356%. This was more than six times the 5,809% growth in Facebook Likes.

Other social media networks with substantial increases in shares since their launch include LinkedIn (3,226%), StumbleUpon (2,912%) and Tumblr (1,142%).

Social Media Sharing Growth

Facebook Send Tops Sharing Growth Since 2010

Looking at growth in social network sharing in the past year, Facebook Send leads all types of sharing with a 756% increase. Tumblr follows with 532% growth in shares, with Google +1 coming in third (418%). PingFM (272%) and LinkedIn (243%) round out the top five social networks ranked by sharing growth.

iGoogle Trends Down in Sharing

Conversely, iGoogle had the largest decrease (68%) in sharing by members since 2010, followed by AOL Lifestream (63%) and MySpace (53%). Delicious and Digg tied for the fourth-highest year-over-year decline in shares (46%).

Sharing Takes Processing Power

Each day, global social network shares generate 2.56 billion page views. In an average week, social network shares use 70 terabytes of data, or more data than the Hubble Telescope processed in its first 20 years. During the past five years, there have been 1.78 trillion page views generated by social network shares.

Wed. Morning Prime Sharing Time

Peak sharing occurs at 9:30 AM ET every day, with the most shares occurring on Wednesday. Three-quarters of all clicks occur the same day as a share, and most users click two minutes after content in shared.

Other Findings

• The US has the highest sharing density worldwide, while Chad and the Central African Republic have the lowest sharing density.
• Sharing by copying URLs directly from the address bar to emails, IMs and other social channels can be up to 10 times more than other sharing channels.

WaveMetrix: Fan Involvement Aids SocNet Rebranding

Brands should consider their existing fan base when rebranding or launching new goods via social media, according to an October 2011 report from WaveMetrix. Results from “Q3 2011 Benefits and Limits of a Social Media Fanbase” indicate successful brands involve fans in social media rebranding efforts rather than trying to force a positive response.

Google Partners to Open Research Institute

BERLIN: Berlin's oldest university says it is partnering with Google and three German institutions to start a research institute.

Google Partners to Open Research Institute

Humboldt University announced that the institute would open in the fall and examine the evolution of the Internet and its impact on society, science, politics and the economy.

The institute will focus on innovation, Internet and media policy, philosophy and constitutional rights.

Google will fund the institute to the tune of (euro) 4.5 million ($6.41 million) for the first three years. After that, the group is looking for other sponsors.

The Berlin University of Arts, the Social Science Research Center Berlin and the Hamburg Hans-Bredow-Institute are also involved in the project.