1) Passing Down Digital Assets After Death
I argue with Melanie about why acknowledging your digital footprint in your last will and testament is important.
- What happens to your email, social media, blog, photos, cloud documents, financial, professional, and gaming accounts when you die?
- Why online accounts matter after death:
- 1) Wishes of the deceased: do they want the FB account up as a memorial? for how long? who should be trusted with the emails, records, photos, videos, messages, etc.?
- 2) Money: U.S. consumers value their digital assets, on average, at nearly $55,000. -2011 McAfee Survey. That includes photos, projects, hobbies, personal records, career information, entertainment and email.
- “Online companies face a ‘patchwork of state laws’ and are usually cautious when it comes to granting access to a deceased user’s account.” -via nbcnews.com
- U.S. General Services Administration recommends you set up a social media will
- Only five states’ estate laws include digital assets: CT, RI, OK, IN, and ID. Some states’ statutes just relate to email, with only Oklahoma and Idaho clearly including social networking and blogging as part of an estate (well done, y’all).
- How to set up digital estate planning: consider using one of the dozens of paid services: thedigitalbeyond.com/online-services-list/
2) Fake Facebook Accounts – Categories, Prevalence, Issues, Fake Clicks
- The “bad actors” that Facebook targets are people with many fake accounts
- As of 8/1/12, CNET reports 8.7%, or 83.09M accounts: “Facebook estimates that 4.8% are duplicate accounts, 2.4% are user-misclassified accounts, and 1.5% are undesirable accounts.”
- “We want to ensure that one of the core tenets of Facebook is that you have your unique identity on Facebook.” -Facebook’s Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson to Business Insider
3) Facebook to roll out more Timeline changes
- In New Zealand and parts of Europe, FB has started to roll out new changes to Timeline. Changes to expect for personal profiles (and probably for brand pages eventually, if the past is any indication):
- Boxes below your cover image will be replaced with a simpler, tabbed design. Posts will appear in a single wide column on the left as opposed to being randomly split into two columns.
- New “collections manager” lets you drag to reorder your collections, so you can put maps and friends where you want them.
- In a nod to Twitter, your subscribers are now called followers. Subscribers/followers are different than friends. No changes to friends are apparent as yet.
- In another nod to Twitter, your name appears in white over the bottom of your cover photo. Basic info, including your location and job, are now located to the right of your profile photo instead of below.
4) Facebook Ads, Mobile, and Stock
- Facebook shares are way up ($30/share).
- Mobile has gone from being perceived as challenge to Facebook to being seen as a huge opportunity.
- Mobile revenues predicted to make up 20%-24% of Facebook’s overall top line in Q4-2012, up from 3% in Q2-2012.
- Analyst Anmuth says mobile will generate $2.13 billion for Facebook in 2013, up from his previous $2 billion estimate.
- FB mobile revenues to surpass desktop in 2014
- Ads in the Newsfeed are much more effective than ads on the right side (but more annoying when irrelevant)
- Facebook Gifts – predicted to contribute $1 billion+ by 2015, and 5% of Facebook’s profits in 2013.
- Advertisers love Facebook’s ad exchange.
Tips On Tap
1. Home Inventory: As we begin a new year, here’s a life admin tip to ensure that your home or renter’s insurance really will cover you if disaster strikes. With camera phones and free online storage services like Google Drive and Dropbox, you have no excuse not to make a video documenting your home possessions and store it in the cloud.
WhatYouOwn – home inventory software. http://www.whatyouown.com/ Download the free trial version for Mac OS or Windows 8. Reviewed by CNET as one of the best. Why:
- Purchase enough insurance to replace the things you own.
- Get your insurance claims settled faster.
- Substantiate losses for your income tax return.
2) AppGratis is a free iPhone app that recommends a new app each day that’s free for that day. I scored the super skeuomorphic Daily Weather app. We discuss its merits vs. Apple’s iPhone Weather app.
3) Digitally Imported App– http://www.di.fm/ “Digitally Imported – Addictive Electronic Music 24/7”
- A free music streaming app with premium membership option.
- Great for serious electronic and progressive music fans because it is genre-specific and very extensive in sub-genre channels
- Social: Community tab displays Facebook and Twitter conversations
- Radio shows can submit demos to be on the dozens of stations
- They air popular shows like Armin Van Buuren’s A State of Trance at scheduled times, otherwise you can stream Channels
Show Notes
- Digital Afterlife: What happens to your online accounts when you die? nbcnews.com 6/1/12
- Passing Down Digital Assets – WSJ.com 8/31/12
- Facebook Stock Is On A Profound Tear As Wall Street Analysts Praise Its Stunning Turnaround in Mobile– Business Insider 2/2/13
- Flurry: Christmas Day 2012 Smartphone And Tablet Activations Top 17.4M, 2.5X The Record Set In 2011 (a stat I cited)
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