Social media round-up
As the first full week of 2013 comes to a close and Christmas becomes a distant memory, take a break from the New Year mayhem and have a read through this week’s social media round up from Siren Communications.
You know when you go away on holiday and you just have to keep all of your friends and followers on social media updated on (or jealous of) your fun and luxurious exploits while they’re still at home and work? Well now you needn’t spent valuable holiday time glued to your tablet or smartphone as guests at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C., can now hire a social media butler.
As part of a $47,000 four-night package to celebrate Barack Obama’s Inauguration, your personal social media butler will chronicle your experience by posting on your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest accounts on your behalf.
In the week that rumours surfaced about Apple developing a ‘cheaper’ iPhone to further strengthen its place in the smartphone market, Sony has announced a new addition to its Xperia range, the Xperia Z. The USP of this new device? It can be used underwater. For smartphone users that get separation anxiety at the thought of leaving their connection to the online world whilst they bathe, the new phone could be held one metre underwater for about half an hour without breaking. Perhaps we can look forward to more images like Ricky Gervais’s infamous ‘bath pics‘.
China’s equivalent to Twitter, Sina Weibo, has now added an option to microblog in English as well as Chinese, prompting rumours that it could be planning to expand to America in the near future. The site, which has more than 400 million users, already has one high profile U.S. user, as none other than Brad Pitt has joined. The Hollywood movie star who was banned from China following his role in the film ‘Seven Years in Tibet’, quickly accumulated 100,000 followers and used the platform to hint at a visit the country.
And finally, a father in China has hired a gang of hitmen to assassinate his own son. Fear not, this is all part of online role-playing games. The dad of the 23-year-old was so sick of his son spending hours playing the virtual reality games that he employed the services of a group of expert players to ‘take out’ his son’s characters as a punishment for his poor grades and in the hope that it would encourage him to get a job.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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