Dumb ways to die; dumb ways to be a social media guru; Facebook fear; iTunes revamp; and Jackie from Krispy Kreme makes doughnuts and melts hearts.

Dumb Ways to Die goes viral

In which cute little characters get topped off in a variety of grisly ways as a result of their own stupidity (but live to dance along to the folky chorus). The clip, from Metro (Melbourne’s metropolitan rail service), has now reached over 25 million viewers becoming Australia’s most successful viral campaign.

Dumb Ways to Die

Yet another young person being careless on Facebook

We frequently get stories of people getting themselves into trouble on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube by posting offensive content, ranting about employers or using the wrong account. And here’s another one…

26-year-old Sacha Dratwa posed with mud on his face on Facebook with the caption ‘Obama style’. Understandably this provoked much ire online with Dratwa accused of being racist or uneducated.

The surprising part of the story is that, while the people who usually hit the headlines in these situations are naive and often don’t seem to understand the potential of social media, Dratwa is the Head of New Media for the Israeli Defence Forces.

Cynical use of my private pictures: https://t.co/0NJ3ZD4X

— Sacha Dratwa (@SachaDratwa) November 25, 2012

(via New York Times)

Facebook and your copyright

“In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc…. For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!”

This amusingly pompous ‘declaration’ turned up all over Facebook this week prompting mass sharing as users sought in vain to protect their copyright in the light of these ‘new guidelines’ from Facebook.

These hoaxes come along pretty much every time Facebook announces any kind of change (or are rumoured to). Despite having commendably readable Terms and Conditions, Facebook find it hard to shake off their bad reputation around privacy so many users are quick to believe the worst.

Read more at Inquisitir

iTunes gets zippy

Did you know that iTunes first appeared in 2001? And people have been grumbling about it pretty much since.

As it’s services has increased in number and complexity, poor iTunes was crying out for a redesign and in iTunes 11, it looks like Apple have finally delivered.

(I’m currently playing with iTunes 11 and, yes, it’s got some of its pep back.)

(via Gizmodo)

Jackie is Employee of the Millenium

In an attempt to overcome his fear of rejection, entrepreneur Jia Jiang has decided to make ‘crazy requests’ every day so that he can get used to hearing ‘no’.

For the first couple of days, everything went according to plan: his request to borrow $100 from a stranger was predictably rejected and he did not get the ‘burger refill’ he asked for. On Day 3 however, he was thwarted by a particularly helpful employee at Krispy Kreme.

(via entresting.com)

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Enda Guinan is a consultant and trainer offering advice on social media strategy for individuals and small businesses. Get in touch to see how you can make the best use of your time and energy as you put together your social media plans.