Ellen Takes A Selfie and Hoverboards Disappoint Us All

Hello Social’s Social Media story of the week has to do with Ellen’s Samsung Selfie at the Oscars. We also have news abut Pinterest’s new unlimited secret boards, Facebook messenger being available on Windows phones and Twitter being used to detect real-time HIV outbreaks in the US, pretty crazy huh!? Our viral video of the week is the HUVr tech prank played on us by Funny or Die (don’t be afraid to grab a tissue as we reveal that hover boards are not, in fact, real). Happy reading!

I don’t know about you guys but we feel somewhat ripped off knowing that Ellen DeGeneres’s Oscar selfie was actually just an ad for Samsung. Second-time Oscar host DeGeneres broke the record for Twitter retweets Sunday when she tweeted a selfie with a gaggle of fellow A-list stars at the ceremony.

DeGeneres had suggested taking selfies during the ceremony, and ABC recommended using a Samsung phone because the company was a sponsor. The Wall Street Journal estimates that Samsung spent some $18 million on advertising in this year’s ceremony.

Great marketing ploy in my opinion, whoever thought of that deserves a raise.

We are extremely sorry to announce that Hoverboards… are not real. Try to hold back your tears as we explain:

Yesterday, a company called HUVr claimed to have created real hoverboard technology and a series of HUVr videos went viral. Actors Billy Zane and Christopher Lloyd of “Back to the Future” appear in the videos. Other stars include Schoolboy Q, Terrell Owens, Moby and Tony Hawk encouraging people believe that HUVr tech is real. But alas, hoverboards will not be blessing this earth anytime soon which has left people wondering, why?

Is HUVr just an elaborate prank by a comedian? An early April Fool’s joke? Or is it some kind of marketing stunt? One idea is that Back to the Future 4 will be coming out at the end of the year but for now, audiences worldwide are left hanging. Watch this space.

Twitter can detect HIV outbreaks in real-time in the US, research shows. If you’re thinking, ‘wait…did I read that write?’ then don’t worry, because so were we.

The study, published in the journal ‘Preventive Medicine’ (UCLA), suggests a link between geographic outbreaks in the U.S. and tweets with phrases that indicate drug-related and sexually risky behaviour. A Twitter search for key words such as ‘sex’ and ‘get high’ combined with a statistical check of locations, matched areas where HIV cases had been reported.

Could social media be the future of world health?

Microsoft claim to be breaking down barriers and “closing the app-gap” by FINALLY introducing Facebook messenger on their phones (in a few weeks mind you).

This is good news for avid social media users who own Windows phones however, messenger has existed on iOS and Android for over TWO YEARS now so how ground breaking is this really?

Furthermore, Windows are slowly adding new big names to their app store, finally snagging Instagram last Spring, but like everything Windows related, it’s a slow process.