Social Media Today: Diversity Data, Foursquare Rebrands, New Oculus Project

By Melony Roy

Twitter releases diversity data

Photo Credit: Bethany Clarke/Getty Images

Twitter has released diversity data on its company, joining other tech companies like LinkedIn, Facebook and Google.

Of Twitter’s 3,000 employees about 59% are predominately white and 70% are men.

(photo credit: Twitter)

The company’s gender gap widens when broken down by expertise with 90% of Twitter’s technology employees are men. Also, almost 80% of those in leadership positions are men and 72% are white.

(photo credit: Twitter)

In a blog post,  Twitter says “We want to be more than a good business; we want to be a business that we are proud of. To that end, we are joining some peer companies by sharing our ethnic and gender diversity data. And like our peers, we have a lot of work to do.”

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Foursquare’s new logo & app

(photo credit: Foursquare)

Foursquare‘s rebranding efforts continue with a new app and logo.

Foursquare is also getting a new logo, the check mark is gone and is replaced with a stylized “F”.

Starting today, the official Foursquare app will have check-ins removed and focus local discovery and recommendations. Users who want to check-in will have to download Foursquare’s spin-off app Swarm.

(photo credit: Foursquare)

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Virtual reality pioneer working with Samsung

An attendee wears an Oculus Rift HD virtual reality head-mounted display at he plays EVE: Valkyrie, a multiplayer virtual reality dogfighting shooter game, at the Intel booth at the 2014 International CES, January 9, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

According to CNET, Facebook’s Oculus VR is working with Samsung Electronics on a headset that uses mobile devices to create a Virtual Reality experience.

An Oculus -Samsung partnership would give each company the potential to outmaneuver competitors.

For Samsung, a head-mounted virtual reality device would help to differentiate its products from devices like Apple’s iPhone with headline-grabbing new functionality.

For Oculus, a mobile version of its software running on smartphones would reach a wider audience, cementing it as a leader for virtual reality in any form.

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Follow KYW social media editor Melony Roy @MelonyRoy.

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