We Are Social AU: Tuesday Tune-Up #9
News
News
It’s a big week for us here at We Are Social towers, with the launch of our sixth office wordwide in São Paulo, Brazil – Ola!
(Pictured: São Paulo. If you look closely, you can see us… we’re right there)
On to the Tune-Up…
Facebook launches iPad app
Facebook have launched their long-awaited iPad app, and are set to shake up the mobile space as a result.
The app is designed for consumption – with full-screen photos being an obvious win – but the real result is for brands and developers, as the iPad app allows Facebook applications to be shared socially via mobile.
With the launch of their Facebook platform for mobile, Facebook games will be available to play in full screen. Launch titles from both EA and Zygna will also take advantage of in-app purchases via Facebook credits.
You’ll also be able to play Facebook video in HD via Apple TV or other mobile devices.
The look and feel of the app was no surprise, as a version was leaked earlier this year. Don’t get too comfortable though, they’ll no doubt change the UI every couple of weeks to maintain the authentic Facebook experience you’ve come to know and love/loathe.
Australian enterprise social networking to increase by 25% in next 3 years
According to a report by Frost & Sulllivan, ‘the ability to share information internally’ has proved a major factor in Australian organisations encouraging the use of social media.
A recent survey of 162 IT managers by the research firm found nearly half of organisations consider the ability to target specific groups and speed as the main advantages offered by social media over traditional marketing channels, with 44 per cent of businesses being either in early stages of adoption of social media.
Further, companies like VMware and Cisco are entering the social media space on the enterprise level, acquiring Socialcast and Versly respectively.
Other corporations are announcing parnterships with social enterprise businesses in the the unified communications, video conferencing, software and IT segments.
Frost & Sullivan ICT research director Audrey William added, “over time, this approach will be extended to include customer-facing functions.”
The firm predicts that the lucrative cloud computing sector is expected to be a segment of huge interest and growth among Australian businesses over the next few years.
They obviously took the phrase ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ at face value.
Social network ad revenues to reach $10 billion in 2013
According to eMarketer estimates, spending on advertising on social networks will reach $10 billion globally in 2013 – the majority of which will come from Facebook and Twitter. That’s a lotta dollar.
What’s particularly important about this, is that this is on top of the socially enabled ads certain brands are using off Facebook. Consumer goods companies like Mars and Kraft are spending well over 30% of their banner ad spend on specific banner ads which drive people through to Facebook, indicating how they view the Facebook Page as a hub.
Coca Cola like social media
An interview well worth reading with Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca Cola – one particular quote stands out though:
Five years ago social media was 3% of our total media spend. Today it’s 20% and growing fast.
Boom.
78% of European marketers unhappy with social media measurement
Of 500 marketing directors from across Europe questioned in a recent survey, the vast majority felt they didn’t have “a complete and up-to-date view on how much they are investing in, managing and delivering social media campaigns”.
One reason for this feeling lies in a confusion surrounding the responsibility for social media measurement, with 35% of marketers considering this to be someone else’s job.
The survey also revealed Facebook to be the most widely used social media marketing channel, with 84% of organisations using it, compared to just 62% for Twitter, but that there are doubts about the accuracy of measuring social media ROI.
It builds on previous surveys which also showed a disparity between the social media metrics currently being measured and those most valued by companies.
If you’re a marketer struggling with these issues, perhaps you should get in touch…
Report shows social media drives clear ROI
Indeed, those who doubt the ROI of social media marketing are in for a rude shock: a new report suggests that prospective consumers engaged via social media sites spend up to 40% more than the average consumer.
It shows that if you’re successful in social media, it does quite literally pay off for the brand.
Are you being served?
Whilst companies are becoming increasingly adept at social media marketing, it seems that social customer service may be falling by the wayside.
A survey by Auros revels that of 25 of the UK’s top retailers, only 25% responded to a customer service question on Twitter.
When it comes to Facebook, 17% will respond to positive comments posted on Pages, whilst only 11% will do the same for negative comments.
Despite these figures, it appears that companies who do respond to enquiries on Facebook and Twitter do so in under two hours on average, compared to a ten hour wait for an email response.
Social media buzz and TV ratings
An analysis of the correlation between online buzz and television ratings by Nielsen revealed a statistically significant relationship between the two.
Among people aged 18-34, the most active social networkers, social media buzz is most closely aligned with TV ratings for the premiere of a show.
A few weeks prior to a show’s premiere, a nine percent increase in buzz volume correlates to a one percent increase in ratings among this group.
Facebook plans to improves customer service for brands and agencies, removes “reviews” and gets chatty
Amidst the slew of changes to Facebook recently, the social network is acknowledging a need to improve its customer service offering for brands and agencies.
Strategic partner manager Gavin Sathianathan admitted that Facebook’s current approach deals with customer service queries badly, but don’t expect a personal response from Mark Zuckerberg any time soon – their intention is not to answer one-on-one conversations but to “take a pragmatic approach to service” through platforms such as the Help Centre and Facebook Studio.
The news follows the demise of the “Reviews” page tab app (which followed last week’s removal of the discussions app), as the platform attempts to encourage conversation and feedback through the wall instead.
The Help Centre reveals that Facebook are “working on tools to help you moderate, filter and manage content in one powerful place,” raising more queries and rumours about how the Timeline redesign might be applied to Pages.
Another recent change sees the introduction of a translation tool on individual page posts powered by Microsoft Bing Translate.
The feature allows users to view Page posts in their native language through machine translation, community-generated translation or a mixture of the two.
Whilst this feature is an obvious advantage for brands building international communities, it also has interesting potential for facilitating international friendships.
As Inside Facebook reports, “If Facebook’s goal is to make the world more open and connected, what better way than allowing users to share with the whole world regardless of the language they speak.”
Google’s Management doesn’t use Google+
The chart does all the talking here – and it’s pretty damning for how Google+ must be viewed internally:
Google+ beefs up APIs
In a move which should make the site more developer-friendly, Google have opened up the Google+ API further, to make it a lot easier for developers to search posts.
LinkedIn company updates
LinkedIn has launched the ability for companies to post updates – the idea is to make it easier for users to converse with the companies, and in turn, to make it easier for companies to start conversations.
New offices for Twitter and Foursquare
Last week saw Twitter open in New York, and Foursquare announce they’ll be opening in London by the end of the year.
Gumtree launches social media based Deals service
An interesting move from Gumtree, which we’ll be certainly be watching:
Gumtree Daily Deals will be the “first” service to consult its customers on the deals they would like to be offered, via its Facebook page.
A selection of deals will also be trialled by a group of volunteer bloggers, dubbed the Crash Test Gummies, who will write reviews of their experiences to increase engagement with the service.
Heinz “Get Well” Soup on Facebook
Following the successful Heinz Tomato Ketchup Limited Edition Facebook launch earlier this year, last week we launched the “Get Well” Soup campaign, which offers Heinz Soups’ UK Facebook fans the opportunity to buy a personalised can of Heinz Soup to cheer up a friend who’s feeling under the weather.
First live paid for concert broadcast through Facebook
The Michael Jackson tribute concert was broadcast on Saturday through the site, with fans having to pay $4 or 40 Credits to view it. It had better have been a thriller.
Virtual BestBuy opens in CityVille
In Zynga’s Facebook game CityVille, in a clever commercial deal with BestBuy, it is now possible to open up a branch of BestBuy in your city. It’s interesting to see the changes Zynga are making to CityVille at the moment, because it finally has a rival.
For ages, CityVille was indisputably the market leader, but as the New York Times highlighted in an interesting feature yesterday, Sims Social is looking like it will catch it soon.
Both of these games are incredibly profitable, so it remains to be seen what the former will do to try and regain its market edge.
Sky’s clever campaign
Sky launched a great mashup of social media and outdoor billboards over the last couple of weeks: in 16 commuter stations across the UK, Sky ran digital out of home billboards prompting viewers to tweet for a personal show recommendation with #whatsonsky.
The @SkyHD account responded with a recommendation based on what they could find out from that person’s Twitter profile. After the success of this campaign, the sky’s the limit.
Ted Baker’s latest Facebook app
In a clever campaign which encourages visitors to stores to then like their Facebook Page, Ted Baker have created an app on their Facebook Page called ‘it’s rutting season’.
Consumers are photographed in-store wearing stag masks, and then have to drive their friends to like their picture on the Facebook Page, for the chance to win a £500 Ted Baker voucher. Oh deer.
New beer named through social media suggestions
Lithuanian brewery Utenos ran out of ideas for what to name their newest beer – so they asked their consumers for suggestions.
The result? A beer named Friday, in honour of that great song. Thumbs up.
Dalai Lama hosts Google+ hangout
After not being granted a visa to visit South Africa, the Dalai Lama hosted a Google+ hangout on Saturday to wish Desmond Tutu a happy birthday.
Social stat of the week: Twitter gets 15 billion API calls a day
Single serving Tumblr of the week: The Imaginary Image Blog
Viral video of the week: Simon’s cat is back