We Are Social: Tuesday Tune-Up #41
News
News
Kylie Minogue fans take to Twitter to unlock video
Last week a new video from Kylie Minogue was unlocked by her fans using the social network Twitter. Fans needed to generate 25,000 #KylieTimeBomb tweets in oder to reveal the song.
At its peak, the campaign was generating 10 tweets per second making it a trending topic in just six minutes. Once the number of tweets was reached the song was also made available on iTunes and Spotify.
ACCC says its OK for celebrities to tweet without advertising disclosure
Celebrities who are paid to tweet do not need to disclose they are being paid as long as they are being truthful, the competition watch dog says. This ruling came in response to the ABC’s Media Watch outing of celebrity chef Matt Moran and singer Shannon Noll that promoted South Australian Tourism. This appears to be a direct contradiction to the ACCC’s ruling on the “cash for comments” furor from 1999 when radio personalities were charged and fined for making endorsements without disclosing payments.
Nearly 9 of 10 buyers look at reviews before making a purchase
A new survey from Reevoo delved into the way we react to recommendations and how much we are influenced by our friends online. More then half of respondents said friends recommendations were influential, closely followed by consumer reviews (48%), advertising (24%) and advice from sales assistants (22%).
One very interesting stat comes from the rather large 88% of consumers ‘sometimes or always’ consult a review before making a purchase, and with 63% of those spoken to more likely to make a purchase from a site that has user reviews.
Twitter the most popular social media platform for the FTSE 100
A fact that has remained unchanged for some time now, Twitter remains the most popular for the top FTSE 100 companies to stay social. With 69 companies having an official account compared to 63 in 2011.
The research from CorpComms Magazine also shows that one in ten FTSE 100 members are actively engaging on Pinterest, while YouTube is the fastest growing platform in terms of popularity. Facebook has also seen an increase to 47 members have a presence on the network, compared with 33 in 2011. Google+ is gaining momentum with 40% of FTSE companies with a profile.
Facebook releases its own photo app
Facebook revealed its simply named ‘Facebook Camera’ app on Thursday, something that it appears it developed independently of Instagram, which lets users experience a photo-only version of Facebook and adds 15 filters and cropping and straightening tools directly in the app, marking Facebook’s first foray into photo editing.
Facebook testing regional filters for Pages, post reach data, newsfeed games
Facebook is also now testing region-specific Pages so that the Page’s content can be customised depending on fans’ location whilst maintaining a single number of Likes.
Facebook are now allowing Pages admins to see post reach data directly on their posts, making it easier for brands to see which posts are more engaging.
And Facebook is now letting users play game demos without leaving their news feed. The addition comes as part of Facebook’s goal to improve game discovery on its network, in a “try-before-you-buy” type method.
New Google+ Android app
Another update on the Google+ side is one that should put a smile on Android device owners faces, with an updated Google+ app now available on the platform. This follows the release of the new iOS app at the start of the month and includes a new photo-first interface – echoing Facebook’s app move this week. The app also allows its users can create and use “Hangouts”, edit posts and +1 posts.
Google+ enhances search results for brands
A new addition from Google now sees Google+ within its search engine results. Previously search results would show a mixture of Google+ recommendations on the top right. Now for some brand related searches, the results come with only the brands Google+ page displayed.
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How Google+ impacts SEO performance
Econsultancy’s Kevin Gibbons has been researching the impact of Google+ on organic search and has written a post testing Google’s own theory that “on average, search ads with annotations have a 5-10% uplift in click through rate and the AdWords Social Extension helps you to show more of them”.
Using Soft32.com’s Google+ page as an example, he set some tests and his results where rather interesting. He concludes that while +1′s are actually currently having a negative impact on click through rates, brands with a strong Google+ profile are seeing growth in organic traffic (especially in the last six months) and finally that a strong social footprint is more likely to future proof SEO – not a quick fix.
“Instagram for Video” the next big thing?
Two companies that seem to be doing this best, in popularity terms at least, are SocialCam and Viddy and it seems that brands are flocking to join in the next predicted craze.
SocialCam currently has more then 50 million active month users and Viddy is not far behind with 36 million, giving users the ability to upload videos, add filters or soundtracks and share. Many brands have begun to use the apps and post videos. One company in particular is Sierra Mist, who has chosen SocialCam as its platform, creating special content for the app.
British Airways helps Brits home via Facebook with Olympic theme
Airline British Airways is to launch a competition for its Facebook fans, giving away 240 flights to bring people home for the Olympics. Fans can nominate friends and family who will also get a ticket to the Games thrown in. Winners can be from one of 20 selected international destinations, including Sydney, Moscow and LA.
Nominators are limited to those in the UK and nominations are all via Facebook. BA is also offering 50 free flights to family and friends of Team GB athletes.
Foursquare launches Olympic Day Badge
It was bound to happen really and to be honest it is quite a nice tag-on to the Olympics social presence, Foursquare has announced that it has partnered with the Olympics to release an Olympics Day Badge.
The badge can be unlocked by those that follow the games and check-in at two sports related venues between now and Olympic Day (June 23rd). Tips have been left at the venues from the Olympics and the scheme is aiming to encourage users to Get Fit in the lead up to the games.
London Olympics protesters suspended from Twitter
An “Official Olympic Protestors” group, overseen by Space Hijackers, has had their twitter account suspended due to a trademark complaint from the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. As the Space Hijackers so eloquently put it themselves:
Twitter, the beacon of free speech which so vocally lent it’s support to the Arab Spring did, of course, what everyone expected and immediately curtailed to the interests of big money and business. We, The Official Protesters, were immediately locked out of our account, losing access to thousands of followers, in a move designed to silence our dissent.
This is certainly a troubling development from the social network and it has been criticised for the controversial move. We Are Social’s Global MD, Robin Grant, commented:
Twitter has a proud history of being a conduit for political protest, and we all remember the parody @BPGlobalPR account that was allowed to build an audience of 150,000 followers despite breaking BP’s trademarks during the Deepwater Horizon crisis.
More recently Twitter stood up for its users by challenging a US Court order to release one users data. But in this instance Twitter has been inconsistent with its previous position and let its users down by taking this politically motivated action.
House Beautiful integrates Pinterest from its print magazine
Home design magazine, House Beautiful, has made a rather clever addition to its latest edition, via Pinterest. The publication is letting users post photos from its “Kitchen of the Month” article in the magazine on their Pinterest boards using an app. The apps include; the House Beautiful Connect app for iOS and the Digimarc Discover app for iOS and Android.
The magazine is using Pinterest-enabled watermarks on the special section to aid readers to upload direct to their ‘pinboards’. This is certainly a growing market and a great way to link online presence with real-world print editions. One magazine, Real Simple Magazine, has accumulated over 100,000 followers via Pinterest and says it has double the referral traffic from Pinterest then it gets from Facebook and Twitter combined.