We Are Social’s Tuesday Tune-up #63
News
News
Pinterest introduces Secret Boards
Late last week Pinterest launched a new feature called ‘Secret Boards’. The feature limits the visibility of the designated board to just the creator and selected collaborators. At this time users can create up to three Secret boards and they can be switched on just once before they are permanently live. Existing boards though can’t be switched to being ‘secret’. This is a great feature for brands to utilise because it means they can prepare specific boards with all required images or videos, test them internally and any links provided before they go live. Or for example retailers could create secret boards for VIP customers to view exclusively prior to going live with all their followers.
Big Issue Australia Supports Homeless & Disadvantaged Women
The Big Issue is currently running a social media campaign to give away 100,000 billboard photo spots and to support homeless and disadvantaged women. The ‘Share for a Square’ campaign aims to raise awareness of an issue at The Big Issue called the Women’s Subscription Enterprise. This is the first social media campaign that the brand is running and the key objective is to fill five online billboards through user sharing of photos.
Facebook testing threaded comments on brand pages
Facebook has confirmed that they are currently testing a new feature on brand pages, where users can reply to specific page comments and then create a threaded discussion. This feature is currently just being tested for brand pages, and not for individual user profiles. Questions though are being raised by community managers regarding notifications of these comments and whether the discussion will become difficult to moderate when multiple conversations could be taking place under just one post.
Plus Sound Notifications…
Reports also in the past week have come out saying that Facebook is testing sound notifications (in addition to existing notifications via the red symbol at the top of the page). You can listen to how the notification will sound here. Although this is another way to bring users repeatedly back to Facebook, it may also be regarded as being quite annoying. Fingers crossed the sound notifications are easy to turn on and off!
Lastly…Facebook’s little known ‘All’ link
Just reported today is news of a Facebook ‘All’ link, where it is possible to view almost everything posted by friends and brands in a user’s news feed. The link advised Facebook is an old one operating on a previous version of the ranking algorithm. It isn’t easy to find, nor one that will be getting promoted and potentially could be taken down by Facebook quite soon. Though for users who like to see a fairly unfiltered version of their news feed, it could be one to check out. You can test the link out here.
Twitter found to be more aggressive than Australian talkback radio
A new study from Media Monitors has found that Twitter is generally much harsher than talkback radio especially for discussions regarding politicians such as Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. This is in most part due to the fact that Twitter is not moderated, whereas radio hosts can direct conversations and callers are screened before going live. The research found that for the period between mid July to October this year, that approximately 17% of all Twitter comments regarding Gillard and Abbott held a low sentiment whilst on radio it was just 1%.
Italian luxury fashion brand Ermenegildo Zegna launches on Google+
The luxury Italian brand Ermenegildo Zegna has just launched a new Google+ page, adding to their current social platforms. The Google+ page is specifically targeting male consumers and includes an editorial calendar, guide with style tips and the brand has advised that they will be using the Hangout feature regularly. The objective for the page will be to reach out to bloggers and key fans of the brand who are using Google+.
54% of top brands are active on Instagram
A new study has shown that more and more brands are signing up for Instagram, with 54% of the world’s top brands now active on the platform, a 35% growth since the beginning of August. MTV holds the top slot for the most followers for a brand, and its follower count stands at nearly one million. Starbucks, Burberry and Nike are a bit further behind but are sure to catch up with MTV soon.
Facebook’s iPhone app adds photo filters, gifts and faster messages
Was Facebook’s Camera and Messenger apps just testing grounds? A big update has now landed for the original Facebook app, which had added the main features of Facebook Camera: photo filters and sharing multiple photos at once. That means Twitter has been left in the dust, as it was just leaked last week that the site was looking into integrating filters into its mobile apps, but hasn’t managed to do so yet. Facebook has also rolled out Facebook Gifts, which has been in beta for a few months, meaning that mobile users can buy presents for their Facebook friends through the app. Facebook has also migrated some of the features from its Messenger app into the main Facebook app, including a list of frequently contacted friends and friends who are online, which can be accessed by swiping left across the screen.
ThingLink adds interactive images to Tweets
Sometimes 140 characters isn’t enough, and a company called ThingLink has developed a way to include interactive images in tweets, that show when a user expands a tweet. Small circular tags appear dotted around an image, which then expand to a small preview window and can then click through to a site. ThingLink already has partnerships with Soundcloud, Spotify and Eventbrite, so it’s easy to click through to audio clips, events, videos or your brand’s eCommerce site. It’s still early days for this feature, but it will be interesting to see how brands use it to its fullest.
Tumblr reaches 20 billion pageviews per month
Tumblr has hit 20 billion pageviews every month, up from a still-impressive 15 billion at the beginning of this year. As the company continues to grow, its CEO David Karp says Tumblr is doing its best to maintain the balance between giving paid advertisers space and maintaining Tumblr’s close-knit community. And Tumblr does that by treating brands just like any other user, without specially-dedicated brand pages.
Google+’s top 100 brands have just 23 million followers combined
Brand pages have been around for about a year now, and the number of people following these pages has increased, but very, very slowly. Brand adoption of the platform has grown from 64% six months ago to 72% in this most recent analysis, and brands with more than 5,000 followers now stand at 44% of the group, up from 35% six months ago. But engagement is down from six months ago, even as the pages keep growing in followers.
Venue ratings, Facebook friend tags arrive in Foursquare’s iPhone app
Foursquare recently added a ratings system, as simple as clicking a heart or a broken heart on a venue page, which has now been incorporated into the mobile version of the app as a rating out of 10. Foursquare’s ratings take more than hearts and heart-nots into account though, and the app also looks into popularity, loyalty and tips left by users. Foursquare has also introduced a new friend tagging system that allows users to mention any of their Facebook friends in check-ins, not just the ones using Foursquare. Friends will get a notification that they’ve been mentioned, increasing Foursquare’s exposure.
Durex’s election ad on Chinese social networks goes viral
The condom brand Durex posted a funny ad on China’s Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo on Election Night in the US, and now the ad has been forwarded more than 43,000 times and got 12,750 comments. It somehow passed the corporate filters as well as the government’s, so we’ll leave the image here, but you’ll have to click through for the translation…
FedEx launches ‘Ship to Friends’ app on Facebook
The parcel company FedEx has created a Facebook app that allows users to create address labels for parcels based on their friends’ profiles, and it notifies friends when they’re about to receive a package. This isn’t much different than what FedEx’s website already offers, but integrating its services with Facebook is sure to get even more users.
ASOS creates ‘shop-able’ video
Online clothing shop ASOS has released a series of videos that feature a running stream of items as they appear in the video that can be pinned to Pinterest or added to your ASOS shopping bag in just a few clicks. Retailers have finally started realising the amazing potential of shareable and shop-able videos, and this looks like a big trend that’s about to take hold.
And finally (we hope): ‘Cakes Are Like Facebook’
Is there anything that isn’t like Facebook? First, it was chairs and then pools, and now apparently, Cakes Are Like Facebook. Facebook posted an update that read, “Birthday cakes are made for people to be together. They give friends a place to gather and celebrate. But too much cake probably isn’t healthy. So birthday cake is a lot like Facebook.” Are they stretching it now?
