We Are Social’s Tune-up #71
News
News
Welcome to this weeks Tune-up of social media news from around the world!
Facebook launch Graph Search
During the much anticipated Facebook press event held just a few hours ago, the key product launched by the network was Graph Search. Created to take a specific search query and to give an answer, rather than links which may provide the answer, the product is in an early beta phase currently. From a user perspective search results are personalised. For each search query the answer is unique to that user. Key focus areas for the initial launch will be people, photos, places and interests and will start rolling out from today, in a limited beta version. In addition Facebook has partnered and integrated Graph Search with Bing. The product will definitely lift the current search offering found on Facebook and although still in a beta phase will surely mean usage increases, especially as the product grows in terms of offering. Of course marketers and brands will also wait to discover how advertising will be linked to Graph Search as well.
More Facebook News…
Discussed in the last week after being released at the end of December is the potential to segment Facebook fans by region. This addition to the Facebook API means that social media monitoring firms such as Socialbakers are now able to further analyse details for fans on brand pages. For example, where the largest proportions of fans come from and therefore those brands who are potentially buying Facebook likes. Plus of course this additional data will give brands further potential marketing opportunities and to look towards new target markets.
Organic Facebook impressions increase brand website visits by 76%
Ignite have conducted research into groups of people who view both organic and paid impressions on Facebook, compared with a control group who did not. They found that those who were shown organic exposure were 76% more likely to visit a brand website than those receiving no impressions, whilst paid exposure increased the same likelihood by 28%.
A message to Mark Zuckerberg? That’ll be $100, please…
Facebook’s never-ending search for new revenue streams continues, with the social network now offering users the chance to message Mark Zuckerberg for $100. Normally, messages from those who are not his fans will be directed straight into his ‘Other’ folder; the charge ensures that they go straight to his inbox. The system is a version of Facebook’s interest in potentially charging for messaging, which we previously reported and it will be interesting to see if these trials are rolled out further. We would message Zuckerberg and ask, but the fee seems a bit steep…
70% APAC travellers use social media for trip inspiration
Research released in the Digital Index: Travel and Tourism Study has revealed that 70% of Asia Pacific travellers use social media when looking for ideas and inspiration for their travels. The area is the highest around the world, where the average globally is 51%. In addition, 44% of APAC travellers use social media to help them decide on a destination, which is far higher than for example the EMEA region which averages just 18%. It is clear from this study that travel brands should definitely include social media marketing within their overall marketing plans to reach their key target markets.
Huffington Post Social Media Statistics Infographic
The Huffington Post has created a powerful infographic titled 100 Social Media Statistics which provides an overview on 2012 social media performance and for example figures on the growth for networks such as Pinterest, Instagram and Google+. Worth remembering for later in 2013, especially to better understand exactly which networks are only getting stronger, increasing user engagement and size of their user base.
Australian Social Media Review for 2012
When analysing social media growth within just the Australian market 2012 was a year of continued growth. Whilst other countries around the world such as the UK are questioning whether Facebook has reached saturation point, in Australia user numbers continue to grow with over half the population now on Facebook. In addition as seen across the globe, Instagram (especially as it launched on Android), Pinterest and Tumblr users grew significantly through the year. Two question marks continue to be raised though and that is total Australian Twitter users which have never been officially released and also the exact number of monthly Aussie Google+ users.
Commonwealth Bank launch Australian of the Year Short Films
The CBA has this week launched a series of Australian of the Year short films with a few of the finalists including Jessica Mauboy and Ita Buttrose. “The Can Stories”, launched via the CBA’s Facebook page also includes a competition to increase votes for the eight finalists. The films can also be found on the brand’s YouTube channel. Who will you vote for?
Red Bull wins 2012’s best transmedia campaign
Unsurprisingly, Red Bull won 2012’s best transmedia campaign for the “Stratos” campaign which includes the video on YouTube showing Felix Baumgartner’s jump from space. The brand estimate that the campaign has so far gained approximately $155 million worth of media attention and has been mentioned on all forms of media; owned and paid. In second place was Coke’s Olympic campaign “Move to the beat of London” which was the brands largest ever Olympic activation.
Following the money trail in digital marketing
An article by Gartner has discussed how most brands intend to increase their social media marketing budgets in 2013, whilst going into further detail about the money trail and how companies can reallocate budgets from other areas, advising to employ clearer measurements of success and tracking of the sources of funding. A breakdown is included of brands’ intentions for digital marketing.
Digital set to account for a fifth of advertising spend
Another study, this time by eMarketer, has also shown the extent to which brands intend to increase their digital spending. Worldwide digital spend, which has already passed the $100 billion landmark, is set to grow by 15.1% to $118.4 billion by the end of 2013. This growth will then remain in double figures as far as 2015, as shown by the graph below:
More teens on Tumblr than Facebook
Research of 1,038 Internet users by Garry Tan shows the numbers of both 13-18 and 19-25 year olds on different social networks. Interestingly, the younger age group are more active in every single category, suggesting that thoughts about the potential demise of Facebook are premature. In fact, 55% of the former group were on Facebook, compared to 52% of the latter. Perhaps the study’s biggest finding is that Tumblr was used more by both age groups.
The social landscape is increasingly mobile
It is no secret that more and more people are using mobile devices to access social networking sites. In fact, research by Nielsen has shown that the market is continuing to grow, with 46% of US social media users in 2012 accessing the sites via mobile, compared to 37% in 2011. Whilst computers remain the overwhelmingly popular choice, with 94%, this is a drop of 3% from the previous year.
Furthermore, a Google survey showed that 60% of US smartphone owners use their devices to access social networking sites daily, compared to 16% who never do so. This is in comparison to 54% and 17% for the same figures in 2011.
How to engage amplifiers
Twitter have produced an article on amplifiers, the people most likely to retweet your content. Their first point is that amplifiers don’t fit into one neat demographic but, having said that, there are a number of ways to recognise them. Firstly, they are heavy Twitter users and more likely to use Twitter on a mobile phone than others, with 54% of them doing so. They also engage in a wide range of activities on the microblogging platform, as shown by the below graph:
They are also much more likely to follow brands on Twitter, with amplifiers more than twice as likely as the average Twitter user to follow over 20 brands. Finally, they are big fans of television, so recognising the important of dual screening should be important to anyone looking for retweets.
Who are LinkedIn’s 200 million members?
LinkedIn have reached 200 million members around the world. The most active country on the network is the USA, with 74 million members, followed by India with 18 million. The fastest growth is going on in Turkey, Colombia and Indonesia, whilst China, Brazil and Portugal are displaying the highest mobile growth. If LinkedIn were a country, it would have the 5th largest population in the world, larger than Brazil and equivalent to roughly France, the UK and Italy combined.
Google+ Pages can interact with users who haven’t circled them
Having launched pages for businesses in November 2011, Google+ are now allowing these brands to communicate with all users of the network, as opposed to simply those who have circled them. The move seems to be aimed at encouraging brands to join Google+ and should allow more strategic methods of fan base growth.
Sina Weibo develops partially English interface
Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblogging site, has produced an interface that allows for English dropdown menus, shown below. As you can see, there is still a long way to go in terms of developing an experience fit for English speakers, but further progress could see a way for the network to expand into Western markets.
Western Interest in Sina Weibo increasing
The move mentioned above may be a timely one, as Western celebrities and brands are looking to get involved with Sina Weibo. Brad Pitt, who does not currently even have a Twitter account, is the latest celebrity to join a cohort that includes Justin Bieber and Radiohead, whilst brands like Coca-Cola, Unilever and Louis Vuitton are all on board. As our We Are Social UK colleague Jon Hoel told The Telegraph:
If you want to be big in China then you have to be on Sina Weibo. Every major western company knows that it is the place to be right now if they want to build their brands overseas.
The Associated Press to feature sponsored Tweets
News source the Associated Press are set to promote Tweets on their feed, which has caused anger amongst some followers and other journalists. These are not official promoted tweets, rather just branded content that they will post on their feed from time to time, with Samsung announced as their first partner. The negative reaction comes as a result of people arguing that this will somehow compromise the neutrality of their reporting, whilst others have jumped to their defence to claim that it will make no difference, even praising the organisation for their openness and honesty.
Lenovo’s ‘Year of the Do’
Lenovo and We Are Social in the US have together released a campaign called ‘Year of the Do’, based around the PC company’s ‘For Those Who Do’ slogan. The Facebook app, based on the insight that sharing your resolutions can help in keeping them, allows users to share their New Year’s resolutions, which can then be seen and interacted with by friends and users around the world. We Are Social’s US managing director Leila Thabet said:
[The campaign is] about inspiring people to do and achieve their best and tapping into that…it’s about facilitating the do.
Evian create cross platform campaign about ‘Living Young’ in January
To counteract the normal January blues, We Are Social in the UK have produced an integrated campaign for Evian that encourages fans to ‘Live Young’ in January. The activity is based around a social hub on Facebook that provides 31 different ways to enjoy yourself, ranging from a ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ game to a competition to win a trip to see the Northern Lights. In its first week alone, the campaign has boosted Evian’s fan count by 21,000.