We Are Social: Tuesday Tune Up #88

News
chris.bridgland

Half of Facebook post reach happens in the first half hour
Research by Socialbakers has revealed that 50% of the reach of a Facebook page’s posts occurs in the first half hour, and 80% in the first 3 hours. The below chart, based on a sample of 1,000 posts, displays the real-time minute-by-minute increase in reach.

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Time spent on Google+ far behind Facebook
Google+ users spent an average of 6 minutes 47 seconds on the network during March, a far cry from the 6 hour 44 minute average on rival platform Facebook. Whilst this does represent growth from the 3.3 minutes spent in February 2012, in contrast to Facebook’s dip from 7 hours 9 minutes in March 2012, the rate at which G+ is catching up can be, by these figures at least, dismissed as negligible. Figures reported by Nielsen also revealed 20 million unique US users of the G+ Android and iPhone apps, a 238% increase from March 2012 and 28 million desktop users, up 63% in the same period. However, there is likely to be some crossover between the two groups. In fact, accusations have come in that Google+ is essentially a ‘desolate wasteland’, based on the activity of the top 100 global brands. According to research by Millward Brown, 40% of these posted to Google+ either infrequently or not at all, with seventeen (including Nike and Pepsi) not having posted anything for over a week. McDonald’s, as shown below, have never had a single post.

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How much Vines are shared
Research has been produced into how much branded Vines are shared to celebrate the app turning 100 days old. They discovered that branded Vines are shared 4x as often as branded online videos and, of the top 100 most shared, 4% of Vines were branded, compared to 1% of online videos. In total, 5 Vines are shared per second; more of these come during the weekend than the rest of the week combined. Time-wise, Vine frequency peaks from 10am-11am Eastern Time.

75% of top US retailers and restaurants are on Foursquare
Three quarters of the US top 100 retailers and top 100 restaurants are now on Foursquare, of which a full list can be found here. As for smaller businesses, Foursquare claim that over 1 million businesses have been claimed, but this includes some chain stores; only 17% have ever tried a promotion with the network. Larger businesses are seeing a positive effect from their campaigns; Bloomin’ Brands had 678 users redeem an offer for Outback stores in Richmond, VA, which gave a free appetiser for every second check in. Karen Soots, VP of media services at Bloomin’ Brands, praised the campaign’s effect, saying that if they were to do that nationwide at many restaurants over three weeks, it’s “millions of dollars in incremental revenue”.

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Facebook about to spend some more pocket money
After last years acquisition of Instagram, it was widely considered that Facebook’s major acquisition strategy was primarily defensive rather than offensive. Yet this week there are rumours that Facebook are in final stages of talks with mobile-device driving application Waze, in a deal that could be worth as much as US$1 billion. Waze is a crowd-sourced GPS driving app with just shy of 50 million users, and this acquisition sees Facebook taking another step into the mobile world, whilst acquiring a hugely valuable asset in the map space. It is a hugely proactive shift for Facebook, looking to cement their positioning in the mobile market place, after the launch and subsequent fall of Home in the past few weeks. Keep. Your. Eyes. Peeled.

Waze Australia

Hamilton Island and Weibo Announce Landmark
In an industry first, Tencent, China’s largest social network with over 800million+ active users has partnered with Australia’s Hamilton Island to broadcast the Great Barrier Reef island to the booming China market.

This week Hamilton Island is launching its official Tencent Weibo channel, kicking off the partnership and commencing its strategic deep engagement with China’s affluent travellers of the future. Working closely with Tencent, and Hamilton Island’s first Chinese ambassador Chao Xian Yang, Hamilton Island plans to build a strong Tencent Weibo community and fan base for Whitsundays’ island.

Tencent Hamilton Island

When should you pin?
A new study by Digitas and Curalate recently shed some light on Pinterest engagement specific to the Fashion/Retail, Automotive and Electronics sectors. For all three markets, the study revealed that, unlike Twitter and Facebook, Pinterest is all about users telling the brand story. In fact, 70 percent of brand engagement on Pinterest is generated by users versus brands. See more here

Target launch deals with Facebook
Retailer Target has produced a set of offers, which will automatically generate Facebook posts when claimed, unless the user turns this feature off. Starting with around 700 discount offers and expected to grow to 1,000, the campaign is set to be hosted on a Target website called ‘Cartwheel’. Users can claim a deal at any point, producing a unique barcode that tracks every offer they claim. This barcode is then scanned at checkout. Cartwheel works seamlessly with mobile, meaning that a discount can be claimed at any point in the process, even as you’re walking towards the checkout.

AA’s first class lounge open to those with high Klout scores
American Airlines have decided to open their ‘Admirals Club’ lounges free of charge to those with high Klout scores, regardless of whether they’re due to fly with AA. Anyone with a score of over 55 will qualify for a free one-day pass in any one of 40 airports and can take advantage of the benefits including free WiFi and beer. The campaign hopes that these people will then tweet or post to Facebook expressing their gratitude, though this is not a requirement of claiming the offer.

Huggies ‘TweetPee’
This week, in weird app news… introducing ‘TweetPee’, a nappy sensor plus Twitter alert that tells parents when their baby needs changing. The campaign from Brazil also allows parents to keep track of the number of Huggies they’ve used and even order online when they’re running low. The campaign is certainly a fun and innovative one – we wonder how many parents will be hooking their children’s nappies up to Twitter.

Coke zero’s #motherpiece campaign for forgetful children
Yesterday marked Mother’s Day in many countries across the world, the day of the year that celebrates children forgetting to get their mum anything. Coke Zero to the rescue! They targeted absent-minded children (particularly boys, for some reason) and asked them to tweet their best excuses with the hashtag #motherpieces, pushing the campaign through a set of promoted tweets. The best entries were then selected to send in a personal photo, with 10 classically-trained painters on hand to create a ‘motherpiece’ of the winner. If they sent in their home address, they’d also receive a framed copy. Mother’s Day salvaged.

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A social farewell to Sir Alex Ferguson
Last week, the news broke of Sir Alex Ferguson retiring after 27 years in charge of English Premier League football club Manchester United. Twitter was quick to react, with over 1.4 million mentions of the story in the hour following its announcement.

 

The hashtag #thankyousiralex, used in all of MUFC’s communication surrounding the topic, was mentioned more than 100,000 times in the first hour. The hashtag ended up being one of many trends – the story took up 8 of the trending spots in the UK and 4 worldwide. A number of brands managed to jump on the bandwagon, too; both Nando’s and Premier Inn poked fun at the idea of ‘Fergie time’, the inexplicable period of extra time added whenever Manchester United needed points.