We Are Social’s Tuesday Tune Up #175

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Kia’s real time content for Australian Open

During the 2015 Australian Open Finals, alongside our client Kia, we set up a social media command centre to create real time content and engage in conversation with tennis fans across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Throughout the course of the singles matches we found opportunities for reactive content, to engage with the conversation topics popular at that moment. An example? Kia’s Provo concept car designed to match the shirt Kim Sears was wearing during the game.

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Twitter account @AustralianOpen rulez

Do you remember a few weeks ago when our Gill suggested to follow the Twitter account @AustralianOpen during the event? According to Twitter Australia’s sport partnership manager Jonno Simpson, “Tennis Australia is leading the way in innovative Twitter content and customer service with @AustralianOpen, one of the world’s best-run sport accounts”. The team operated the account 24/7 during the two-week tournament, posting images, videos and updates on matches and news while engaging with fans. What made it unbeatable? Instant video replays, the “Social Shack” – where players took over the Australian Open Twitter account every day for half an hour to chat with fans, the ‘Tweet for a Treat’ vending machine (which gave out prizes in return for sending a tweet), and access to exclusive areas such as the tunnel to create content. Well done!

 

#weneedchu

If you can’t get enough of their delights, support MissChu! We Need Chu is the campaign launched by Nahji Chu, founder of the Vietnamese food chain, in an attempt to to save the restaurant’s Sydney venues after the local operations collapsed into voluntary administration just days before Christmas. The objectives of the “Nothing’s changed, we’re still here” campaign include to reinvigorate nostalgia towards the brand, encourage old and new customers to socially share why they love MissChu and to visit the stores. The campaign features the people who have helped the brand to grow over the past five years, with MissChu customers invited to share why they love it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #weneedchu.

 

Marketers increasing digital budgets

A study has revealed that 80% of companies plan to increase their digital marketing budgets over the next 12 to 18 months. Resource provider Mondo questioned 262 digital marketing executives about their budgets as well as areas like staff turnover and skill sets they were recruiting for. In the latter area, over half (54%) of those surveyed stated they’d be hiring people with Digital/Social expertise this year. Facebook makes $2.5bn from mobile, releases new ad tool Facebook is increasingly a mobile network. You don’t need us to tell you that. What you may not know is that its Q4 2014 figures included $2.5bn in mobile revenue, despite fewer ads being served. Compared with a year previous, Facebook served 65% fewer ads, but the average cost per ad was 335% higher.

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The network wants to show the value of these more expensive ads, especially those that people don’t click. As a result, it’s rolling out its ‘conversion lift measurement’, which allows users to see when someone who saw an ad ended up making an in store purchase, to all advertisers in all countries.

 

Facebook unveils ‘Place Tips’

Facebook is trialling a new feature, named ‘Place Tips’, in certain parts of New York City. iPhone users in the city who have location services enabled will receive different tips, photos and posts straight to their News Feeds, depending on whereabouts they are.

 

Twitter launches native video capabilities and group direct messaging

Twitter has unveiled its video offering, allowing consumers using mobiles to record and share videos without leaving the site. While video isn’t new to Twitter, users haven’t been able to shoot and share clips natively within the platform before. Our Communications Director, Lauren Underwood, spoke to The Drum about the benefits of the new tool:

It plays on Twitter’s strength as a real-time, breaking-news platform – I expect we’ll be watching some of this year’s biggest moments unfold on Twitter.

As part of the same release Twitter has also revealed group direct messaging capabilities. The new group chat function will mean that users can direct message up to 20 people at a time, and is widely seen to be an attempt to counter the rise of messaging apps like WhatsApp and WeChat.

 

Twitter unveils local geo-targeting capabilities Twitter has launched new geo-targeting capabilities, allowing brands to focus on individual postcodes and target at a much more local level. It’s been pitched by the platform as a potential tool for politicians campaigning in the UK General Election, now less than 100 days away. As Twitter points out, in constituencies where a seat is tightly contested, targeting by postcode could prove to be very useful indeed.

 

Vine now has a kids version Twitter has launched its first child-friendly app, Vine Kids. It’s basically the same as Vine, with six-second looping videos, but the interface is different. Think animated helpers, a left/right swipe system for new Vines and a set of ‘quirky’ sounds when you tap the screen.

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Tumblr’s new features appeal to long-form writers

Tumblr is rolling out features to encourage long-form writers to use the platform. It’s “some real crafty shit” according to the network’s blog post explaining the new tools, which include clever quick formatting options. The platform will be hoping the features help it compete against challenger brands like Medium, which has been growing in popularity in recent months.

 

Pinterest rolls out ads in home feeds

Pinterest users! Hope you like ads, you’re going to start seeing a lot more of them. The platform announced last week that it will now show its US users Promoted Pins in their home feeds as well as their search results, where they’ve been appearing since last year. Don’t worry though, Pinterest has assured users they can hide any Pins they don’t like. Phew.

 

Snapchat launches ‘Discover’ feature

Snapchat has launched its publishing platform, ‘Discover’, through which a number of media partners will post content – from ESPN to National Geographic and CNN to Vice.

There are a few things that are instantly noticeable, particularly that there’s emphasis placed on editorial decisions as opposed to algorithms. Also, while a number of big media companies are involved, there are some large names missing: Buzzfeed, the New York Times and music giants Spotify and Vevo. Those that are involved are planning on using the feature in very different ways. The Daily Mail, for example, is planning two updates per day with a focus on pictures compared to one text-heavy piece from Vice, while Fusion wants to source five different stories per day. AT&T has already announced a series containing online influencers, named ‘Snapper Hero’. For a glimpse at the sort of content you’ll be seeing, here’s how winter storm Juno was covered.

 

The Super Bowl and social media

Social networks love the Super Bowl. No surprises there. In fact, a whole host of platforms created special features for the big game. Facebook had a ‘football-only’ feed, which contained updates from friends, groups, teams and players. It also offered specific targeting segments for the game, from fans of both teams to those who were talking about tangential topics (flatscreen TVs, ads), while the NFL posted exclusive clips to Facebook. YouTube created an alternative half time show and an advert hub, while Tumblr and Twitter both created Super Bowl specific feeds; the latter also posted branded games highlights. It seemed to work for Twitter – this was the the most tweeted about Super Bowl of all time, with a total of 28.4bn tweets during the game. Here are some of the most shared.

 

Brands get social with the Super Bowl

Brands wanted to get in on the Super Bowl action, too. Some highlights include Lowe’s Instagram ‘Hypermade’ videos, Budweiser creating GIFs from its TV ad and Bud Light purchasing promoted tweets against other brands’ keywords, while a whole host of marketers took to Twitter before, during and after the event.

 

Brands and the #Blizzardof2015 When you’re talking about something as dangerous as last week’s US blizzard, it pays to be careful. Brands have been doing so nevertheless, with some good, bad and ugly results.