We Are Social Asia Tuesday TuneUp #11

Tuneup
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Brands that Chinese youths follow on Sina Weibo
The most popular brand on popular Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo is Durex Condoms, which has 294,174 followers on its Sina Weibo account and is followed by 2.95% of youths on the social network. Other top brands include Starbucks, Adidas Originals, Converse and H&M. Social branding agency Resonance China attributes the popularity of these brands amongst Chinese youths to the daily interaction they have with their fans, consisting of ‘tweets’ or weibos that are humorous or revolve around trendy topics that stimulate conversations and enhance their brand image.

Baidu ‘share’ function to appear alongside search results
Chinese search engine Baidu plans to integrate its social bookmarking service Baidu Share with its search results, and has launched a beta ‘Share’ function alongside certain search results. The ‘Share’ feature resembles a Facebook ‘Like’ thumbs-up graphic, and includes the number of times a link has been shared on Baidu Share beside it. Social is clearly penetrating search.

US embassy uses social media to sound terrorist alert in Bangkok
The US embassy in Thailand showed how important social media is as a tool of communication when it used its Facebook page and Twitter account to spread word of a terrorist threat in Bangkok. The message alerted U.S. citizens in Thailand that “foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in Bangkok in the near future”. This alert reached its 39, 791 followers on Twitter, and 30,146 fans on Facebook. US Ambassador Kristie Kennedy, who has 27,691 followers on Twitter, addressed the alert on Twitter herself to reassure sceptics that the message was real and credible.

Four Seasons embraces digital marketing and virtual experiences
Luxury hotel chain Four Seasons devotes half of its marketing budget to digital channels, including various Facebook pages that have garnered 220,000 fans, and Twitter profiles that have more than 185,000 followers. Four Seasons will soon launch a revamped website this month which will incorporate user-generated reviews from TripAdvisor and other user-review sites with a direct link to said sites. This willingness to expose user-generated content, be it good or bad, is unusual for a luxury brand, or any brand for that matter, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Four Seasons will be rewarded for their transparency.

The 69th Golden Globes Awards – on Twitter
Even though the 69th Golden Globes Awards wasn’t broadcasted on cable television in Singapore until the night of 16th January, we were still watching the awards – on Twitter of course. The awards show was tweeted about 6,162 times per second, reached 93.7 million people, and generated over 2.2 billion impressions. This infographic by TweetReach gives you the lowdown on Twitter activity during the show

At Ford, social media is bigger than advertising
Matt VanDyke, director-U.S. marketing communications for Ford has told Ad Age:

At Ford, social media is bigger than advertising

How long will it be before we hear other major brands say the same?

Bad reviews may be good for business
In a report by social commerce company Reevoo, it’s been suggested that bad reviews may actually be good for business. The company found that 68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, and consumers fear tampering if there are no negative reviews.

YouTube accounts for 1 in 4 visits to social networks
YouTube has boasted it’s biggest ever month of traffic with 606 million UK visits to the website during December 2011. This data from Experian Hitwise means that YouTube now accounts for 1 in 4 visits to a social network and 1 in 30 visits online.

Over the last year YouTube has seen some pretty impressive growth and has even had six consecutive months as the fastest growing social site in the UK. Year-on-year this means that YouTube’s market share has increased by a total of 7%.

Facebook places ads alongside social updates in the feed
Facebook rolls out a new way of advertising to friends of fans. Comparable to Sponsored stories, which currently sit on the right hand side of the page, the new Featured stories will actually appear in the news feed. A small difference perhaps, but giving the ad an appearance of being a story rather than a paid-for piece.

Although the addition of adverts within the news feed may irritate some users, the adverts displayed will only appear from brands you yourself or a friend has already ‘Liked’. To further reduce a chance of backlash, Facebook have also declared that there will only be one of these ads per day in the newsfeed.

Facebook have also been trialing a new type of coupon promotion. The promotion, which allows pages to post coupons and then promote them with sponsored stories, is being used by sandwich chain Which Wich, giving fans a little extra for their ‘Like’. Studies have found that users come to Facebook for exclusive offers and discounts, suggesting that these vouchers could be a big success if used correctly.

Facebook Cost per click drops in UK
Speaking of Facebook advertising, the latest quarterly report by TBG Digital has revealed the average cost per click of Facebook ads has dropped by 11% in the UK between the third and fourth quarters of 2011. Advertisers received 45% discounts for campaigns aiming to keep users on Facebook, rather than sending them offsite – a great incentive for brands to conduct campaigns entirely within Facebook.

Listen to music with your friends on Facebook
Listening to music with friends has always been seen as a social pastime. Facebook are now taking it one step further by allowing friends to listen to music on Spotify at the exact same time as each other.

A new button will be rolling out on the ticker and a simple click will have you listening along. The feature will also open up a chat with all of the friends listening in, so when that riff you all love comes in, you can share the moment together.

Want a Twitter verified account? Buy ads
As there is no longer an application form for the verified accounts, they are gained by demonstrating someone is wilfully trying to impersonate you, or if you’re an advertiser or partner. Twitter has been providing them to anyone who’s spent $15,000 on Twitter ads as a sort of perk, and as a way to prove the identity of the advertiser.

Google+ added to search, at what cost?
The big news last week was Google’s introduction of what it catchily called ‘search plus your world’ – basically a way of promoting Google+ in its search results, similar to what we mentioned earlier of Chinese search giant Baidu integrating its social bookmarking service Baidu Share in its search results. Adam has the full low-down in this dedicated post about the issue.

David Beckham is going Google+
David Beckham is joining the ranks of celebrities already using YouTube to connect with their fans. To ask Beckham a question, fans just have to head over to Google+ and post it including the hashtag #GoogleBeckham. Of course, Google isnt’t going to miss out an opportunity to show of its social network’s functionality, so users of Google+ will be able to hang out with Beckham immediately after the live interview.

TV gets a bit more social
Boxee allows users to find and play video directly from the Internet on their television sets, and now thanks to a partnership with Facebook, TV is to become a little bit more social. The new Boxee live and Facebook intergration allows users to post what they are watching to Facebook for the world to see. Friends can then click the links and ‘check-in’ to the shows and find more information about them. Don’t worry just yet; this functionality is optional so your viewing habits won’t be broadcasted to friends without you knowing about it.

Social television seems to be going from strength to strength with TV check in app GetGlue raising $12M in financing. Not only has the company been successful in raising this amount of money, but they have also announced that over 2M users are checking into their TV shows.

Looking to capitalise the rise of dual-screen TV viewing, Sky have bought 10% of hot British social TV start-up Zeebox in order to offer an innovative augmented TV experience. The service offers users social media feed and conversations via Twitter and Facebook as well as additional information about the shows. Users will be able to read up on actors, purchase music or even products on the screen without leaving their seat. The functionality will be integrated into existing Sky apps and will include the ability to access Sky+ boxes on the move, making it the perfect television buddy.

Latest to hop on the social television bandwagon is MySpace with the announcement that they’re launching a social television experience with Panasonic. MySpace’s service aims to connect viewers with content and each other utilising Panasonic Viera connect TV sets. The package will include smartphone and tablet apps so users can access Myspace TV even if they are away from their televisions.

Murdoch: We screwed up MySpace ‘in every way possible’
After joining twitter at the start of this year, it seems that Rupert Murdoch has been inundated with questions about failing social network MySpace. Murdoch responded curtly:

 

Tebow-mania hits Twitter
Last week during the NFL playoff game between the Denver Broncos and AFC champions Pittsburgh Steelers saw the highest rates of tweets per second (TPS) in Twitter history. As Tebow threw his 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime and secured a win for the Broncos Twitter erupted at a rate of 9,420 TPS – a new record for sports events.

To put this rate into perspective the previous record was 7,196 at the end of the FIFA womans world cup last summer, and it’s even more than Osama Bin Laden’s death (5,106 TPS), Steve jobs’ resignation (7,064 TPS) and death (6,049 TPS). It’s a large number, but still far from the all-time record of 25,088 when Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Castle in the Sky’ was aired in Japan.

Facebook gives politico deep access to users’ political sentiments
Simple analysis by volume of tweets or user posts rarely reveals the sentiment behind social media feeling. In a bid to understand the sentiment of voting-age users, a study by Politico and Facebook is set to delve deep into posts to discover the true attitudes towards candidates.

The most notable characteristic is that user data will include Facebook users’ private status messages and comments, a statement that may alarm some, however the mentions will be fed through a computerised analysis tool and never seen by Facebook employees.

Tiësto Djs First Ever Live Twitter Stream At 2012 CES
Last week DJ Tiësto’s played the first-ever Twitter live concert stream, playing to an audience of thousands gathering to watch online. Tiësto played through his signature tracks, but more importantly showed off the potential of the new Twitter brand pages for embedding live video and sound.

#SmokedByWindowsPhone

In this short, but sweet campaign by Microsoft, they offered users a chance to win $100 if they could complete certain tasks on their existing phone before the Windows phone could complete the same task. The penalty for losing was to bite the bullet and admit on camera that you got #SmokedByWindowsPhone, a bold but confidant move by Microsoft, however after winning in 88% of the challenges, it seems to have paid off.

Klout to Crown the First-Ever ‘T-Mobile Social King of CES’
A challenge by set out by Klout and T-Mobile saw users try to aquire the most +Ks during CES 2012. The user who managed to use their Klout in order to gain the most +K during the event was crowned T-Mobile Social King and given a host of techie prizes.

Tiffany & Co. team up with the Sartorialist to showcase true love
Tiffany and Co. have joined forces with fashion bloggers the Sartorialist & Garance Doré in an effort to discover true love from real couples around Paris and New York.

The venture, True Love in Pictures is the latest venture from Tiffany & Co. as part of their Whatmakeslovetrue.com project. The project has see an Instagram gallery created by the couple and now seeks out to find user generated moments of romance, all captured using the Tiffany & Co. downloadable Instagram filter.

Audi partners with Foursquare for a new badge for Skiers
If you’re hitting the slopes this winter and can’t get enough Foursquare badges, the new Audi Winter Ride badge is sure to be up your street. User can unlock the badge by following Audi and checking in at any ski area, unlocking the badge and rewarding the user with a 20% discount on the Audi collection.

Kit Kat to decide new flavour through Facebook
A new campaign by Nestle asks consumers to vote for their favourite of four new Kit Kat Chunky flavours with the winner being sold permanently.

Fans will be able to vote on their favourite of the four flavours (double choc, peanut butter, orange or white choc) on Facebook until 24th February. To add a little incentive to the campaign, fans stand a chance to win £100 each day for their entry.

While Cadbury turns to Google+ to launch Bubbly Bar
Continuing on with chocolate-based news, this week has seen Cadbury launch their new Bubbly bar exclusively on Google+ to their followers. The post (below) was released to fans and then quickly followed by posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Diet Coke launches fashion and beauty Facebook app
Diet Coke have launched a fashion and beauty Facebook app dubbed the Get Glam app. The app is said to be the ‘perfect accompaniment for getting ready with the girls’ and includes fashion and beauty tips alongside a video chat tool. Launched as part of a three-year initiative across brands to link their activity to fashion, the idea is set to appeal to ‘young, fun loving woman’.

The Facebook sandwich
Greggs have launched a new campaign, asking users to vote for their favourite limited edition sandwiches on their Facebook page. When a customer buys one of the sandwiches, the label directs them to the page to vote on which of the sandwiches will stay.