Midweek Mashup #81
Worried about revealing too much of yourself digitally? Consider an app that erases digital footprint
In a country that’s new to social media and the digital world such as Nepal, it is useful for its users to have access to a mobile-only social network that doesn’t keep their history. Concerned about how much a Twitter and Facebook page could reveal so much about a person, 11Beep’s CEO Bimal Maharjan came up with an app made for people who don’t want to worry about leaving a digital footprint. Now here’s something clever to help kill social stalking.
Fliplingo – a new way of getting your tweets translated
While English is still the dominant language on Twitter, other tongues such as Korean, Japanese and Malay feature prominently in the Twitter space. A Thailand-based startup has launched a service that uses real people to translate languages and contexts for Twitter users of different tongues. Unlike other existing services in the market such as Linqapp and Gengo that use the crowdsourcing model, Fliplingo has an actual team of people to do the translations. Tweeting across borders with friends of different languages? Try it and tell us what you think.
24 million Facebook users in Thailand, and you’d think they have better things to do
Posting about your daily activities, checking in at locations, commenting on a friend’s photo or just sharing links to blogs are some of the things we enjoy doing on a daily basis on Facebook. But for the 24 million-strong Facebook user base in Thailand, Facebook serves as no bigger an enjoyment than a platform for Thais to upload and share their pictures. In fact, Bangkok is apparently the most Instagrammed place in the world.
Social media drives record revenue per visit for retailers
Adobe has released its Q4 2013 Social Media Intelligence Report analysing paid, earned and owned social media trends. The report shows Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr drove an exceptional amount of qualified traffic to retail sites in Q4, with revenue per visit (RPV) increasing across social channels. In 2013 Tumblr generated a 340% increase in RPV year on year, and Pinterest overtook Facebook in terms of RPV in the UK, and it’s anticipated do the same in the US in 2014.
Social engagement with brand posts on Facebook rose 180% and brand post impressions are up 150% year on year. Unsurprisingly, posts with images produced a 650% higher engagement rate than regular text posts, while posts with links, text or video returned less engagement.
Facebook revenues leap 63% in Q4, driven by solid mobile ad business
Nearing its ten year anniversary this week, Facebook has posted record revenues of $2.59bn for the three months to 31 December, up 63% on 2012, with a 76% increase in advertising for the same quarter. Facebook said mobile advertising revenue accounted for 53% of ad revenue for the quarter, up 23% year on year.
The social network hit 1.23 billion monthly active users and has more than 556 million mobile daily active users. However Facebook refrained from commenting on the declining use of the platform amongst US teenagers.
Facebook announces ‘Paper’, a curated visual news reader
Facebook has launched a new standalone iPhone app called Paper; the first app out of Facebook Creative Labs, an initiative to let small teams within Facebook build standalone mobile experiences as if they were start-ups. Paper takes the standard Facebook News Feed and refashions it as an immersive, horizontally scrolling set of screens, looking similar to Flipboard. The app has many features, including delivering articles and photos into specific categories that have been selected by the user. It also provides a new way to post to Facebook with an editor system, and interestingly, for the time being it’s ad-free.
Introducing Paper from Facebook on Vimeo.
Over the next few weeks, Facebook will be launching features designed to provide direct response marketers with wider solutions to reach people across devices and encourage them to take action, on both desktop and mobile. With Custom Audiences, businesses will be able to more easily deliver targeted messages to people who have visited their website or mobile app, and certain News Feed ads will feature improved call to action buttons, such as: Shop Now, Learn More, Sign Up, Book Now or Download. These new features will be available from Power Editor, Ads Manager, through PMDs and via the API.
Facebook steps onto Twitter’s TV data turf
Facebook has announced it will begin to publish anonymised data about its 1.23 billion active users through a new program called Chatter. Partnering with SecondSync, a social media television analytics firm, Facebook will be initially releasing a study titled ‘Watching With Friends’ that will detail how television shows are discussed on the site, along with breakdowns on demographics and other metrics; a domain that until now has been dominated by Twitter.
Facebook to allow page admins to comment on public reviews
One of the main ways a Facebook user can leave feedback for a brand, restaurant, or any other business, is through the reviews. Facebook uses a 1-5 star scale and review system; such as on sites like Yelp. Facebook is now rolling out the ability for page admins to respond to these reviews as the page, rather than having to use their personal profile. This will benefit place-based pages and businesses on Facebook and help them to rapidly respond to negative reviews, as well as reward or thank users for positive reviews, encouraging more customers to rate the page.
Twitter bubbles trending events to the top of the timeline
Twitter has just released an update to Android that brings new photo editing tools to the service, in the hope to make it easier to share photos direct. In a second update, trending events or recommended tweets will be grouped to the top of the users’ timeline, adding a substantial element of real-time trend monitoring to the user experience. This is certainly interesting, as it marks a significant attempt by Twitter to interfere with the defining and chronological nature of its service. However, this feature only happens when there is no other new content for a user to view – a wise move by Twitter to keep them Number One on the leader board as the providers of live, real-time information.
Pinterest gets more Interest-ing
Pinterest has introduced a new way for its audience to discover engaging content; Interests. This tool exposes Pinners to customised recommendations based on their existing pins. By providing a more facilitating and enriching experience, more tailored to each individual, Pinterest hopes to retain its users and enhance the user journey.
The world just got a little smaller with the help of Linkedin
Some say “It’s who you know” that gets you further in the professional world, and LinkedIn seems to agree as they roll out their “How You’re Connected” tool across LinkedIn profiles. The new addition assists users in finding that key figure who will advance their career by not only showing “who” in their network knows the said individual on their profile, but also “how” they know each other.
