We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #178
Social overtaking search for content discovery
According to UK research presented in eMarketer, social is becoming an ever more important tool for locating content online. This was particularly true of 18-24 year olds – 43% of the internet users polled from said age group answered that they considered social more important than search for the purpose. This was less true with older age groups; in fact, just 5% of over 55s said the same.
Facebook and Twitter still behind local networks in Russia
According to research from comScore, Facebook and Twitter are still trailing behind other social networks in Russia in terms of monthly members and average time spent. With around 8m and 5m users respectively, both are a considerable distance behind Vk.com (almost 50m), Odnoklassniki (nearly 38m) and Mail.Ru’s My World (over 17m). Facebook considerably outdid Twitter in the average time spent by a visitor, with comparative figures of 30.2 mins and 6.9 mins, but considering that Vk.com registered over 5 hrs, there is still a long way for the two networks to go.
Facebook open newsfeed competitions
Facebook, which previously stipulated that an app be used for pages to run a competition, has decided to allow them through the newsfeed. This should be interesting for brands, who will no longer require the budget necessary to create or lease an app; fans can enter simply by liking, commenting on or sharing a status. For the full lowdown, take a look at the post we’ve written on the changes.
Update to conversations on Twitter
Twitter has updated how it presents conversations, intending to make them easier to read. Now, tweets that are part of a conversation appear in chronological order, with a little blue line connecting them to make it clear what’s going on. The video below explains the update.
Twitter test ability to tweet excerpts from articles
Twitter last week performed a test with the New York Times that allowed users to tweet certain sections from an article, not just the headline, as had previously been the case. In one article about Saturday Night Live, the network chose certain sections that they felt people were likely to want to tweet, then highlighted them such that they could be automatically selected for sharing. The newspaper noted that the story was shared 11 times more frequently than the average from their top 500 articles of the last month, so it’s likely that we’ll be seeing this tool more in the future.
Location aware recommendations on Foursquare without checkin
Foursquare has announced that it is trialling push notifications based on location, without users having to checkin. The system will suggest occasional places to eat, or sights that you should see if in a new city and will function based on a variety of location signals. By not using GPS alone, it manages to dramatically reduce the battery life necessary, making this a possibility for the first time. The system is being rolled out to a few thousand Android users for testing.
Tumblr creates collaborations for New York Fashion Week
Tumblr has linked 20 fashion bloggers with designers and relevant organisations to create content for New York Fashion Week. These will take the form of ‘apprenticeships’, with the bloggers learning from their mentors and helping them produce an installation, which will be displayed in a New York gallery during the event.
Pinterest and Fashion Week
Pinterest, too, is ramping up its Fashion Week activity and has created a dedicated hub where designers and other influencers can share their various inspiration, featuring content from the likes of Michael Kors and Oscar de la Renta. In addition, the network has partnered with the television channel ‘Style Network’ to bring an on-screen ‘It List’, featuring the top ten trends for the upcoming season.
ESPN using Twitter’s Amplify for sport highlights
Sports broadcaster ESPN is set to use Twitter’s social TV platform, Amplify, to show highlights of the college American football season on Twitter. These will be pre-rolled by adverts for Verizon Wireless as part of a larger #DidYouSeeThat campaign, which will extend to ESPN’s on-screen TV coverage of the sport. The move comes after similar deals by Twitter for the MTV VMAs and with the USTA for US Open coverage – evidently, Twitter is working hard on bulking up its already strong links with TV.
GAP make use of .gif on Facebook
After tech firm Giphy has created a product that allows .gifs on Facebook, high-street fashion brand GAP has made use of the technology. It posted its first .gif, shown below, to its Facebook page last week, accompanied by #BacktoBlue copy.
Co-op produces Snapchat campaign
The co-operative is set to become the first major UK brand to use Snapchat in a marketing campaign, promoting their electrical business. Customers will be sent a code for a £30 discount on a laptop, which will ‘self destruct’ after a short time, as with all Snapchat messages.
X Factor mobile app allows fans to act as ‘fifth judge’
X Factor released a teaser campaign leading up to its UK return on Saturday by claiming that there would be a ‘fifth judge’ this year. As it turns out, the fifth judge will be the programme’s fans, who can use a new mobile app to give feedback on performances and predict who will go through to the next round. The idea is reminiscent of We Are Social’s work with Sky and X Factor in Italy, which is detailed in the below video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4mDoGayu4JY
National Trust promote walking for second year running on social
The UK’s countryside organisation the National Trust has produced a social campaign to promote walking for the second year running. It asks online communities to submit their walking photos using the hashtag #GBwalk on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook; last year, over one million people got involved, so it will be interesting to see how successful it is a second time round.
Metro explores city life on Twitter
UK newspaper Metro has asked its Twitter followers to post about the two different sides of living in a city, using two different hashtags: #Metrohigh and #Metrolow. Winners will be featured across Metro’s social channels and each will receive a £20 Amazon voucher.
JCDecaux runs Twitter-based book club
JCDecaux has created a Twitter book club and is using its digital screens in UK train stations to promote it. The outdoor advertising company has decided to target the significant number of commuting readers, by posting recommendations from its Twitter community onto boards, intending to bring content that can enhance the journey of their viewers.
Pot Noodle posts removed for degrading women
Pot Noodle’s ‘Peel the top off a hottie’ campaign looked to promote its spicy Piri Piri variety, doing so with a game, video and Facebook posts that played on the link between a ‘hottie’ as their product or as an attractive woman. However, one post that directly linked a woman in her underwear to their own product was ruled as “crass and degrading” by the ASA and has been removed. It serves as a reminder that brands should consider Facebook posts in the same way as they do above-the-line and make sure to act within advertising regulations, or risk facing sanctions. The video, which also flirts the line of tastelessness, can be seen below.