We Are Social's Monday Mashup #71
Facebook allows users to tag pages in photos
Facebook announced last week that users will now be able to tag Pages in their photos. Pages under the categories ‘Brands & Products’ or ‘People’ can now be tagged, giving greater potential for Pages to grow through people discovering them.
Friends will be able to visit a Page directly from a user’s photo, and tagged photos will appear in news feeds and on product pages, dependent on the user’s privacy settings, meaning that Facebook will have to work hard on the algorithm to make sure that this new feature doesn’t clog up people’s news feed with a plethora of uninteresting photos. Part of this will also be about effective moderation from Page admins, to make sure that offensive or irrelevant photos don’t show up in fans’ streams.
Facebook tightens contest restrictions
Facebook’s already strict contest guidelines have been tightened up once again, with a long list of restrictions prohibiting contests that use Facebook functionality as a registration or entry mechanism. The Like button cannot be used as a voting mechanism, and winners must not be notified through Facebook, among other new guidelines. Mediabistro have more info on the exact ramifications of the changes.
Micro-sharing options for Facebook share buttons
Share buttons on third-party sites and within Facebook now have micro-sharing options, allowing users to post on their own wall, on a friend’s wall, within a group or within a private message. In effect, it adds the functionality of the Send button to existing Share buttons, and encourages users to share content on Facebook by giving them more control over where and how the content appears to friends.
Facebook admits Google PR sting
The ongoing competitive feud between Facebook and Google saw a new development as Facebook admitted hiring PR firm Burson-Marsteller to place stories in the media disparaging Google’s approach to privacy. Burson-Marsteller have defended their role, claiming they brought to light information regarding Google’s collection and storage of personal data from social media sites that was already publicly available and could be verified through independent sources.
Top Ten Promoted Tweets
Ad Age produced a report on the most successful promoted tweets of the past year on Twitter, based on the rate of engagement – including retweets, responses, clickthroughs and favourites. VW topped the table, with a 52% engagement rate for their promoted tweet linking to a live unveiling of the new Beetle, meaning that of those who saw the tweet, more people interacted than ignored it. Google and Old Spice followed, with other tweets from Xbox, Ford and Twitter themselves making the list.
Half of British workplaces ban Twitter
A report in the Telegraph claims that 48% of companies have prevented workers posting updates on social media sites whilst at work, a truly staggering statistic. As Vineet Nayar, who worked on the study, rightly points out:
It is quite remarkable that in this day and age, many employers are still putting their employees’ interests as a low priority by not allowing them to use sites like Facebook.
But it’s actually about more than that: Twitter is one of the primary methods for breaking news these days, which is relevant to so many businesses. To ban people using these sites at work does a disservice to the intelligence of the people these companies employ.
Traffic to Twitter peaks as debate surrounds freedom of tweets
With all the news around super-injunctions – and them being flouted on Twitter – public interest was piqued even more than usual by the site last week, with it enjoying its largest ever day of UK traffic last Monday, up 14% on a normal day.
The by-product of the mob mentality of breaking the super-injunctions, is that the first ever injunction specifically mentioning social media sites has been issued. Whether it is actually enforceable is another question, but it still means people may question more what they say on Facebook.
A debate has ensued about the legal implications of tweeting about certain issues. Econsultancy carried an interesting post on whether Twitter could be censored, with the wise conclusion that “there has to be a line drawn between privacy and freedom of speech”, which is true in any sort of media. Even Wikipedia was caught up in the drama, as US billionaire hedge fund manager Louis Bacon was granted the right to find out the identity of commenters on Wikipedia and two other websites who had purportedly posted libellous material about him. It all goes to show that just because you’re behind a computer screen, anonymity is far from guaranteed on the internet – and therefore the same rules which apply to newspapers and ‘traditional media’ should be adhered to by social media users. With the Taliban now on Twitter, they’ll need to watch out to not be libellous of Bush or Obama…
X Factor holds social media auditions
ITV talent show The X Factor is inviting budding popstars to upload videos of their acts on Facebook and YouTube to audition for a place at the regional arena stage, with a shortlist of 50 videos highlighted on the official X Factor channel. This is following in the footsteps of a similar move by Britain’s Got Talent, and it’s a nice way of driving (even more) conversation in social media.
Mumsnet revises McDonald’s ad ban
Mumsnet co-founder Carolyn Longton last week announced a reversal to the site’s three-year advertising ban on the McDonald’s brand, after the sites users voted to allow the chain to advertise on the site. Time for McDonalds to start offering biscuits methinks…
Sunday Times launches ‘The Social List’
The Sunday Times has launched the popular answer to the Rich List in the form of The Social List. Basically a copy of Peer Index or Klout, it allows users to submit their social activity across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare to produce their own social ranking based on reach and engagement. How accurate it is, is questionable though – Adriaan Pelzer pointed out how one of his bots is ranked as a ‘Guru’. Whoops.
Lady Gaga meets Farmville, hits 10 milllion followers
A promotional campaign for Lady Gaga’s new album sees the popstar team up with fellow social media heavyweight Zynga Games to create GagaVille. Based on the hugely popular Facebook game FarmVille, GagaVille rewards visitors with exclusive content from her new album.
It continues her strong showing in social media – in the race to ten million Twitter followers, Lady Gaga has got there first. Seeing as Bieber was her competition, we’re pleased she got there first. Team Gaga FTW!
Kleenex aids hayfever sufferers
With a little help from the team here at We Are Social, we’re proud to let you know that Kleenex have launched an online support group for hayfever sufferers, engaging the services of specialists to aid those suffering from hayfever symptoms on Facebook and Twitter with advice, tips and rescue kits. Something not to be sniffed at.
Orange Lucky Likes
Orange have launched a competition inviting users to enter a lucky dip of Facebook Likes. Users connect through Facebook and then randomly choose two anonymous like buttons. The correct choice will be rewarded with prizes, whilst the wrong choice will leave the reader with an undesirable like on their Facebook page, such as “Gillian McKeith and the YMCA”.
Axe launch Twitter campaign in Japan
Men’s deodorant brand Axe (otherwise known as Lynx on these shores) has launched a social media campaign inviting Japanese users to confess their love for a Twitter follower. The follower is sent a custom URL, where an animated figure reads out their confession, whilst other users can tweet messages of encouragement or consolation. This campaign may stop soon – or it may roll on.
The Carphone Warehouse launch first Facebook only concert
Mobile giants The Carphone Warehouse will make Facebook history by launching the UK’s first live Facebook-only concert next Wednesday featuring Eliza Doolittle, exclusive to their fans.
James Bond fans posed secret social media mission
To publicise the release of the new James Bond novel Carte Blanche, publishers Hodder & Stoughton have launched a social media campaign inviting users to answer a series of questions on Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to solve a secret mission. We’re afraid to say, this left us shaken not stirred.
Mind highlights mental health through social media
However shaken we were by Hodder’s efforts, they left us nowhere near as depressed as mental health charity Mind, who are encouraging people to talk about mental health issues in the workplace through Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Having set up a profile as “the elephant in the room”, Mind are inviting people to tag the elephant in the background of friend’s Facebook profile pictures and check into their offices as the elephant to get people talking about mental health issues such as stress and anxiety at work. Right…