We Are Social's Monday Mashup #79
Facebook Ad cost-per-click increases by 22% quarter-on-quarter
An interesting tidbit of research: the cost-per-click of a Facebook social ad rose by 22% in Q2 of 2011, compared to Q1. If prices continue to rise at this rate, brands will presumably be forced into more effective community management and newsfeed optimisation, over simply snapping up social ads.
FTSE 100 companies increase use of social media
The past six months has seen more and more of the big UK businesses using social media, as the chart below shows.
Brits addiction to social media
According to new research, Brits – and particularly Londoners – are addicted to social media, unable to avoid sites like Facebook when away on holiday: 49% of Brits update social networks while on holiday, a stat which rises to 53% of Londoners. Perhaps it’s a direct by-product of many holidays beginning by checking-in.
New ‘Facebook for Every Phone’ app
Facebook officially launched their ‘Facebook for Every Phone’ app last week, although it had been downloadable for around a month and already had over 700,000 users, before the actual launch. With the app available for 2,500 different feature phones, and Facebook’s collaboration with 20 international carriers to offer 90 days of free data usage, it looks like this will be a great success.
Facebook changes its structures for businesses with many branches
Facebook has updated its check-in Deals API in a move which is designed to attract more bigger businesses to offer deals. With the social network also creating a system for brands to bring all their various location pages ‘under one roof’, it seems fair to say that this might entice big businesses to offer more deals for checking in.
Women’s World Cup final the most popular Twitter event, ever
Last night’s Women’s World Cup final showed the power of football as a global sport – with the 7196 tweets per second at its peak making it the biggest Twitter event of all time. Maybe they don’t need shorter shorts after all…
One million registered Twitter apps
In more good news for Twitter, the site passed one million registered apps last week, a massive increase considering it only had 150,000 apps a year ago.
Google +: three weeks in
Say what you like about Google+, it is popular. According to Google CEO Larry Page, the service now has 10 million users. While that’s a far cry from Facebook’s user numbers, it’s not bad either, particularly for a service which has only been available for a few weeks. The caveat to all this, is that it’s clearly not universally popular – one piece of research says that as many as 87% of users are male. But that hasn’t put off brands: Google announced that it had been so overwhelmed by the demand for brands to have a test page on the site, that it is “accelerating [our] development plans” to bring pages to brands as soon as possible.
Crucially, it’s not just having pages which brands see value in: Dell think Hangouts is the next big thing, and plan to do customer service using it.
Foursquare partners with deals sites, launches Merchant API
According to the Wall Street Journal, Foursquare has partnered up with a host of deals sites in a bid to boost its revenues. With it also launching a Merchant API, in a bid to get more stores to offer deals, it’s clearly trying to boost the experience for users.
ITN to live stream Murdoch at the Select Committee on Facebook
ITN will be live streaming Rupert and James Murdoch’s appearance in front of a select committee in the UK’s Houses of Parliament tomorrow from 2:30pm BST on their Facebook Page. Time to get the popcorn in.
Social media meets horror in new film
DJ Caruso is the director of a new film funded by Intel and Toshiba which will crowd-source ideas from social media users, as well as asking them to contribute to the film in real-time, and help the lead character, played by Emmy Rossum:
Users will be able talk to Rossum’s character as the “blockbuster calibre” film is shot, and will be encouraged to help her think of ways in which she could escape. The trailer for the project is running with the tagline: ‘Her only way out will be to bring you in’.
Foursquare badge for Harry Potter release
EA, with Foursquare launched a new badge last week for users checking in to see the new Harry Potter film, with the badge giving users 25% off the cost of EA’s accompanying game. Magic.
Spotify invites through Klout
Spotify launched last week in the States on an invite-only basis, with one of the ways of getting access to the service via Klout Perks, whereby users had to check their Klout score to see if they merited an invite.
Penguin also run campaign based on social media influence…
In a similar vein, Penguin have tried to promote Hari Kunzro’s new book, by giving it to influencers in the fields of politics and philsophy, based on their Peer Index score. They’re claiming this as a UK first.
Facebook rents classic Doctor Who episodes
BBC Worldwide have struck a deal with Facebook to allow users to rent classic episodes of Doctor Who using Facebook Credits.
Jell-O Pudding Face mood meter
If American people want free cake, they can get it by tweeting with sad face emoticons. I just can’t guess how that will work out…
Interactive shop windows
A Seattle store found a good way of promoting its sale – by asking customers to tweet using a hashtag about products they’d found, with the best ones ending up in the store window. Nice.