We Are Social's Monday Mashup #88
Facebook adds more users, generates more revenue
Among the other factoids which came out of Facebook’s developer conference was that the site saw at least half a billion users access the site on one day last week. That is, even for Facebook, an impressive number, but it tallies with the other figures for the site – most notably, that the site has more than 350 million users accessing it every month from mobile devices, of which 90 million are on iPhones.
The result of all these users is clear: lots of money for Facebook – according to eMarketer, Facebook will record a 104% year-on-year increase in ad revenues to $3.8 billion, of which over two billion will be spent in America. Kerching.
@wearesocial guide to Facebook changes
We’ve written a separate post detailing all of the changes Facebook announced last week – you need to read it!
Twitter launches UK Promoted Products
On Thursday, Twitter made an important announcement: all their Promoted Products are now available for UK brands to geo-target at a specific audience. The launch partners include Eurostar (a We Are Social client), Sky, BT and EA.
Twitter to open an office in Dublin
Twitter announced this morning that they’re going to open an international office in Dublin (to go alongside the office in London), following other big internet businesses including Google and Facebook to the Irish capital.
Google+ opens up – and grows!
Google removed the invite-only feature from Google+ last week, and saw a massive spike in users. The spike was undoubtedly helped by the blue arrow on the Google homepage pointing people to the service.
The result of this has been massive growth for the social network, with 30% more users in two days pushing the site over the 40 million mark. Amidst all this growth, Google have announced a number of changes to the project, including mobile Hangouts, and Hangouts on air which anybody can watch. The latter was promoted by Will.I.Am although I gotta feeling it didn’t go down very well – he was left asking where is the love?
Google+ lays groundwork for business profiles
The other big news from Google was that brand pages are coming very soon – Christian Oestlien, group product manager for social advertising at Google, announced last week that it’s close to unveiling Google+ business profiles that will permit companies to create pages and circles like those of an individual user of the social network.
Google to add +1 button to ads
Starting in October, ads distributed on Google’s Display Ad Network will have a +1 button, allowing consumers to “like” an ad and share that endorsement to people they’re connected to via Google’s social network Google +. When friends see the ads, they will then see a picture of the person who has +1ed the ad, next to the +1 button. In other words, it’s very similar to a Facebook Sponsored Story.
Google open up Google+ API
In what’s an interesting move from Google, they’ve opened up the Google+ API, so developers can access public information: “This initial API release is focused on public data only — it lets you read information that people have shared publicly on Google+”. The move has already had ramifications – Klout is now including Google+ data in its algorithm for generating users scores.
Foursquare reaches a billion check-ins
Foursquare released a nice little video to celebrate reaching a billion check-ins last week:
YouTube launches new Creator tools
In a week where it was easy for news from other services to go under the radar, YouTube launched two cool new features: first, the ability to convert 2D videos to 3D with a single click; and, more impressively, all verified users can now upload long-form videos, which means for successful creators, the 15 minute video limit is very much a thing of the past. Good stuff.
WordPress.com adds a follow button to all hosted blogs
From now on, whenever someone visits a WordPress.com blog, they’ll see a small follow button in the right hand corner which will invite them to subscribe to posts. This change is designed to generate more page views, so it will be interesting to see what happens.
GetGlue release new version of app
GetGlue, the social viewing and recommendations app, released a new version of their iPhone app last week, which is designed to be more streamlined around check-ins and tweets:
Glam Media buys Ning
Glam Media is acquiring Ning, a platform which allows users to build custom social websites. The idea is to bring more social functionality to the Glam Media group.
Alcohol brands agree self-regulatory guidelines for social media
The European Forum for Responsible Drinking has formed a partnership with the Distilled Spirits Council of the US to devise a set of self-regulatory guidelines for advertising on social-media sites.
The guidelines include restricting Facebook users aged under 18 from accessing official alcohol brand pages, and a commitment to remove inappropriate user-generated content from brand pages on Facebook within 48 hours. They also include a pledge to place advertising on non-branded channels only where at least 70% of viewers are over 18, and linking ads to responsible-drinking messages.
Diageo announces partnership with Facebook
Diageo announced a partnership with Facebook for brands such as Smirnoff and Guinness last week: the move, Diageo says, was prompted by a “strong return” on investment from previous campaigns. It says that that an analysis of activity for five of its brands in the US showed Facebook campaigns led to a 20% increase in sales. Impressive stuff.
KLM replaces tweets with live replies
Dutch airline KLM have been doing some cool stuff in social media for a few months now, but their new campaign doesn’t quite get off the ground. The idea is to have 140 people giving live replies, instead of tweets, but as the video below shows, this is a time-consuming (and frankly boring) activity. Back down to earth with a bump.
Burberry launch ‘tweetwalk’
One of the problems fashion shows face is how to engage social media fans and followers: Burberry wanted their followers to be the first to see their new collection, so before each model went on the catwalk, a picture of them in the new collection went on the Twitter account. On top of this, they streamed the whole show on their Facebook Page and gave a top photographer access to their Instagram account. As it’s Burberry, it’s only fair to say check them out.
Nokia launch Foursquare-enabled vending machine
Nokia have launched a vending machine which gives out free sweets, Nokia accessories, and the odd phone, in return for a Foursquare check-in.
Nissan’s Facebook Connect campaign
Car manufacturer Nissan have launched a clever new campaign: if you visit MyVersaRoadTrip.com and connect with Facebook, it allows users to create their ideal roadtrip by selecting a route, picking their road trip allies from their social circle and selecting the all-important travelling tunes, before sharing their adventure with their Facebook friends.
Crucially, the campaign has a great prize, with winners getting a free car, as well as the ideal roadtrip which they described to Nissan. Nice.
Powerade’s dual-screen Twitter campaign
Dual-screen viewing is a massive trend for fans watching football matches, and Powerade took advantage of this, with a nifty campaign during the Copa America which provided a live infographic of each match. Fortunately the app didn’t break, or it could have got a little Messi.
Innocent’s Tweet and Eat
Innocent have launched a campaign where for each tweet they get using the hashtag #tweetandeat, they’ll knock money off the price of an Innocent Veg Pot. All very nice you might think, except despite there being hundreds of tweets, they’re still only offering a pound off, and they usually offer 50p off as standard. Innocent? More like guilty.