We Are Social's Monday Mashup #89
Social media helps British businesses avoid economic slump
A survey from Sage Pay found that British web stores attributed growth in the last 12 months to social media: 76% of the 1,000 businesses surveyed are using Twitter, double the number last year, and 76% are also using Facebook, an 18% year-on-year increase. More importantly, three quarters reported using social media to drive sales.
New research on Facebook’s market share
Hitwise have released some new numbers about Facebook: two points stand out – first, Facebook has a distinct boost in market share of overall internet visitors at the weekend:
Second, it’s interesting to see which dates see a particular boost in Facebook traffic – bank holiday weekends, New Year’s, etc:
Facebook News Feed changes – what’s the effect?
The updated News Feed has brought with it questions for marketers – most notably, how will it affect their Pages?
Obviously, there’s only been a limited time to evaluate, but whilst All Facebook are correct to highlight fewer updates are appearing in the News Feed, Social Bakers have empirical evidence that very little has changed in terms of overall feedback:
This is corroborated by Inside Facebook: their research found that although post impressions are down, Likes and Comments – in other words, engagement, what Pages are looking for – is up. Nonetheless, we’ll be watching with interest how the numbers stack up over the next few weeks.
Facebook bolsters Page Insights, removes Discussions tab
Two interesting tidbits from Facebook: they’ve released new Insights for Page admins, which include some useful numbers, including a raw figures of ‘people talking about this’; they’ve also announced that the Discussions tab will be removed from all Pages at the end of this month, as they want conversations to take place on the Wall.
Facebook introduces new ad unit
Facebook announced a new ad option last week, which will launch shortly. It’s been described as ‘expandable’, as once the user likes the brand, the ad (which will show the most recent Page update) will expand to allow the user to like/comment said update.
They’ve already rolled out an update to the existing Sponsored Stories, which allows admins to add a tracking URL to monitor performance, and analyse how ads are working. Progress.
Unfriending Facebook friends leaves them subscribed to updates
Weirdly, Facebook’s new Subscribe button also has previously unknown connotations: if you unfriend someone, they’re still subscribed to your public updates.
And there I was thinking I could get away with it…
Spotify and Guardian add lots of Facebook users post f8
The updates announced last week by Facebook included music in the News Feed (courtesy of Spotify), and a new app from The Guardian. The Guardian’s app was top of the ’emerging apps’ list this week, adding over 500,000 users; and Spotify will also be thrilled, having added one million Facebook users since f8.
Google Analytics Real-Time
Google unveiled Real-Time Analytics last week, which show what’s happening on your site right now. This is really useful for measuring the impact of social media: it’s possible in real-time to see how many people are clicking on a tweet, and when traffic is dying away, possibly signalling bloggers should re-push their content.
MLS Viewfest
Major League Soccer have long been into social media and they’ve launched another campaign: fans have to check into any of a number of pubs nationwide (on Foursquare) while watching the match, and in return they get entries to a competition to win a series of prizes. The more times they get in, the more entries they get. The big question is will the MLS reach their goal for the number of entries?
Magners launches f-commerce app
Cider brand Magners have launched an f-commerce app on their Facebook Page, where users can buy a four-pack of newly-launched Magners flavours for ten pounds. Yes, you read that right: TEN POUNDS. That’s the same as 1000 pennies. On the bright side, with only four bottles in the pack, you should be able to climb the apples and pears at the end of the evening.
Lord Sugar holds Twitter book signing
Pan Macmillan hosted a book signing on Twitter to mark the release of Alan Sugar’s new book: followers of Sugar had to tweet their rants at him using a hashtag, and Sugar then read his favourite on a web TV station, as well as giving them a signed copy of the book. It was a great success, generating over 350,000 tweets, and with a combined reach of over 10 million. Lucky that, or the agency behind it might have been fired. Boom boom. That’s the sound of a gun, not me mocking my own joke.
Coca-Cola puts fans on the can
Coca-Cola have launched a new campaign in Australia:
In a Facebook promotion that launched on October 1st, Coca-Cola is inviting Australians to ‘Share a Coke with a Mate’ in a $5 million campaign as summer heats up down under. Cans and bottles with some of Australia’s most popular names have been popping up over the past two weeks, cans branded Jess, Sam, Kevin, Edward, Matt and Kate. Coke is hoping that 268 million can will sell during the next three months as the company swaps its branding for one of 150 of Australia’s most popular names, the first time Coke has changed its packaging in 125 years.
Nice – and to think the idea could have been canned at an early stage.