We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #92
Social media continues to attract big investment
Research by Booz & Co. and Buddy Media has revealed that businesses are set to spend a higher percentage of total digital marketing spend on social over the next three years.
The survey also revealed that 65% of the managers already have plans in place to improve social media policies – 63% said these were to better integrate social into overall marketing strategies, and 59% plan to pay attention to social media monitoring and rapid response capabilities. Yet only 15% already have plans for social revenue-generating platforms.
Mobile social media audience grows
A comScore study has found that 72.2 million US residents access social networking sites and blog on their mobiles – that’s 37% more than last year, and means that nearly one third of all US mobile users are going mobile with social.
Nearly 40 million US mobile users, more than half of the mobile social media audience, access these sites almost every day, demonstrating the importance of this activity to people’s daily routines.
69.5% of mobile social networkers posted status updates while on their mobile device, with 52.9% reading posts from organisations or brands.
The future of mobile social looks set for continued growth. Garner analysts predict that by 2015, companies will generate 50 percent of Web sales via their social presence and mobile applications.
10 biggest Facebook countries – Brazil continues to lead growth
Statistics from Socialbakers show that of the 10 countries with the largest Facebook populations, Brazil is leading in terms of user growth:
Which bodes well for We Are Social São Paulo…
Mums love Facebook
While this may come as an unwanted development for children across the world, Facebook marketers will no doubt be delighted by the latest statistics on the use of Facebook by mums. According to research by eMarketer, an estimated 23 million US mums are on Facebook this year – more than two-thirds of all online mums in the country, and they’re logging onto the site at least once every month.
We all love Facebook
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg sent a message to delegates at the Association of National Advertisers convention in Phoenix at the weekend – Facebook should be at the core of your company’s social strategy.
If you look at the numbers for almost any brand, but certainly any brand that’s invested any time or effort on Facebook, the number of people who are your Facebook friends massively dwarfs the number of people who visit your website. So I think one of the questions this industry needs to ask itself is why? Why continue to build as many microsites as we do when we know it’s so much easier to reach people where they already are?
Shorter posts generate more engagement
By looking at over 11,000 posts made by the 150 largest Facebook pages, Virtue have demonstrated that the shorter the posts made by brands, the more engagement.
Although post length will depend on the type of post and its content, this study shows that there are measurable advantages to keeping Facebook posts as pithy as possible.
Facebook Pages on iPhone, improved Messenger, Credits outside of Facebook
Three significant developments for Facebook were released last week. Firstly is the news that Facebook Pages can now be opened in Facebook’s iPhone and iPad apps using the fb://page URL scheme. This is welcome news for marketers, who can now direct users straight to their Page without them having to open and log in to the m.facebook.com site.
Facebook also released Facebook Messenger, it’s standalone mobile messaging app, for Blackberry users, as well as updating the iPhone and Android versions. This improves greatly upon the initial release of Messenger that came out in August, with a slick new interface that allows users to see when their friends are typing to them and more easily find and sort their friends.
Finally, the news that Facebook is running a closed, limited test to allow websites – for the first time – to process sales transactions for virtual goods with Facebook’s currency, Facebook Credits.
LinkedIn Japan launches, Talent Pipeline announced and Classmates released
LinkedIn has also revealed a few new developments. It has begun its expansion into Asia with the launch of its first Asian language platform in Japanese. Whether the professional social networking site will succeed in a digital culture where online anonymity is prevalent is yet to be seen.
LinkedIn have also announced Talent Pipeline, a recruiter platform built into the LinkedIn system which enables recruiters to more easily manage and keep record of their talent leads.
Another user tool has also been unveiled – LinkedIn Classmates. Providing high-level insights about alumni and allowing access to more detailed professional profiles that they’ve shared, this tool looks to help users make the most of their school and university connections.
Twitter users tweeting more, iPhone integration drives sign-ups
Twitter CEO Dick Costolo announced that Twitter has gone from 100 million tweets at the beginning of this year to a quarter of a billion tweets per day – a 177% change since September 2010. Over the course of this year, Twitter users have also become more engaged, from 30% of its users active every day in January 2011 to over 50% active daily users today. He also noted that the recent iPhone Twitter integration has caused a 3x growth in sign-ups.
Google Buzz shuts down, integrates Reader into Google+
It was a long time coming, but Google has officially announced that it will be shutting down Google Buzz to focus more exclusively on Google+. Google also revealed that they plan to make Reader and Google+ a more integrated service, with Reader taking on actions such as friending, following and sharing links.
Universal Pictures giving away 1 million to fans … in Facebook credits
To generate interest around one of its new releases – “Tower Heist” – Universal Pictures have created a nifty little Facebook game called “Heist it Back”, which – in an echo of the film’s plot – has users seeking revenge on a corrupt Wall Street employee. Users can win up to 10 credits with every go.
Channel 4’s Facebook swap shop
In a bid to promote sustainable fashion in an accessible, fun way, Channel 4 have launched Closet Swap, a Facebook connect enabled site where users can chat about fashion, post Facebook photos of outfits and build an online closet to share with their friends. The initiative will also see brands creating their own closets to share with the community.
Tesco’s Halloween Facebook pop-up shop
In the run-up to the spookiest of holidays, at We Are Social towers we’ve created a pop-up Facebook store for Tesco to offer fans an exclusive 20% discount on Halloween-themed products. With discounts linked through to Tesco’s main e-commerce site, the pop-up shop had low barriers to entry for fans and made purchasing as easy as making pumpkin pie.
Heinz Beanz get spooky
And to celebrate the launch of the new Beanz Halloween packaging, also at We Are Social towers, we’ve produced a Facebook campaign for ‘Hallowbean’. We’re encouraging all of our Beanz fans to upload photos of themselves or their Beanz cans dressed up for Halloween. The best ones entered will get their very own Hallowbeanz to eat.
Kia Australia help fans show their friends a little Respect
To celebrate the launch of the Kia Rio Reborn – a car that demands serious respect – our cousins down under at We Are Social Sydney have created an app that allows fans to “respect” each other. It’s a little bit of fun that also showcases the car’s design and personality.
The Telegraph’s Twitter #fail
An argument between a Telegraph reporter and his editor via Twitter was made even more public by the Twitter newsfeed of the argument displayed on the article in question.
Rub social shoulders with the man in 10 Downing Street
Our Prime Minister David Cameron is expanding his social presence – he’s recently joined both LinkedIn and Foursquare. Let’s see what happens when I try and add him to my network on LinkedIn…