We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #271

Mashup
laura.muldoon

The YouTube versus Facebook video debate continues
Although Facebook is fast becoming a real rival to YouTube with its video offering, a debate has started around which metric is most useful to brands when measuring effectiveness on both platforms. Facebook places emphasis on ‘views’, which are logged after three seconds of watching, a strategy which has seen their results publicly scrutinised. YouTube on the other hand thinks ‘watch time’ is where it’s at.

Facebook lets users respond privately to local-awareness ads
In a move that pushes Facebook further into the direct response channel realm, a local-awareness ad service has been introduced that lets users message businesses directly with customer service queries. Businesses that respond quickly to users’ rants and raves will also get a public badge rating them as ‘highly responsive’.

Facebook adds live streaming – but it’s not for you
Unless you’re reading this Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson *waves*. A live streaming service has been introduced on Facebook but at this stage it’s ring-fenced just for the famous. Facebook has not commented on whether it will eventually be rolled out for brands or us, the lowly non-famous.

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Facebook launches new live event stream with Lollapalooza
For the first time fans are able to virtually attend a festival via Facebook, through its Place Tips feature. The stream was debuted for Chicago’s Lollapalooza festival; content was a culmination of user images and updates from performers at the event. Flat beer and endless toilet queues, not included.

Instagram finally switches on its money jets (advertising API)
Following what has been described as “one of the most anticipated moments in the evolution of advertising”, marketers will be able to advertise on Instagram just as they do on Facebook and Twitter. Now brands can sidestep phone calls with Instagram sales reps and instead self-serve ads with third-party platforms.

Twitter to roll out ‘breaking news’ tab
Twitter wants to get serious about news. How serious? Making a new tab serious, that’s how serious! When you click the tab, you’ll see curated top stories from major news publishers like The New York Times and CBS. It’s unconfirmed when this feature will be fully rolled out, so watch this space.

LinkedIn proves itself further for B2B advertising
It has been announced that LinkedIn’s native Sponsored Updates has accounted for 45% of its ad revenue in the second quarter of this year. This is a result of the platform’s move away from supplying traffic to third-party publishers and instead becoming a publishing platform in its own right.

Social Selling Index helps LinkedIn users measure personal brand health
Sales professionals on LinkedIn, or anyone else interested in ‘social selling’, will now be able identify key areas for improvement using its new Social Selling Index, which rates users out of 100 based on four categories. I won’t tell you what they are here but will reveal that none of them are based on how dashing you look in your profile picture.

Republican presidential hopefuls’ social media offerings
Behind every self-respecting politician nowadays is a social media-savvy twentysomething with a smart phone and a Vine account. Ad Age has kindly compiled a look at the best, or the worst (I just can’t tell anymore) of the Republican presidential candidates’ new media attempts. #DontMessWithTheInternet

Very.co.uk creates shoppable YouTube ad
The problem with doing a cover of ‘Summertime’ by DJ Jazzy Jeff and Will Smith set in England is that you actually have to shoot a video with some sun in it. Although Very.co.uk can’t offer that to viewers, it has given the option of buying everything you see in this peppy re-hash by Rizzle Kicks, one of the UK’s first shoppable YouTube ads. An aged Jazzy Jeff is unfortunately not for sale, I’ve looked.

Tube drivers strike, brands run a good service on all platforms
Londoners – did you arrive three hours late for work last week during the tube strikes, but then take a look at some of these tweets and feel much better? I know I did. Here are some of the Tube Strike social media brand best bits.

Nine tweets that made #NationalUnderwearDay weirder
To end my inaugural mash-up, it was National Underwear Day last week, I know! Did you not celebrate? Brands like Calvin Klein and Spanx also didn’t but luckily for us Justin Bieber’s package gets re-aired virtually by Vevo and two Postman Pats encourage you to ‘keep it clean’. Here are some of the best, but for a post mash-up treat, search Lenny Kravitz on Twitter to see how he (unofficially) celebrated. You’re welcome.