we are social

A recent McKinsey Global Survey revealed that marketers see clear value in social media when it comes to driving customer engagement, but they feel they are ill-equipped to transform insights into action because they do not have sufficient familiarity with skills such as data analytics.

How companies are using digital tools

In the past 2 years, 56% of marketers surveyed felt they were better able to use digital channels to deliver mutual value to customers and their own brands.

For example, marketers are increasingly using Facebook as an online commerce platform, where customers can seek opinions from the brand or their peers before purchasing products from within Facebook itself. Many companies are also harnessing Twitter for customer service – Best Buy’s Twelpforce being a great example.

However, less than a quarter of those surveyed are using analytical tools to refine their decision-making processes, even though 39% have increased access to data and insights.

This reflects an important imbalance: while companies believe that social media are valuable to their brands, their ability to use analytics to better understand their ‘digital customers’ is hindering their ability to use online channels as effectively as they’d like.

The shift towards social

Reassuringly, McKinsey found that there would be a clear shift in focus towards digital tools over the next few years. Interestingly, there will be a diminishing focus on company websites and email as brands invest more in social media.

47% of the marketers McKinsey surveyed plan to use social media sites in future, compared to the 39% that currently do. Their greatest interest currently lies in mobile applications, with 48% of marketers planning to engage customers via mobile apps, compared to the 11% who are already doing so.

Challenges marketers face

32% of marketers agree that being able to generate and leverage deep customer insights is central to effective marketing, but they also say that this poses the greatest challenge to them.

Interestingly, 11% of marketers stated that they face difficulty in assessing the effectiveness of their digital marketing because of the difference between traditional and online metrics.

However, given the vast array of available data about online marketing, and the opportunities to customise tools to report the metrics that matter most to individual marketers, our sense is that this may be more an issue of awareness and comfort levels with the tools than it is one of actual potential.

Widely available tools like Google Analytics provide an incredible wealth of data, and can also include enlightening social tracking, but many marketers are yet to get actively involved in the set-up and analysis of the tracking these tools offer.

Similarly, Facebook’s free Insights offering provides valuable details of the demographics and location of a Facebook Page’s ‘fans’ – data which marketers can use to identify key cultural trends within their audience, or identify areas for growth that can inspire highly targeted communications activity.

The good news is that, although only 14% of respondents have implemented concrete plans to address ‘the data challenge’, almost half are developing, or are in the process of implementing, steps to generate customer insights from online data.

Transparency and fear

Understandably, 22% of those surveyed find managing brand reputation online a challenge, largely because of the open nature of social media. Besides the 19% who already have social media policies in place, a further 38% of marketers surveyed are developing or implementing social media guidelines.

The struggle with online metrics and analysis

Marketers are struggling to assess the impact of digital marketing because of their inability to translate analytic results into insight, or identify the right metrics in the first place.

31% of marketers feel that online metrics do not adequately quantify the financial impact digital marketing has generated for their companies. Alarmingly, 24% can’t even understand what these metrics actually measure.

27% of respondents said they feel that they lack internal leadership on analytics. Meanwhile, one-quarter face difficulty in finding internal talent, and one in ten thinks that their HR department is ill-equipped to identify candidates with analytic skills. The greatest challenge, unsurprisingly, lies in funding.

As a result of all these issues, only 4% of McKinsey’s respondents believe that they possess the necessary capabilities to effectively manage their business.

Our interpretation of these findings is that there is a degree of the tail wagging the dog though; digital and social media provide a variety of tools that can help to deliver greater value to a business, and are not merely obstacles that marketers need to try to ‘get around’.

Metrics should be at the service of the marketer, helping to measure return on investment, and identifying ways to improve the business approach. Our assessment is that, too often, measurement is an after-thought, and too few companies are setting clear objectives for their digital or social media activities before they get involved in execution.

Planning for a digital and social future

Just as the Industrial Revolution turned into an Industrial Evolution that lasted hundreds of years, so will it take time for present-day companies to adapt to and master this ‘Digital Revolution’. This is an on-going process, and it will take time to effectively fuse digital approaches and technologies into all business functions.

In their analysis of the findings, McKinsey reassures marketers that “there’s no single solution” for companies struggling to define their online business model, but they highlight the importance of making use of data rather than merely collecting it.

They also suggest that many marketers may be expecting too much of themselves, and too soon. The world of digital and social media is changing rapidly, and it’s unrealistic for any one person or team to understand everything.

Consequently, marketers should not be afraid to reach out to third-party partners who can help with data analysis, insight, and subsequent strategic interpretation.

Murdoch: We screwed up MySpace ‘in every way possible’

After joining twitter at the start of this year, it seems that Rupert Murdoch has been inundated with questions about failing social network MySpace. Murdoch responded curtly:

At Ford, social media is bigger than advertising

Matt VanDyke, director-U.S. marketing communications for Ford has told Ad Age:

At Ford, social media is bigger than advertising

How long will it be before we hear other major brands say the same?

Bad reviews may be good for business

In a report by social commerce company Reevoo, it’s been suggested that bad reviews may actually be good for business. The company found that 68% of consumers trust reviews more when they see both good and bad scores, and if consumers fear tampering if there are no negative reviews.

Facebook places ads alongside social updates in the feed

Facebook rolls out a new way of advertising to friends of fans. Comparable to Sponsored stories, which currently sit on the right hand side of the page, the new Featured stories will actually appear in the news feed. A small difference perhaps, but giving the ad an appearance of being a story rather than a paid for piece.

Although the addition of adverts within the news feed may irritate some users, the adverts displayed will only appear from brands yourself or a friend has already liked. To further reduce a chance of backlash, Facebook have also declared that there will only be one of these ads per day in the feed.

Facebook have also been trialing a new type of coupon promotion. The promotion, which allow pages to post coupons, then promote them with sponsored stories is being used by sandwich chain Which Wich giving fans a little extra for their like. Studies have found, users come to Facebook for exclusive offers and discounts suggesting these vouchers could be a big success if used correctly.

Listen to music with your friends on Facebook

Listening to music with friends has always been seen as a social pastime. Facebook are now taking it that one step further by allowing friends to listen to music on Spotify at the exact same time as each other.

A new button will be rolling out on the ticker and a simple click will have you listening along. The feature will also open up a chat with all of the friends listening in, so when that riff you all love comes in, you can share the moment together.

Google+ added to search, at what cost?

The big news last week was Google’s introduction of what it catchily called ‘search plus your world’ – basically a way of promoting Google+ in its search results. Adam has the full low-down in this dedicated post about the issue.

David Beckham is going Google+

David Beckham is joining the ranks of celebrities already using YouTube to connect with their fans. To ask Beckham a question, fans just have to head over to Google+ and post it including the hashtag #GoogleBeckham.

Of course, Google aren’t going to miss out an opportunity to show of its social network’s functionality, so users of Google+ will be able to hang out with Beckham immediately after the live interview.

Explore the world with Foursquare

The guys over at Foursquare are busy rolling out their new web app, Foursquare Explore. The premise is a bit like Google maps, in that tips and information about local retailers, restaurants and anything interesting are layered over.

Not only does it allow you to search for general recommendations, but also it learns where you and your friends check in to give tailored and accurate results.

TV gets a bit more social

Boxee allows users to find and play video directly from the Internet on their television sets, and now thanks to a partnership with Facebook, TV is to become a little bit more social. The new Boxee live and Facebook intergration allows users to post what they are watching to Facebook for the world to see. Friends can then click the links and ‘check in’ to the shows and find more information about them. Don’t worry just yet; this functionality is optional so your viewing habits won’t be broadcasted to friends without you knowing about it.

Social television seems to be going from strength to strength with TV check in app, GetGlue raising $12M in financing. Not only has the company been successful in raising this amount of money, but they have also announced that over 2M users are checking into their TV Shows.

Latest to hop on the social television bandwagon is MySpace with the announcement that they’re launching a social television experience with Panasonic. MySpace’s service aims to connect viewers with content and each other utilising Panasonic Viera connect TV sets. The package will include Smartphone and Tablet apps so users can access Myspace TV even if they are away from their televisions.

Tebow-mania hits Twitter

Last week during the NFL playoff game between the Denver Broncos and AFC champions Pittsburgh Steelers saw the highest rates of tweets per second (TPS) in Twitter history. As Tebow threw his 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime and secured a win for the Broncos Twitter erupted at a rate of 9,420 TPS – a new record for sports events.

To put this rate into perspective the previous record was 7,196 at the end of the FIFA womans world cup last summer, and it’s even more than Osama Bin Laden’s death (5,106 TPS), Steve jobs’ resignation (7,064 TPS) and Death (6,049 TPS). It’s a large number, but still far from the all-time record of 25,088 when Hayao Miyazaki’s castle in the sky was aired in Japan.

Facebook gives politico deep access to users’ political sentiments

Simple analysis by volume of tweets or user posts rarely reveals the sentiment behind social media feeling. In a bid to understand the sentiment of voting-age users, a study by Politico and Facebook is set to delve deep into posts to discover the true attitudes towards candidates.

The most notable characteristic is that user data will include Facebook users’ private status messages and comments, a statement that may alarm some, however the mentions will be fed through a computerised analysis tool and never seen by Facebook employees.

#SmokedByWindowsPhone

In this short, but sweet campaign by Microsoft, they offered users a chance to win $100 if they could complete certain tasks on their existing phone before the Windows phone could complete the same task. The penalty for losing was to bite the bullet and admit on camera that you got #SmokedByWindowsPhone, a bold but confidant move by Microsoft, however after winning in 88% of the challenges, it seems to have paid off.

Klout to Crown the First-Ever ‘T-Mobile Social King of CES’

A challenge by set out by Klout and T-Mobile, saw users try to aquire the most +Ks during CES 2012. The user who managed to use their Klout in order to gain the most +K during the event was crowned T-Mobile Social King and given a host of techie prizes.

Tiffany & Co. team up with the Sartorialist to showcase true love

Tiffany and Co. have joined forces with fashion bloggers the Sartorialist & Garance Doré in an effort to discover true love from real couples around Paris and New York.

The venture, True Love in Pictures is the latest venture from Tiffany & Co. as part of their Whatmakeslovetrue.com project. The project has see an Instagram gallery created by the couple and now seeks out to find user generated moments of romance, all captured using the Tiffany & Co. downloadable Instagram filter.

Audi partners with Foursquare for a new badge for Skiers

If you’re hitting the slopes this winter and can’t get enough Foursquare badges, the new Audi Winter Ride badge is sure to be up your street. User can unlock the badge by following Audi and checking in at any ski area, unlocking the badge and rewarding the user with a 20% discount on the Audi collection.

Kit Kat to decide new flavour through Facebook

A new campaign by Nestle, asks consumers to vote for their favourite of four new Kit Kat Chunky flavours with the winner being sold permanently.

Fans will be able to vote on their favourite of the four flavours (double choc, peanut butter, orange or white choc) on Facebook until 24^th February. To add a little incentive to the campaign fans have the chance to win £100 each day for their entry.

While Cadbury UK turns to Google+ to launch Bubbly Bar

Continuing on with chocolate-based news, this week has seen Cadbury launch their new Bubbly bar exclusively on Google+ to their followers. The post (below) was released to fans and then quickly followed by posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Diet Coke launches fashion and beauty Facebook app

Diet Coke have launched a fashion and beauty Facebook app dubbed the Get Glam app. The app is said to be the ‘perfect accompaniment for getting ready with the girls’ and includes fashion and beauty tips alongside a video chat tool. Launched as part of a three-year initiative across brands to link their activity to fashion, the idea is set to appeal to ‘young, fun loving woman’.

A study from the CMO Council of 1300 consumers and 132 senior marketers revealed a profound difference between what consumers want from brands in social media, and what marketers think they want. The study is 31 pages long and worth a read, but being the social people we are, we’ve done it for you.

The report comes to a startling conclusion, but also includes a great deal of interesting data:

The bottom line is that consumers want more—more experiences, more engagement, more rewards, and more reasons to connect with each other and brands through social media. And brands are missing the boat. They see the benefits of reaching out to customers through social channels, but they aren’t yet fully invested.

What’s in a like?

It’s something we’re always discussing internally, and it’s remarkable to see the difference in point of view between marketers and consumers over why people like brand Pages.

For marketers:

For consumers:

The other important question is what do fans expect once they’ve become one? It’s bares repeating that just acquiring fans should be seen as a means to an end, rather than an end in of itself.

That 60% of consumers say they like a Page to interact with other consumers underlines how a Facebook Page should be a community rather than just a Page:

Providing customer service

A lot of the research we’ve covered in the mashup in the past year has highlighted how brands think offering a response on social channels within 3 days is a reasonable timeframe. Judging by the response from consumers, they need to get a lot quicker, and be monitoring day-to-day for potential crises:

The infographic below showcases some of the other key stats which this report has highlighted. We’ll be doing all we can for our clients to narrow this ‘digital divide’.

Altimeter have just released a new report authored by Jeremiah Owyang looking into Social Media Management Systems:

A Social Media Management System (SMMS) is a software tool that uses business rules and approved employees and partners to manage multiple social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. This system contains features such as governance, workflow, intelligence, and integration capabilities across the enterprise. The success of these tools is dependent upon a business-led strategy, defined processes, trained staff, and ability to measure efforts.

These tools are quickly becoming indispensible to brands. Robin Grant of agency We Are Social said, “When you’ve got multiple people involved, both on the brand and agency side, you especially need a tool to manage the conversation.”

As you can tell from the quote above, we contributed to the research, and were lucky enough to have access to a preview copy of the report. Here are the key take outs…

Altimeter created five classifications of SMMS vendor:

And then mapped 27 vendors’ capabilities against those classifications:

But ultimately they conclude:

Despite claims, there is no one perfect SMMS vendor.

We see rapid growth in the market, yet no single solution stands out as able to satisfy all needs of mature buyers. Additionally, we found some over-arching market concerns, including lack of vendor differentiation. Key trends buyers should be wary of include:

A. Market over-saturated and confusing due to funding and low barriers to entry

• Freemium business models spur uncontrolled adoption
• Funding from investors overinflates growth
• Commodity technology results in market look-alikes

B. Vendors lack full capabilities to satisfy enterprise-class buyers:

• Buyers frustrated with lack of monitoring and analytics capabilities
• Relying on APIs from third party social networks is a risk
• Technology is not enough: Agencies fill the gap, serving brands

With which we would concur – having worked with over 10 of the vendors surveyed and also worked with many of our clients to help them select vendors, unfortunately there is no one right answer for the varying needs of different organisations.

I’d liken this market to the social media monitoring space a couple of years ago – vendors are still at an early stage of product development and the market is yet to shake itself out with no clear leaders emerging as yet.

As Altimeter recommend, and as Forrester also recommended in their report on this space last year, brands should seek the help of specialist agencies such as We Are Social to help them navigate this landscape and pick the right solution for them, which will often be a combination of two or three vendors’ platforms.

For those wanting to read the full report, we’re delighted to be able to share it with you below:

Great analysis and curation in this deck by Esteban Contreras:

Here are the Top 10 stories in Social Media this week;

1) We are all social
Forrester’s latest round of technographic data shows that social media is truly mainstream and stable, with little change in the US and Europe from last year’s figures, aside from an increase in Joiners (people with a profile on a social network – Forrester’s social media usage scale ranges from Spectators to Creators, depending on how actively they are creating and participating in social content).

However, the area of key interest this year is Asia, notably metropolitan China and India where 76% and 80% of internet users respectively are Creators (compared to 24% in the US and 23% in Europe). This means that almost 8 out of 10 people are generating social content, so look to Asia for the next big social trend…

2) The importance of brand response via social media
According to research from Conversocial, customer service from brands via social media is key. Over 80% of respondents said they would be at least a little put off from buying from a brand that they saw ignoring other customers.

3) Social campaigns improve long term brand advocacy and purchase intent
BzzAgent have found that advocates’ likelihood to recommend a product is dramatically increased from 39% before to 61% directly after exposure to a social media marketing campaign. Even one year later, 55% of brand advocates are more likely to recommend a product.

As for brand advocates own purchase intent, before a campaign 38% said they would purchase, however immediately after the campaign this dramatically increased to 69%, and remained this high for 3 months. Still yet more impressive, after one year, purchase intent was as high as 61%. This demonstrates that social media campaigns are effective at improving metrics which directly affect the bottom line.

4) Marketers’ relationship with Wikipedia to change
It all began with an open letter to Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia, stating how PR professionals and Wikipedia have to work together to ensure Wikipedia is an accurate and available resource to the public, and another blog post from Stuart Bruce drawing the same conclusion – Wikipedia’s current guidelines need changing.

Fast forward two days and Wikipedia had agreed to work with the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations to that end. Roger Bamkin, Chair of Wikipmedia UK, commented:

Recent incidents [...] show that in some parts of the PR profession, a lack of understanding on how to engage with the Wikipedia community persists. We will work with the CIPR to ensure that their members, and through them the wider PR Profession, have access to the clearest possible guidance on the best way to work with Wikipedia.

It will be interesting to see how the CIPR and Wikipedia work this one out…

5) Google applies penalty against themselves
Google recently violated its own guidelines against paid links, when unbeknown to them, Unruly Media conducted a sponsored post campaign on their behalf to promote their Chrome browser, and one of the campaign’s participants failed to use the ‘no-follow’ attribute when linking to the Chrome homepage. After an investigation, Google then applied a penalty against themselves so that searches for “browser” now no longer bring up the Google Chrome homepage, with Chrome’s PageRank lowered for at least 60 days. Our very own Robin Grant commented:

I have a lot respect for Google for taking this action against themselves – although you could argue a two month ban is rather lenient compared to action they’ve taken against transgressors in the past. This incident goes to show the importance of the recently released joint IAB and ISBA guidelines on paid promotion in social media – had Google and Unruly followed these, they wouldn’t have come a cropper, and it does highlight the very real dangers of non-compliance.

6) Facebook’s flagged photos … offensive or just unattractive?
Facebook have determined, that last year, the majority of photos its users reported as offensive were not actually offensive, in fact they were just unattractive or unwanted. The difficulty lay in the fact that often these were photos that friends had posted, meaning the user couldn’t delete themselves, so they resorted to clicking flag instead. After Facebook noticed that the flagging tool was being used for these reasons, the company changed its photo reporting process, allowing users to message the person who posted the photo and complain with the following options:

What vain creatures we are…

7) Instagram allows you to share larger photos… and welcomes the President
Now when you choose to share your photos to Facebook through Instagram, the images will be instantly uploaded to an Instagram Photos Facebook album. These will appear in their full size in user’s newsfeeds and on the Timeline. Instagram also has a new VIP member, the one and only Barack Obama. Not only is he sharing photos through @barackobama, but he also urges supporters to share their photos from the campaign with the tag #obama2012. A clever way to give the public an insight into the daily life of the US President and to observe behind the scenes footage of the upcoming US Presidential Election.

8) Path is the new place to be
Path is where all the tech A-listers hang out these days, at least according to Seesmic’s Loic Le Meur. This new mobile-only social network, with a limit of 150 friends, has created a small, private, place where you can hang out online at any time of day with your close friends, and get notified about them constantly. Path has also recently added the option of sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare all at the same time. When people are tired of everything being public, Path just may be their point of call…

9) Levi’s use Instagram to find their latest model
Levi Strauss have opened up the casting to their 2012 Brand Campaign via the world of Instagram. Anyone around the world can upload a photo of themselves with the tag #iamlevis in the hope they will be the next star of the fashion brand.

10) Olympics Games volunteers’ social media restrictions
The Olympics organisers have released social media rules for the 70,000 Games Maker volunteers during the 2012 Olympics. Volunteers are not allowed to mention their role, location, celebrities and athletes, including a ban on photos or posts featuring backstage VIPs. Progressive!

Happy New Year We Are Socialites, and welcome to the first Tune-Up of 2012, your one-stop post-hangover shop for all the latest social media shenanigans.

Here are the Top 10 stories in Social Media this week;

1) The 10 Most Influential Brands on Twitter this Christmas

Those crafty infographic merchants at Mashable have got their hands on a great bit of visual data from Klout, showing how big US brands stacked up in retweets and mentions over the holiday period.

Most interesting is the mentions vs retweets in determining Klout score. Amazon (aka Shamonazon) have the highest score, but have relatively few retweets, meaning their score has been influenced by conversations rather than content sharing.

The lesson here? Start a conversation. And be sure to add a ‘via @YOURNAME’ to any Tweet buttons on your page, to start racking up those valuable @replies.

2) Step up your interest in Pinterest
Social bookmarking site Pinterest has been hoarding traffic and press mentions like a hobo with a bottle collection over the past couple of months, and according to print magazine Real Simple, it’s time for marketers to start pinning.

In an article on AdAge, Real Simple GM of Digital Shannon King said the site is driving more traffic for them than Facebook, and is now a valuable part of their social media strategy.

Like Tumblr, Pinterest allows users to post content and Repin interesting content from other users onto their ‘Boards’.

This allows links and images to spread quickly through the network, meaning that a well-curated board could generate thousands of impressions and click-throughs for the right brand.

And with ecommerce sites like Etsy already finding success on Pinterest, it seems the platform is a great place to extend your shopfront in the social web.

And in case you were wondering, yes you can follow We Are Social Au on Pinterest here.

3) Finland fails to get with the time(lines)
Apparently the worldwide roll-out of Timeline, Facebook’s much-vaunted new profile layout, wasn’t celebrated everywhere.

After the switch, users in Finland began deleting their profiles en masse, after news spread that old private message were appearing in the Timeline, something that caused many users to hit the panic button.

The rumour appears to have found traction via a report from the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation, but Facebook quickly confirmed that old wall posts were appearing, not private messages.

The users who deleted profiles will be able to reactivate them easily, meaning this one had a happy Finnish after all.

4) The philosophy of Like
The folks over at eMarketer have published the results of a study by social media CRM firm Lithium, which asked marketers what it means when a user Likes a Facebook page, or engages with a brand online;

The answers appear to be fairly… romantic, with the notion that brand news is more important to a consumer than a promotion or discount, but at least more marketers are recognising the importance of compelling content.

The study also asked marketers to weigh the value of social media activity for their brands;

Unsurprisingly, the opportunity to improve listening, engagement and conversation is recognised as the biggest benefit of social media, something we’ve been saying since we launched in 2008.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help your brand engage in conversation with your customers, give us a call on +61 2 8353 3410

5) Get ready for more Facebook ads
Everyone loves ads, right? Facebook is certainly hoping so, with the platform looking to build on the success of their Sponsored Stories product by offering brands new ways to advertise in the News Feed.

Previously, sponsored stories appeared in the more tradational ad slots on the Facebook page, but from this year they will begin appearing in the news feed;

Advertisers won’t be able to ask for News Feed placement, and users will be able to hide unwanted ads or advertisers from their feed.

It seems getting your brand to appear in the news feed may end up being a game of hide and seek, then.

6) Unsurprisingly, users prefer to login with Facebook
When given the option, more users will login to external sites with their Facebook credentials than any other service accroding to this infographic by Janrain.

Not a great surprise, but perhaps the fact that more users choose to login with their Yahoo IDs than with Twitter will make you spit out your tea. Thought so.

7) Predicting social media trends, Mayan style
The world might be ending this year, but we’re not going to go down without a Tweet.

Spreading Jam have compiled their predictions for the Social Year ahead, and it makes an interesting read, even though some of these seem a bit first base, or entirely off piste.

The renaissance of TV via social media? Sounds a little bit 2011…

8) BBC reports on the rise of F-Commerce, with help from We Are Social
We Are Social MD Robin Grant gave the Beeb a leg-up into the world of F-Commerce this Christmas, adding industry perspective to the report while showcasing our very own Heinz Get Well Soon campaign.

Catch the video on the BBC here. Great work, Robin!

9) Kleenex use social to help us Feel Good
Kleenex showed how to combine social and real-world to create a compelling story this winter, with their Feel Good campaign.

Using listening tools, they tracked down sick people on Facebook, asked that users friends for their address, and sent them a Kleenex care package by courier within the hour;

It’s enough to bring a tear to the eye.

10) We Are Statistics
Everyone likes a good stat, so We Are Social MD Robin Grant, always happy to oblige, has given readers a look under the hood of the We Are Social blog.

In the process, he’s managed to both impress us and fill us with the kind of little brother envy one might get when your big brother gets this kind of traffic…

Between appearances on the BBC and picking up awards, Robin, we don’t know where you find the time.

Here’s to a very Social 2012 for all We Are Socialites!

The Week According To The Internet:

• Single-Serving Tumblr Of The Week: Goths In Trees
• YouTube Video Of The Week: Boy Slaps Brother With An iPad
• How To Deal With Trolls Of The Week: Stephen King

Expecting big things from social in 2012? Leave a comment below! 

Welcome to the final Tune-Up of 2011, the illustrious number 19. Not quite as good as number 100, which the UK just celebrated (congrats!), but certainly not without merit…

Here are the Top 10 stories in social media this week;

1. Facebook announces top trends of 2011

Facebook Australia are hosting a nice metrics app which shows the top status trends (above), most popular people, brands, characters, movies and television shows from Australian Facebook users in 2011.

If you’re wondering what a Skrillex is, it’s a dubstep thing, apparently.

It all looks very nice, but where there’s smoke, there’s Google, and not one to miss out on a bit of stat action;

2. Google lists top Australian search terms for the year

Google have published their annual Zeitgeist – the hottest trends on Google.com.au over the past year.

Apparently, we’re a nation of cake-eating, mine-craft playing plankers. But no-one else is allowed to call us that.

“Siri, where’s my cake pop?”

3. Social networks used by over three quarters of consumers
A new study from Ofcom produced some interesting findings about the state of social:

Social networking is a global phenomenon, with over three quarters of consumers in the markets we surveyed saying that they have visited a social networking site, with the majority saying they visit them on a daily basis.

This is much higher among 18-24 year olds, with eight in ten (83 per cent) visiting on a daily basis.

Social networking sites are most popular in Italy, with 91 per cent ever having visited and a quarter visiting over five times a day (24 per cent), while in the UK eight out of ten (79 per cent) have ever visited with one in five visiting over five times a day.

UK consumers are more likely to access social networking sites on a mobile phone than other countries, with 43 per cent of those with social networking site profiles saying they do so compared to just 30 per cent in the US.

More widely, the UK is Europe’s most digitally aware nation (second only to America) and this is underlined by Britons spending more time online, owning more smartphones and even watching more TV online.

Nonetheless, perhaps the most interesting graph in the whole report is how different age groups use social media to share news. The graph underscores how young people are ‘always active’:

4. Companies look to expand social media spend in 2012
An interesting bit of research from Grant Thornton highlighting how although just 43% of companies worldwide currently use social media, 61% plan to increase their usage, with it breaking down by country as follows:

The quicker growth amongst BRIC countries is backed up by the latest research from KPMG, which suggests that brands are keen to use social media in those markets as a cheap and effective way to boost brand awareness.

Judging by another survey, it seems the increased spend will go – unsurprisingly – mainly on Facebook and Twitter campaigns:

5. Facebook hits 1 billion – and rolls out timeline worldwide
According to Gawker, Facebook will make one billion Dollars in profit in the calendar year 2011 – double its profits from the previous year.

More to the point, it’s limited outgoings means Facebook is swimming in cash.

These extraordinary profit figures mean that if and when a Facebook flotation does come, the social network will be valued at a least 100 billion Dollars. And that’s a lot of money.

In other FB-news, a long time after it was announced, Facebook Timeline is finally available worldwide.

Once users activate Timeline, they get a seven-day review period to check what goes on the Timeline before it goes public.

Timeline is also now available on iPhone, Android and Mobile Web.

6. New Google+ updates and changes to Hangouts
With the end of the year just a few days away, Google have decided to launch some new updates to Google+.

First up, they’ve added the option to ‘change the volume’ of Circles, so that the overall stream can be better weighted to your interests:

They’ve also updated Brand Pages in a really positive way: they can now have multiple admins with a notification flow to enhance Page management, and they also have launched an aggregated count of all users who have engaged with a Page:

They’ve also launched a whole range of updates for Hangouts including video Hangouts on mobile which are designed to make them more accessible. To whom is another matter…

7. Facebook considering new ad formats
AdAge reports that at the end of March, Facebook is planning its first push into mobile advertising – by putting Sponsored Stories into the mobile News Feed.

It’s an interesting development as Facebook believes its userbase will be growing on mobile, meaning that this is almost certainly the first of several steps.

Judging by a post on Inside Facebook, the social network has also launched a new premium ad unit, allowing brands to post Coupons on their Pages and then push these through traditional Facebook social ads.

8. KLM to introduce in-flight matchmaker zone
Dutch airline KLM’s latest social campaign is a deft touch: customers will be allowed to see fellow passengers’ social media profiles, and based on their interests can choose to sit together.

9. Heineken launch social Christmas tree – and hire We Are Social
Heineken have launched a Facebook campaign where fans can send a Merry Christmas message to 16 friends in a sendable graphic. These messages will then come alive on a real tree in Singapore.

In even more exciting news, Heineken have hired We Are Social (that’s us…) to work on Bulmers and Jacques, two of their cider brands. We’re looking forward to working together.

10. Sherlock Holmes film utilises Stephen Fry’s Twitter following
It’s not original using celebrities for endorsements, even in social, but this one caught our eye for its inventiveness: Stephen Fry has been posting Holmes-esque cryptic clues on his Twitter channel to promote the new Sherlock Holmes film, and the first person to crack them each day wins a prize.

A good campaign, well executed, without any elementary mistakes.

The Week According To The Internets:

• Push This Button Of The Week: Make Everything OK
• Viral Video Of The Week: How Santa Uses Siri
• Single-Serving Tumblr Of The Week: Comic Sans The World

Always a great read by the guys at Contagious Magazine. Most Contagious showcases the best ideas from 2011 across branding, technology and popular culture.