We Are Social: Tuesday Tune-Up #19

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=9sWPBpRLqq0

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