Archive for the ‘facebook’ Category
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
You walk in to your favorite restaurant in the city. You pull out your phone to brag to your friends, and possibly see that someone you know is there, too. So, what do you do? Check in to Foursquare, Google Places, Facebook Places, Yelp, or one of the many other check-in options?
Sonar, a new geo-location notification aggregate, can now do better – telling you which of your Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn friends are there – and tweet them directly to let them now you’ve arrived. This all-in-one functionality is terrific obviously, but relies on all of your contacts actually utilizing one of these services to check in themselves.
And how many people are going to check in via LinkedIn? Well, perhaps a business conference, I suppose?
It’s an example of an awesome possibility that will only become awesome once these services start auto-checking you into places – which admittedly, is uber-creepy.
Tags: check-in, facebook, facebook-places, Foursquare, geolocation, google-places, LinkedIn, mobile-marketing, sonar, Twitter
Posted in facebook, Google, GPS, LinkedIn, mobile-marketing, Smartphones, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011
Recently at Windy City Strategies, we noted the odd reality that social media really wasn’t serving as an effective traffic driver for Websites – at least, not nearly as much as we might have thought.
In a revised study by the same company we originally cited, Facebook has taken a serious leap forward. From out of the top 10 to the number 4 position. Whereas Twitter, previous ranked above Facebook (and referring 60% more traffic) has fallen to the 10th spot. Honestly, these new findings make me question the original report more than anything.
But, if this new study is correct, understanding how to take advantage of the viral, easy-to-share nature of social networks is more important than ever.
Tags: facebook, social-media-marketing, Twitter
Posted in facebook, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Teenagers no longer watch TV. They interact with it.
That’s the biggest transmedia lesson we can take from this year’s Video Music Awards hosted by MTV. 5 1/2 million tweets. 66,000 Facebook posts. 80% of them positive. 65% of them posted by girls. 50% of them taking place via mobile.
You might ask, why did Twitter have such a big response as compared to Facebook, the social media giant? Well, MTV encouraged it, incorporating hashtags # in the show – leading the discussion. Social media now allows us to watch TV together, even when we’re alone. To provide a collective running commentary.
It’s a brave new world. And it’s taking place two screens at a time.
Tags: facebook, mtv, social-media-marketing, transmedia, Twitter, video-music-awards, vmas
Posted in facebook, mobile-marketing, Smartphones, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
Tuesday, August 30th, 2011
Becoming less like Twitter and more like Facebook, Google Plus has introduced a new ignore feature.
This didn’t exist a few weeks ago, so I started an (Acquaintance) circle, full of people I felt socially obliged to add to my Google Circles, but didn’t have any real interest in their daily thoughts.
Facebook has always made it easy for you to hide individual’s posts without letting them know they’ve been ignored. Twitter hasn’t added that yet. And it’s not because they haven’t thought of it. It’s because they want your number of followers to quantify something. They want it to be your number of active listeners. Until now, Google Plus’s numbers represented this. Now, you can be following 10,000 people on Google+ but only really listening to 3.
Tags: facebook, Google, Google-Circles, Google-Plus, social-media-marketing, Twitter
Posted in facebook, Google, Google Plus, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
Monday, August 29th, 2011
Looking back, I don’t think I knew exactly what some of my friends were doing in high school. But that bubble of deniability doesn’t exist today. You know exactly what all of your friends, peers and acquaintances are doing in high school. Because they’re posting the photos to Facebook.
So, what is that doing to today’s kids? Bad news if you’re a Facebook supporter. A study has found that teens who use the social network are 5 times more likely to have used tobacco, 3 times more likely to have used alcohol and 2 times more likely to have used marijuana.
So, what’s going on here? Well, one theory is based on the stat that 40% of those involved in the study have seen pictures of peers “drunk, passed out or doing drugs” on social media sites. And 49% of those saw these photos at the age of 13 or under. By the age of 15, this percentage was 90%.
When you see your peers doing something, your expectations are adjusted. In the past, we may have just believed that no one was really doing drugs or having sex. Now, kids have photographic evidence of it. And apparently, it affects them.
Tags: facebook, social-media-marketing
Posted in facebook, Social Media | Comments Off
Thursday, August 25th, 2011
My favorite part of Google+ so far has been Google Circles. The ability to filter your social commentary by selectively controlling your audience had immediate appeal.
Facebook thought so, too.
But, their implementation is more like Twitter lists, which I never got around to making, because it didn’t seem simple enough. To be honest, it might be exactly as easy as Google Plus’ Circles. But + users started using this feature from the get-go. To go back through your hundreds of Facebook friends and start making lists for them?
If it’s between that and waiting for everyone to join Google +, I might just do that?
Tags: facebook, Google, Google-Circles, Google-Plus, social-media-marketing, twitter-lists
Posted in facebook, Google, Google Plus, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011
Facebook’s ability to hyper-target individuals based on specific interests has always been their best differentiator over Google AdWords. And this differentiator has just become even easier to manage.
With the brand new feature, Facebook Topic Targeting, you can target individuals who “like” all things “Indie Music” without having to manage an incredibly long laundry list of key phrases. Now, by targeting #Indie Rock, you target people interested in ‘Indie Rock Music’, ‘Indie Rock Bands’, ‘Indie Rock Videos’ and more.
In cases where these highly similar search terms are going to be hyper-related to your ideal audience, this is an amazing timesaver.
Tags: adwords-ppc-management, facebook-topic-targeting, Google AdWords, social-media-marketing
Posted in facebook, Google, Google AdWords, Pay Per Click Management, Social Media | Comments Off
Friday, August 19th, 2011
Twitter usage is becoming more and more popular with a younger population. In fact, the youngest population surveyed (18-29) make up the most prevalent user group on Twitter. Now, that doesn’t mean their Facebook usage is ending. But, let’s think through why Twitter is becoming more popular with the next generation.
1) Celebrities are there that they can follow. On Facebook, you need to be approved friends of celebrities to cyber-stalk them. On Twitter, they can’t refuse you. Which leads us to…
2) It’s public. There are no cliques. The cool kids at school aren’t refusing your follow requests
3) Their friends are there. And their parents aren’t. The more popular a service becomes, the more viral it becomes. As their friends join, so do they.
4) It’s mobile-friendly. 140-character status maximums are perfect for mobile phone brevity. Of course, Facebook can be equally mobile. But, Twitter is the closest equivalent to public texting.
Tags: facebook, mobile-marketing, social-media-marketing, Twitter
Posted in facebook, mobile-marketing, Social Media, Twitter | Comments Off
Friday, August 19th, 2011
You know the best part about seeing movies in the theater? No, not the Dolby surround sound or the stunning visual size. But, the opportunity to lean over to your friend and make a witty comment.
Social integration improves the movie-going experience. And Facebook is implementing social movies in a very cool way. Users of Facebook Movie Rentals can make comments throughout the film, bookmarked to specific times. Then, the user’s friends can see their friend’s witty captions and comments come up throughout the viewing.
Honestly, this is an amazing idea. But, not only do I want to see my friend’s commentary. I’d like a director’s commentary presented this way, via text captioning, which would still allow me to watch the movie with full audio. Or perhaps watch the film with the “most liked” comments within the entire Facebook community?
Tags: facebook, facebook-movie-rentals, social-media-marketing
Posted in facebook, Social Media | Comments Off
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011
Facebook has released guidelines for social design, in order to promote “community, conversation and identity” when building applications on the Facebook platform. These recommendations include automatically connecting existing Facebook friends, display social context and connections whenever possible, and encourage interaction though conversation starters.
Largely, the guidelines are based on the premise that the Facebook community already exists. You’re building a community within a community. So, your strategy should be to utilize the existing community that exists, and define a new conversation that users can build around.
Facebook is committed to evolving their Social Design Guidelines over time, and publish how-tos to help Facebook app developers improve their community building via Facebook.
Tags: facebook-friends, facebook-social-design, social-media-marketing
Posted in facebook, Social Media | Comments Off
