Weekly Social Media Round-Up: June 9, 2011
POSTED BY Stacy DeBroff AT 10:23 AM
This week we wrestle with social media "asks." Do we: Like you, Friend you, Follow you, +1 you, +K you or #createourownhashtagtoconnectwithyou? Whew.
-Enjoy!
Fathers Day
Who loves their daddy? Father's Day sales are expected to hit $11.1 billion this year. Perhaps the new tie you were planning on getting dear old Dad should be replaced with something a tad shinier?
Looks like people think Dad is worth a splurge: A new survey from the National Retail Federation reports that Americans say they will spend $11.1 billion on Pop this year, an all-time high for the eight-year-old survey.
Your brand's popularity online may depend on your Facebook and Twitter habits, according to a new study. Companies active on Facebook receive better search results with Bing, and conversely companies that frequently update Twitter appear to have better results with Google. Time to start uploading some photos!
Companies that are more active on Facebook or interested in real-time news will receive better social search results with Microsoft's Bing than Google, according to a study by digital agency Overdrive Interactive. Conversely, Google delivers better results for companies that are more active on Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Quora and Google Buzz.
Status Update: Wal-Mart takes a big bite out of social media by gobbling up marketing firms in hopes of dominating shopper marketing:
It's not exactly chocolate and peanut butter. Shopper marketing is usually as low-tech as can be, dominated by endcaps and shelf signs. But last month, Wal-Mart spent $300 million to buy social media firm Kosmix; this week. Dunnhumby -- owned by Wal-Mart rival Tesco -- snapped up Bzzagent, a Boston-based social marketing firm. Dave Balter, CEO and founder of Boston-based Bzzagent, tells Marketing Daily what's driving the trend.
Twitter updates its features by adding an advanced search bar and photo-sharing tools #makingiteasier to use:
Twitter has begun to roll out search features and a new photo-sharing service. The search tool should give users easy access to more relevant Tweets when searching for something or clicking on a trending topic. It also will show related photos and videos. When logged in using the new Firefox browser, the latest version will let users type a hashtag or @username into the address bar and go to a search results page or profile page.
And now it's #eveneasiertouse: Twitter's new “Follow Button” allows you to follow a Twitter account with only a click of a button:
Taking on Facebook's sharing supremacy, Twitter just debuted its 'follow' button in partnership with some top media companies. Now featured on Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal, along with 48 other publishers, users can now follow specific feeds with the click of a button.
13% of Americans use Twitter, up 5% from Fall 2010. (63% of Mom Central's Mom community actively use Twitter, and 30% maintain two separate identities.)
“Like” pharmaceutical drugs? Now you can. Facebook no longer allows drug makers to disable comments on their facebook pages, which could lead to trouble with the FDA:
Pharmaceutical marketers are stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to social media -- they are trying hard to embrace it, but the very nature of the two-way dialogue endemic to the medium threatens to work against them. Case in point: Facebook's new policy that will no longer allow drugmakers to disable the comments feature on their pages.
Like, Follow, Friend and now: Job. LinkedIn hops on the social plug-ins wagon by adding an “Apply with LinkedIn” button to job postings on third-party sites, linking user profiles directly with the job application process:
Facebook in the last year has used a set of social plug-ins, including the "Like" button, to extend its reach across the Web. Now, LinkedIn is planning to introduce a professional plug-in to let people apply for jobs on third-party sites with information from their LinkedIn profiles.
YouTube
YouTube's new licensing options make room for more creative license: (See what we did there? We're hilarious.)
If you’ve ever yearned to mash up your cat video with some C-SPAN footage but couldn’t figure out how, today’s your lucky day. Because starting now, YouTube is giving users a choice over how they want to license their content. There’s still the standard YouTube license, which is fairly restrictive, and now there’s a new option: Creative Commons (with attribution). In short, you can now give other people permission to use your footage however they’d like, provided to include a link back to the source.
"Like" it? Or "+1" it? Google aims to beat out Facebook “likes” button with its new +1 Button option:
Google is taking its +1 feature beyond search results and launching a button that publishers can include on their own websites. The button, which debuted in March in Google search, will compete with the likes of the already ubiquitous sharing buttons offered by Facebook and Twitter (and more recently Tumblr and LinkedIn for web page real estate.
Klout
Can you measure someone’s influence on another? Klout says it can with its new +K program. We're still on the fence, unless unicorns count as influencers:
Daily Deals
Groupon takes to the skies by joining with Expedia, bringing new discounts to travelers with an idea that’s really taken off:
Groupon and Expedia have joined forces to create Groupon Getaways with Expedia, a new service that will broadcast travel deals.The new service will hew closely to Groupon’s existing model, in which customers have a limited time to take advantage of a deal. A press release from the two companies promises that the discounts will be “typically around 50% off retail rates found at other online travel sites.” A customer buys a voucher and redeems it at a later date.
It's Groupon vs. LivingSocial in a battle royal over lunch deals to determine who will control New York City’s market:
Groupon and LivingSocial plan to battle in the New York market with competing local daily deals services. Groupon’s expansion, which started Wednesday, builds upon the May 20 debut of Groupon Now in Chicago, Groupon’s hometown. Groupon Now also launched in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Amazon doesn’t want to sell you books, but rather sell you deals with AmazonLocal, providing a service very similar as Groupon, but with the Amazon name attached:
Amazon has jumped into the daily deals space, launching a coupon site called AmazonLocal. The site, currently only available in Boise, Idaho, sells daily deal coupons for 50% or more savings at local businesses. If you happen to be in Boise and craving ice cream, today you can buy a $13 credit at Goody’s for $6.
