What’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media?

What’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media?

Jul 22, 2016

Image credit: Deccan Chronicle

I’ve scanned the latest news and updates in the social media world and here are the most important changes I’ve come across this week:

Successful social media campaign: #140Years

  • Warburtons (renowned British baking firm) celebrates its 140th anniversary with the launch of a Twitter campaign.
  • Users are being given the chance to win £140 every day by completing a challenge using emoji-based clues.
  • The campaign tells the brand’s story and uses emojis of key stakeholders, including the current chairman.

In other social media news…

 

Facebook’s bid for world domination with drones

  • ‘Project Aquila’ is Facebook’s new plan to connect the developing world with the developed world.
  • Facebook bought British business Ascenta a few years ago (based in Somerset), which creates solar-powered drones and the owner is now running Project Aquila.
  • The project involves solar-powered aircraft flying above remote places for months at a time to give out an internet connection.

 

Twitter opens its blue tick to all users

  • The blue tick verification once reserved for celebs and high profile users has now been opened to all account holders.
  • Twitter now invites all users to apply for the authentication badge.
  • For it to be verified, Twitter must consider the account to be ‘of public interest’ and the user applying must provide phone number, website, address and allow public tweets.

 

What’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media?

What’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media?

Jul 19, 2016

I’ve scanned the latest news and updates in the social media world and here are the most important changes I’ve come across this week:

Successful social media campaign: #PokemonGo

  • Unless you’ve been living under a rock this week, you’ll probably have heard or noticed that people are out in their dozens playing the new Pokemon Go game on their phones. Just walk along the pavement and count how many people are playing. It’s nostalgia at its best!
  • Pokemon Go was unleashed in the UK earlier this week, a brand new mobile game which has swiftly become a phenomenon.
  • The app lets players roam a map using their phone’s GPS location data in order to catch Pokemon to train and battle.
  • The success has already added millions to the value of Nintendo, which part-owns the franchise. But what does it mean for social media? Earlier in the week #PokemonGo was trending on Twitter globally and according to App data provider, SensorTower, Pokemon Go users are currently spending 33 mins per day on the game as compared to Facebook’s 22 minutes a day, Twitter’s 17 minutes and Snapchat’s 18 minutes. The support of the game will result in higher engagement on social networks.

 

In other social media news…

 

Spurs reveal their new kit on Facebook Live

  • Tottenham Hotspur has made history, becoming the first top football club to unveil their new home kit using Facebook Live.
  • This 15-minute broadcast in real-time was shown on the club’s Facebook page and received a whopping 71,000 views within three hours of the video airing.
  • The football team used its social channels to drum up excitement for the live stream, with multiple reminders going out that the big reveal was at 8.45am.

 

Prince Harry takes HIV test live

  • Whatever next! Prince Harry broadcast live on the Royal Family’s Facebook page this week, taking an HIV test.
  • The video was viewed by 249,000 people and shared 1,450 times within two hours of it being uploaded.
  • Kensington Palace’s Twitter account also posted a link to the video on Twitter.
  • It has been described as “ground-breaking” by The Terrence Higgins Trust.

 

#PrayforNice and #Nice06

 

 

What’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media?

What’s hot and what’s not in the world of social media?

Jul 1, 2016

Image credit:Twitter

I’ve scanned the latest news and updates in the social media world and here are the most important changes I’ve come across this week:

Successful social media campaign: #SaySomethingNice

  • Amazon Fashion has now launched its new #SaySomethingNice campaign.
  • The campaign sees Amazon Fashion teaming up with influential fashion bloggers to encourage people to be kinder to each other on social media.
  • It’s time to end such scrutiny!
  • The video that launched the campaign used low production values to give a more authentic feel.
  • According to Amazon Fashion content director, Instagram is the social site that shares the most #OOTD posts (82 million per day!)

 

In other social media news…

 

Brexit inspires Twitter engagement

  • Using the hashtag #EUref when the polling stations opened, inspired over 6.4 million tweets according to data released by Twitter.
  • Conversations peaked as Cameron made his departure speech outside Number 10, with tweets hitting a high of 13,300 every minute. Usage hit double its normal level.
  • Twitter further revealed that it’s rare for the name of a county to trend in its own country, but on 24th June, ‘The UK’ was trending in the UK.

 

Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion

  • Microsoft has bought out LinkedIn – but is it just a ‘data’ play?
  • Microsoft CEO this week announced it’s about the coming together of the professional cloud and the professional network, but this week the news has flagged up that it could be a link to LinkedIn’s recent introduction of programmatic ad buying.
  • Whatever the reason, this new partnership is surely tapping into sponsored content.

 

Twitter stickers

  • Twitter has upped its creative game by adding a new Sticker tool to photos.
  • Users will soon be able to browse rotating sets of stickers to enhance real-time conversations. There will be accessories, emojis and props to make photos more fun. They can be place anywhere on your photo.
  • This new feature will be rolled out over the next few weeks on iOS and Android.