A recent study has shown that Pinterest is more popular with men than women in the UK. This is, at first glance, quite surprising seeing as 83 per cent of Pinterest’s US users are women.
However, a closer look at the data reveals that many UK users are in fact professionals working in the media industry. This perhaps explains why the gender split is more even in the UK (44 per cent female, 56 per cent male) compared to the US, where women have adopted the site for social rather than professional reasons.
More at: http://www.thinktank.org.uk/blog/2012/02/uk-pinterest-users-buck-us-trend.php
Over the last year, you may have noticed that a once-niche trend not only crept into the mainstream, but is starting to really make a big splash. Gamification has become one of the hottest buzz words in the industry and is probably in the process of taking over a website or user experience near you.
For the uninitiated, gamification, said simply, is the use of game design techniques and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Over the last year, even large companies and enterprises are starting to get in on the game, with Gartner saying that all CIOs should have gamification on their radar, and M2 research predicting that the gamification market will reach 2.8 billion in direct spending by 2016.
Okay, so it’s on the rise, we get that, but let’s take a look at some of the players that are helping to take this trend to the next level. Three companies in particular are currently creating some buzz in the space: Badgeville, Bigdoor and Bunchball.
Badgeville started by making a big splash center stage at Disrupt in the fall of 2009. The company took home the Audience Choice Award at Disrupt, has since gone on a tear and is poised to have a great 2012. (Check out Rip’s original post on Badgeville’s prospects here.)
Badgeville Co-founder and CEO Kris Duggan pulls no punches when it comes to one of the most visible and early adopters of gamification, the check-in king: Foursquare. The CEO says that Foursquare was early in its attempts at gamification, but that its incentivization models remain fundamentally flawed.
Duggan points to the “Mayorship” system within Foursquare: “You have literally hundreds of people and only one mutually-exclusive point of recognition, the Mayor. What happens to the other hundreds of people? Not only are they not engaged, but you don’t take into consideration different types of users.” Duggan believes you need to engage not only the heavy user, but medium and light users as well. Rather than a one-size-fits-all methodology, you can appeal to each user type and incent them accordingly.
More at: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/12/no-longer-an-awkward-teenager-gamification-grows-up/
Pop sensation Lady Gaga is launching her own social networking website exclusively for her fans.
Gaga, 25, has used online forums to boost her worldwide appeal and has become the first celebrity to register 18 million followers on Twitter, Daily Star reported.
Now the `Poker Face` hitmaker is putting her technology skills to use by founding her very own networking site for her devotees, who she lovingly calls “little monsters”.
The site, called littlemonsters.com, is currently being set up and the webpage invites fans to register with their email address.
The site has been set up with the help of social media start-up company Backplane, in which Gaga is an investor.
Facebook is investing further in its outreach programme to retailers to bring clarity to the term “social commerce” and promote social integration on their websites.
Gavin Sathianathan, Facebook’s strategic partner manager, is leading the social network’s bid to promote social commerce in the UK and said that agreed definitions are a key building block in its evolution. “It’s really important we nail what we mean by ‘social commerce’,” he said. “At Facebook, we do not equate ‘social commerce’ with opening a store within the network.”
The comments follow a story last week in which retail brands including John Lewis and Reiss told new media age that selling items via social networks, such as a Facebook Store, was not on their 2012 agenda, favouring to hone their m-commerce strategies instead (nma.co.uk 19 January 2012).
Defining social commerce, or “f-commerce”, simply as a transactional store on Facebook is a restrictive way of thinking, according to Sathianathan. “From a defininiton perspactive, it’s important we’re all clear on that,” he saidd. “When I talk to retailers about this, I try to make it clear that it’s about how we can bring social media to bear on the purchase process, be that in a Facebook store or not.”
Most of the discussions taking place between Facebook and retailers centre on integrating Facebook functionality, such as a Like or Shar’ buttons, into their own websites, according to Sathianathan.
Top of Facebook’s priority list are supermarket and FMCG brands, while those that have experienced notable success in their f-commerce strategy stem from the fashion and ticketing vertials, according to the social network.
“We talk a lot to FMCGs and grocers [whose goods or services are not necessarily social] and talk to them about the social aspects of their products,” said Sathianathan. “For instance, a can of baked beans may not be social but the meal you have them with could.”
Earlier this week, Unilever used its Facebook storefront to help debut its Lynx Attract for Her brand – the first time it has attempted to appeal to female audiences with the brand (nma.co.uk 23 January 2012).
The FMCG giant sold all 100 cans it was offering via the platform, retailing for £3.25 each, within two hours of launch in a campaign that met most of its initial performance metrics.
More at: http://www.nma.co.uk/news/facebook-urges-clearer-understanding-of-social-commerce/3033576.article
Man City asks supporters to spot themselves and Mario Balotelli in its 360 degree ‘Fan Cam’
Manchester City Football Club is asking fans who were present at Sunday’s blockbuster clash with Spurs to tag themselves in its new 360 degree ‘Fan Cam’ from the game.
The The five billion pixel photograph captures every single supporter who was inside the Etihad Stadium to see City’s dramatic 3-2 victory.
As well as inviting fans to spot themselves, the club is running a Where’s Wally style competition by hiding virtual avatars of four of City’s star players around the stadium.
As you can see in the video above, Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Samir Nasri were all recorded in front of a green screen then digitally rendered into the online visual.
The lucky fans who are able to spot the hiding players will receive an interactive message asking them to enter a competition to win a signed shirt and personalised video message from the player, which will then be uploaded on to the winner’s Facebook page.
@McDonalds
McDonald’sMeet some of the hard-working people dedicated to providing McDs with quality food every day #McDStories http://t.co/BoNIwRJSFrom there, the #McDStories hashtag was born, but probably not in the way McDonald’s was hoping. Negative tweets about the fast food giant began to proliferate, prompting the New York Observer to remark that “some stories are better left untold.” Tweets ranged from tweeting about being high while eating McDonald’s to throwing up the food.
While the hashtag grew steam, McDonald’s also had a back and forth with PETA on Twitter, in which McDonald’s tried to correct some of PETA’s allegations about using mechanically separated white meat.
More at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/mcdstories-twitter-hashtag_n_1223678.html
To herald in this new era for the Lynx brand in the UK, it’s giving its Facebook Fans the chance to buy one of the first 100 cans directly from Facebook from 4pm today.
We’re seeing more and more brands turning to Facebook to sell items directly to consumers, as we reported last year when UK-based clothing retailer ASOS launched one of Europe’s first fully integrated Facebook stores.
There are a lot of articles circulating about the benefits of mobile advertising. In fact, many companies and brands are embracing mobile advertising and seeing impressive results. However, the mobile advertising market hasn’t been cornered by one particular vendor and some are wondering if Facebook is going to join the mobile scene.
Facebook is recognized as one of the top social media sites. Plus, numerous businesses appreciate the advance targeting features that are available in Facebook such as demographics, interests, connections, etc.
Some would like to use these advanced settings to reach the mobile market. This means businesses would already be prepared to pay Facebook to reach their respective audience.
Another plus is that people use their cell phones to check on their Facebook accounts already, so it’s not like Facebook would have to entice anyone to go on their site via a mobile device. They also, have loads of mobile user data at their fingertips.
According to an article on CNET, “Facebook already has access to data of a large mobile user base”… Facebook says nearly half of its nearly 800 million users already log in via mobile devices, giving the network momentum in a market estimated to be worth $630 million.”
More at: http://socialmediatoday.com/dleitchmorevisibilitycom/432670/rumors-about-facebook-mobile
One of the social media success stories of 2011 was easily the photo-sharing app Instagram. Despite only running on Apple ‘iDevices’, Instagram boss Kevin Systrom reckoned he had 16+ million users at Christmas.
Post Christmas sign-ups combined with Apple naming Instagram app of the year means that total is probably not far off 20 million by now. And the company estimates that the Android version finally in the works will result in the numbers doubling.
One of the most interesting things about Instagram, is its community, which unlike many other early stage social networks doesn’t consist exclusively of people who work in tech or marketing.
Thanks to Instagram allowing its users the kind of freedom Facebook won’t, that community has also created a fairly unique sub-culture, which it is worth any marketer understanding:
The etiquette of posting and hash-tags
Instagram has often been described as a visual Twitter. Like Twitter, most feeds are ‘open’ and you don’t have to follow someone for them to follow you.
Like Twitter, you refer to other users by putting an @ in front of their username. And like Twitter, hash-tags are added to posts to denote topics.
However, as Instagram users aren’t restricted to 140 characters, a lot of hash-tags can be added – up to 30. As a result, it is worth knowing what a giant list of hash-tags under someone’s post actually means.
They will denote one of several things:
- • The 3rd party app used to edit the photo There is now a whole eco-system of iPhone compatible camera apps, for example #lenslight, #snapseed or #dynamiclight
- • The location, e.g #london, #londonlife or #thames
- • If the image is being tagged against a competition, for example #instahub or #prestige_challenge01
- • The situation, one example is pictures of people on public transport – #sneakycommutershot
- • Whatever is being taken #airplane, or (in 6600+ cases!) #powerlineporn
- • Finally, images are often tagged against Instagramer groups – #igerslondon, #rebelseurope, #implus More on these in a minute
