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5 New social media platforms you’ve got to know about.

May 1st, 2013 Posted in Content, Course/Training, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mediacontact.ie News, Movers & Shakers, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Tumblr, Twitter 2 Comments

You may have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn sewn up but do you know what other social networks are gathering momentum?

On June 6th we’re holding a 3-hour seminar entitled “5 emerging platforms for social savvy organisations.”

Earlybird Tickets are available at (01) 4732050 or online here.

Here is a sneak preview of the next big 5:

1. Pinterest

Pinterest is a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. These can be pictures they have taken themselves or images collected from around the web. There is no limit to how many boards you can have and users are collecting all kinds of things, from clothes they want to buy to possible paint colours for a decorating project.

Once something has been pinned, others can re-pin it, making it possible for an image to spread throughout the social network.

Notable users include: Michelle Obama and Hubspot

2. Vine

Earlier this year, Twitter launched new mobile app Vine, which allows users to record six-second clips of looped video. The app quickly became popular with consumers, rising to the top of the iTunes App Store, and brands didn’t hesitate to jump on board.

Urban Outfitters was the first brand to create a vine, a video of puppies. MSNBC revealed what goes down in its newsroom; a local coffee shop showed how to make a latte; and Wheat Thins used Vine to interact with fans during the Super Bowl.

Vine presents new opportunities for unique visual content and storytelling — the time constraints require marketers to expand their imaginations.

Notable users: Urban Outfitters and Schuh

3. Tumblr

Tumblr is a social media blogging community that prides itself on simple content creation that is easy to share, and has powerful customisation features.

Tumblr has many of the same type of sharing features that are present with other social media networks. They refer to their home screen as the dashboard. The blog publishing feature is fairly powerful. You can choose from your standard text blog, or you can make a post about a photo, video, audio file, or a link.

Unlike most of today’s popular social media networks, Tumblr allows users to create their own profile themes.

Notable Users: New Balance and Disney

4. Instagram

Instagram is a free photo-sharing app for iPhone and Android that allows users to add artistic filters to their photos, tag their location and share them to their social networks. Users can follow their friends, strangers, creatives, news organisations, brands and celebrities.

All Instagram photos get cropped into a square shape while allowing users to choose filters that make their photos look unique or antique. Users can Like and Comment on photos and hashtag their own photos so that they are easily searchable. Users also have the option to share their Instagrammed photos to Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Posterous and Foursquare.

Whether keeping friends up to date or keeping up with the news, Instagram showcases slice-of-life photos easily and creatively. Many brands use Instagram to show their followers behind the scenes happenings at their headquarters or use Instagram for brand storytelling.

Notable users include: Red Bull and Starbucks

5. Google+

This is the big play from Google to take on the dominance of Facebook and Twitter. The big question is how does it differ from those 2 networks and should you be on it?

Users are able connect with other users and share their individual stories. They can post pictures and videos, and organize their connections into Circles.

The addition of Google+ business pages has provided some value to businesses to start using Google+. By having a business page, a company can expose and endorse their brand to other users, and organise their following into organised Circles. A unique quality to Google+ is its Hangout feature that involves video conferencing capabilities allowing companies to establish richer relationships with their followers and prospects.

It’s not surprising that Google+ adoption has increased over the past year as Google has integrated the social platform with all its services and YouTube is on the rise as more brands are offering video as part of their content and marketing strategies.

Notable users include: Cadbury and ESPN

ThingLink now available on Facebook.

April 24th, 2013 Posted in Content, Facebook, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Social Tools, Technology, Twitter No Comments

Interactive imaging site ThingLink is now available on Facebook, which will allow users to create images that can contain content that is embedded within the image.

ThingLink became available on Twitter in November and is now available on Facebook. The interactive images allow users to ad links within images that will be highlighted when viewing the image.

The interactive-image platform enables users to put photos, video and text in images, which can be viewed on the Facebook Timeline. The platform says that users on Twitter have got five times more engagement with the interactive images.

Source: Mashable.

Image: ThingLink.

Increase in age bracket on social networks in Britain.

April 24th, 2013 Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Twitter No Comments

A new survey in Britain has revealed an increase in the number of adults using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

The research, which was carried out by Ofcom the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, showed a rise from 59% to 64% between 2011 and 2012 in the number of adults using social networks.

The survey also found that the number of 55 to 64-year-olds using social networks increased by 11%. The average number of friends on social networks for 16 to 24-year-olds was 352 with 92% of the age group using social networks.

The increase in the number of people using social networks is thought to be related to the increase in smartphone and tablet users.

Source: The Telegraph.

Importance of emerging Social Media Platforms.

April 22nd, 2013 Posted in Apps, Course/Training, Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Mediacontact.ie News, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Tumblr, Twitter No Comments

Social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have become a hugely successful and important way for brands to engage with their customers and many more social networks are emerging that can be just as useful for your organisation.

Social media platforms such as Pinterest and Google+ may be fairly new to the social media world but their users are increasing everyday and therefore are fast becoming another valuable resource for brands to engage with customers online.

Apps such as Instagram and Vine, which is owned by Twitter, have become extremely popular for both image and video sharing throughout social media. Brands can now leverage these newer platforms to their advantage and make use of some of the future social media platforms that are set to become just as popular as Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

If you would like to find out how to use these emerging platforms as part of your marketing and communications platforms check out our brand new course “5 Emerging Platforms for Social-Savvy Organisations“.

500,000 Facebook Home downloads.

April 22nd, 2013 Posted in Apps, Facebook, Technology No Comments

Facebook Home app downloaded over 500,000 times on Google Play.

The app, which was released last week, has received mixed reviews and only supports some devices. Facebook has over one billion users and has seen success on it’s Facebook, Facebook Messenger and Facebook-owned Instagram apps.

These popular Facebook apps have been download between 100 million and 500 million times. Facebook Home is expected to integrate Facebook app users with Android as other Facebook apps only reached 40 percent of the Android user base.

Source: ZDNet.

Facebook Chat Heads for iOS.

April 17th, 2013 Posted in Content, Facebook, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Social Tools, Technology No Comments

Facebook is set to introduce updates to it’s app for iOS to all users over the next few weeks, which includes chat heads and the new News Feed.

The new Facebook version for iOS is version 6.0 and enables chat heads, which were released with Facebook Home to be used on the app. Chat heads, which are already available to all Android users, allows Facebook app users to keep track of their chat conversations, while using there smartphone.

Users can move chat heads around the screen and can cancel notifications and chats by putting the icons at the bottom of the screen.

The new News Feed allows users to choose what content they want to view such as comments, photos and music.

Source: Mashable.

Facebook advertising on users smartphones.

April 16th, 2013 Posted in Advertising, Facebook, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms No Comments

Social networking giant Facebook has confirmed that  it will implement it’s advertising plan on users smartphones according to it’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg.

Shareholders within Facebook will be glad of the move, which means companies can now send ads to users smartphones even if they are using Facebook at the time or not.

According to Sandberg the smartphone is now as important to a marketer as TV because of the large audience it can reach and in terms of Facebook that means over one billion.

The new software is to be released this year and will see advertisment revenue for Facebook increase. Last year Facebook had a 18.4% share of the US mobile display revenue according to the research firm eMarketer.

Source: The Guardian.

Social media causes withdrawal for some users.

April 12th, 2013 Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Twitter No Comments

A new study has found that social media “addicts” suffer from withdrawal systems when they can’t access their social platforms.

The research, which was carried out by the University of Winchester in the UK, studied the reactions of ten social media users who considered themselves addicted to Facebook and Twitter.

Researchers found that when the social media users had to stay off their profiles for a month they showed withdrawal symptoms including becoming isolated from their family and friends.

The study found that Twitter users showed less signs of withdrawal compared to Facebook users because Facebook is more sociable than Twitter.

The researchers also found that there are twelve types of social media users including people who only log-in occasionally to those who log-in regularly.

Source: The Telegraph.

Facebook integrates emoticons.

April 10th, 2013 Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Social Tools No Comments

Social networking giant Facebook is encouraging users to start using images in their status updates.

The new Facebook timeline has enlarged pictures that users share and the site is now giving some profiles the options of adding emoticons to status, with smiley faces and ice-cream cones available.

The emoticons can be used in status updates but not in the comments section under the status. The selection of emoticons ranges from face emotions to images of food and drink, which can be used for checking in in restaurants with friends.

The option to add a emoticon is beside the icons for adding a picture with the message “News: Share how you’re feeling or what you’re doing.”

Source: Mashable.

Facebook is the best company to work for.

April 8th, 2013 Posted in Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, jobs No Comments

According to a new survey Facebook are the best company to work for.

The social networking site topped the poll as the best employers through reviews given by employees on Glassdoor, which is the website that carried out the survey. The reviews are compiled for the websites annual Employee’s Choice Awards.

Table tennis, ping pong and annual video game days are how Facebook keep their employees happy, while Google who placed sixth on the list allow time for their employees to work on their own projects, give them free meals and gym membership.

Social networking site Linkedin was placed fourteenth on the survey, which allows employees to give their opinions on working for the company, salary, jobs applications and the benefits of the job.

Source: The Telegraph.

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