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| SmartBrief on Social Media |
| April 4, 2012 |
Why Larry Page is so focused on Facebook
Google CEO Larry Page's efforts to put Google+ on the map are driven by a preoccupation with Facebook, industry experts say. Page reportedly sees Facebook's rise as a sign of a serious weakness in Google's business model, and is willing to make big changes to get his company's social media efforts up to speed. "Larry is driven by his paranoia about Facebook. Clearly, these are two companies at war with each other," says Ken Auletta, who has written a book about Google. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (4/3)
What it would take to make check-ins useful
Geosocial check-ins were fun for a while, but social media users now demand more directly useful location-based services, experts say. That has category leaders such as Foursquare and SCVNGR refocusing on niches such as discovery and mobile payments. "Sharing location alone isn't compelling enough on its own, and people are looking for ways to share their personal interests and passions," says Mark Watkins of Telenav. Street Fight (4/4)
Facebook aims to woo mobile developers with location data
Facebook is preparing to add users' location data to its Open Graph API, product manager Josh Williams says. That will allow outside developers to create location-aware applications and services, helping to spur brands' development of Facebook-connected mobile tools. CIO.com/IDG News Service (4/3)
Philadelphians are outraged by councilman's Twitter-consulting bill
Philadelphia City Councilman Jim Kenney is under fire after it emerged that he was paying $28,800 a year in public funds to have a social media consulting firm called ChatterBlast post tweets on his behalf. Some pundits and politicians questioned the ethics of spending taxpayers' money on Twitter updates, while others said voters had the right to expect that Kenney was writing his own tweets. "The power of social media is the direct connection with the constituents. People can see right through that if it's not direct," said Desiree Peterkin Bell, an aide to Mayor Michael Nutter. Philadelphia Daily News (4/4)
Twitter power users can turn to third-party tools
Twitter isn't doing much to provide features for power users, but a variety of applications aim to fill the gap, Chris Lake writes. Slipstre.am lets users filter out junk tweets such as Foursquare location updates; Buffer offers advanced tweet-scheduling tools; and PostPost aggregates content posted by the people you follow on Twitter. eConsultancy.com (4/3)
Facebook engagement, e-mail engagement aren't the same thing
Joining a brand's e-mail list and "liking" a brand on Facebook are superficially similar, but consumers can have different expectations of the platforms, according to a Chadwick Martin Bailey analysis. Both platforms are seen as a route to information and promotional offers, but Facebook is also seen as a way of endorsing or affiliating oneself with a brand. "[C]onnecting to a business or nonprofit on Facebook is not only about promotions, but a way to show public support for preferred businesses and nonprofits," this unbylined article notes. eMarketer (4/4)
Do you believe brands should be held responsible for the personal posts of their employees?
| No -- an employee's personal posts have nothing to do with their employer |
75.95%
|
| Yes -- brands should be judged by the kinds of people they hire |
24.05%
|
Poll analysis
At work or not, employees' social actions affect brand equity and value: You might not want your employees' actions to reflect on your brand, but they do, Jeremy Victor writes. But rather than trying to control your workers, you should embrace the risk and be prepared to cope with it. "Everything we say or do on the social Web has the potential to link back and become a reflection of the company. Don't ignore this fact, embrace it," he writes in SmartBrief's SmartBlog on Social Media.
Do you follow your competitors on social media?
No
Yes, but we rarely check on them
Yes, and we study them extensively
Bieber's Twitter presence offers a model for marketers
Singer Justin Bieber has met with considerable success promoting his latest single via Twitter, Murray Newlands writes. The key is that Bieber provides an intimate, personal experience to his Twitter fans, allowing him to build trust and engagement, which increases the effectiveness of his sales pitches, Newlands writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media (4/4)
Social marketers are putting ROI before strategy
Calculating return on investment is marketers' top concern when running a social media campaign, according a survey of more than 3,800 marketers. That's troubling because marketers appear much less concerned with how to craft a winning strategy that answers the question of why marketers are using social platforms in the first place, writes Rohit Bhargava. "If you focus on how to measure what you're doing without having a good strategy for why you're doing it, you've already failed," he writes. Ragan.com (4/4)
Computer scientists take on the art of catchphrases
Researchers are untangling the qualities that make some movie characters' catchphrases so memorable, in a move that could help marketers think up punchier slogans. The best one-liners contain generic, relatable insights expressed with straightforward phrasing and unusual words, researchers found. MIT Technology Review online/The Physics arXiv Blog (4/3)
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--Steven Levy, tech journalist, as quoted by The Associated Press at The Washington Post |
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Facebook awoke Google to its shortcomings in the social aspect of the Internet. It wasn't something that could be ignored."