In this first of many MarketingProfs #SocialSkim social media news and views to come, we scan the Web to make sure you're up to date on everything happening in the ever-evolving social space.
Skim and learn!
Greetings From Year's End
Google's produced its much-awaited 2012 Zeitgeist roundup video recapping crucial moments in social and in the global village. Relive Felix Baumgartner's momentum leap from space (brought to you by Red Bull!) and the craze that was, and still is, Gangnam Style. The year went by fast, but this video takes it slow, lingering over the details... just the way we like it.
Hoping to cash in on the nostalgia before it's too late, Facebook's launched a custom Year in Review feature for users. If the GOOG's video is too big-picture for you, you can always relive your greatest moments... as dictated by Zuck.
And in what can only be considered a weird nod to user engagement, Publicis Groupe's own Maurice Levy's released a video of his Digital Wishes for 2013. Every click on the video produces an unexpected result. An annual roundup of a conglomerate's outlook for '13 was never so... manipulable? Skip ahead, change the volume, or play with video quality while Levy loosens his tie... without ever actually loosening it.
On to the Serious: This Week's Buzzmaking Stories
Dead people can be social, too
A little over a month ago, Facebook changed its algorithm to offer more leverage to brand pages that buy promoted posts. That's all well and good, but a report from ReadWrite.com notes that although visibility and engagement do rise with Promoted Posts, the quality of the aforementioned doesn't necessarily improve. In addition to Likes from people in totally random markets, you may also find you're getting Liked by deceased users.
Fighting photog sites
Twitter's given Instagram the boot, just in time for Pinterest to swoop in and offer support for Twitter cards (snapshots of shared content). From now on, shared pins will be visible on Twitter without users' having to leave Twitter's site. Limited testing started early last week, right before Instagram exited stage left, allegedly because of its too-cosy ties to proud new parent Facebook.
Meanwhile, in a huge coup of renewed relevance, flickr re-entered the fray with an updated mobile app that reportedly blows Instagram out of the water.
Social shutterbuggin' just got a lot more interesting.
Happy holidays! There's a Trojan horse on your doorstep
Facebook has just launched a gift-giving service to the entire US market. Friends in your network can now physically mail a present to you via Facebook without ever having to jot down your address—a big step forward in Facebook's efforts to make its online dominance physical.
Partners range from Pandora to Brookstone, and product categories include food, baby products and kitchen goods... and wine to users who are over 21. Drink up! The person you poked last week may be wishing you happy holidays a little closer to home.
Paving the way to a new world order
Still trying to understand how Path works? Consider shelving it for now and start sorting out Pave, a community targeted to two markets: ambitious Prospects who want to achieve something big but need funding, and accomplished Backers who want to put money, experience, and connections behind those prospects. Sound like Kickstarter on VC steroids? That's because it could be.
Video killed the radio star, but who'll take the torch from TV?
Both YouTube and iPad are fighting for dominance as the rightful heirs to TV. YouTube's gathering partners like crazy to build out more robust content creation support for media entities, with messy but promising results. Meanwhile, traditional viewing is increasingly moving off TV and migrating to mobile tablets like iPad, and generating multiscreen freakout by executives who, despite trepidation and protests, largely all have iPads, too. The winner of this war may largely depend on which online conglomo will launch its own TV first: Google or Apple? The race is on.
Shareable Stats + Infographics
Gallup's yearly poll on perceived honesty/ethics in professions has just come out, and advertising falls into the bottom 3 with 11% perceived honesty—right between stockbrokers and members of Congress.
And in infographic action, Quicksprout has released one on how to generate more retweets. We'll sum up: if you don't have anything new to say, you can always ask for RT's, you can Tweet links, or you can simply Tweet about Twitter.
Maxymiser deconstructs Pinterest for e-tailers and content marketers. Find out who's using it, what brands are Pinning up a storm, and how you can wield it like a giant Pin-shaped sword.
Website-Monitoring.com's compiled Twitter's 2012 facts and figures. Handy facts include these: 11 accounts created every second, 300,000 new visitors per day, and more searches on Twitter than Yahoo and Bing combined. Tweet that!
Finally, the Socially Aware Blog gives us a complete breakdown of time spent on Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, and G+ (that's still a thing?). Facebook continues to command the lion's share of attention, with 6.75 hours spend on the site per month on average; Tumblr and Pinterest tie for 2nd with 1.5 hours each. Twitter gets a paltry 21 minutes. Clearly, those are averages and not a skewed collection of stats about SEO guys who compulsively tweet at 4 in the morning on a Saturday.
Peruse the infographic for an even-more-useful breakdown on how Americans now watch TV.
Got a tip? Leave a comment, below. Till next week... stay social.
