This week in social media was image-hot and real-time ready. Get the skinny on which brands best made use of their Oscar time on social, Google Glass's user-generated content extravaganza, Vimeo's Looks for video, and stats on brands using Instagram and Pinterest. You'll also learn why images are so important in social marketing, what GIFs have to do with winning a crowd, and where to download Adobe's Photoshop Touch for iPhone.
Need more workers? We've got you covered: Get updated stats on LinkedIn, check out social recruitment tool Pealk—acquired by Viadeo—and learn to use YouTube for attracting the right talent. Skim toward the Singularity!
The Oscars happened. You've probably read all the reviews and angry, Academy-addressed letters about Seth MacFarlane's iffy humour, so let's look at how brands fared.
Edelman's David Armano created a brand-dedicated hashtag, #OscarsRTM ("Oscars real-time media"), for the show. Social Media Drive Thru broke down how each brand used its (real) time, and PR Daily took snapshots of notables, coupled with takeaways for future real-time-reacting brands. Yogurt brand Chobani won the day for us:
Real is honest. twitter.com/Chobani/status…
— Chobani (@Chobani) February 25, 2013
Experience the Blog ponders whether the #OscarsRTM experiment worked. Earnest efforts by brands like Special K got paltry results, but some brands won out: Oscar Mayer scored 700 retweets for its accidental genius.
And of course, there was Grey Poupon. Its riotous update to its classic 1988 ad has logged over 1.3 million YouTube views since airtime:
One step closer to the Singularity. It's been a week since Google launched #ifihadglass, an effort to draw innovators to its Google Glass project (and upcoming product). The 'Net's abuzz with videos, tweets, reflections, and demos. Some innovator submissions are inspiring; others reflect marketers' attempt to share the halo. And, of course, we have parodies .
We're impressed by Google Glass's potential to wed digital to the physical world, but even more so by Google's consistent ability make incredible marketing coups indistinguishable from personal missions. The sheer volume of content being produced around the mere possibilities of this technology is enough to strike admiration in any marketer. See the catalyst:
The Instagram of video. Video site Vimeo, the beloved of high-quality video makers, has launched a new tool called Looks in partnership with Vivoom. Looks enables you to filter your vimeo videos à la Instagram and will even suggest filters "based on technical analysis of the user's video and social data." Registered users will be able to access Looks in the next 90 days.
When working beats lurking. Sleeping giant LinkedIn gets the glory it deserves: The socnet for pros is now the most popular social media tool among the nation's fastest-growing private firms, says the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. 81% of companies in 2012's Inc. 500 list use it, up from 2011's 73%. Who's eating LinkedIn's dust? Facebook. Its use among Inc. 500 firms fell from 74% in 2011 to 67% in 2012.
Brands love a photobomb. Among Interbrand's top 100 brands, 59% use Instagram, up 9% from last November, according to a Simply Measured report. The only other socnet growing faster is Pinterest: 69% of Interbrand Top 100 brands are Pinning, up 10% from three months ago. Activity is also up on photo sites, with 41% of brands Instagraming at least once a week.
Take a picture, it lasts longer. Ben & Jerry's teamed up with our own Ann Handley and Nick Westergaard of Brand Driven Social to break down content marketing for brands and emphasize the importance of visuals. Did you know 44 million users are more likely to engage a brand that posts photos versus any other form of media? For content savvy, skim the lovingly-illustrated presentation:
Photoshop the mobile experience. Adobe's launched Photoshop Touch for iPhone, which lets iPhone users join iPad and Androiders in more efficiently Photoshopping images directly from mobile devices. Features include layers, scribble selection, and camera fill.
Facebook: Dropping bombs, giving alms. If your reach looks less powerful on Facebook this week, here's why. Last week it admitted to discovering a bug that inflated reach reporting for certain brand posts, including sponsored ones. Something to soothe the ouchy: To boost reach more conveniently, its Custom Audiences tool now permits use of Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom, and BlueKai to enhance ads. "Businesses of all sizes will now be able to target categories like 'soda drinkers' or 'people who browsed for a specific make/model on my website'," boasts the 'Book.
One last piece of Facebook cake for the road: You may have heard of Facebook's 20% rule, which states that "Ads and sponsored stories in News Feed may not include images comprised of more than 20% text." Here's a grain-of-salt view on what that rule means for you, how it's enforced (if it is), and how it's measured. The comments section is packed with personal experiences from other marketers who've had issues with it.
Like headhunting? A little startup called Pealk was purchased by Viadeo, which hosts over 50 million professional networkers. Pealk makes it easier to recruit people with the skillset you're looking for (free of charge!), as well as monitor leads you've contacted, in addition to who owes you a response and who's waiting for yours.
If you're looking for other ways to up your recruitment game, The Recruiting Division has tips on using YouTube to spice up your recruiting strategy.
No GIFs, no glory. Social@Ogilvy's Maury Postal reflects on why GIFs matter for brands in today's (only seemingly arbitrary) GIF-fueled world. The thesis is simple: Marketers must understand the return of simple emotional pleasures. GIFs distill such pleasures. Timing them deftly is key. His example: client Lincoln, which used GIFs to "reinforce the soul of the reborn automaker." Lincoln isn't the first to GIF it up, but it certainly won't be the last:
