This week: Twitter blocks tweets, only 1% engage on Facebook, the top social media influencers, social e-commerce and viral content
1. Best way to create a flurry of tweets: Twitter says it will block tweets
In a carefully worded blog post, Twitter announced Thursday that it will remove tweets on a country-by-country basis to comply with local laws. A firestorm of tweets claiming censorship and promoting a boycott ensued. Here are the 10 key facts you need to contextualize Twitter's stance. Bottom line: This new policy is no different from the systems Google, Yahoo!, eBay and Facebook already use to control what content is shown in which countries. For example, France and Germany restrict pro-Nazi content; under the First Amendment, tweets with such views are legal in the U.S.. More important news for advertisers: Twitter plans to roll out more brand pages for advertisers who've committed $25K.
2. Best new context for marketers: New study says only 1% engage on Facebook
According to a new study, only slightly more than 1% of fans of the biggest brands on Facebook are actually engaging with the brands. How did researchers arrive at this number? They used one of Facebook's own metrics, People Talking About This, the running count of likes, posts, comments, tags, shares and other ways a user of the social network can interact with branded pages. It was unveiled last fall as a way of giving advertisers a sharper look at at the level of activity on their pages. This engagement metric isn't necessarily damning news for Facebook. It's just further proof that brands need to know what social can do, and what it can't. In other words, there are no marketing silver bullets.
Read More »
