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.
3. Best new Forbes list: 50 most influential social media experts
I love a good Forbes list. This new one on the top social media influencers is a great one for marketers. The ranking is based on PeekYou's "social pull" metric, which assigns more weight to social media users with active, readily identifiable followers. If you aren't following all these people on Twitter already, do it: You'll get great insights on the ever-shifting social media landscape, in real time. The only glaring omission in the list: no @YahooAdBuzz. Boo, Forbes, boo.
4. Best e-commerce news: Consumers like social sign-ins
A new study says that nearly 90% of online shoppers admit to deliberately giving false information when registering with e-commerce sites. However, three-quarters said they don't mind using sites that allow social sign-ons. There's an interesting psychological effect going on there that seems to pit privacy against the open graph in consumers' minds. Regardless, this finding opens up a lot of possibility for sites that allow consumers to sign in using their social handles. Clearly, they'll have the advantage when it comes to integrated marketing across channels, because they'll have more accurate and more social data on their potential customers.
5. Best way to think about going viral: The Atlantic
I've worked as a content creator for the last decade. But I've only been tasked with creating "viral" content in the last few years. Every time I am, I sigh. While marketers may want to boil down what connects with people and what they think is meaningful enough to share into one, easy equation, that's just not how it works. Here's some smart, nuanced perspective from The Atlantic on the concept of viral content, which says if there is one key it's all about culture.
--- Dianne Molina
