The week in social media news curated by your friends at Fandom Marketing. Catch up on the top social media news stories curated especially for marketers. Boss’ accidental email goes viral, stats show B2B marketers prefer LinkedIn, and marketers continuing using Facebook although they don’t think it’s effective. Pinterest users aren’t following companies unless they are stores or brands, and more.
Only 27% of Active Pinterest Users Report Following Brands
May 16, 2014
Just 27% of active Pinterest users (who use the platform at least once a month) say they follow any brands on the platform, per survey results [download page] from Ahalogy. But, users would be about 5 times more likely to prefer following their favorite brand or store (83%) than their favorite celebrity (17%), suggesting that they are open to brand marketing activity. The study, along with a separate blog post from Pinterest, identify the categories that are most popular on the platform.
Full story on MarketingCharts
Hooters Posts Disgusting Rape Joke to Their Facebook Page
May 17, 2014
Hooters, the family friendly establishment that serves refreshing fried pickles and provides a warm and friendly atmosphere where the waitresses pretend to like you (this is very awkward when it happens) has posted an awful rape joke to their Facebook page. The photo, which links off-site, shows a young woman laughing in pink hot pants. She has a blanket stuck to her shorts that, if you squint real hard and imagine for a few minutes, looks like it could pass for a vagina. The caption below the photo reads “Exhibit A: Proof she was asking for it, your honor.”
[Hooters later took the image down and announced the page was hacked with an apology.]
Full story on Jezebel
Seven Best Practices for Digital Business Experimentation
May 19, 2014
The New York Times Innovation Report, which recently found its way onto the interwebs, contains some incredibly rich insights into how a traditional company grapples with the digital industrial economy, start up competitors and internal innovation. Bureaucracy is often one of the biggest stiflers of innovation as this quote from the report intimates: “When it takes 20 months to build one thing, your skill set becomes less about innovation and more about navigating bureaucracy.” My research note Use a Systematic Organizational Model to Scale Up and Grow Quickly specifically details ways to circumvent bureaucracy.
Full story on Gartner Blog
LinkedIn Edges Facebook as B2B Marketers’ Most Important Social Platform
May 19, 2014
Facebook is easily the most important social platform for B2C marketers, but the same isn’t true for B2B marketers, according to Social Media Examiner’s latest annual “Social Media Marketing Industry Report” [download page]. In fact, not only does LinkedIn rival Facebook in overall adoption by B2B marketers, but a slightly larger proportion (33%) named it their single most important platform than did Facebook (31%). About two-thirds of B2B respondents are interested in learning more about LinkedIn.
Full story on MarketingCharts
Marketers Use Facebook Despite Believing It May Be Ineffective
May 21, 2014
Facebook remains the most popular social media platform among marketers, but less than half agree that it’s actually effective, according to Social Media Examiner’s 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. Nearly 100% of professionals polled reported using the network in business-to-consumer marketing while 89% said they used it to communicate with other businesses. Despite these astronomical numbers, 57% of the marketers either don’t think their Facebook posts make a difference or aren’t sure.
Full story on Mashable
Social Media Marketing’s Main Expense is Staff. How Do They Spend Their Time?
Social media marketing may be “free,” but there are of course associated costs, not to mention the opportunity costs of time invested in marketers’ social efforts. A recent survey from Social Media Marketing University (SMMU) indicates that staff compensation indeed is the largest expense for growing social media marketing budgets, representing almost half of expenditures. So what are social media marketing staff doing with their time?
Full story on MarketingCharts
Facebook Defaults Posts From “Public” To “Friends” & Introduces Comprehensive Privacy Checkup
May 22, 2014
While Facebook has talked a big privacy talk for a long time, today they’ve implemented a major change. A sweeping new update is making it simple for users to see who they are sharing content with and all new users will be defaulted to “friends” rather than “public.” Current users will be notified about their settings as well through the use of overlays, pop-ups and a friendly looking blue dinosaur. Facebook is also releasing Privacy Checkup that will walk current users through their settings. This comes in the form of an impossible to miss overlay and pop-up notifications that clearly explain who each user is sharing their content with.
Full story on Marketingland
Boss Accidentally Forwards A Holiday Request To Whole Company, The Internet Reacts Brilliantly
May 23, 2014
So on Thursday he did the normal thing of emailing his line manager at Arcadia Group, where he works as a security guard, to request the annual leave. It was at this point that things started to go awry… Heaslip’s line manager accidentally forwarded his holiday request to 3,500 staff members working at Arcadia, the retail group that owns fashion chains Topshop, BHS, and Dorothy Perkins. And work for the day quickly ground to a halt as the #GiveGregTheHoliday hashtag was born.
Read full story on Buzzfeed
What We’re Watching
I was at Interactive Day last week and received a bunch of tweets about showing up in Rand Fishkin’s presentation (slide 61). Luckily it was not an example of why content marketing fails! More importantly after viewing it, I think this is the most educational Slideshare ever on how content marketing works and the common misconception. Every marketer needs to see this and pass it to your boss, too. I couldn’t have said it better myself Rand!
Enjoy,
~Melonie
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