Category: Facebook

Will Facebook open up its social network to those younger than 13 years of age? The company recently said it was considering that move, which has prompted a new round of concerns from privacy advocates and those worried about exposing young minds to the dark side of social media.

In this SplashCast, host Renay San Miguel interviews Splash Media social media manager Dennis Wilson, a father of two children who has researched best practices for parents who have questions about social media but are also hearing pleas from their children to interact with their peers on Facebook. Wilson points parents to the Facebook Safety Center, and also reviews websites and social networks that are geared towards children.

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The social media marketing world got a very positive peek at the near-future over the weekend. One of those glimpses came from the hallowed halls of research, the other from the lightning-fast track at Pocono Raceway.

Twitter ran its first TV commercial during NASCAR’s Pocono 400 race on Sunday, and it was 15 seconds of a driver taking an iPhone picture inside his car. Okay, maybe not Clio-worthy material. But the leap into the next stage of social media marketing came during the very end of the spot with the words, “See what he sees, ” along with the URL Twitter.com/#NASCAR. It was the social network’s way of launching brand hashtag pages, and in NASCAR’s case it came complete with lots of special content, including behind-the-scenes multimedia and twees from drivers, pit crews and select fans/observers. And all of it was managed/controlled/curated by the social network, thereby ensuring that only relevant, compelling and non-controversial tweets got on the hashtag page.

What more could companies ask for? And yes, this was done for a big brand, but hopefully Twitter finds a way to leverage this new marketing avenue for smaller businesses. Here’s what brand hashtags bring to the table: more potential revenue for Twitter, sure, but also more engaged current/potential customers who will line up for exclusive content from businesses.

Remember Facebook? That social network that had a disappointing IPO, which was apparently the cue for everybody to scream that its best days are behind it? The web research firm comScore begs to differ.

In a June 7th blog post titled “It’s Time To Change The Discussion On Measuring Facebook Effectiveness,” comScore’s Andrew Lipsman takes exception to recent reports that consumer purchasing decisions aren’t influenced by Facebook “likes” or brand pages, and that people are spending less time on the social network. Lipsman, teasing a white paper coming this week from his company, says “we are gaining critical new insights that show Facebook earned media is having a statistically significant positive lift on people’s purchasing of a brand.”

Lipsman says comScore’s proprietary methodology does a better job of electronically gathering information on behavioral patterns versus surveys asking consumers to remember correctly if they were influenced by social media content. There’s also an inherent bias by people against admitting that they are influenced by advertising/marketing, and that plays into those earlier reports, he added.

We’ll be looking for more information the comScore white paper, and we suggest business owners do the same. It could help pry open that window into the future of social media marketing even wider.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

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Yes, it is an app-tacular world out there. Mobile devices rule our lives, so the applications we use to engage with each other – and with businesses – should offer up the best user experiences, right? The Week in Social Media saw Foursquare and Facebook take big steps in that direction: Foursquare with an app makeover that should interest small/midsize consumer-based businesses, and Facebook with the grand opening of its App Center.

And then there was LinkedIn, the thundercloud hovering over the week thanks to millions of hacked passwords leaked on the Internet. But let’s save the bad news for last, shall we?

• Facebook’s IPO may have stunk up the joint, but don’t tell me that the Mother of All Social Networks isn’t still influencing others when it comes to look and user experience. The revamped Foursquare app gets more of a Timeline feel, right down to the larger photos and block-style grouping of Friends, Stats, Photos, Lists, Tips and Badges on my personal feed. But the new and improved Explore feature is where the action is (and should be) for businesses: it plays up recommendations for restaurants, shops and the like from other users close to where you are at the moment, and in that respect it acknowledges competition from Yelp and the new Google+ with Zagat integration.

So now it behooves businesses to not only monitor Foursquare to see what’s being said about them, but also to offer up specials, discounts and other incentives (like photo-sharing) for customer engagement.

• Facebook’s App Center isn’t exactly breaking news; the company introduced the concept back in May. But it’s rolling out to U.S. users this weekend, and for those still smarting over gloomy Wall Street prognostications about the company’s future, the App Center is a lifeline that offers the potential for a revenue-enhancing mobile marketing strategy that’s been missing from Facebook so far.

As in the Foursquare makeover, recommendations are key: the App Center will send you suggestions based on what you and your friends are already using and downloading and will only serve up “high quality apps in the App Center, based on user ratings and engagement,” no matter if they’re based in the Apple Store, Android Marketplace or on the web. And you’ll be able to send apps to your mobile device from your desktop/laptop via App Center. Bonus transparency points to Facebook for highlighting what each app needs from you, such as your basic info, email address, etc.

Facebook also released some impressive statistics regarding its apps: more than 230 million people are gaming on Facebook every month, there are now more than 4500 Timeline apps, and the network prompted 83 million visits to the Apple App Store in May alone. All of that speaks to people spending more and more time on Facebook during their daily visits, and that should always be encouraging news to businesses and brands wanting a shot at those 900 million users.

• Yes, it took a while for LinkedIn to confirm what was already making the rounds on major news outlets on Wednesday morning: hackers had leaked some six million passwords to accounts at the social network for professionals. That overshadowed another privacy issue for LinkedIn that focused on how its mobile app syncs your calendar data. Ultimately in both cases, LinkedIn fessed up, came clean, got proactive with changes and apologized. In the case of the hacked passwords, LinkedIn shut down any compromised accounts and notified affected users.

And while there is some responsibility on the part of users to randomize their passwords and change them frequently, nearly every aspect of social media marketing and engagement is based on trust and credibility. As these social networks grow and become more integrated with business, it’s incumbent upon them to lock down security issues as much as they can in our connected, app-tacular world.

Do you think the Foursquare makeover will result in more businesses checking out check-ins? What do you think of Facebook’s App Center? And will LinkedIn’s hacked passwords damage the trust businesses have in the social network. Please share your thoughts in our Comments section.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

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Check out SMTV Fridays,  where our hosts going into detail about some of the above and so much more!

It’s been nearly a year since Splash Media spoke with Veronica Torres, director of diversity marketing at the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau and the leader of the CVB’s social media strategy. Since Torres spoke with SplashCast host Renay San Miguel last summer, the Bureau has expanded its efforts to use social media to boost its destination marketing goals.

“We are actually working with other platforms and have three staff people internally managing our social media efforts,” Torres tells Splash Media. “We are also in the middle of a huge rebranding effort with Dallas and will be launching a new digital strategy before the end of the year.”

Torres says Pinterest is now a part of the Bureau’s social media mix, along with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. In this SplashCast from the past, Torres talks about how her organization launched its social media strategy and how it uses each major social network.

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“Piranha 3DD” looks like your basic B-movie – that’s “B” as in Blood and Boobs – so it’s probably going to have a hard time biting off a big piece of the weekend box office considering its competition: “Snow White And The Huntsman.” But “Piranha 3DD” is guaranteed one spot in cinema history after Friday: it’s the first 3D movie to be shown on Facebook.

The killer fish film – $7.99 for the 3D version, $6.99 for standard viewing – also fits into the current trend revolving around the mix of social media and entertainment experiences, with Facebook (of course) playing a starring role.

“Piranha 3DD” is available for viewing on Facebook via a partnership with Starz Digital Cinema and Milyoni, a San Francisco-based provider of technology that enables Facebook commerce and social/entertainment content mashups. Milyoni (pronounced “million-eye”) boasts services that reach more than 150 million fans; its customers have included Universal, Lionsgate, Turner Broadcasting and the National Basketball Association. Last year the company also made history when the Taylor Lautner film “Abduction” was the first movie to be shown on Facebook on the same day that it also released on DVD, Blu-ray and on-demand.

Milyoni is doing its part to create a Facebook ecosystem that connects companies, content and audiences willing to pay to not only watch something or shop on the social network, but interact with others at the same time. And that will be profitable for anyone wanting to sample entertainment or commerce on Facebook as long as they think of customers first, says Dean Alms, vice president of marketing at Milyoni.

“The key to successful F-commerce is rewarding customers,” Alms told Splash Media in an email. “Companies always need to think about brand loyalty and how they can reward fans who’ve liked their page – either through special promotions or exclusive content, etc. There needs to be constant interaction in order to draw fans back to your page; simply setting it up and thinking that fans will flock and return is a misconception, and that’s what companies need to keep in mind for the future.

Since it’s the start of summer, the movie side of Milyoni’s business is naturally attracting a little more attention. And there’s evience that Milyoni’s technology in that regard is starting to pay off. A Milyoni PR representative sent Splash Media data regarding a recent showing of a documentary about reggae legend Bob Marley that featured a chance to chat with his son Ziggy on the social network. “‘Marley’ was a big success across all distribution platforms,” spokeswoman Sylvia Tongco said. “It received over 80,000 user social impressions the first week of the movie’s launch on Facebook.” The film garnered the largest audience yet for a Facebook streaming movie premiere, and was the first major U.S. documentary to premiere on the social network on the same day of its theatrical release.

The company’s Social Live platform enables streaming of live events; a Widespread Panic concert was the first use of this technology on FB and it drew more than 2,000 paying customers in 19 countries.

What do you think? Is there a future for Facebook streaming movies and concerts? How attractive is the chance to chat with friends and celebrities while watching a movie or music event? Please share in our Comments section below.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!