Mar
22

Feedback’s Greatest Hits 2013, Vol 11

by Feedback

Progress doesn’t stop in the realm of social media! Here’s our top picks from the week:

YouTube reaches 1 billion unique monthly users, almost 15% of planet Earth

Google bought YouTube back in 2006 for $1.65 billion.

Twitter Advertising: More powerful tools for small business and self-service advertisers

Nice new targeting options in particular!

How Social Media Usage Among China’s Digital Natives Is Evolving

Consider: “China today has the world’s most social media population.”

Facebook Officially Launches Lookalike Audiences

Everything You Need to Know About the New Pinterest

Be sure to note: no more links in descriptions or hashtags (or at least – don’t use them as the “#” actually harms the search for that term now).

‘When we say it’s positive, the machine about 21% of the time says it’s negative,’

In this article, Coca-Cola validates why we specialize in true Human Filter listening (ignore the sensational AdAge title – they admit the way they are counting is way off):

“One problem Coca-Cola has is determining whether buzz is actually positive or negative in the first place. In one 2010 study where Coke pulled out more than 1,000 social-media messages randomly and had human raters compare them to automated sentiment analysis by one vendor, there were widespread differences.”

P.S. Ignore the sensational AdAge title and premise – it’s hilarious that they can talk about statistical significance with a straight face with 21% margin of error for HOW impact is counted.

New Study Confirms Correlation Between Twitter and TV Ratings

Twitter Archives Now Available In 12 More Languages, Including Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese

Check back weekly for our top stories of the week and follow us on our Facebook page and Twitter page for instant updates!

Mar
15

Feedback’s Greatest Hits 2013, Vol 10

by Feedback

Updates seem to be very a la mode this week. Here’s a rundown of the updates that caught our attention!

Introducing Pinterest Web Analytics

Very, very helpful – wouldn’t it be nice if a channel like, say, TWITTER would bother doing this?

Introducing Netflix Social

We knew this was coming, but it will be interesting to see how often we see it implemented (even when people don’t mean to). The question remains: Do people WANT to share everything they’re watching?

Twitter Now Supports Line Breaks in Tweets

Note a huge story.

But might make for some interesting

choices.

Foursquare adds “City Pages” for hundreds of cities worldwide

A new level of geo-enabled search-worrying begins… now!

Facebook Begins Rolling Out New, Customizable Timeline

Coming very soon to everyone… another update!

Facebook to Introduce Hashtags—And That’s a Double-Edged Sword for Twitter

“We don’t comment on rumors or speculation” but perhaps there’s more to this rumor than Facebook simply integrating hashtags.

Keep an eye out for these updates as well as updates to our Facebook page and Twitter profile!

Jun
24

Facebook & The Search For Meaning / Meaning for Search

by Feedback

A must-read article, “Facebook Unleashes Open Graph Search Engine, Declares War On Google” from AllFacebook.com shows how the search worm is turning inside of Facebook, with the importance of “Like” rising as a key variable in search — at least inside of Facebook. This is dreadfully important as a concept.

This very change, as small and undramatic as it has been incorporated, provides a fantastic look into the future of search and the contextual web. Consider how the open display of credibility and validation will change how we find information. We already see the results of that, in theory, in how search already plays out. We assume that the relevance determined by the wizard behind the Google curtain with every click of a “search” button.

Is there an assumed trust that all of those people who find this useful or like something are being sincere and are for real? Certainly, just as we assume when we search now that what appears first is truly relevant (paid ads aside – not that the first unpaid ad hasn’t ostensibly paid to be listed high via optimizing, etc.). AllFacebook.com wonders aloud about “like baiting” as well, but in some ways that still feels less nefarious than engineering a page that has no business showing up so high in a ranking to appear first, even if it actually has no relevance– a practice that happens every day in our typical search.

But then imagine how the actual display of the relevance, such as number of likes, incorporates the, “Is This Review Useful”-ization of the web. In some ways it’s fundementally taking the algorithm away from tinkerers and into the hands of motivated consumers — for good or ill. (And I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing, just fascinated that and how it’s happening.) Facebook wants to create a “social semantic search engine” that essentially runs off of the interactions of people as relevance fuel, not meta data tricks. This very urge and their platform and critical mass of interactions in which to try it means we will have a lot to chew on in the near future as the underpinnings of information display in search give way to new supports.

Google’s caching Tweets and displaying in some first searches. Facebook is listing by Like. Where will we be next year as sentiment creeps not just into our results, but into the algorithm itself?

-Dean (@dbrowell)

May
28

Top Tweets! Dean Riffs on Recent News

by Feedback

A few of the best stories this week, hand-picked by me (Dean) from our Twitter and Facebook feeds, with a dash of commentary. (Anna’s Picks will return next week!)

10 Things You Need To Know About the New Facebook Privacy Changes: http://bit.ly/cVvLoP
Can you imagine a company that makes physical products being able to backpedal this fast and publicly? No? Me neither. Check out the ever-helpful AllFacebook.com for tips on those new privacy controls.

The Half-Life Of A YouTube Video Is 6 Dayshttp://bit.ly/dkJUYO
Or: why you need to get that video up FAST.

Why Facebook Community Pages Are No Big Deal For Brands…Eventually:  http://bit.ly/cUEQNe
One of the single most perplexing things for brand managers right now is the sudden appearance of “Community Pages” – a weird cross between Wikipedia and a living Facebook Wall, these have cropped up for some but not all random subjects, brand names, employers and more. This article explains why over time they won’t be so confusing or important, but right now they’re causing consternation…

PA Becomes First State to Join Foursquarehttp://bit.ly/c7IjKq
You know you want the, “PA Retail Polka” Badge :)

Why BP Isn’t Fretting Over Its Twitter Impostorhttp://bit.ly/aEOmgv
While the comedic value is sometimes hit and miss, the fact it has been left alone is telling enough. Read why BP isn’t pulling the plug on a sarcastic rival PR horn.

We had an incredible time at the New England Society of Healthcare Communications this week in beautiful Stowe, VT. Feedback presented the keynote, moderated a panel on social media and New England hospitals, and gave a talk/discussion on generational differences. The NESHCo group is a great group of folks!

For those just joining us from that conference or others:

The gnome is watching you...

Feedback on Facebook (Facebook.com/FeedbackFB)
Where you’ll find  our active links, commentary, great discussions, photos, video and more on a daily (heck, hourly) basis… just click “Like” and you’re in!

Feedback on Twitter (@feedbackagency)
Twitterers can get their fix on our stream here, linking to great articles, thoughts and more!

And of course here on our blog and on YouTube (user: FeedbackVideos) you can catch Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week.

Have a safe holiday weekend everyone!

-Dean (@dbrowell)

May
12

Keep Up-To-The-Minute With Feedback

by Feedback

In case you aren’t one of the nearly 1,000 people who subscribe to our regular stream of consciousness and news feeds, we wanted to encourage you to visit:

Feedback on Facebook (Facebook.com/FeedbackFB)
Where you’ll find  our active links, commentary, great discussions, photos, video and more on a daily (heck, hourly) basis… just click “Like” and you’re in!

Feedback on Twitter (@feedbackagency)
Twitterers can get their fix on our stream here, linking to great articles, thoughts and more!

And of course here on our blog and on YouTube (user: FeedbackVideos) you can catch Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week every week. We’re thrilled you’re here and hope you enjoy what you see – contact us (804-893-3437) for more!

-Dean (@dbrowell)

Apr
13

Twitter Lets The Tweet Be The Ad With: “Promoted Tweets”

by Feedback

Twitter announced Tuesday the first phase of paid advertising with, “Promoted Tweets” (read more on their blog here).

Twitter’s ad model for Promoted Tweets is based on a per-thousand buy of viewers who will see a Tweet at the top of their search results that has been chosen for “promotion” by a paying company. This result will reside at the top regardless of when it was posted, meaning companies can circumvent the deafening cry of other Tweets about the same subjects that could bury their comment over time or over frequency.

This also makes for an interesting paid-placement opportunity for dealing with public relations nightmares, or quickly reacting to industry or popular trends, shoe-horning in a brand’s thoughts into every search.

The actual form of the ad? Essentially it’s just a “Golden Tweet” or “Timeless Tweet” that has all the same properties of a normal Tweet, plus “promoted” tag, that allows for interaction as normal and obeys all rules except for the chronology. Presumably this timelessness is how it will be inserted even in search queries from third-party applications.

One underreported function is that company’s appear to be able to promote Tweets they didn’t generate. In other words, a Tweet selected for promotion may be an incredibly positive review, for example. Consider industries such as healthcare, where slim official Tweeting by hospitals means meaningful Tweets are buried under a flood of job posts, etc.

Promoted Tweets is an interesting and unique development from Twitter, who before now has eschewed advertising and frequently stated they were interested in models that did not deviate from Twitter’s core functions (i.e. an integrated advertising design rather than interruptive such as banner ads). The success of Promoted Tweets and the other models coming in subsequent “phases” remains to be seen, but in my opinion appears promising.

-Dean (@dbrowell)

Mar
19

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week – From Times Square (03/19/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest and coolest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. (& if the answer is yes, leave a comment with your favorites). I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. & this week I’m doing my picks from Times Square in NYC!

@Anywhere:

At SXSW Twitter announced the @anywhere platform, but did not give us any insight into their advertising model. @anywhere is an app that will allow people to access Twitter information on any site on the Internet.

Facebook Search:

This week Facebook announced an update to their search capabilities that uses the search bar to incorporate more relevant results based on your networks connections.

Location Battle:

SXSW interactive was all about the location apps, specifically Gowalla and Foursquare. Both were used a ton at SXSW but it was Gowalla that beat out the competition in the SXSW web awards winning for the mobile category.

March Madness Apps:

March Madness top 24 started on Thursday so for all you sports fans, I have some app recommendations for you so you don’t miss the scores. If you’re in a tournament there are apps such as ESPN Tournament Challenge where you can check your standing, there’s also tons of free apps to keep up with the scores such as NCAA’s March Madness On Demand Lite App.

Facebook # 1:

Reports came out this week from HitWise that Facebook beat out Google as the most visited site for the week ending March 13th. This is the first time Facebook has beat our Google, becoming the most visited and most popular U.S. website

-Anna (@alucas9)

Nov
23

Twhere in the World: Geotagging, Caching, Privacy, Partners & Twitter

by Feedback

Twitter has finally, after an announcement earlier this fall, thrown the switch on an API allowing for Tweets to carry a tag for your specific location where the Tweet is sent from. Here’s the setting:

Opt-in for Geotagging

This means all sorts of potential uses, from even more specific community uses to a very robust search angle (ReadWrite Web does a great run-down here). For now we’ll have to watch as the first to bat roll out the feature in third-party applications – Twitter hasn’t actually devoted any new features on their own website toward the feature. In fact, even their more powerful search tool (based on Summize, R.I.P.) still bears the older location-search based on the city users name in their account.

One of my questions with the opt-in model is whether opt-In refers only to whether my Tweets communicate to the public where I am—in other words, does Twitter have a way to know where I am even if I’m not including it in my Tweets? Before last week they tweaked the privacy policies of Twitter users to nod to Geotagging:

“You may choose to note your location in your Tweets and in your Twitter profile. You can control your location information in your account settings.”

Seems clear that it truly is turned off from a Tweet standpoint- but is there an angle where you have not chosen to make information public but Twitter could still collect it? In Twitter’s policies there is an interesting line:

“Most of the information you provide to us is information you are asking us to make public.”

Huh. “Most.” Hmm.

“We engage certain trusted third parties to perform functions and provide services to us. We may share your personal information with these third parties, but only to the extent necessary to perform these functions and provide such services, and only pursuant to obligations mirroring the protections of this privacy policy.”

A thorough description of Geotagging on Twitter exists on their Zendesk help forums here. In it one can find a few key phrases that aren’t as comforting:

“Anyone can see it: even if you delete it, we cannot guarantee it will be removed from every partner.”

Translation: Twitter has “partners” that will be caching (or already are) your Tweets. Note the language change here – they specifically refer to “apps” and “application developers” prior to this in the piece, but in this line they use the word “partner” explicitly. Given recent announcements by Microsoft, Google and just last week Yahoo, this bodes well for the longevity of Tweets being extended beyond the short shelf life they have now.

“Turning it off does not remove historical data. You can, however, remove all of your prior data.”

Translation: Twitter sees a distinction between “historical” data and “prior” data. This may seem confusing, but it’s an important point when you look at it in context of the “partner” comment—Twitter may not be the one archiving its history.

In the section, “How do I remove location information from a tweet?” they instruct:
There are two options for removing location data:

“Delete the tweet”

or:

“Remove all of your location history by clicking the ‘delete all location data’ button on your settings page. This can take up to 30 minutes, but it will scrub all location information from prior tweets completely. It is good to note, however, that this does not guarantee the information will be removed from all 3rd party application’s copies of the data.”

Translation: If it takes 30 minutes, this means they have to scrub the location from each Tweet, insofar as a “Tweet” is an archived and distinct piece of data that has several moving parts. It does make me wonder whether this signals an opportunity to have discrete parts to Geotagging rather than just the binary on or off. For example, perhaps I just want to indicate the city rather than my exact location (and don’t want to go through the tedious process of updating my account profile every time)? This kind of nuance has been available with Brightkite for years now, it will be interesting to see where Twitter goes and how quickly others like Foursquare can adapt and incorporate.

Geolocation is certainly a good thing, and exactly what we knew Twitter had to add. Watch how fast Facebook starts pulling back the curtain on what they’re working on. But in the meantime: Does all this mean custom ads based on Geolocation? Tweeting habits crunched and analyzed by Twitter and “partners” for all sorts of advances? Lots of ways this could shake down. Grabm your popcorn folks and watch what plays out as the app developers scramble to let your holiday travel Tweets tell us you’ve gone over the river and through the woods…

-Dean (@dbrowell)

Oct
28

Facebook & Twitter on XBox: Video Sneak-Peek

by Feedback

Dean of Feedback provides a quick walkthrough of the Facebook and Twitter features coming to XBox Live users in November. These two special versions of the apps include some interesting features and some equally interesting omissions. Find out how XBox 360 users will connect in this video.

-Dean (@dbrowell)