While doubts circle about advertising on Facebook WPP Group has pushed ahead with a deal with social software firm Buddy Media and chosen it as its preferred social ad management partner for handling Facebook advertising across its various media agencies.
The news comes on the heels of General Motors and others last week raising doubts about the value of advertising on Facebook. Read More
Tomorrow is IPO day for Facebook and as it goes to the market, with a valuation of $104bn, there are a raft of stories circulating about problems with its commercial operation.
Forrester has put out a report that takes a look at Facebook and how it works for marketing…except their take is that it doens’t work. General Motors ring any bells? Read More
The word ‘curator’ derives from the Latin curare meaning ‘take care’, and is commonly used in the context of cultural institutions; galleries, museums etc.
Over the course of the last year or so the term was increasingly used in conjunction with digital marketing, particularly social media-based campaigns. For fast-paced, content-driven comms planning, agencies would talk of acting as the ‘curator’ for the brand. In other words, deciding what content, stories, reactions, conversations and touchpoints to release at precisely the right time.
Now I think it can apply to the very nature of one’s digital identity itself.
Facebook is finally launching an App Store of its own. The store is currently in beta testing, but the idea is for something similar to the Apple or Google app stores. It will provide a place to promote and discover new social apps and is due to go live in the coming weeks.
Significantly as well as helping us all find new Facebook apps it will also allow developers to charge users for downloading apps for the first time. Read More
It was only a few months ago that frictionless sharing was being talked about as the future of social media. It followed Facebook’s launch in September of what it called a “new breed of apps” that displayed video, music and news alongside its new timeline profile feature.
While initial results from the likes of The Guardian, The Independent and The Washington Post were very positive, with millions signing up for these Facebook social apps, that trend has now gone into steep reverse indicating the problem of over-sharing. Read More
Is the internet leading towards a single, shared cultural identity? Or is it facilitating a break-up into many smaller groups, each of which see themselves as having a defined culture of their own?
Facebook's Doctor Who Floor
It’s been two weeks since Facebook UK moved into its new home, having outgrown the previous space in Carnaby Street. Stacked boxes and busy delivery men reflect the transition that’s in the air.
Those seasoned in more traditional media spaces might be relieved to hear it’s not all picture perfect at Facebook’s new abode. The front door’s intercom is not working (yet), and once inside you’re greeted by a lobby that can best be described as functional… Read more about Facebook UK here.
An oft-quoted definition of social media (even Facebook uses it) is from Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein: ‘…a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content’.
Well, perhaps a more pertinent, and possibly even more important, definition would be: ‘A group of Internet-based applications that generate feelings of addiction similar to that of consumerism during the mid-2000s’.
Google are continuing their determined push into the social world by incorporating Google+ commenting into YouTube, the major video service owned by them. However, such moves may have deeper cultural ramifications for the company.
Speaking to Reuters, YouTube Head of Operations Tom Pickett said:
“YouTube has been lacking great social features. Commenting and sharing have been part of YouTube, but the experiences could be much better than they are,”
Today’s internet is so dominated by Facebook and Google it’s hard to imagine how they could possibly be superseded. This infographic from CenturyLink reminds us that on the web, nothing is forever. The past giants from AOL to Yahoo! have all experienced life cycles, and according to the averages below Facebook has about 3 years until it dies! Maybe we should be taking Facebook up on their offer last Thursday to download an expanded archive of all our data after all.
Do you think Facebook will suffer the same fate as these giants?
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