With the crazy election week behind us, allow yourself to kick your feet up and relax with this week’s edition of the Social Six. Choose from categories like Communities, Tools and Technologies, Measurement, Partnership, Influencers and Fun Stuff because after such a stressful week, you deserve it!
COMMUNITIES
Checked in? 96 percent of Web users haven’t
Location based services may be some of the fastest growing startups on the web, but only a shockingly small percent of web users have ever “checked in” to a location. According to research done by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, only 4% of adults use location based apps to “check in” at a location. On any given day, according to Pew, only 1% of Internet users use location based apps. This number may seem shocking, due to the vast growth of these features, however, Pew also noted that younger generations are far more likely to “check in” than their older counterparts.
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGIES
Twitter’s In-Stream Targeted Tweet Ads Begin Today In HootSuite
Get ready, in-stream advertisements are coming soon to a Twitter account near you. Twitter is testing their new advertising, which unlike their “Promoted Tweets” will appear directly in your Twitter feed. According to Twitter, the ads will appear first in the stream, regardless of your other tweets. They will also be targeted, so users will only receive advertisements that are congruent to who they are following. For now, the ads will only roll out to those using HootSuite, but if it is a success there, be sure to look out for ads (still being referred to as Promoted Tweets) on your own Twitter, as they will be soon to follow.
MEASUREMENT
2010 Election Tops Obama’s Presidential Win in Online Traffic
This year’s midterm elections were record breaking in many ways, and now we have one more record to add to the list. The web traffic record (for a non-sporting event) was demolished, even before all of the election results were reported. In fact, 100 of the top news sites received more traffic than in 2008 when Obama was elected to office. Hundreds of thousands of tweets helped play a part in breaking this record, along with Foursquare, who provided an “I voted” badge for voters. Akamai’s Net Usage Index for News will still be tracking numbers for the next few days, so no numbers are final as of yet.
INFLUENCERS
Google Wave creator defects to Facebook
Lars Rasmussen is the man behind Google Wave. But recently, Lars has decided to leave Google and take his brain power over to Facebook. The decision comes around 2 months after Google decided to nix Google Wave. The split from Google was motivated by the failure of Google Wave, but Lars has made some more successful additions to Google, including Google Maps. Lars and his brother founded Where 2 Technologies, which is more commonly known now as Google Maps. But he is not the only one to ditch Google for Facebook. In fact, 1 in 5 Facebook employees is an ex-Google employee.
PARTNERSHIPS
Facebook offers partner deals on clothes, food, movies
Facebook is partnering with… well… lots of people in order to bring us various coupons for free things. In an announcement on Wednesday, Facebook announced that they will begin partnering with large corporations to bring consumers deals on products. Some of their partnerships already include McDonalds, American Eagle Outfitters, REI, Starbucks and Gap, who will be giving away 10,000 pairs of jeans through their promotion.
FUN STUFF
Facebook knows when you’ll break up
If you’re in a relationship and worried about getting dumped, look no further than Facebook. David McCandelss, a graphic designer and journalist, has searched Facebook and determined the most popular times to break up with someone. According to his findings, Mondays are the most likely day for couples to split, so watch out in the beginning of the week. Also, the time right after Valentine’s Day (and right before Spring Break for college students) has the highest breakup rate of any other time of the year. So if your Valentine’s Day does not go exactly according to plan, you may want to consider calling it off first.
Webroot: Social Media Sobriety Test
Ever been out on a weekend, put back one too many beers, then insist on posting something completely inappropriate and absurd on your Facebook wall? Well, obviously you are not the only one and there is a demand for a program that will put an end to drunk posting. Webroot has developed software that will prevent intoxicated users from posting to their social media communities. The program requires that users pass a sobriety test, including hand-eye-coordination tests. If a users passes, they are invited to tweet or post on their Facebook. If they do not pass, Webroot has an automated message pushed out, that states “(Insert Name Here) is too intoxicated to post right now”. Awesome.
Alyssa is an Influence Marketing Intern in our Chicago office.
