June Social Media Roundup
Microsoft buys LinkedIn – $26.2 billion, in cash, is what Microsoft announced in June that it has agreed to pay for LinkedIn, making it one of the biggest tech deals in history and one which pushed LinkedIn’s share price up by 50%. Much of LinkedIn’s value derives from the influential, specialist, widely read and constantly updated content published on its site. Experts say that the move will accelerate Microsoft’s shift from traditional software to the cloud, where it will compete with other well-established technological giants, like Amazon and Google.
Use social media at work? Every employee’s worst kept secret is that they use Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at work. Sometimes all three! Pew Research Center surveyed 2,000 working US adults and surprisingly, found that just under a quarter of professionals (24%) use social media whilst in the workplace to make or support professional connections. In addition, one fifth use it to get information to help solve problems at work and 17% use it to strengthen personal connections with their colleagues.
Twitter launches a market research hub – Twitter has developed a new research hub called ‘Insiders’ to revive its declining share value and capitalise on its active user database. The hub is connected to 12,000 users aged 16+ (from different socioeconomic backgrounds in the US and UK) who are available to brands to test their creative ideas, collect honest and anonymous feedback and uncover market insights. It will allow brands to conduct quick polls as well as more in-depth research.
Brands can now target people on social media via emojis – The Oxford Dictionary made the ‘tears of joy’ emoji their word of the year in 2015, and the popularity of these ideograms shows no sign of waning. Just in time for World Emoji Day in July (it’s a thing), the social network is looking at allowing brands to target users who tweet emojis. For example, if you use a pizza slice in a tweet, you could get served ads from Pizza Hut. Over 110 billion emojis have been tweeted globally since 2014, so it makes sense for Twitter to capitalise on them.
Facebook will turn any panoramas into 3D images – To boost content sharing on its platform, Facebook this month introduced the opportunity to share “360 Photos” when users upload a panorama or photo from a 360 degree app or camera. Photos should be uploaded in the usual manner, and the 360 function is activated when users tilt their phone whilst looking at it or use a Gear VR headset. To identify 360 photos, look out for the compass icon on the right-hand side of uploaded photos.
Generational shift towards online news is complete – Recent research shows a shift in the nature of media publication: the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ “establishment survey” revealed that more people are now working in digital publishing in the US than for traditional newspapers. Nearly 458,000 people were employed in the newspaper publishing industry in 1990, but by March 2016 the number had fallen by almost 60% to about 183,000. Over the same time period, the number of jobs in online publishing and broadcasting grew more than six fold, from 30,000 to 198,000. As the UK newspapers, like the Independent, are also making the transition from print to online only, it’s safe to say the US’ generational shift in the nature of the media is being reflected in the UK.
LinkedIn Insights will help businesses assess their competitors – The world’s largest professional network has given its Premium subscribers access to the Premium Insights tool allowing them to learn the state of recruitment and growth of their competitors and investors to check out companies of interest. The new Insights unlock information about total employee count, how a company is structured, new hires, a company’s former senior talent, and job openings.
Twitter users are now able to retweet themselves – This month, Twitter announced that moving forwards, tweets which begin with a handle will no longer be classed as ‘replies’ and will be broadcast to everyone (previously they would only be broadcast to people who followed both the sender and recipient). In addition, users are now able to retweet their own tweets.
Traditional media is losing its influence and trust ratings – Finding the right place to broadcast your company’s message is key, and well-known does not mean trustworthy. A new report from Kissmetrics shows that newspapers and broadcasters are rapidly losing trust with users, whilst search engines are now considered more trustworthy than traditional media. In addition, users trust influencers more than brands, and they remain loyal to those influencers. In addition, trust in online-only, owned and social media are all increasing.
Consumer PR, Corporate PR, Digital, Digital Communications, digital PR, Social Media