Each week, I compose a newsletter that includes a series of links about current events and trends in the worlds of technology, social media, mobile, communications and marketing in order to keep our wider team up to date on changes, newsworthy items and content that might be useful in their jobs. These are those links.
If you have additional links, sources or ideas that might be helpful, I'd encourage you to add some via a comment below or tag me in Google+. And if you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links in the This Week in Social Media Magazine.
Global platform growth, the expanding role of video, social network acquisition rumors, data plays by two of the majors, chefs behaving badly and more - it's This Week in Social Media.
Industry News
- A survey of 1,200 people in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia, found that customers are using as many as six channels to obtain answers or resolve issues with a company and that when they get in touch with a contact center, 40% expect the representative to already know about their attempts to resolve issues on other channels.
- As you might expect, it's the emerging markets - Brazil, Russia and India - that are fueling Facebook user growth. Globally, Facebook users will go from 42.6% of internet users in 2013 to 54.7% in 2017.
- In an era when many newspapers and magazines are using typography and layout to make their apps look like their print product, Reuters — with no print edition to ape — is instead making its website look a lot like its new apps, building a consistent "river of news" experience across platforms.
- The increase of viewers and videos online in India has exploded in the last year.
- In the UK, 56% of customers say they would never again do business with a brand when faced with a negative customer service experience.
Content
- Some key things to keep in mind as content marketing is becoming more important than ever: add value, be human and ask your audience what they want to hear. See? That's not so difficult, is it?
- Check out how the mobile game Framed is taking interactive storytelling to a new height.
The Platforms
- In the U.S., YouTube Trends Map shows what the rest of the country is watching.
- Facebook is supposedly in the final stages of a deal to buy Waze, the social traffic and navigation app.
- Bing will show comments from Facebook relevant to your search in the sidebar, and from that search, users can like, comment or see the original post directly in Bing.
- Facebook will now let users rate movies, TV shows and books, meaning that the graph search function will be much more powerful and Amazon-like.
- It could be due to the integration or to the brevity, but Vine videos on Twitter are shared four times more than other online video.
- Twitter activity is highly concentrated among a small subset of heavy users. According to a recent study by the University of Illinois, 20% of tweets come from 1% of the users.
- Foursquare has released extra filters to allow users to find places by price range, specials, hours of operation and more.
- As of May 1st, 67 of the Interbrand 100 brands are on Instagram.
- Which social networks are growing the fastest? Facebook still holds the top spot, but Twitter and Google+ are gaining. And continue to keep an eye on China.
Legal/Regulatory
- Facebook's general counsel Ted Ullyot is leaving the company.
Metrics/Measurement/Big Data
- For Mastercard, diffusing social in the organization, ironically, meant centralizing it. Go inside MasterCard's social command center.
- Facebook is set to make a big data play - this is a story that's in the making, with recent acquisitions, advertising offerings, and the mountain of data on which Facebook currently sits.
- Twitter has acquired big data company Lucky Sort, a visualization and navigation service that allows users to look at trending news topics in a visual layout. It's official: Twitter is now a data company.
Bookmarks/Read-Watch-Listen Later
- If you have responsibility for marketing budgets, odds are you aren't reaching Millennials as effectively as you could. Why not? Because most don't dedicate digital to branding efforts, or if they do, the digital advertising points toward legacy brand websites that are not at all engaging for that target audience.
- DJ Waldo explains how email and social should go hand in hand, with email being worked into social activities and vice versa.
- Cisco is a technology giant that is also a leader in social media. Their social media Center of Excellence was responsible for putting together the people and tools behind how Cisco listens in social. Their custom digital displays in various areas of the company reflect what's being said about the company and are relevant to the business function in which they sit. Most recently they used social listening to revamp their video and other online media for a recently launched campaign.
Commentary
If you don’t want to hear negative feedback about your product or service, you probably shouldn’t be on the Internet. Amy’s Baking Company, an Arizona business, learned the hard way this week that fighting back, name calling, profanity and poor customer service do not mix, online or offline.Without going into too much detail, the business owners had what Buzzfeed called “The Most Epic Meltdown on Facebook Ever.” And while Buzzfeed does tend to have sensational headlines at times, this was perfectly accurate. It was precipitated by the owners appearing on a reality show called “Kitchen Nightmares,” so you can imagine how fitting it was that the host of the show, Gordon Ramsey, simply had to give up on the chef/owner. Watch the video of the show to see the completely inappropriate behavior of the pair.
This isn’t the first time the chef has gotten herself into hot water. In 2010, after a negative review was posted on Yelp, she took the diner to task in a reply on Yelp, calling him a loser and a moron and saying that she makes the best pizza. That post earned her the scorn of a number of Yelpers, and now that it has been resurrected along with the Facebook meltdown, Yelp has continued to completely demolish the establishment’s reputation, as the business now has over 1,000 reviews and a 1 ½ star rating. Even Reddit has piled on.
This entire episode is an example of how not to act online. While instigators can get the best of you, it’s important to take time to remove yourself from an emotional situation, determine if a response it really necessary, and to make a frank assessment of what you can do to improve your product or service. Those with a thin skin will not do well online, nor in a service industry. Self-awareness, reflection and a willingness to improve are absolutely critical to success.
And while the owners of Amy’s clearly do not understand how the Internet works, I have to applaud them for the consistency of their brand. Whether you encounter Amy and Samy online or at their restaurant, they’re rude (and always right, of course), dismissive, arrogant and they shout, insult patrons, swear and threaten to involve the authorities.
Image credit: Jill Clardy (Flickr)
