Social Landscape Review: Q1 2013

Spring is in the air, which means that it’s time for the first quarterly Social Landscape Review of 2013. Let’s dive in and see what shifts the social/mobile space has undergone over the past three months that may have had a substantial impact for brand marketers.

January

• Award Show Season Breaks All Social Records: The 2013 award show season was unparalleled in social interaction, and the coverage across the major platforms was amazing to watch. Facebook put out a synopsis about the Oscar coverage both on their flagship platform and on Instagram, Twitter reported on buzz around the Oscars throughout, and then released a great summary on buzz and interaction here, the People’s Choice Awards on Facebook and Twitter shattered voting records set only one year ago, and the GRAMMY Gig of a Lifetime campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube was their most successful to date.
• Snapchat Catches Fire (1/10): An app with a not-so-savory backstory cleaned up its act and got everyone’s attention in Q1. Initially a hit with teens, the social utility Snapchat allows users to take a photo, record video, or draw a picture, then send it to friends to view with a time limit of only a few seconds. After that, it self destructs like a Mission Impossible tape. At the end of 2012, Facebook attempted to acquire the service – what Snapchat would have called a ‘hostile takeover’ – and, when unsuccessful, re-launched the Poke feature to mirror many of the same mechanics. It’s always interesting to see what the major social platforms do when a new threat to their user-base enters the space; build or buy?
• Facebook Unveils Graph Search beta (1/15): Graph Search is meant to be the ultimate search engine. The one that not only knows where all the most socially relevant content lies, but that can also serve it up to a user based on common syntax, like “Show me all of my friends in San Francisco who like surfing.” While much more powerful than what other search/content/decision engines have been able to do – in terms of social relevancy, which many consider paramount – below the surface, it doesn’t appear to be much more than standard filtering of information. When Graph Search has completed its roll out, it will be relevant for the SMBs of the world because getting customers to interact with your brand will be that much more important to social discovery (e.g. I’m a coffee shop, so I want as many people to check into my store as possible; therefore, when their friends search for coffee in my city, I have a better chance at appearing in the graph search). Once developers gain access to Graph Search and are able to begin creating searchable objects, then we might see an increased relevance for larger brands (e.g. offers as graph-searchable objects).
• Twitter Launches Vine, Video Sharing Social Utility (1/24): In January, Twitter (acquired, then) launched Vine, which would be touted as the answer to the question on everyone’s mind for the past 12-18 months: what is the ‘Instagram’ for video? People began experimenting with the utility right away, then brands and celebrities jumped on the band wagon. For big brands, more widespread adoption of this service is needed before Vine is integrated into their social marketing strategy, aside from experimenting in the micro-content realm; however, some truly have it figured out.

February

• Super Bowl 2013 Makes History Across Social (2/3): The 2013 Super Bowl was full of drama; a huge halftime lead squandered, the unprecedented stadium black out and game delay, a huge 49ers lage-game rally, and many mediocre commercials. From Facebook, we can see how the Super Bowl buzz was broken down, Dachis Group felt that GoDaddy was the advertising winner despite poor ratings, and Twitter released a great roundup of metrics relating to buzz during the big game. Also, this year was by far the best when it came to the second screen experience, not because of a branded app or solution, but because of the unforeseen black out and the hilarity that ensued across Facebook and Twitter.
• Twitter Acquires BlueFin Labs (2/5): In the Q4 2012 Social Landscape Review, we talked about the convergence between TV and the second screen, and more specifically, about using Twitter buzz as an indication of audience and engagement. This quarter, we see Twitter acquire BlueFin Labs, a leading social TV analytics company, so as to strengthen its position in the market with brands and agencies; ownership of the data and how its presented is key here, as are the core data science capabilities of the startup. As mentioned, this builds on Twitter’s exclusive partnership with Nielsen in the development of the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating.
• Harlem Shake Explodes on YouTube (2/5): You saw the Harlem Shake in February. Even if you thought you weren’t going to, you did. Even if you wished you hadn’t, you did. It was the ultimate viral meme because it provided users with a clear and easy formula for getting involved. Brands always look for the chance to participate in these types of digital conversations, and the Harlem Shake was no different, from Pepsi to The Daily Show to the Miami Heat. This type of conversation can be called ‘micro-content’ because they are small snippets of content that are meant to capitalize on the topical and have up-to-the-minute relevancy, like we saw with Oreo during the Super Bowl black out.
• Google Introduces Google+ Sign-In Button (2/26): In the war of who owns you online, Google strikes back agains the Sign-In with Facebook option with their own Google+ Sign-In Button. Google+ has been around for long enough, at this point, for brands to see that it isn’t building much traction, despite red herrings like these. That’s not to say that Google is not relevant in the social space; they absolutely are. It’s just going to take more of a grassroots movement for their identity platform to take off, rather than small functional tweaks and optimizations. The Sign-In Button is a step in the right direction.
• Facebook Updates Custom Audiences, Launches Lookalike Audiences and Acquires Atlas from Microsoft(2/28): In the paid media space, which is ever-blurring, Facebook made some key updates to their ad products during Q1. First, they updated Custom Audiences to enable advertisers to target current customers from the brand’s existing CRM system, then target those users’ friends and connections. Second, they launched Lookalike Audiences, which builds on Custom Audiences by allowing the advertiser to target consumers who are like those in their CRM systems – this is huge for marketers and advertisers looking to drive acquisition and awareness on the platform. Lastly, Facebook finalized their acquisition of Altas from Microsoft, which provides marketers with an Advertiser Suite for campaign management and measurement. The idea: own all aspects of distribution.

March

• A New Look for News Feed(3/7): Facebook is ever-evolving, constantly optimizing, and never static. The News Feed update in March was the biggest shifts in fundamental Facebook UI since Timeline a year ago, and it has just as much of an impact for brand marketers. Now that the feeds are segmented and users can easily filter content based on ‘only friends’ or ‘all feeds’ or ‘only photos’ it means that brands need to be even more relevant to consumers in order to maximize awareness on Facebook. The News Feed is where all the action takes place, so this concept of micro-content mentioned above gains additional relevancy to this conversation. For more on how the updated News Feed will impact your brand or clients, reach out to set up a 1:1 conversation with a Solutions Architect at Stuzo.
• Pinterest Launches Analytics Tool (3/12): In March, Pinterest announced that they would be launching an analytics toolset to enable businesses and verified page owners to more accurately measure their efforts on Pinterest. This is definitely a boon for brand marketers leveraging the Pinterest platform, and it will undoubtedly spawn new APIs that existing social measurement SaaS tools can plug into.
• Improvements to Timeline (3/13): As mentioned above, Facebook is never finished, always improving. The latest updates to Timeline involve surfacing more of who you are right away, rather than the recent status updates you’ve posted, which may not be wholly representative to a potential friend or connection. Also, by putting certain ‘About’ sections front-and-center for the user (movies you like, books you’ve read, etc.), Facebook is betting that you’ll curate those sections more often than you have in the past. As Facebook dives deeper and deeper into data – both on the consumer side (e.g. Graph Search) and on the advertiser side (e.g. Lookalike Audiences) – their services will only be as valuable as the relevancy of that data. Therefore, the more UI tweaks Facebook can make so that you keep your data up-to-date, the better.
• Global Landmarks Go Dark on Instagram for @EarthHour (3/24): Instagram does a fantastic job at activating their users around global events through visuals. Their social good campaign around the world for World Water Day on Instagram was executed beautifully, and this campaign for @EarthHour was just as masterful, displaying global landmarks and monuments having ‘gone dark’.

Did we miss any updates that you thought were notable from the first quarter of 2013? Tweet us @Stuzo with a link and you could be featured in an update. Also, stay tuned for the Q2 Social Landscape Review at the end of June.