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14
May
2014

What does Twitter’s new mute feature mean for brands?

Twitter announced this week that they are launching a new ‘mute’ feature so that users can block incoming Tweets from an account that they follow without actually unfollowing them. While this might be a handy feature for users (there are some serious serial Tweeters out there), what does it mean for brands?

A lot has been spoken recently about the fact that brands are continually being marginalised on Facebook by an algorithm that basically forces them to pay to reach their own followers. But could this new feature from Twitter be just as harmful?

While Facebook take it upon themselves to filter out companies’ marketing messages as they see fit, Twitter’s new feature is more of a user-orientated approach. Instead of a faceless algorithm, it is the customer themselves opting out of hearing from you.

The key take-away here is that you need to actually provide value to your followers / customers via social media. They are unlikely to unfollow you if you’re saying something meaningful and not just posting meme’s and ‘inspirational’ quotes, so brands beware. All this feature really does is make it slightly easier for followers to actively ignore you.

twitter mute

Image courtesy of Mashable

Posted by Rob in Facebook, Social Media, Twitter
17
Apr
2014

The convergence of The Big Four tech giants continues

With leaked reports this week suggesting that Amazon are readying a smartphone to launch in the Autumn, it marked yet another example in the recent trend of the big four tech companies, Google, Apple, Facebook & Amazon, continuing to move in on each other’s turf. It seems that Amazon want a piece of the smartphone pie and feel like they have something to offer in this space in the hope of emulating Apple’s model of users being able to use an Apple device to buy Apple products via an Apple payment system (iTunes). This isn’t a new trend but definitely one that seems to have sped up over the last few months with Computer World highlighting the number of recent moves that have made these companies “a lot less like themselves and a lot more like their competitors”.

Even Twitter are getting in on the action. Just last week the company rolled out a new profile page to some users, giving images more prominence, displaying posts based on their level of interaction and generally continuing the ‘Facebook-ification’ of the platform. All this in addition to reports last month that the company was preparing to get rid of the hashtag and @reply features that have been such symbols of the platform up to this point.

In a similar vein, it seems that Facebook is hoping to diversify from social like Google has managed to diversify from search with the company recently engaged in some very Google-like ‘moonshot’ ventures like investing in virtual reality and drone hardware manufacturers that have nothing from the outside to do with their core business. It has also been reported this week that the company is currently testing out an e-money system in Ireland which, if it were to prove a success, could possibly muscle in on Amazon’s online retail business or the potential of Apple’s iTunes in the micro-payments space.

So it looks as though these companies will continue to diversify from their original core business and borrow elements from each other, all with the aim of trying to expand their customer base and keep users within their ecosystem. But are all these measures diluting the elements that made users love them in the first place, and what are the implications for us, the users, of having our lives and our habits influenced and monitored by such a small group of companies?

Amazon Smartphone

Image courtesy of Mashable

Posted by Rob in Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter
01
Apr
2014

Facebook, Oculus, & the future of online retail

Facebook’s $2 Billion acquisition of virtual reality headset manufacturer Oculus Rift last week left a lot of people confused. The connection between a social media platform and virtual reality hardware is not exactly obvious after all. This video gives an idea of the potential that this coming together of technologies could unleash, particularly in an online retail capacity.

Posted by Rob in e-Commerce, Facebook, Retail
24
Mar
2014

Is this the end for the hashtag?

It might seem unthinkable, but if the rumblings that have come out of Twitter over the last few days are anything to go by, it looks like the company is intent on getting rid of the famous Hashtag and ‘@’ reply handles that have become so synonymous with the platform.

Twitter’s Head Of News, Vivian Schiller, recently described hashtags and @ replies as “arcane” and hinted that they would be ‘streamlined’ to help new users better understand the concept of Twitter. Removing the ‘scaffolding’ of the service as they call it, making it more like Facebook, who already use this approach re: mentions in posts.

Reaction has been somewhat negative so far among users and online commentators but my bet is that it will be the same as usual when there is a fundamental change on a social media platform, at the beginning there will be a few grumbles, but users will get used to it, get over it, and ultimately forget what it was like before hand.

twitter

Posted by Rob in Facebook, Social Media, Twitter
08
Feb
2014

A fortnight of birthdays for Apple and Facebook

While Facebook might have turned 10 years old on Tuesday, another birthday that seemed to have passed under the radar somewhat over the last week or so is the Apple Mac’s big 3-0. While the Mac wasn’t Apple’s first foray into the personal computing space it is undoubtedly their longest lasting.

While the company struggled in the early 1990’s, the revamp of the Mac range in 1998 gave the company the boost it needed to pick itself up and pursue interests in other fields including music and mobile technology. Without the success of the new iMac in the late 1990’s, the company could easily have folded.

They celebrated the occasion by launching a pretty inspiring ad shot around the world entirely on the iPhone on the day of the birthday itself (January 24th) highlighting how far Apple has come since the Mac was launched in such bold fashion way back in 1984.

http://youtu.be/zJahlKPCL9g

Posted by Rob in Advertising, Apple, Facebook