RAAK

If you're late to Facebook, you're going to struggle

Are you having a hard time geting noticed on Facebook, while some of your friends are stealing the limelight? The Daily Beast conducted a study and their results matches what we expected. There's a bias against late-comers in the Facebook algorithm.

Following 500 million people into a party means that a lot of the beer and pretzels are already long gone. Poor Phil spent his first week shouting his updates, posted several times a day, yet most of his ready-made "friends" never noticed a peep on their news feeds. His invisibility was especially acute among those with lengthy, well-established lists of friends.

Hat tip to digital strategist Anne-Mette Jensen for this story.
 

Social search

Facebook and Microsoft have teamed up and are in the process of rolling out social search.

Bing will query your friends' Facebook Likes when serving you results. Danny O'Sullivan, the search engine expert, reckons, while it's not enough to threaten Google yet, it will make search a lot more personal.
 

Skittles

Skittles, a brand that's been experimenting with Social Media for a while now, did an interesting campaign this week. They challenged their mob of fans to drown the 'endurance artist' David Phoenix in a few million Skittles in 24 hours. People were able to add to the load of candies by visiting the brand's Facebook Page and every 15 minutes the accumulated number would be dropped onto Phoenix.

It felt a bit gimmicky, but we're sure it drove a massive amount of traffic to the Facebook Page. And as you also had to Like the page to take part, their amount of Fans is now up to 1.4 million.

 

The ROI value of a Social Media 'share'

ROI is a hot topic in Social Media. Weirdly sometimes, because, as someone big in PR once said, you don't measure the ROI of your receptionist, but still you have them.

Still, a recent study based on data from events website Eventbrite has put a price on word of mouth. It tracked the sales that were generated through a share on social networks and turns out that a share on Twitter is worth $0.43 and on LinkedIn $0.90. Unsurprisingly, the value of a Facebook share is much higher at $2.52 and a referral via an "email your friend" application comes to $2.34. 

We say unsurprisingly, because even though last week we said that Twitter generates more click-throughs, Facebook recommendations from your closer friends carry more clout.  
 

Klout goes Facebook

Klout, our favourite online influence measurement tool, has stepped it up a notch. Until now, it decided your importance based on your Twitter activity. But now it's also taking into account what happens on your Facebook profile.

We find it odd that Klout doesn't make a seperate score for FB or Twitter, as people use the platforms for different things. But Klout says that incorporating your Facebook data won't bring down your Twitter score.
 

Crowdsourcing the cuts

Yesterday the UK chancelor George Osborne unveiled an unprecedented £83bn in spending cuts. A number of social media initiatives are trying to make sense of it all. Here is a round up of the best we have found. Including a tool that allows you to play chancellor for yourself.

 

Foursquare

While there are no figures yet for Facebook Places, Foursquare is steadily increasing its user base. Only 2 months after the location service said hello to user number 3 million, it is now believed they are set to reach 4 million members this week. 
 

Creative of the week – Darren Solomon

This newsletter feature is proving to be so popular that we decided to also publish it on our blog. And the first creative to receive that honour is Darren Solomon, a producer/composer who made an amazing collaborative piece based on YouTube videos. 
 

Tech insight of the week – The more you Tweet, the Twitter you are

Can you become powerful on Twitter merely by Tweeting like a lunatic? Or worse, can you automate Twitter follower accumulation? How much does the content of your Tweets actually matter if your Tweet frequency is high enough?

RAAK put some bots to work and did a test. Read More »