Social Networks

Under the cover of the Facebook IPO, Microsoft and its FUSE labs launched a social network/research project called So.cl that will focus on sharing among the youths.

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Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

McAfee is warning that hackers have created “toolkits” that allow people to quickly and easily create pins or images that actually facilitate malware distribution and the spread of other forms of spam. Requests to repin before content is delivered is usually a sign that something’s up. Bloomberg has gathered some cautionary tales.

With the skyrocketing interest in Pinterest, it’s no surprise that some would try to capitalize on the popularity with a scam. This in-depth infographic offers up lots of info about who’s using Pinterest. Note that PR is number six on the list of audience interests for those on the site. (We excerpted that part in the image above.)

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So many things are happening at Foursquare. On Foursquare Day, April 16, the company announced that it had reached 20 million users and two billion check-ins. Since then there have been plenty of developments:

• The company has introduced an instant verification system that’s online and only $10.
• There are plans for an ad platform that will launch next month. Foursquare is seeking brands to partner with.
• Tristan Walker, the VP of business development, is leaving for Andreessen Horowitz as an “Entrepreneur in Residence.” He made the announcement on his blog. Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai announced in March that he would remain on the company board, but was otherwise stepping down from the company.
• Foursquare has partnered with OpenTable. Now, when you find a place on Foursquare, you can go ahead and make a reservation too.

Consider yourself updated.

More than a quarter of people, 27.8 percent, say they get news from social media. Among that group, 59.5 percent say they’re using Facebook as a news source. Among the big news stories over the past year that broke on social media were the death of Osama bin Laden, Newt Gingrich’s Presidential candidacy, and the protests in Egypt.

Schools.com, a site providing information about higher education, has created an infographic, “That’s Old News: How social media is replacing traditional journalism as a news source,”  that illustrates the ways in which audiences are using social media as a news source, reiterating its importance in the sharing of information. Check it out after the jump.

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A Nielsen study, “State of the Hispanic Consumer: The Hispanic Market Imperative” shows that Hispanic viewers spend six hours and 29 minutes per week watching online video, and four hours and 20 minutes watching video on mobile phones, far out-watching non-Hispanic white viewers on both counts.

Historically, fewer Hispanics have had at-home Internet connections (62 percent vs. 76 percent for the larger population). However, home broadband use rose 14 percent during the past year in the Hispanic community, but only six percent in the general population.

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According to GigaOm (a story that was mentioned during our chat with GalleyCat’s Jason Boog this morning), bringing the two companies together is sending some people elsewhere. But for the most part, this acquisition was a way for both Facebook and Instagram to add to their dominance.

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One of the easiest ways to snag a mass influx of followers is running a promotion on your social media networks. But contests, giveaways, sweepstakes, and the like can often bring in uninterested consumers merely attracted by a freebie.

“It seems like people that are short-sighted on this thinking are trying to get that hit,  that burst of fans,” said Jason Cormier, co-founder of social media agency Room 214, in the latest mediabistro.com AvantGuild article. “It’s what we refer to as the ‘placement crash,’ where if you look at the Web analytics of a PR hit what you’ll see is you’ve got the awesome spike, and then 48 hours later, it’s completely dead and you did nothing with that traffic afterwards.”

For tips on crafting a promotion that will attract the right audience in the first place, read Do’s and Don’ts of Running Social Media Promotions. [subscription required]

 

Smoyz, an Israeli ad agency, has executed a Pinterest-based campaign (the firm says it’s the first-ever) on behalf of its client Kotex. The firm selected 50 women who posted pictures of things that inspire them — a foodie posting pictures about cooking, for example. Smoyz then hired an artist to paint objects related to those interests in the new Kotex design. The items and a box of Kotex were sent to the Pinterest users as a gift.

According to the campaign clip above, the promo was a success because the women shared details with their followers about the gift they received, resulting in more than 2,000 impressions.

Adrants says the promo is an example of what will surely be a marketing trend — using the “interest graph.” We wondered if the campaign broke too far from the Kotex product.

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Though Pinterest is still a relatively new social network, it has already become the subject of oft-told tales: lots of women are on Pinterest; certain brands are using it to great advantage, like Real Simple and Kate Spade; and Pinterest is driving traffic like gangbusters.

The underlying message is everyone is doing it, so get on it while the gettin’s good. But despite this fountain of information, the company’s CEO, speaking at SXSW, talked about how he made a point of going against the grain when he launched the social network focusing on a more “human way of looking at the world” rather than stressing the same real-time quality of lots of other platforms.

“You never see a tweet older than 48 hours, unless it’s ironic. I wanted to create a service that’s a bit timeless,” he said.

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An economic survey from LinkedIn focused on industry trends found it’s a good time to be in the green tech or internet environs. The fastest-growing industries include renewables, up 49 percent; Internet, up 24 percent; online publishing, up 24 percent; and e-learning, up 15 percent.

It’s not so hot in the old school fields like publishing and making cars. Newspapers are in a sad and sorry state, winding up dead last on LinkedIn’s 2012 economic report, created in partnership with the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) and released here on the LinkedIn blog.

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