Weekly Social Media Update
Google Acquires Jambool
Google continues to snap up companies that may be useful in its struggle against Facebook: last week it was Slide, this week, it’s social payments company Jambool. The $70m price tag implies Google are willing to invest serious money reinvigorating Google Checkout so it can compete with Facebook Credits.
Official Tweet Buttons
Twitter is launching official Tweet Buttons that will enable article sharing and retweet counting across third party sites. Much like Facebook’s social plugins, this will provide a consistent method of embedding Twitter functions with minimal coding complexity.
The New Tweet Buttons
Facebook Pages Change Again
Just a minor cosmetic issue, but if you have a bespoke tab on your Facebook fan page, it may need a little tweaking due to new sizing requirements for custom pages. This may cause extra design costs as brands scramble to implement changes before the 23rd of August. The narrower page format fits with a new profile layout, expected in September, that allows more space for wider ad units.
Foursquare Visualization
If you’ve been checking in on Foursquare for a few months now, you might be wondering just how much of your location data the service has stored up: take a look at this visualization to see your movements tracked over time, and compare it with your friends to see which venues you have in common.
See where you have been, and compare with friends
The Twitter Movie
Yes, it’s a spoof of the Facebook movie trailer. Thanks to Ken and the CRM team for passing this on.
JetBlue and Steven Slater
In the aftermath of the Steven Slater story, JetBlue has given us another great example of how not to use Twitter, responding to a tweet from comedian Andy Borowitz with a little sense of humour failure. Have we learned nothing from Nestlé’s Facebook disaster, or @BPglobalPR? You can’t tell people not to make fun of you on a social media channel: it’s like sticking a sign on your own back saying “kick me”.
Tags: Andy Borowitz, bpglobalpr, CRM, Facebook, Facebook Credits, Facebook movie, Facebook Pages, foursquare, Google, Google Checkout, Jambool, Jet Blue, JetBlue, Nestle Facebook, Slide, Social Media, social payments, social plugins, Steven Slater, Tweet Buttons, twitter, Twitter movie, virtual currency, visualization, weeplaces.com