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Dealing with a Twitter hack: Lessons from @BurgerKing

Fast food giant Burger King experienced a social media meltdown earlier this week, as the brand’s Twitter feed was hacked, its profile picture and name changed to that of industry rival McDonalds, and a series of unusual tweets were fired out to the brand’s followers.

Things first went amiss around noon EST, and followers were treated to over an hour of links to YouTube videos, pictures of dirty kitchens, tweets about percolate and a few reminders that comms managers can’t afford to take public holidays off...

by Matt Owen 21 February 2013 11:12am 0 comments

How Red Bull uses Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+

Red Bull is a great example of a brand built almost entirely on social media, with some mind-blowing PR stunts thrown in for good measure.

Therefore it’s a great case study for our series looking at how different brands use the big four social networks.

We’ve previously examined how Walmart, ASOS and John Lewis use social, with Google+ generally proving to be the weak relation compared to Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

But does the same prove to be true for Red Bull?

by David Moth 21 February 2013 10:24am 3 comments

The Twitter API: human meets programmatic

The official launch of the Twitter Ads API was inevitable but still important for the marketing ecosystem. One of the world’s biggest human-fed and –curated platforms has taken a step in the right direction – using technology to help make marketers’ lives easier.

Twitter is taking a page out of the playbook of Facebook, which started its journey toward a mature advertising business with its own API in 2009. They built on this success with the launch of Facebook Exchange in 2012. As one of the original FBX partners, we have seen the data and scale available become important to many top brands.

by Jonathan Gardner 20 February 2013 21:11pm 0 comments

Companies struggle to use social for marketing and customer service: report

With countless consumers around the world using social media, it's no surprise that companies have flocked to services like Facebook and Twitter.

In many cases, companies are using these services to market to consumers, but in the past couple of years, a growing number of them have started using social as a customer service channel too.

by Patricio Robles 20 February 2013 14:47pm 5 comments

All the facts about Twitter's mobile users: infographic

Of all the major social networks, Twitter is perhaps the one that is most inherently suited to mobile due to the transient nature of 140 character tweets.

Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean that it has been any more successful than the others in coming up with a coherent policy for monetising its mobile apps.

But even so, this infographic shows just how much potential lies in Twitter’s mobile platform. The social giant has more than 10m users in the UK, of which 80% access the network using a mobile device.

by David Moth 19 February 2013 12:13pm 0 comments

Six fashion retailers that use Twitter's Vine

When Vine appeared in the App Store last month opinion was somewhat divided – some thought it was a great new tool for communicating with consumers, while some thought Twitter had just reinvented the Gif.

Even so, it was no surprise that brands were quick to start experimenting with the new app to see how consumers would react.

We’ve already looked at seven Premier League clubs that are using Vine to gives fans a look behind the scenes, and here are six retailers that have jumped onboard with Twitter’s new platform.

The images below are Gifs so may take a second to load, but you can click on them to link to the original Vine...

by David Moth 18 February 2013 13:17pm 6 comments

Optimise your tweets with these five simple suggestions

To maximise a tweet's effectiveness you need to use the 140 characters in the most efficient manner possible. This post offers five simple suggestions to optimise tweets for engagement and ultimately CTR.

The number one rule before applying these quick fixes is ensuring your tweet content is relevant to your audience. Although these are generic tips applicable to any industry your tweets must communicate the value of your product/service to your customers.

Start by putting the customer first and construct your tweets around them paying particular attention to language, writing style, and the call-to-action your customers will most likely respond to.

by Simon Hawtin 18 February 2013 10:34am 14 comments

Nutella gets us out of bed through Facebook

Valentine's gets a brief mention in the midst of chocolate, watches and shoes in our weekly showcase of The Dachis Group's Social Business Index.

Our focus is on three companies – The Swatch Group, Foot Locker and Ferrero International known for the popular chocolate spread, Nutella - as analyzed by the team at the Dachis Group.

We'll also take a glimpse at the top twenty brands on the Social Business Index, a real-time ranking of more than 30,000 global brands based on their performance in the social space, to see how the biggest brands in social are faring.

by Heather Taylor 15 February 2013 16:57pm 1 comment

Three examples of the psychology of social networks influencing user behavior

As the social media landscape has evolved, marketers have focused on the trends and psychology of sharing.

However, as the market changes, there may be a tipping point as to how much media we actually want to consume and share.

So how do social media platforms impact consumer behavior? And how and why do social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter continue to influence us?

by Andy Betts 15 February 2013 14:45pm 6 comments

Rubio Water: not every marketing opportunity is worth pursuing

Marketers have more channels than ever in which to hawk their wares, and combined with our 24/7, media-obsessed culture, marketers arguably have more opportunities than ever to reach consumers.

For better or worse, marketers are under enormous pressure to capitalize on these opportunities. But increasingly, it's worth asking: just how many of them are really worth pursuing?

This is a question the marketers behind Poland Spring had to answer when United States Senator Marco Rubio needed a sip of water during his televised response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday. Yes - he happened to reach for a bottle of Poland Spring. Rubio's thirst-quenching move was likely seen by millions and, perhaps undeservedly, became one of the biggest highlights on one of the biggest nights in U.S. politics.

by Patricio Robles 14 February 2013 16:10pm 1 comment