How important are your tweets? That is for Twitter to decide! One of the articles in our latest Digital Download discusses Twitter’s recent announcement that they are going to begin attaching value ratings to users’ tweets as none, low, medium and high.

According to Twitter, the new metadata will allow developers to sort through millions of tweets in their streaming API to help them find the conversations that are most useful to them.

Although Twitter did not say how they will actually determine each tweet’s value, it is likely the system will work the same way that “Top Tweets” currently appear in a Twitter search result. Basically, you can get your 140-characters-or-less as a ‘Top Tweet’ if you have a large following or if you manage to rack up a lot of retweets.

As we all know, some streams on Twitter have so much content and move so fast that it can be very hard to keep up. This new system may help brands find the most useful information – and the most influential individuals – in the often-overwhelming Twitter conversations. On the flip side, the new system could prevent great content from being seen if the user (or brand) is new to the ever-growing social platform.

What do you think? Do you find ‘value’ in Twitter’s new rating system?

Read more about Twitter’s new rating system in the latest 360Social Digital Download, a round-up of digital marketing news for brands.

• Twitter will now decide the ‘value’ of your tweets

  The value judgments will be assigned to the public metadata of tweeters’ posts, and used by Twitter’s streaming API to help developers more selectively curate massive amounts of status updates. More
• Social Fresh claims Facebook is turning into a mobile company

  According to Mark Zuckerberg, in 2013, Facebook is “going to get really good at building mobile-first experiences.” 680 million users access Facebook via mobile at least once a month. 157 million ONLY access Facebook via mobile (15% of the total user base). More
• Twitter launches Vine app – Facebook blocks its fan page

  Twitter has introduced a new video sharing service, Vine, that allows users to record and share brief looping videos up to six seconds in length. Upon its initial launch, Facebook made Vine’s unsearchable on its platform. Even at current date, it is not easy to get to the app’s fan page – and they only have 48 likes. More
• Mashable reports how in-app searches are taking searches away from Google
  Google accounts for two of every three searches done in the U.S., far and away the most of any core search engine. However, Mashable uncovers that more and more in-app searches are occurring on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. More
• Facebook admits critical bugs caused page reach to be misreported for months

  While trying to speed up its iOS and Android apps, Facebook accidentally stripped out too much data about news feed posts by Pages. This caused Page Insights to be misreported, leading admins to believe their posts reached fewer people than they actually did, in most cases. More

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital Digest, Digital PR, FaceBook, Interactive Marketing, Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

By Rob Bratskeir

One of Saturday Night Live’s sharpest jabs in recent memory never even made it to air last weekend.  (Lorne, anybody home?)  The bit featured Jason Sudekis deftly sending up Reed Hastings’s now infamous mea culpa, alongside a perfect Fred Armisen aping that other Netflix (um, Qwikster) guy.  Lucky for us SNL’s dress rehearsals are taped.  Watch the bit, then talk amongst yourselves.  And thank 360’s own Caitlin McNamara for the clip.

Plenty of water cooler-able stuff there.  But what got me most wasn’t any one line, but the duo’s compulsion to keep apologizing: once, twice, thrice.  It’s exactly where the real Reed went off the rails.  He didn’t know how to quit when behind.   After all the talk of corporate hubris, price gouging and flanker brands  – after all the prognosticating over why Netflix did it, and what still may be up their bright red sleeves — I simply fail to understand what went through Hastings’s mind in choosing to broadcast himself, when he had exactly zero to offer in restitution.  We probably would have settled for straight talk.  By then, many believed the price hike on DVDs was taken to subsidize the company’s high-growth, but higher-cost streaming future. Done. Move on.

Hastings’s timing was equally puzzling.  Just as the negative chatter over the original price hike announcement was waning, there he was dousing the embers with gas. Would you ever advise a client to “go twice” with the same bad news?  It leaves me convinced Hastings convened a meeting of one in hatching the plan and pulling the trigger.

There is a more troubling scenario – troubling for those who do what we do for a living.  Suppose Hastings did actually seek the counsel of someone he deeply trusted, and whose advice he would have taken.  What if that person, sensing Hastings’s enthusiasm for the idea, just bit their tongue and nodded yes.  It wouldn’t be my recco, but the guy’s had a lousy couple of weeks.  Maybe this will get him past it.  People love Reed, so yeah, maybe be can sell it.  Still…

OK, maybe a little out there.  Still, I’ll take it as a cautionary tale, and pledge to pull no punches when the stakes are highest — no matter who’s on the receiving end of our counsel.

Filed under: Internet, YouTube by Admin - 1 Comment →

…they were all topics discussed in yesterday’s 360PR Tweets & Sweets meeting! The 360PR crew gathered around bowls of delectable spring-themed candy and salty snacks to chat about interesting social media and digital case studies from recent weeks. I took note of three trends based on the discussion:

- Late Night Social: PR people and brands aren’t the only ones integrating social media into communications efforts. TV producer’s have been getting creative with ways to keep audiences engaged via Facebook and Twitter. For example, Conan O’Brien recently live-posted on Facebook during an episode of his show, conducting hilarious video Q&As with fans during the program. The videos led to tons of engagement on the Facebook page. In addition, Jimmy Fallon has integrated social media within his show with the popular “Late Night Hastag” segment, which garners thousands of tweets surrounding each segment.

- Social Election 2012: The 2012 presidential election is right around the corner, believe it or not. And following President Obama’s heavy social media campaigning in 2008, candidates for the 2012 race are getting out in front with social media communications. For example, Mitt Romney released a video on Monday on YouTube announcing his entrance into the race. It has received over 80K views thus far. And, following Obama’s announcement on Twitter, Romney quickly tweeted back saying “@barackobama I look forward to hearing details on your jobs plan, as are 14m unemployed Americans.” This will be an interesting race to watch!

- Social Coupons: Some brands are taking advantage of the social couponing craze on Facebook, including Healthy Choice and Pretzel Crisps. Healthy Choice launched a “progressive” coupon on Facebook and the value of it increased the more people “liked” the brand’s page. The campaign was supported with a Facebook ad buy and “likes” jumped from about 6,000 to 60,000! In addition, Pretzel Crisps (a snack food favorite here at 360) has also gotten some positive attention lately, for their Facebook coupons. With a couple simple coupons, and Facebook’s viral nature, Pretzel Crisps was able to double their Facebook “likes” in about 36 hours!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, FaceBook, Interactive Marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

You may remember 360 Social’s round-up of 2009 social media moments from last year. Well, in 2010, we turned the proverbial mic over to Lindsay Durr and Skye McIntyre. In this video, Lindsay and Skye recap some of the top moments from this year including everything from the Old Spice campaign and the surge in group deal sites, to the trend of “underage and online” and TIME’s “Person of the Year,” Mark Zuckerberg. Check it out!

Did we miss anything? Share in the comments…

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, FaceBook, Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

We’ve told you about our 360 “Tweet and Eat” lunches before. But, this month we put a different spin on it – instead of the middle of the day, we gathered in the conference room at the end of the day, so we could all enjoy a cocktail or two while sharing some interesting case studies around the use of social media. Here are just a few highlights:

Ford Explorer Facebook Reveal – Earlier this year, Ford took a risk by revealing the new Explorer with an online and Facebook-central campaign, something that other auto-makers have never done. They revealed the new Explorer for the first time on Facebook, instead of at a big auto show. In the first day it surpassed its goal of 30K fans and, as a result, gave a free Explorer to one random fan. In addition all of the components of the campaign on Facebook, Ford heavily invested in ad buys as well to drive people to Facebook and to encourage engagement. This is a great example of a fully integrated online campaign. Check out the full case study on Mashable.

Google Zeitgeist Video - Google has compiled a video, with the help of Whirled Creative, showing how the world searched online in 2010. Over 1.5 million views on YouTube thus far! The most brilliant part of this video is that it subtly shows off some new Google features that launched this year, such as Google Instant. We highly suggest checking out the video – well done, Google!

“Rent is Too Damn UP” Spoof Video – By coincidence, another examples highlighted by staff also came from Whirled Creative. If you haven’t heard of Jimmy McMillan he ran for office in NY earlier this fall and named his political party the “Rent is too damn high” party. Really, that was the name of his party. The eccentric McMillan appeared during a televised debate and the video garnered millions of views on YouTube. Whirled Creative created a spoof mash-up, overlaying the voices from the debate onto a scene from the Pixar movie “UP” which has received over 300,000 views. Perfect example of a “viral” video leveraging current events to garner views.

Happy Holidays!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, FaceBook, Internet, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - 1 Comment →