This week's need-to-know social-media news.
Twitter is taking a new advertising tool national. A service that allows advertisers to target users who tweet about specific television shows, which was available only to a few brands when it launched in May of this year, is now available to any marketer running a U.S.-wide campaign. Twitter has made social TV a focus as it aims to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2014.
The marketing tool is based on technology developed by Bluefin Labs, a Cambridge, Mass.-based startup that Twitter acquired in February. By analyzing users' tweets, the tool allows advertisers to direct relevant promotional messages to them. The promos appear at the top of a user's Twitter feed.
Facebook hosts more social TV chatter than Twitter. Much more.
Twitter has been seen lately as the leading platform for a social TV experience, acquiring Bluefin Labs and partnering with TV ratings agency Nielsen. But it appears that Twitter's dominance may have been an illusion, as least as far as user activity is concerned. Social TV startup Trendrr, which is now partnering with Facebook, has released a report showing that Facebook has five times more social TV activity than all other social networks combined. Take these findings with as much salt as you'd like, and allocate your advertising dollars accordingly. --
Piqora adds analytics for Tumblr and Instagram.
Before Pinterest launched its own suite of analytics, there was Piqora (formerly known as Pinfluencer). To its trademark Pinterest tools, Piqora has now added analytics for Tumblr and Instagram. With the holy trinity of image-heavy social networks now in its purview, Piqora has landed AMC, Crate & Barrel and other major brands as clients. These analytics tools constitute "a vast opportunity for brand managers to get deep insights about their audience and content and promote hashtags and content to acquire audience and turn them into customers," Piqora CEO Sharad Verma said in a statement. --
Facebook is now putting game suggestions in users' notification feeds.
In a move that may aggravate some users, Facebook is testing a new type of advertisement: game suggestions that appear right in your notifications. That's the tab to the right of your private messages tab in the top navigation bar. The suggestions are apparently determined by games you have played before. "We're always testing new channels to promote games," a Facebook spokesperson said, according to AllThingsD. "This is part of a small mobile distribution test we’re running for game developers." --
Digg founder Kevin Rose hurled a raccoon to protect his dog.
Some pet owners will do almost anything for their animals, and Digg founder Kevin Rose is one of them. When he woke up in the middle of the night to find a wild raccoon attacking his dog, Rose grabbed the raccoon and hurled it down a flight of stairs. A security camera captured the encounter, and Rose, as one might expect, given his history as founder of social news website Digg, posted it online. The video went viral, and now has more than 6.7 million views on YouTube. --
