Social Soup #4: Extreme makeovers and train violence

The weather outside is frightful, but our soup is so delightful.

Talk to me

In one of the bigger social media stories of the last few weeks, Facebook announced that it is currently testing out 'private messages for pages'. This long-awaited feature could potentially provide the missing link between page owners and fans, opening the doors to customer support safely tucked away from prying eyes. While the beta is strictly closed for now, we’re sure there are a lot of people that will be keen to give this new feature a whirl. Watch this space...

Tweetover

Twitter underwent changes this week, introducing 'enhanced pages'. The gradual roll-out, which left some of the Yomego office envious, introduces five new tabs (Home, Connect, Discover, Me and Tweet). The user experience has definitely been cleaned up, but users are concerned that this is at the cost of Twitter’s intuitive interface. What’s more, if you download the latest version of Twitter for iPhone or Android, you’ll get early access to the desktop site. Nice move, Twitter.

Find My Face(book)

Haven’t we seen this before? Google+ launched its facial recognition feature this week, with the interesting name ‘Find My Face’. The tool, which users must opt in to, will identify a user’s face and tag their photos automatically. The feature isn’t new; in fact Facebook rolled it out in June before it was shut down in August following legal action. Apparently Find My Face is a 'fun gadget', but will this be enough to stop Google’s tool facing the same legal backlash as Facebook?

This is Your Life

It’s a week of change for the social giants, as Facebook announced Timeline would be available to all users as of yesterday. The radical redesign shows your life on Facebook, rather than the standard interests and personal info. The ‘featured’ element sounds very similar to Twitter’s new design, although a nice little feature, titled the Activity Log, will enable users to fine tune what appears on their profile. Feedback is mixed. Facebook even offers a seven day grace period if you don’t like it, although a rumoured full rollout will take place on 22nd December.

No ticket, no nonsense.

YouTube strikes again! Following on from our previous article on the “perks” of public transport, we were once again treated to similar drama this week. A passenger travelling on Scotrail found himself captured on camera after launching an expletive- strewn tirade against a conductor who had asked him to produce a ticket for his journey. The video went viral and within 5 days had amassed 1.5m views on the YouTube. Police are currently investigating the case but you can read one version of events here.

Extended Facetime

Although its Find My Face feature has received mixed responses, Google+’s Hangout feature received a welcome upgrade this week, with the introduction of 'Hangout On Air' - a recording feature which allows users to record hangouts, and upload them to YouTube to share as they wish. ‘On Air Broadcasting’, another feature which will benefit businesses, transforms the video conference to a video broadcast, open to more than 10 users. Although it is currently in limited testing by The Muppets and celebrities (some of whom could be classed as the former), it could be another stand-out feature to promote the growth of Google+.

And finally...

Churning in the Valley

Yeo Valley’s witty viral video of fictional boyband The Churned aired for the final time on Sunday. During an 8-week campaign, the music video got an impressive 505k hits on YouTube and almost 30 million Twitter impressions, as ‘The Churned’ became a trending topic on Twitter. A Facebook karaoke competition gave the winner the opportunity to appear in the final advert that aired during Sunday’s X Factor final, , a show which fans are challenging through ‘Yeo Valley for Xmas number 1’ Facebook pages. Fans can pick up merchandise and join its fan club on Tumblr, but will word of mouth push it to number one for Christmas?

With Christmas fast approaching, Our MD, Steve, reviewed the Christmas campaigns of five top retailers over on Internet Retailing. Check out the article to see who had the X Factor, and who was stranded in the jungle.

Mark Stuart, Insight Executive, Yomego (www.yomego.com) 
#YomegoSocial @YomegoSocial @MisterMumble