Channel roundabout social media : June 2013

Essential intelligence on the latest developments from the world’s leading digital networks and channels, brought to you by Red Ant.
Red Ant is a specialist in delivering multi-device digital experiences and developing enterprise technology to help retailers drive increased sales and operational performance.
Based in the UK, with offices in China, Hong Kong and Switzerland, Red Ant began as a technology company established in 1999, creating effective ways to help retailers connect with their customers in a rapidly changing digital world.

Social

Facebook : Managing the messages, selling the story
Currently, Facebook serves an average of 1,500 pieces of content to users’ feeds each day, but thanks to filtering, they only get to see 300 of these. Now Facebook has updated its algorithm to serve more relevant content to its fans. ‘Story bumping’ moves older, unseen posts nearer the top of a user’s feed. This update has increased interactions on pages by 8% and the number of stories read from 57% to 70%.
Facts about fans, followers and engagement
An infographic from Inside Facebook has revealed some interesting usage stats from around the world:
• Facebook pages with under 10,000 fans reach on average 21.2% and engagement is 6.1%
• For pages with over 100,000 fans, this average reduces to 10.2% reach and 4.9% engagement
• App pages and those for TV networks, alcohol, sport and games / toys have the biggest number of fans
• Sport, museums and school-based pages have the highest engagement
The infographic used data from 112 countries and just under 5,000 Facebook pages.
Pinterest
Sales shopping made simple
Following news that pins showing prices receive 36% more likes on Pinterest, and that brand referrals from the site are 10% more likely to result in a sale, users who pin product images will now get clickable email alerts about all sales-related pins of that day / week.

Tumblr : Moving towards mobile
Tumblr’s monthly user numbers have seen a dramatic decline, largely because a significant proportion of users is now moving to mobile. Despite initial concerns about the decline being an effect of Yahoo’s buyout, it appears that the sharp drop is more to do with the preference for Tumblr’s mobile app – a metric that escaped Tumblr’s desktop-biased analytics. This reflects an important shift in Tumblr’s profile as a mobile-first experience.
Mobile, tablet and new tech
iOS
iOS7 beta 5 open to developers
A few weeks since beta 4 was released, Apple has sent out iOS7 beta 5 to developers.
Unlike the minor updates in beta 4, beta 5 appears to address the styling and usability of certain elements in the operating system, including:
• New icons for Settings and Twitter
• The ability to disable the Control Center while in apps
• Camera swipe access from Lock Screen, which has been enhanced to make it easier
• New ‘Slide to power off’ design
• New in-call icons
• Pull-down banner behaviour
As the beta releases have become more frequent, it seems that Apple is getting closer to the final product, which is still on track to be shipped out to the public this autumn.
Android
Vine gets a grip on Android
Vine for Android has always been a little behind iOS, but its latest update seeks to redress the balance by introducing long-awaited features including push notifications, improved sharing and various other improvements and fixes.
This means that users will be notified when their videos receive likes, comments and mentions. Vine’s development team has also enhanced the sharing features, allowing users to share any public post to both Twitter and Facebook.

China update

WeChat : Stickers and services
WeChat currently has 70 million users worldwide, and its latest version, 5.0, is designed to continue its dominance in the market over rivals WhatsApp, Line and Viber. New features include a sticker micro-payment option, a location-based service that allows friends to find each other and a revamped brand account. Users can pay through their iTunes account and download stickers from the Sticker Shop in the app (stickers are increasingly becoming a differentiator between social networks for improving engagement and revenue). Brand accounts are also grouped into one location called ‘Official Accounts’.