Believe it or not, Myspace is still kickin, while Twitter and Instagram are thriving and monetizing. Without further ado, here’s what we found to be the biggest news, so you may comfortably remain snuggled under a rock.
Myspace Isn’t Dead
Don’t rule out the old social network just yet, as it’s bounced back by tripling its user base in the past few months. That’s a pretty impressive statistic, but will it be enough to lure marketers back? Check out this article for why brands should consider Myspace in their social strategy. Hey, we just said consider.
Twitter Goes Public
Twitter has raised over $1.82 billion in its initial public offering, as of late last week. The company sold 70 million shares for $26 each, which makes it the largest tech-industry IPO since Facebook in 2012. Let’s hope their success stays on the up and up!
Instagram Ads Perform
Early numbers for Instagram’s ads have started coming in. About 5% of Instagram users that saw ads proceeded to “like” the photo—a big sign of success. “Pretty tremendous considering most of the ads we see on the Internet we ignore,” says CEO Kevin Systrom. What they didn’t mention was how many negative comments they also received. There’s two sides to every pancake.
Land Rover Drives Engagement
Land Rover is asking fans to show “what drives them to achieve.” With the launch of its Range Rover Sport, the brand is having users submit a “storyboard” of four photos or a video showing different stages of their drive by using the hashtag #IAmDriven. One overall winner will receive a driving experience and two-night stay at The Land Rover Experience Driving School in Carmel, CA. Learn more here to start your engines.
Bing’s Heroes
Bing jumped on Google’s big brand ad bandwagon this week by rolling out display-style ads in search results, similar to the ones Google recently introduced. Bing’s Hero Ads only seem to be appearing on Windows 8.1 for now, but may become available to all, depending on how the six-month pilot pans out. Oh, Windows.
Speaking of Bing, they’ve brought us more news of changes this week revealing their plans to make Bing Ads better. The updates include the integration of other Microsoft properties and partnerships into search. Users will start seeing Excel features built into Bing Ads reporting and Skype-powered Bing Ads call extensions.
Speed Suggestions
If you log into any of your Google Analytics accounts this week, you may notice a new feature under the Behavior menu, called Speed Suggestions. This tool creates a report with site speed optimization suggestions. For those of you seasoned vets who remember the ySlow Chrome Extension, this is a similar tool, except it’s coming straight from Google horses mouth.
Conan is Linked In
Conan O’Brien: talk show host, comedian, and . . . LinkedIn influencer? Apparently. Conan is on a mission to dominate LinkedIn and has already gained over 70,000 followers on his LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t followed him, you’re missing out on some amusing content. Conan wants you to follow PRPL on LinkedIn, too. He said so.
Another week—let’s do it.
