You know those status updates that say that someone is watching “Game Of Thrones” or eating McDonald’s? Now users can post these updates from mobile. Sister site Inside Facebook reported Tuesday that Facebook recently allowed users on mobile web (not the native Facebook application) to post these more visual status updates.
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Brands have an overwhelming presence on Facebook, but has that transferred into the site’s photo-sharing network, Instagram? New figures from Simply Measured show that more brands are becoming hip to Instagram, as 67 percent of the Interbrand 100 (top companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Disney) have a presence on the site, compared with 57 percent in February.
There are varying schools of thought about whether or not a value can be placed on Facebook likes, and social performance management platform Syncapse cast its vote for “yes” by pegging the value of likes to consumer brands on the social network at $174 each and saying that figure has risen 28 percent since 2010.
It seems that brands are not only becoming more hip to social photo-sharing site Instagram (which Facebook purchased last year), but getting smarter about usage. A study by Simply Measured shows how the Interbrand Top 100 Brands (such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Microsoft) have adopted Instagram. An overwhelming percentage of Instagram photos are shared via Facebook, which drives more engagement than Twitter.
There are several ways to track Facebook pages’ performance, but AgoraPulse is working on a way for page administrators to compare their stats to those of similar pages. The company recently launched Barometer, allowing those who manage Facebook pages to see their rates of engagement and reach, as well as how they stack up against pages of similar size.
Facebook users have been seeing more sponsored stories in their mobile and desktop news feeds, saying, “(Friend) likes (brand).” But as a report on ReadWrite notes, several users have seen their names (or those of their friends) attached to pages they haven’t liked.
Believing a gift card Facebook offer for Starbucks that seems too good to be true could land users in hot water. Dennis Yu, founder of BlitzLocal, tipped us off to this latest scam making the rounds on Facebook: offers from a shady page called Discounts (which appears to have been taken down already). Users who clicked on the offer for coupons from Starbucks and McDonald’s, among other brands, entered their email addresses, supposedly to receive loads of free goodies, but instead got hacked.
Facebook analytics firm Socialbakers announced Monday that it has raised $6 million in investments from Index Ventures, as well as additional funding from first-round investors such as Early Bird Ventures.
Mayor McCheese would most certainly not approve: Facebook posts offering free $100 gift cards to McDonald’s lead not to hamburgers and fries, but to malware.
Facebook Co-Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in Moscow Monday to meet with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Deputy Prime Ministers Arkady Dvorkovich and Vladislav Surkov.
