This morning when I got to work, I wanted to update my status but to my surprise and huge disappointment, Facebook was down. I checked several times with no luck. Facebook was still down. Frustrating! Then I remembered a post from Social Media Examiner regarding addiction to social media. Hmm. Time for social media detox?

Retrevo recently conducted the study “Is Social Media a New Addiction?”. The study asked social media users questions such as when, where and how much time they spend on sites and services like Facebook and Twitter. And it seems a lot of people show real signs of addiction. Just take a look at this chart.

According to this Retrevo Gadgetology study, social media is a threat to the morning news shows as 16% of social media users say that this is the way they get their morning news. The fact that iPhone users stand out in this study, shows that easy access also contributes to the addiction, which is shown in the chart below.

So, is a social media detox needed? What do you think? Are you one of those tweeting from the bathroom?

OK, got to go. Need to see if Facebook is up and running again.
/ylva.

In September 2008, Stena Line began building the next generation of Super ferries that will be the world’s largest ferries in route traffic; Stena Brittanica and Stena Hollandica. The first super ferry will be ready this spring and will be running the Hoek van Holland and Harwich route.

Not only will these vessels increase the number of passengers, vehicle and freight units, they will also be built with an environmentally friendly focus. Being on the forefront is important to Stena Line, which also reflects how they chose to communicate this on the web.

“We build vessels that are pioneering in a number of fields and that are the world’s largest of its kind. That’s why we want a site that shows the vessels and the construction of them in a new creative and interesting way. I think that TheSuperFerries.com has accomplished that.” Says Dag Thyselius, responsible for PR at Stena Line.

Before creating the campaign site, the Cordovan project team identified a number of personas corresponding to the different target groups that would be interested in following the construction of these Super Ferries. The different interest areas emphasized on the site are:
- Building big (technical aspect)
- Smart construction and power thinking (environmental aspect)
- Enabling better service and comfort.

To illustrate “Building big “, we shot a film at the ship yard. We used Tilt shift technique to further underline the huge size of these vessels.

The choice of social media platforms was also based on the target groups’ different interests. This generated the idea of a social media engine, to keep track of “the Captain’s blog”, as well as information from Twitter, Flickr and YouTube (SuperFerry TV). This way, the user can follow the construction via real time updates from the different social platforms, all presented in a cool new graphical way.

Visit the site, explore the boat, interact! And please, let us know what you think.
/ylva.

According to Global Language Monitor, Twitter was the hottest word 2009. An automatic analysis program was used to find out the most popular English word on the Internet. The same method was used to find the most popular name, Barack Obama, and that “The King of Pop” (Michael Jacksson’s nickname) is the phrase that best characterizes 2009.

According to the Swedish magazine, Språk, Google’s top list over the users’ search words is another good method to find “the word of the year”, then the list looks like this:

1. Michael Jacksson

2. Facebook

3. Tuenti (a Spanish speaking network site)

4. Twitter

In Sweden, the most popular search word is Facebook and Spotify is the search word that increases the fastest in popularity.

A bit of pop, social media sites and the US president… 2009 in a nutshell.

/ylva.

Last summer, I got HelloTxt; a tool that allows me to update my statuses  in different social channels on the same time via MSN. Cool, I thought, and added Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Then I changed my mind. I only wanted to use LinkedIn and Twitter for business purposes, via HelloTxt, and Facebook for private stuff. It’s embarrassing, but I have to admit it, I didn’t succeed in removing Facebook from HelloTxt, so all my business status posts were shown in all 3 channels. However, I made a very valuable discovery. People were more active and responsive to my status updates, even business related ones, on Facebook then on Twitter and LinkedIn.

With over 350 million active users and growing, especially in the age group 35-65, as well as 3.5 million people becoming fans of a Facebook page every day (the business equivalent to a profile), Facebook is a marketing force to reckon with. And not only for B2C products targeting young people.

Possibilities for your company to ba active on Facebook:
- Start a page; connect with your customers, start discussions, keep up the dialogue
- Use event postings to promote off-line activities
- Use discussions as on-line customer service or recruitment
- Get photos and films from fans, and keep their interest by letting tag themselves in the photos.
- Entertain with apps, especially sticky ones that make your customers want to come back.
- Advertise – Facebook gives you a unique possibility to be very narrow and specific in communicating with your target group.
- Use social ads, they are very powerful (X is now a fan of Cordovan. Would you like to become a fan to?)
- Create a marketplace and sell your products
- Be mobile

Here are 3 great blog post from Social Media Examiner with different aspects on corporate presence on Facebook:
- Five Facebook-Only Strategies For Business Success
- Facebook marketing: everything you need to know
- 5 ways to promote your Facebook fan page

Sometimes,not succeeding in doing something (like removing Facebook from HelloTxt) can be a very valuable lesson.

/ylva.

Related post: What are you doing right now?

Do you, just like me, have an account on Twitter and one on Facebook and one on LinkedIn, etc? All these communities have status fields (but then again, Twitter is a status field). It’s a full time job keeping them all updated. But fear not, there is a solution! I’ve tried several different solutions actually, but the one that works the best according to my humble opinion is HelloTxt.
You register on their site and in return you get a bot as a new MSN friend (mine is called Fabrizio… hot Italian bot and/or the founder of HelloTxt). HelloTxt was founded in Italy in 2007 with the aim of making life easier for people who belong to multiple social networks and I think it’s the best thing since… well, sliced bread.
With HelloTxt you can post your status once and have it appear automatically on all of your networks, allowing you to keep all of your friends up to date with ease. It also lets you read your friends’ updates from main microblogging and social networks all at once.
You can update your status on the website, or using email or even from your mobile phone or do as i do – use MSN. You can also embed photos and video right into your status updates.
What I’m doing right now? I’m loving HelloTxt!
/ylva.