02 Aug Twitter Plans to Leapfrog Facebook; Facebook Pushes More Apps | Social You Should Know
Twitter Grows Revenue 124%, Outlines Plans for World Domination
At first blush, it’s hard to beat the 2.2 billion active users that Facebook has (1.3 billion if you ignore the double counting), but Twitter is undeterred. The microblogging service reported revenue of $312 million (up 124%) and 271 million active users (up 24%). By being half media company, half social network, Twitter says they are on the way to have “the largest audience in the world.” We’ll see. As a side note, here’s a clever, but little known trick, for reaching that huge audience with free Twitter cards.
Facebook Continues to Break Apps Apart
This week, Facebook began forcing US users to download Messenger to get messages on their phones. Many are angry, but this is a long-term strategy. In fact, Facebook-owned Instagram introduced a new app for photo and video messaging outside the US called Bolt, so the strategy is continuing. It seems that Twitter wants to grow into a single media/network brand and Facebook wants to be a house of branded apps. Two different approaches playing out here. Lots at stake.
Will Consumers Welcome In-Store Tracking?
Wednesday night, I was the guest on #MobileChat on Twitter (Storify Here) and when I was asked what social/mobile tech I was most excited about for the next 6 months, I said location-based services. Why? With iBeacon and other similar services, reaching people at point-of-sale is the next big opportunity. The conversation about “creepiness” immediately followed and this piece from Marketing Land does a great job looking at what consumers feel about the issue. My belief: If we as marketers think about how to add value to the shopping experience, we may win over the public. If we try to broadcast our “messages” at shoppers, we’ll lose. I hope we win.
