06 Apr Social You Should Know: Facebook’s “Home” on Android and the SEC Goes Real Time
Facebook finally announces its “phone,” while the SEC and Google Analytics finally go real time in this week’s Social You Should Know.
Facebook Home “Isn’t Mobile First, It’s Mobile Best”
On Thursday, Facebook partnered with HTC and AT&T to announce “Facebook Home,” an Android-powered service that integrates Facebook into a phone experience in a whole new way. Importantly, they are not building their own phone, but hoping first to reach the 750 million+ Android phone users (perhaps Apple and/or Windows Phone next?). While this doesn’t dramatically change social media marketing today, it is a major effort to address the mobile experience beyond polluting the News Feed with ads. Pushing this over Google phones (Google makes Android) also sets up an interesting battle to come between Facebook and Google+ for control of your phone. Watch for that.
As a side note, this is a good article if you want a quick summary of six other changes Facebook has made recently, most of which I reported to you here.
SEC Declares Material Announcements on Social Media OK
After Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, posted to his personal Facebook page that his company had streamed one billion hours of content in a month for the first time, the SEC bristled. But this week, they declared (nearly a decade after Facebook’s creation) that it was fine to use these “new media” as forums for public disclosures to investors. However, you must first indicate to your investment communities which channel or channels you plan to use for such disclosures.
Google Making Changes to G+ and Google Analytics
This week, Google gave developers the ability to “sign in with Google+” to their applications, just as you’ve been able to sign in with Facebook, Twitter and many other accounts. A user who does this will allow developers to “pull in” their name, image and the like for customized experiences. At the same time, Google Analytics is going “real time.” I haven’t tried it yet, but people looking at social reactions to programs (which happen very rapidly) have needed this for a long time.
With that, have a great weekend.
