01 Feb Props to Facebook on “Paper,” Plus Pinterest Revenue | Social You Should Know
Facebook’s New App “Paper” is Brilliant
You’ll have to wait until the day after the Super Bowl to get the new Facebook app Paper, but it’s clear to me today that the strategy behind it is brilliant. In the works for nine months, Paper is a radical redesign of the Facebook experience. They’re trying to make their own app obsolete. The brilliant part? Users can choose to use it or not, so you won’t hear the “they ruined my Facebook” screams that typically accompany every change they make. If Paper is awesome (and early reviews seem to indicate that it just might be), the world can slowly (or quickly) move to this new experience. If it fails (like Facebook Home), it hasn’t destroyed its core product. Well done Facebook.
Super Bowl Conversation to Occur on Facebook?
Speaking of the Super Bowl, new research from our friends at Crowdtap suggests that many more people will write updates on Facebook during the game than Twitter. The question (with Facebook’s recent misguided algorithm changes) is whether anyone will see them. The survey found that nearly 56% of people will post about the game on Facebook while only 25% will post on Twitter. Do a little experiment with me, fellow social media geek? Keep both apps open during the game and check them periodically. Let me know which one felt more dynamic and full of posts. Bet you a dollar it’s Twitter.
Pinterest Should Soon Pass Facebook For Revenue Per Visit
New research from Adobe suggests that traffic referred from Pinterest will be more valuable than traffic referred from Facebook sometime this year. This has already happened in the UK, as Pinterest Revenue Per Visit is up 244% year-over-year. Facebook RPV is up 72% year-over-year (Twitter up 131%; Tumblr up 340%). Facebook is still the number one source of referring traffic to websites but it’s not surprising that dollars from Pinterest are flowing, as Pinterest is focused heavily on product discovery at its core. Now that Pinterest shows animated gifs, this could grow even more.
Enjoy the weekend and the Super Bowl. Should be fun. And if you have a minute and want to see how much time you’ve wasted on Facebook in your lifetime, use this new tool from Time. I’ve wasted 76 days, 3 hours and 4 minutes since May 24, 2007. If it weren’t a big part of my job, that would be really pathetic. How’d you do?
