Happy Friday! From Facebook pages gone ugly to blunt billboards, we’ve rounded up all the social media marketing, digital branding and online marketing news on a list we call our Five Things You Might Have Missed.
1.) Blogapalooza: Topping our list is a new study from Neilsen that is music to our ears: Blogging is back and bigger than ever. According to Neilsen, blogging is on the rise and the three major platforms — Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr — account for 80 million unique views in October 2011 alone. This is great news for blog writers and blog readers and more proof that if you blog it, they will come.
2.) ‘Sync. Tweet. Save: This brilliant Twitter marketing campaign from AmEx is a game changer. For the first time, the brand will use specially-created hashtags to reward card holders with bonuses. Each time AmEx customers tweet about using their card to buy coffee or get gas, for example, their cards get bonus points. It’s social media savvy meets rewarding customer loyalty.
3.) Pretty Ugly: The unpretty side of social media reared its ugly head this week in a controversial and popular Facebook contest called “The Most Beautiful Teen.” Parents were horrified when news of the page, which calls upon teens to sound off on the appearance of other teenagers, surfaced. Teens being teens, the comments got out of control and Facebook shut down the site — but not before the media hopped on the story at lightening speed.
4.) Hot Dogs in Hot Water: Those rascals from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine are at it again. This time, it’s a billboard that states Hot Dogs Cause Butt Cancer. (Alrighty then.) Sometimes it’s the blunt and simple messages people remember most.
5.) The Fed Tries Twitter: And finally, the Federal Reserve took to Twitter to clear up its much-maligned messages and image. We say bravo, Fed. If Twitter marketing can work for Charlie Sheen, then anything is possible!