Teens on Facebook Can Now Post Publicly

Before, teens with Facebook accounts could only share content with friends, friends of friends and specific custom groups. As of Wednesday, teens 13-17 years old will be able to post publicly and gain 'followers' on their profiles, just as anyone over 18 years old has the ability to do so.

Facebook recently blogged saying, "Teens are among the savviest people using of social media, and whether it comes to civic engagement, activism, or their thoughts on a new movie, they want to be heard. While only a small fraction of teens using Facebook might choose to post publicly, this update now gives them the choice to share more broadly, just like on other social media services."

To post publicly, teens will need to manually change their audience preferences on each post to 'public' before sharing. Note that the platform's audience settings will remain the same for all posts for all users, including the newly added teens. Having said that, a secondary reminder will pop up for teens after they choose to post publicly a following time.

Although we agree that younger generations are incredibly tech-savvy, we are curious to see how the recent changes will impact the current Facebook base. Teens naturally gravitate toward social platforms, but with the increase of the ability to share, will this simply add more noise to our already full newsfeeds, or will it simply mean that our community is better connected?

Tellus: How do you think this new freedom for teens will impact Facebook?

-- Samantha

Let the Integration Continue

It seems there has been an ever increasing trend lately to integrate as many services into other services as possible. The latest in this trend is Yahoo's move to incorporate Twitter into its news stream. This is not a very surprising move, considering how important Twitter has become to news sources. Consistently proving to be the go-to source for the latest breaking news, Twitter has become a considerable asset in this field. Here is a quote from Yahoo's CEO: "Updates direct from politicians, celebrities, media outlets, and other publishers have become an important source of real-time news and information. 140 characters can connect athletes with their fans, capture live chatter from the red carpet, and inspire global debate... so we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Twitter to bring Tweets directly into the Yahoo newsfeed."

As you can see below, tweets from sources like ABC News will start to appear in the news feed.

This new feature will continue to roll out to all U.S. users over the next couple of days. We think this trend towards integration is great and will only continue to make everyone's lives easier and more convenient.

-Mike

I Ate The Bones!

A new boneless chicken ad campaign has been recently launched by KFC with the tagline, "I ate the bones!" KFC believes this new tagline and hashtag are certain to go viral. So confident in fact, that they are spending an estimated $50 million on this promotion! Although KFC is still the #1 chicken chain in the country, they're feeling some serious heat from the #2 competitor, Chic-Fil-A and are hoping this campaign might help bolster their lead. To be honest, we have to agree that the two new commercials we have seen touting #iatethebones are pretty hilarious -- take a look: [youtube=http://youtu.be/foGgNP2DgT8]

Although most companies with a knowledge of the power of social media understand the importance of including a hashtag in a marketing campaign, one must approach with caution. Hashtags are a mode of aggregating content on Twitter, Instagram and other platforms. They are not only used to measure engagement on a platform, but to also be the glue in conversations between users. Whether a company chooses to create their own hashtag or simply enter into a conversation that is already taking place to 'own the moment,' it can greatly effect the overall success of a campaign.

From our experience, it's best to keep hashtags short, easy to remember and seamlessly integrated throughout other marketing channels. It should be top of mind for users -- an immediate connection between the product being sold and the company at hand. Sadly, there are many brands that currently promote social hashtags that are either too long, complicated or are unrelated to the overall initiative. These companies miss out on a very simple and easy engagement with users, therefore eliminating the chance that one would remember the original brand messaging at a later time, preferably around the time of purchase.

Thankfully, we're confident that #iatethebones will be quite the success for KFC. The commercials are funny, relatable and make you want to say "I ate the bones" tagline out loud. With electronic devices at a user's finger tips around the clock, it's no wonder that the hashtag #iatethebones was taken directly taken from the main line in the ad to be promoted on social. It's a natural transition from the offline ad to an online experience.  And although the campaign is still new, we believe that these factors make the overall campaign memorable and highly engaging!

What other companies do you think have had success with hashtags?

- Mike & Samantha

Bad Breath: A Global Epidemic

Some research reveals that there are 4.8 billion mobile users but only 4.2 billion people with a toothbrush. -Jeff Bullas

So apparently there are 600 millions more people on this earth that own a mobile phone than a toothbrush. That's quite the interesting, albeit scary, fact. At least this means you can call these people rather than speak to them face-to-face, since no one likes morning breath.

-Mike