A hot topic that has always been debated when it comes to the world of Facebook pages is the value of a ‘Like’, and in the advertising space there are more than enough blogs, tweets and discussions about the cost associated with this seemingly innocent measure to brand favourability.

This year we have seen a dramatic increase on Facebook’s take of their ‘Like’ ASU ads, with networks offering cost per ‘like’ models and even now sites offering nothing else but ‘fake fans’ such as buyrealfacebookfans.com (a site offering 10,000 likes for $297)!!

Personally I think there is something pretty questionable when you get into the realm of buying likes and brands are at risk of entering a very murky world if not careful.  Now I am not completely discounting the network offerings, but I do think it is crucial we are asking how these ‘Likes’ will be aquired and where they are coming from (a fan is for life, not just for a post campaign analysis).

I think that we as agency folk need to consider a ‘like’ in a similar way to any other brand measure, and realise that fans are earnt and not bought.  What are your thoughts?

I’m personally a very big fan of this style of video infographics, and so here is an excellent little snapshot of some incredible Facebook usage stats. Regardless of the fact that the video mainly focuses on US usage, I think this is still worth a watch.

Video – The World Is Obsessed With Facebook

My personal favorite stats from this are that apparently 57% of people talk more online, than they do in real life, and that 48% of young Americans said that they find out about what is happening in the news via Facebook.

As Mashable quite rightly points out, long gone are the days where YouTube was purely a destination where teenagers could watch skateboarding dogs, and kittens falling from things. The below list is a collection of perhaps some of the most inspirational moments in history, which just goes to show how far Youtube has evolved in six years. Now a destination where users can view music videos, on-demand TV content, and independent films it really is going to be interesting where the site goes next.

1. Fall of the Berlin Wall

2. The Moon landing

3. Tiananmen Square protests

4. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech

5. Professor Stephen Hawkin’s zero gravity flight

6. Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics

7. The Wright Brothers flight

8. Barack Obama’s victory speech

9. Roger Bannister breaks the 4 minute mile

10. Gandhi’s Dandi Salt march

Yesterday it was announced that Facebook are unveiling Deals to their Facebook Places offering on mobile, bringing local businesses the opportunity to promote offers to passing trade. Currently only available in the US and rolling out over the next few days, local business deals in relevant areas are highlighted when a user checks in via their handset.

This new offering gives brands a unique opportunity to get onto the infamous Facebook App, something which many brands have been chomping at the bit to tap into given the massive amount of users which have downloaded and use the application on a daily basis.

To date advertisers have had to make do with existing geo-location services such as Foursquare in order to showcase local offers or create branding opportunities (such as Starbuck’s Barista Badge), however with ‘Deals’ this potentially opens up a new window of possibilities to engage users via one of the World’s largest digital brands.

The video below outlines the service, which will no doubt make its way across the pond to the UK in the coming months if successful in the US.

Video – Facebook Places bring local deals to the US

After recently attending a YouTube presentation we were taken through a number of best in class examples of brands which are leading the way with their brand channels, all of which are well worth highlighting and checking out if you have a spare minute or two.

 Carphone Warehouse – Eye Openers
This was a great example due to the fact that the videos are populated by the staff of each store, showing off to users the expertise of their employees. Videos are broken down by mobile model and give simplistic reviews, allowing viewers to use the integrated channel search bar to find their desired phone. There are also additional tabs such as Top Tips, Wow me, and Demos to further inform users to find out more. http://www.youtube.com/user/eyeopeners

Eon – Talking Energy
Talking Energy apparently came about by Eon’s desire to own the energy debate online, this was a very brave move as it was a subject users were quite passionate about. The crucial thing this can teach brands is that although the commentary can start negatively, as with Eon, with time the conversation can turn around with active users actually defending what the channel stands for. http://www.youtube.com/user/talkingenergy

Virgin Media – Powerful Stuff
The Virgin ‘powerful stuff’ brand channel is slightly older but still a good example of what is possible. Promoting Virgin Media’s faster Broadband proposition this channel allowed users to upload their own videos and then edit them with special effects in order to at that extra ‘pizazz’ before sending them to their friends. http://www.youtube.com/user/powerfulstuff

And finally a bonus annotations example I hadn’t seen before…

Annotations – Californiacation ‘Fill in the Hank’
This is definitely worth checking out as an excellent example of YouTube Annotations, which invites viewers to take part in a quiz to guess how a number of scenes from the show play out. Not only is it very well executed, but very funny and well worth a look. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G96sxmrJMOg

This week to promote the launch of the new The Expendables movie a video with a difference has blasted onto YouTube, showing what a brand can do when pushing the site to its limits.  The video shows an interview with Sly himself, before all hell breaks loose resulting in Mr. Stallone destroying the page with his trusty bazooka.

There have been a few examples over the years of brands pushing YouTube to its limits (URL’s of which I’ve included below), but I really like the way this incorporates a response mechanism in this example by means of Twitter, Facebook, and email, but also allows you to buy tickets for the movie by entering a Zip Code (US only).  You can view the full The Expendables Youtube video here:  http://www.youtube.com/expendables

Other Examples:
Cadbury  – http://www.youtube.com/user/cadburyaurollpack
Nintendo ‘Wario Land’ – http://www.youtube.com/wariolandshakeit2008

Over the last year social gaming on sites such as Facebook has exploded, with millions of people logging on and playing every day, and millions of pounds spend on virtual transactions to enhance their game play. Well now social gaming giant Farmville (currently with 65m users, and 20m playing daily) has teamed up with Green Giant placing Farmville Cash coupon stickers (for ‘5 free farm cash’) on selected products in 4,000 supermarkets across the US.
It was reported on Mashable that in the six week pilot for the promotion, which was launched in Target Fresh Grocery and Super Target stores, there were more than 100,000 in virtual Farm Cash redeemed using the stickers which appeared on 25 different Green Giant products. The promotion was then expanded to supermarket nationwide as a result of the success of the pilot.
It is great to see how the social gaming space has seen such a fantastic increase (despite the hundreds of daily updates in my news feed), and will be interesting to see how it evolves. So, what do you think about the rise of social gaming? Do you think something as mainstream as the Green Giant promotion would take off in the UK?

That’s right, it was announced yesterday that Facebook has registered it 500 millionth user (UK Facebook users currently at around 26m).  Metro newspaper dedicated its front page to the fact today along with a handful of other facts, truly proving the dominance of the social network. In case you missed them the front page can be seen below.
* Facebook Facts: from Metro Front Page
* Globally Facebook has 500m Users
* 26 million Britains use it (that’s more than a third of the population)
* More than 3 million pictures are uploaded every month
* There are more than 60 million status updates a day
* On average you create 90 pieces of content every month
* The average person has 130 friends
* Collectively users spend 700 billion minutes a month on Facebook
* 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news, blogs etc) are shared each month
This comes at a very good time for the social network as the trailer for the film of the creation of Facebook ‘The Social Network’ (recent trailer attached below) was released recently again showing the magnitude of the site created in 2004.