Social Media Digest 06/09/2013

Kit Kat Android

A surprise story this week saw Google announce that version 4.4 of its mobile operating system, will be named Android KitKat. Google famously names its operating systems after desserts, previous versions have been called Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean.

The working title of version 4.4 had been Key Lime Pie, the story goes that developers at Google were debating how many people actually knew about Key Lime Pie, realising that not many would and that they regularly ate Kit Kats in the office, they decided upon a name change to a more popular snack.

It is a big marketing win for Nestle, they have made a micro site spoofing the Kit Kat as a piece of technology in what seems like a gentle mockery of Apple’s marketing style. Here is hoping for the next version to be Android Kendal Mint Cake.

Deadline Day – Twitter Breakdown

It was the transfer deadline for British football on the September 2nd, after a summer of activity and rumours for some reason most of the action is left down to the very last minute. Enough reason for Sky Sports to have reporters roaming the country, stood outside training grounds whilst surrounded by overexcited fans who occasionally do things like this behind their backs. The action was debated, reported and followed heavily across twitter, with players names leading the race for the most mentions, BT Sport did some analysis and revealed who had the  most Twitter mentions in the transfer window:

• G.Bale – 8.4m
• M.Ozil – 4.3m
• L.Suarez – 3.9m
• W.Rooney – 3.7m
• C.Fabregas – 1.4m

Social Media Peer Pressure

A study in America found that high school students who were exposed to pictures of their friends “partying or drinking” online were more likely to repeat those actions themselves. The study took in 1,500 15 to 16 year olds in a Los Angeles high school, the report argues that we should take online social pressure as seriously as we do those offline. The study focused on Facebook and Myspace but you would have to presume that other sites such as Twitter, Instagram and tumblr wield a similar influence.

Are you  influenced by online connections, tell us in the comments box below.

Promoted Complaints

Hasan Syed took on British Airways in a unique way this week, the disgruntled customer took to Twitter to complain about the bad customer service he had received. Hasan took his complaint one step further, promoting the tweet himself using Twitter’s self service ad platform. You can see the full transcript between Hasan and British Airways below.

Hasan has revealed his total spend,  for $1,000 he managed 76.8k impressions, the story however was picked up across the globe and appeared on sites like the BBC and CNN giving it huge exposure. Hasan did eventually get his issue resolved but not without doing some damage to British Airways on the way, most customers would not go to such extremes or expense to make a point, but it is an interesting case study in what can be achieved by doing so.

What does Facebook taste like?

If you could taste Facebook what flavour do you think it would be? Two brothers Admir and Ibi Adil have created a Facebook-flavored ice cream by  mixing blue syrup atop vanilla ice cream and placing a small sign with a Facebook logo on it. The product is apparently selling well with customers instantly drawn to the Facebook logo and intrigued by the concept.