Northern Ireland's councils defend whopping social media bill while Microsoft upsets gamers – the week in social media
Northern Ireland councils defend social media bill
The latest Facebook campaign vying for your likes
Councils in Northern Ireland are facing a spot of trouble, after it has emerged that they have collectively spent more than £200,000 on social media since 2010.
This next factoid made me do an actual shocked face and make this noise in the office - ‘uuhhhblurrgh’. Despite sending nearly £8,000, Antrim Borough Council has just 60 FOLLOWERS on Twitter. I’ll just let you digest that for a second. That’s £133 per follower.
Belfast City Council has also been a bit keen on the spending front, burning through a whopping £109,000 staffing and maintaining its social media sites.
A series of information requests by a British newspaper revealed that councils across the UK have spent £3.22m on social media since 2010, with Belfast being one of the biggest spenders on that list.
Australia floats plan for social media regulator
The Australian government has floated a plan that could see the regulation of social media at a federal level, in order to remove ‘harmful’ content which is posted via various social networks.
The role would have a title along the lines of ‘Children’s e-safety commissioner’ and they could order content to be taken down.
Facebook campaign launches to get ‘It’s Raining Men’ to number one
A Facebook campaign to get ‘It’s Raining Men’ (the classic 80s version, not Geri Halliwell’s cover) to the top of the UK charts has been swamped with support following Ukip councillor David Silvester’s comment claiming that legalisation of same-sex marriage was to blame for the recent floods.
The campaign, named ‘Get It’s Raining Men to Number 1’ is just shy of the 9,000 likes mark.
I don’t think they could have chosen a more appropriate song for their campaign. Supporters are asked to start downloading the track from next Monday, so it (potentially) hits the number one spot next weekend.
Pinterest is experimenting with GIFs
Excellent news for fellow GIF fans, as Pinterest is introducing those little moving pictures of joy to their service. YAY!
The site is currently testing the new feature, but I’m hoping it won’t be too long before it is introduced. I already know it’s going to be my favourite board.
At the moment, GIFs uploaded to the site just appear as still images, unless you follow the link back to the original source. When the new feature is introduced, however, users can play GIFs by clicking in the lower left-hand corner of the image.
Xbox One prompts outrage after YouTube stunt
Ideally, you don’t want to piss off any kind of internet fanbase, but it’s probably best to keep gamers on side, especially if you’re Microsoft.
The company behind the new Xbox One is facing a bit of a backlash this week, after it was revealed that a stealth marketing campaign paid bloggers for posting favourable videos.
Apparently though, it’s commonplace for brands to try these kinds of promotions and that it happens “every day on YouTube.”