Friday Social: Skype Qik, Nasa on Soundcloud & Ferrari’s lawsuit

  • Social Media

Our #FridaySocial is a weekly round-up of the key social media news stories from the previous seven days. Let us know your thoughts in the comments or via Twitter – @Umpf / @EllieHallsworth

1. Skype Qik

Skype has launched a new video messaging app to rival Snapchat. Skype Qik lets users record spontaneous videos of up to 42 seconds to share with a friend or group of friends using their smartphones. Designed to run alongside the main Skype app, it is purely a mobile app that lets users “show everyone what’s going down at the pub, catch up on the latest gossip, or make everyone jealous with your shopping finds”.

Unlike Snapchat, the videos will stay on both the sender and recipient’s phones for two weeks, after which it will be automatically deleted. Users can also delete a video they have sent from everyone’s phones, whether or not it has been watched. Another functionality is a ‘Qik Flik’, which is a pre-recorded five-second video that expresses an emotion such as ‘OMG’ or ‘feeling happy’, similar to an emoji.

skype-qik_3072077b

Available to download from the app store now.

2. Twitter’s beta ads

Twitter has launched a new Beta Twitter Ads feature that, in short, allows advertisers a simpler way to spend their ad budgets. It’s similar to Facebook’s ‘Boost Post’ feature in that it offers users a quicker, simpler way to give content a paid media boost without having to go into your Facebook Ads Manager.

Twitter says: “a new beta feature of Twitter Ads enables you to promote successful Tweets in real-time to reach more potential customers. With a few clicks, you can easily promote your best Tweets to customers beyond your follower base. Whether it’s for a new product launch or a seasonal sale, use this feature to encourage customers to take actions on your Tweets e.g. Retweets, link clicks, app downloads and more.”

Twitter’s version can be accessed via the Tweet Activity Dashboard. See below:BetaAds

3. Airbnb and Waterstones

Following last week’s saga of a customer being rescued from the Waterstones Trafalgar branch, Airbnb has been quick to act and take advantage of the social buzz created from the story. Teaming up with hospitality company Airbnb, it is offering booklovers an overnight stay in the Waterstones flagship branch in Piccadilly. Check out the special listing page for the store, created by Airbnb.

Holly Clarke, project director at Airbnb, explained: “When the news broke on social media about David Willis we saw how many people would jump at the chance to spend a night surrounded by their favourite books. So we got in touch with Waterstones on Twitter to suggest they become an Airbnb host. Airbnb is all about offering unique accommodation experiences and this fits with that perfectly.”

4. The eagle has landed

NASA has launched a free sound library in partnership with social audio sharing platform Soundcloud. Historical audio from NASA missions is available, including the famous “Houston, we have a problem” and “the Eagle has landed”, as well as more abstract noises made by spacecraft and debris. The Soundcloud account was handily launched at the same time as Twitter enabled users to embed audio into tweets.

According to NASA “you can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” every time you get a phone call, if you make our sounds your ringtone.”

5. Ferrari hit with lawsuit

The growing value of fan websites and Facebook fan pages seems to be leading to an increase in legal disputes over who controls them. The latest to be slapped with a lawsuit over this is luxury car manufacturer Ferrari. A Swiss father and son have sued Facebook and Ferrari after control of their popular Ferrari fan page was taken away from them.

Now with over 16 million fans, the page is of high value to the brand. An interesting section of the lawsuit emphasises the value of Facebook fan pages, citing “an independent study released in 2013” claiming that an individual “fan” is worth $174 to a brand owner and “up to more than $1,000 per fan for luxury automobile companies”.