Social Media Digest: KitchenAid Disaster, Gaga’s Monsters and Facebook Free Forever?

1. Following Facebook’s one-billion active monthly users milestone, a survey by Betapond has revealed that while 34% of people believe that Facebook will be ‘everywhere’ in ten years’ time, 7% still think that it’ll be ‘dead and buried’. Surprisingly, 16% of people think that Facebook will be overtaken by rivals and a whopping 66% now think that Facebook is more important to your job role than not. It seems that most have faith in Facebook’s staying power, but I wonder what the ‘rivals’ are that some think could overtake the social giant – Twitter? Surely not G+?

2. Poor @KitchenAidUSA. Like the American Red Cross and Chrysler before it, Kitchen Aid has fallen foul of the ‘accidental personal tweet’ – this time at the President of the USA’s expense! During the presidential debate on Wednesday evening, a tweet was sent from KitchenAidUSA’s account expressing a less-than-polite view about Obama’s politics and personal life…

Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’. #nbcpolitics

The tweet, sent to Kitchen Aid’s 24,000 followers, was quickly deleted and an apology was quickly issued. Kitchen Aid reached out to Mashable to explain: “During the debate tonight, a member of our Twitter team mistakenly posted an offensive tweet from the KitchenAid handle instead of a personal handle. The tasteless joke in no way represents our values at KitchenAid, and that person won’t be tweeting for us anymore. That said, I lead the KitchenAid brand, and I take responsibility for the whole team. I am deeply sorry to President Obama, his family, and the Twitter community for this careless error. Thanks for hearing me out”. Most of us know how easily it’s done – should the offending tweeter be let off?

3. Facebook is now allowing personal users to promote their posts – similar to Pages’ Promoted Posts – for a fee of $7. The promoted stories have been made available in the USA for the first time following testing in a few counties, and will increase the chances of your friends seeing your most important posts. Following Facebook’s response to a popular rumour last year – “A rumor on the Internet caught our attention. We have no plans to charge for Facebook. It’s free and always will be” – the promoted posts feature seems a bit odd to us. We’re wondering what next steps it might take to monetise the site?

4. Lady Gaga is the first to hit the Twitter big-time – she’s just reached 30 million followers! Beating out the likes of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga has gained 10 million followers since hitting 20 million in March. While some of the accounts are likely to be fake, unused or spam, it’s still an incredible milestone for one person to reach. Part of Lady Gaga’s increase in social popularity may be to do with her recent campaign on her LittleMonsters.com blog – Body Revolution. Following the media’s ridiculous outcry over Gaga’s slight weight gain, she took to her site to encourage her fans to love their bodies as they are. An unusually great role model – meat dress or no meat dress!

5. The last piece of news in this week’s SMD is slightly bittersweet – today we say farewell to our Senior Account Manager, Louise! Louise is moving on to pastures green in Manchester. She’s much-loved and will be much missed, but we wish Louise all the best in her new role.