eModeration's Social Media Round-Up - The Social Brands & Legal #8

Welcome to our round-up of all that's new, controversial or just plain weird on the social media scene in the last few days. Such a lot of news this week that we've split it into three - look out for the Headline in post #6 and The Fab Four (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google) in #7. And please feed back below on what you find interesting, or how we could best deliver it to you.

BRANDS GET SOCIAL…

Last week, some big brand marketers urged their compadres to loosen their white-knuckle grip on the wheel, and embrace the impact that user generated content is having on brand reputations. According to Will Harris, UK marketing director of Nokia: “Everything we used to believe in is all a blur now and the old skillsets of a marketer are, broadly speaking, irrelevant.”

Luckily, a slew of brands launched social media campaigns this week, and heading the pack is First Direct, with a campaign that aims at total transparency. They’ve opened a real-time site which aggregates all comments (whether positive or negative), highlights trending keywords, and even provides graphs so that users can analyse the stats.

It looked as though HSBC had done the same thing, until it was revealed to be an unofficial digital doodle by Twitterfall experts thruSITES, who were feeling 'a bit bored' a the time.

Lufthansa has created a cunning Twitter/Facebook app to support its ‘passion for precision’ slogan. The app sends status updates from travellers’ Twitter or Facebook accounts at take-off and landing, to promote the airline’s excellent on-time record.

You tweetin’ to me? Sony’s Crackle.com partnered with YouTube for a full-length screening of the cult classic Taxi Driver, which includes the audience’s real-time Twitter updates.

Audi is launching a branded virtual world and game on Sony PlayStation Home later this year - serendipitously supporting this report, which points out that German car brands dominate the social media landscape, while Japanese and U.S. luxury car brands have much to learn.

MySpace is offering their users the chance to see their inner thoughts writ large on more than 300 digital screens, in a team-up with outdoor-media owner Titan. The 3-week campaign is called "Step Up to the Mic", and will allow users to upload both images and messages to sites in the US, UK and Ireland.

MTV Europe’s Music Awards have partnered with teen-world Habbo Hotel to create a virtual ‘awards ceremony’ space. The branded area, where users can hang out backstage and compete for virtual awards, is already claiming 14m unique visitors per month.

Sony Ericsson’s virtual space-hopper flash mob has attracted more than 27,000 users to a dedicated microsite, where they can customise their own virtual hopper, right down to the height of its bounce.

SOCIAL STATS AND FACTS…

A sheaf of UK stats to shuffle through this week. Nearly twice as many UK internet users have a social networking profile than did two years ago – with three-quarters keeping their profiles private, compared to 48% back then. And 41% of web users look at a SocNet site daily, up from 30% in two years ago, according to Experian Hitwise.

Virgin finds that 29% of us feel liberated when we lose our mobile/internet signal in a social environment – but more than a third of us feel highly stressed.

And 75% of young adults feel that they couldn’t carry on if they didn’t have the net, says the charity YouthNet – with 45% happiest when they’re online, and four out of five using the web to get personal advice.

Generally, there's little enthusiasm for paying for content: only 11% of us do, with another 11% who might consider it - despite moves by news providers towards a subscription model.

UK ad spend dropped again – but the good news is, the downward trend might be bottoming out. Bellwether reports the lowest fall in 6 quarters, while online ad spend actually rose for the first time since 2008.

Across the pond, the average user now spends a supersized 68 hours online per month, according to new Nielsen data. Average number of pages is 2,700 – with 57 seconds spent on each page. A stonking 27% of under-35s check Facebook more than 10 times a day, while 64% tweet, text or check their newsfeeds at work, and 40% do so while driving, tssk tssk.

LEGAL AND REGULATION…

Three Texas residents, whose lawsuit against video chain Blockbuster for violation of privacy is currently pending, have launched a separate case against Facebook's behavioural programme Beacon. They allege the social network broke the law by sharing info about their movie rentals without written consent.

36-year-old Facebook user Shannon Jackson was arrested after she violated a protection order by poking another user, with whom she had previously been banned from "telephoning, contacting or otherwise communicating".

Following calls by the UK’s new information commissioner, Christopher Graham, for heavier penalties, jail sentences are to be introduced next year for the illicit gathering of confidential personal data, such as phone or medical records. The new rules target private investigators employed by newspapers to gather confidential personal info.

VIRTUAL AND GAMES...

Nokia is looking to invest in Virtual Worlds, according to the The Wall Street Journal. Their $350m venture arm is "particularly interested in investing in start-ups innovating in payments and transactions, analytics and advertising, and gaming and virtual worlds."

Social network Hi5, who’ve been languishing in the doldrums over the last year, have launched a full-tilt rush at the virtual goods market, with a new emphasis on gaming and the currency that supports it.

And small wonder. With a reported 11m Facebook members playing FarmVille daily, social gaming goes from strength to strength. And FarmVille’s maker Zynga is on the lookout for its next cash cow which, it turns out, might actually be a fish. According to Trademork, the developer registered ‘FishVille’ last week. I’m sure it will grow on us.

Speaking of fish (as we were), games giant Electronic Arts has shed a reported $250m on social-gaming company Playfish. Playfish have amply demonstrated that the social games-virtual goods combo is a strong one, with their 2009 revenue expected to hit $75m.

That's all folks!

eModeration's social media round-ups are compiled by our research consultant Kate Williams. If you want to follow Kate on Twitter, she's @emodkate.