Study: Retweets happen most often at 4 p.m., weekend mornings
If you want your tweets to get noticed, update your Twitter feed at 4 p.m. and on weekends, a new study revealed. Dan Zarrella, a social media researcher, unveiled his findings in a report he calls The Science of Timing (above). In his three-year study, he found retweet activity to be highest at 4 p.m., although anytime between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. will generate more retweets than during other time periods.
Weekend mornings are also prime times to tweet, because “users have more time and attention to devote to content on the weekend, even if the content isn’t fresh, and fewer distractions compete for attention,” Nieman Labs quotes Zarrella saying.
The researcher created a simple online tool called TweetWhen to display the most popular days and times for a feed’s most retweets per tweet. (We tested the tool – @futureofmedia gets the most retweets on Tuesdays at 5 p.m.).
Zarrella also advises retweeting the same tweet more than once, mentioning how your followers won’t likely see the same tweet twice, especially if they follow hundreds or thousands of feeds.
He touched on how to best implement Facebook in your social media strategy. His study found engagement with Facebook links during the weekday is quite minimal, likely due to many workplaces blocking Facebook during the week. Weekends are ideal time to post content on Facebook, since people often check their accounts on Saturdays and Sundays. Nieman Labs adds, “Postings on Facebook also tend to ‘stick around’ longer, re-emerging when people post a comment or like.”
How often should you tweet? It depends on your intention and your outlet. Zarrella says accounts that push out two or more links an hour show a “dramatically lower clickthrough rate than those who share no more than one.”
New TV show about apps, mobile industry coming to Canada
In what appears to be a TV first, a 30-minute weekly show about smartphone and tablet PC applications is debuting in Canada this week. App Central is a co-production between BNN and CP24, and will be broadcast on BNN on March 29 at 8 p.m. ET, and later on CP24 on April 3 at 10:30 a.m ET.
Available only in Canada and online, App Central will cover “some of the hottest apps, including where you can get them and how they can be used in everyday life,” the show’s website states.
For instance, the show will look at unique apps that scan bar codes or boost video viewing. Celebrities and everyday Canadians will also discuss what kind of apps they enjoy. Several segments will interview developers and major players in the mobile industry.
Co-host Michael Hainsworth says Canada needs this kind of tech show. “Wading through world of apps can be a daunting task and the idea here is to talk about the best of best,” he notes in an interview. “We want this show to appeal to many kinds of viewers, not just nerds.”
Hainsworth says the show has “wiggle room” to expand its scope. If viewers get bored of all the apps talk, they can review more gadgets, something reporter Kris Abel does in each show. Expect a segment on a voice-activated alarm clock, Hainsworth says.
Co-host Amber MacArthur, well-known for her Webnation program on CP24, sat down with author Margaret Atwood to play Angry Birds with her, and she attended the Juno Awards to learn what musicians had on their smartphones. It’s all part of making a show that tries to be informative and entertaining, she says.
“It’s important to have that focus on personalities, so we don’t just talk about the tech side of apps,” MacArthur says.
She plans on monitoring what fans say about the show via its Twitter feed and Facebook page, in order to learn about the show’s future direction. If tablet PCs become more popular among Canadians, she says, then App Central may look at more tablet apps.
MacArthur says the mobile space is maturing rapidly, so much so her next book might focus on leveraging mobile media.
To check out episodes of App Central after they air, watch them online.
CNW hosting ‘Breakfast with the Media’ event to discuss changes in media
Toronto — In the morning of April 15, CNW will host a breakfast event featuring experts from a few of Canada’s leading media outlets. Joining the panel are Digital Journal CEO, Chris Hogg; Anjali Kapoor, Managing Editor, Digital at the Globe and Mail; and Sarah Millar, Web Editor, The Toronto Star. The panel is moderated by Carolyn McGill, President and CEO of CNW Group.
The panel will look at why multimedia is now essential for delivering news with impact and how media is changing. The new Newsroom is a world where radio stations need photos and newspapers are asking for video. Social media and “traditional” news outlets such as radio, broadcast and print are competition online. News has evolved and for communications professionals that means multimedia such as videos are no longer a nice-to-have, but a must-have.
The free event takes place at Bram & Bluma Appeal Salon at the Toronto Reference Library on April 15. Breakfast and registration starts at 7:30 a.m. and the event starts at 8:00 a.m.
Since 1992, CNW has hosted its Breakfast with the Media event that brings together public relations and communications professionals, journalists, editors, photographers and finance experts. Past speakers have included Rob Cribb, investigative reporter, Toronto Star; Kirk LaPointe, former managing editor of the Vancouver Sun; Mathew Ingram, senior writer at the GigaOm blog network; Scott Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Postmedia News; and Anna Maria Tremonti, host of CBC Radio’s Series, The Current.
To reserve a ticket to the live event, visit the registration page here. A video archive will be made available following the event.
Report: Local digital ad revenue expected to nearly double by 2015 in U.S.
By Chris Hogg
According to a press release issued today, BIA/Kelsey is forecasting a significant bump in local digital ad revenue over the next four years. The research and consulting firm says local advertisers are going to steadily migrate to digital media properties and revenues are expected to climb to $42.5 billion in the U.S. by 2015. That is almost double the $21.7 billion generated last year.
“This growth coincides with anticipated improvement in the U.S. economy and a continued rise in overall local advertising, which the firm expects will reach $153.5 billion in 2015, up from $136.3 billion in 2010, representing a 2.1 percent [compound annual growth rate],” the release states.
Some consider local advertising to be the Holy Grail of digital revenue, but it’s an area that has yet to fully maximize its potential. Small companies who have money to spend often find online advertising complicated or confusing to measure. Many also lack the resources or technical know-how to manage online advertising, so they simply don’t do it.
A growing exception to the rule are daily deal companies like GroupOn that have provided a very simple way to spend and measure return on digital investments. Google is also pushing its Google Places product for small business to get listed online.
BIA/Kelsey predicts digital media — including mobile, Web or other electronic means — will represent 23.6 percent of all local ad spending by 2015.
“As the business climate improves and advertisers step back into the market, they are gravitating to digital options that perhaps were not as mature before the recession began,” Tom Buono, CEO of BIA/Kelsey, said in a press release. “Our analysis indicates that as advertisers move to online, mobile and, particularly, the variants of social media, we are fast approaching a tipping point where digital media will soon become a dominant segment of the local advertising marketplace.”
Among the key drivers for increased digital spending are the growing number of smartphones and tablets; declines in newspaper revenue and the rise of paywalls; and interactive and online sectors are advancing rapidly with new options and formats.
Finally, BIA/Kelsey believes the social part of digital media is increasingly becoming a core channel for revenue. The company says the daily deal space alone will grow to $3.9 billion by 2015 and both Twitter and Facebook will be part of this expanding market.
L.A. Times invites readers to submit public, gov’t documents
The L.A. Times is trying to engage its readership days after the paper published a full-scale investigative series thanks to public records sent in by two readers. The Times wants to build on that momentum and today launched a guide for citizens to find and submit public documents from local agencies.
The guide writes, “The Times encourages readers to share government records you consider newsworthy or interesting. Send us documents and a Times staffer will review them and post them to this site, which also includes files obtained by our reporters.”
Possible records include salary reports, tax summaries, closed session meeting notes, employee contracts and many more.
The Times included a troubleshooting page to offer tips on getting the docs quicker and how to handle research exemptions.
Unveiling this call for citizen engagement comes days after the Times published an investigation into the salaries held by several city councillors in Bell, California. One document found how ex-City Administrator Robert Rizzo concealed high salaries, but a journalist didn’t find the paperwork; a reader did, and he was credited for assisting with the newspaper series.
In an article announcing the initiative, the Times says it “hopes this page will serve as a resource for those seeking information from their governments and become a place where people can share the information they’ve dug up.”