As we move into December and with all the attention turning to Christmas, the social media stories that hit our headlines in November may be a distant memory to you. So in case you’ve forgotten, here’s a round-up of all the social media stories that got us tweeting in November.

The Royal Family

To some this may have been more interesting if it was about Jim and Barbara Royle, but November has been full of news stories about the Windsors. At the beginning of the month, The British Monarchy got tongues wagging when it finally signed up to Facebook. The Palace has had a presence on YouTube and Twitter for quite some time but it decided to take the next step into the world of social networking when it launched its official fan page on 8^th November.  To date, the page has nearly 300,000 fans!

And wherever the Royal Family goes, controversy follows. It wasn’t long before anti-royalists posted comments on pictures and updates about a number of controversial issues that crop up time and time again, e.g. Diana, tax payers’ money etc. Fans are unable to post on the main wall, but can comment on updates and photos/video uploads. Some have  received more than 3,000 comments must prove quite a headache for the Royals’ comms team! As a social media agency we wouldn’t usually advise our clients to do this, however the Queen’s Facebook page is a good example of how to manage such a high profile and controversial brand.

Not long after the Facebook page launch, there was another long awaited Royal announcement that got the online world talking. Prince William finally popped the question to Kate Middleton. Within a few hours of the announcement, #royalwedding was the number one trending topic on Twitter followed by Kate Middleton at number two and Prince William at number three. BlogPulse showed that Kate Middleton was the second most featured person on blogs worldwide behind Harry Potter.

The online buzz gave a good idea of the sentiment surrounding the announcement. It was mostly positive (43%) on Twitter, another 41% of Twitter users responded neutrally to the news; and just 16% of tweets about the engagement were negative. Around 32% of bloggers reacted positively, while most (63%) conveyed a neutral reaction. Comments were mostly congratulating the happy couple with others projecting anger about the tax bill.

But, this is one trend that won’t be dying down for a long time. In the days, weeks and months leading up to the big day on 29^th April 2011 there is sure to be a lot of online chatter about Kate’s dress, invitees and all things bridal.

Beatles on iTunes

While everyone was getting excited about an extra bank holiday because of the Royal wedding, iTunes had another announcement that got Beatles fans excited. The Beatles back catalogue was finally available to download on iTunes. This was a trending topic on Twitter as everyone anticipated the announcement; unfortunately it was slightly eclipsed by Will and Kate. But, it didn’t stop Simon Cowell from getting in on the act by making that week’s X Factor Beatles themed!

Christmas

It wouldn’t be November without a few Christmas stories.  Monday 29^th November was termed ‘Manic Monday’ as people logged on to start their Christmas Shopping online in earnest. It was predicted that £22 million would be spent every hour by British consumers! Our recent report into the online shopping explosion shows that customers are the new product experts. People now trust reviews they see online from people they don’t know.  So, as more and more people go online to buy gifts, it will be interesting to see if user generated reviews influence purchase decisions.

Path

Path officially launched this month, a new social network that aims to be more personal. If you’re not a fan of sharing photos on Facebook with people you can’t remember from school, then path offers a personal and convenient solution. You are allowed up to 50 contacts that you can to share your photos, videos and information with. We’ve all singed up in the office and will be keep a close eye on how our clients can get involved.

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They may be slow adopters but the British Monarchy finally joined 500 million people across the world last week and signed up to Facebook. Instead of having a personal profile, the Royal Family set up a Facebook page for people to ‘like’ and keep abreast of official engagements.

However, with such a high profile public presence, they are bound to invite very public criticism and comments from adversaries. Already boasting more than 200,000 fans, the Royals’ comms team have been kept busy trying to moderate the comments.

The page has been set so fans are restricted from posting on the main wall but still have the ability to comment on updates and uploads. While this isn’t usually recommended for brands, this is a sensible decision by the Queen’s team as the wall would be bombarded with comments from people (and spammers!) if this was live which would distract from the updates that are being posted by the team.

Attention has been on the negative comments that have been posted that harp back to the same arguments and debates that surround the Royal Family. For example, Jason Higginbotham wrote: “Take all their possessions as they belong to the country, sell all their assets to help reduce the national debt. Abolish the monarchy and all its powers, real and ceremonial.” The Princess Diana vs. Duchess of Cornwall debate came up again when a photo album of the Duchess was posted. One fan said: “Let’s put pressure on the monarchy to create an album for Diana on this profile!!!” Another said: “why she has an album and Princess Diana doesn’t? Is there UNLIKE button (sic)?”As with all public profiles on Facebook, the British Monarchy has said it will remove any offensive comments.

So far, the Queen’s presence on Facebook is a good example of how manage a your brand on Facebook.

Keep a steely eye open as there’s bound to be another another Royal controversy in the next few months. Now the Queen is signed up to all major social networking sites, it’ll be interesting to see if these estates will be incorporated into crisis communication strategies and used by the Palace team as a way to connect directly with the public in these circumstances.

http://www.facebook.com/TheBritishMonarchy

Related articles

• Queen’s Facebook page becomes forum for monarchy debate (guardian.co.uk)
• The British Monarchy to join Facebook (cnn.com)
• The Queen’s Facebook page allows royal subjects to vent feelings (guardian.co.uk)

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