According to Seattle news station KHOU, 36-year-old Dan Garrett has become one of the latest people to benefit from the generosity of Facebook users.

Garrett’s wife set up the successful Facebook campaign after the couple failed to find a match among friends and family.

According to The United Network for Organ Sharing, the nature of the social media means people are more ready to come forward to help others.

Other social media platforms have also proved effective in a search of a kidney.

Last year, a single tweet resulted in 19 offers with one positive match and a woman in Florida received a kidney after posting an ad on Craigslist.

A winner will be randomly chosen every day between 1 to 24 December with the winners receiving a prize from a £5,000 prize pot.

To take part, users simply need to sign up to the app on the company’s Facebook page.

Winners will be announced at 10am every day on Lec’s wall with their profile pictures also appearing in the advent calendar.

The prizes include Lec fridges, Belling Mediachefs, Roberts Radios, Morphy Richards Kettles and Toasters, Taste Cards and Baby Belling table top cookers.

On 24 December one lucky winner will receive £1,000 of kitchen appliances.

Celebrating 70 years in the market

The campaign, which has been created by PR and social media agency Umpf, is being launched to celebrate Lec’s forthcoming 70th birthday.

“We wanted to have a bit of festive fun this Christmas and give something back to our Lec fans”, David Garden, Commercial Director of Lec and GE said.

“The advent calendar concept works perfectly for the giveaway – it is intrinsic to Christmas and each winner and their prize will be a surprise every day.”

“It’s a great way to bring some festive good cheer to Facebook and kick off our 70th birthday celebrations which launch next year.”

The company has developed an app so each time someone likes its Facebook page, their profile image is uploaded onto a one-off Belling Classic range cooker.

Cooking fans who want to see their face on the unique cooker have until 9am on 14 November to ‘like’ Belling’s Facebook fan page.

The campaign has been created by the PR and social media agency Umpf.

The idea was to create something a bit different to celebrate Belling’s sponsorship of the BBC Good Food Show Winter event which takes place in Birmingham next month.

“Whilst this is a one-off cooker, who knows, if it’s a popular request, then we might create Facebook-inspired cooker designs in the future”, Jane Rylands, Belling’s brand manager said.

The company is giving away a pair of show tickets every day of the campaign and there is also the chance to win a Belling Classic cooker worth around £1,000.

spotify hearts facebook 4 eva

Shortly afterward, the service cozied up to Facebook, grabbing even more users and mind share with ubiquitous ticker updates about which songs your cool friends were listening to. Tons more listeners signed up.

Cause for celebration? Perhaps, but the champagne’s is probably still on ice at Spotify headquarters. Not only has the service never been profitable, but the company’s loss is increasing, according to documents Spotify filed with Companies House, part of the U.K. government’s Department for Business (Spotify is based in London), reported by Forbes and others. Whereas in 2009 Spotify lost almost $26 million, those losses ballooned to $41 million in 2010.

The Cash Chasm

The mounting losses aren’t because Spotify is failing to make money. Revenues shot up last year, from $17.5 million to $98.1 million. But so did expenses. In fact, the “cost of sales” line item—which appears to include royalites paid to record labels—was $100.8 million, erasing every last penny of those revenues. So before Spotify even pays its staff, it’s already in the red. 

With cutthroat competition and a bleak financial picture for the next few years, the biggest losers in the whole game will be the artists. Every time someone steams a track, the artist gets paid, but those payments are usually measured in hundredths of a cent. Unless you’re a Madonna or Kanye West, that doesn’t add up to much. The business model will need a couple more years to shake itself out, and by coincidence royalty payments are due for an increase around the same time. Looking at the numbers, Spotify can probably afford to wait that long. But can musicians?

Thanks to PC Mag.

Becoming the first drinks company to trial ‘f-commerce’ in the UK, Magners is using the social platform to sell a limited edition of its special range of blended ciders.

Each pack, priced £10, contains one bottle of each of their new flavours – spiced apple and honey; spiced apple and rhubarb; and pear and ginger – plus a special edition bottle opener.

With their Facebook push, Magners joins an array of companies looking to take advantage of the social media giant’s global dominance.

Fashion brands such as French Connection and Best Buy, have been leading the way in f-commerce and, earlier this year, clothing retailer Asos became the first UK brand to have a fully transactional Facebook store.

Another brand to have trialled f-commerce is ketchup king Heinz while Heineken has also hinted on Facebook selling experiments in the near future.

The British have really jumped on board with social media with as many as 55% of over-65s now having a Facebook profile, a new study suggests.

The survey, issued by social media agency Umpf, showed how endemic social media use has become.

“Social media is clearly no longer the preserve of the tech-savvy under 30s”, Jon Priestley from Umpf said.

“The social media landscape is changing rapidly and gender divides are starting to become apparent.”

Men prefer to be LinkedIn

Over three-quarters (77%) of UK adults have an active Facebook profile, with nearly one-third (32%) also using Twitter regularly.

Men and women were found to favour different platforms, with nearly twice as many men than women having an active LinkedIn account. Of those with a profile, 28 per cent of men checked theirs at least once a day, compared with just 14% of women.

Facebook was used by 80 per cent of women, but a significantly lower 72% of men.

Divides emerged based on age as well, with nearly all (95%) of 18 – 25s having an active Facebook profile, with this figure dropping significantly to 55% of over 65s.

Whilst social media usage was distinctly lower amongst those of pensionable age, more than half actively used Facebook and more than two-thirds were regularly using and viewing YouTube.

Top users in the South West

The study also shows how geography is playing a key role in the social media adoption with distinct geographical areas beginning to favour different social media platforms.

Click on the infographic to see it bigger.

The South West counted the highest percentages of Facebook and Twitter usage across the UK while Northern Ireland had the lowest average usage of social media platforms.

Just 6% Northern Irish residents had an active Linkedin profile, contrasting with one in five in the South East.

However, Northern Ireland saw the highest percentages of those using YouTube, with three quarters of all those surveyed frequently using the video sharing site, as opposed to just 59% in the South West.

The survey was conducted by polling agency Your Say Pays amongst 2,387 UK adults in July.

For more information and for full survey results, visit www.umpf.co.uk.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has launched a new social media campaign to create the first ever personalised 3D showroom on YouTube.

Based on users’ own information on Facebook, IKEA’s tool creates a bespoke 3D model that can then be explored and tailored by users to create their perfect bedroom.

The 3D showroom enables people to see detailed product information and to click through to IKEA.co.uk to purchase any home furnishings featured in the room.

Go to bed happy

Carole Reddish, deputy UK & Ireland country manager for IKEA, said the campaign is a result of trying to better understand people’s needs, wants and dreams.

“We understand that every bedroom is unique, it is a space that needs to fulfil so many roles; for some it’s a place to work, for some a sanctuary, above all though the bedroom is a place to sleep”, she said.

“This tool uses design, inspiration and lifestyle to show what’s possible when creating the room of your dreams, ultimately helping you go to bed happy.”

Charlotte Morton from Google’s Creative Agency Partnerships team called the campaign ‘forward-thinking’.

“This is an innovative use of social media illustrating what is possible on YouTube for a creative brand like IKEA”, she said.

Social media innovators

The Swedish furniture giant’s latest campaign continues in the innovative steps of their previous social media successes.

In 2009, IKEA created a huge social media buzz with their Facebook tagging campaign.

The idea was simple – the first one to tag their name on a piece of furniture in a picture of an IKEA showroom on the company’s Facebook page got the item for free.

The winner of the ‘Face of New World’ competition will be the new public ‘face’ of the brand as well as taking control of the company’s Twitter and Facebook channels.

As part of the role, they will also spot new trends and feedback on product development.

The five finalists, chosen from hundreds of online entries were asked to write a short blog and create a mood board to represent their personality. All entries are available to view here.

The winner will be decided by a public Facebook vote, open until Sunday 14 August with the winner announced the following day.

Jon Brennan, commercial manager at New World, said this is the first time that a UK company has pledged to hand over their social media channels to a member of the public.

“We were unsure what kind of response we would receive, but we have been overwhelmed by the standard of entries and the shortlisting process was extremely tough”, he said.

“Social media is hugely important to our brand and this campaign is giving the ‘man on the street’ the chance to control what we talk about online by tapping into their own interests in the world of interiors, food and fashion, as well as spotting new trends which may feed into new product development.”

One of the region’s top printing companies has launched its new website and is going big on social media.

Potts Print (UK) has given the site a complete overhaul including a new design and live feeds from Facebook, Twitter and a blog.

Among the new content is an extensive section on the history of the company and a complete list of contacts for all divisions in the printing, packaging and direct mail services.

The company has been active on a range of social media platforms in the past year, establishing itself on Twitter and attracting 200 followers.

To mark the launch of the new site, the company are giving away a social media marketing guide via its Facebook page.

People can access the guide, containing tips on marketing through social media, by simply liking the page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pottsprintuk.

The new website is up and running now at: http://www.potts.co.uk/

So Nike’s recent marketing campaign asking runners to ‘paint their city’ online by mapping out their running routes added a much needed splash of colour to the experience.

When Nike’s market research revealed a large proportion of young people were not excited by running, it launched the campaign using Facebook.

As well as allowing runners to create artwork based around their routes, Nike prompted people to start up running communities.

The campaign led to runners building up connections offline, following each other’s routes.