13 Apr The Friday Five: April 13, 2012

Happy Friday (the 13th) everyone! Welcome to the first edition of the BRG Communications Friday Five. Each week we’ll be sharing some of the more important, interesting and heartwarming public relations and social media stories of the week.

Here we go!

Facebook acquires the photo sharing application Instagram for 1 BILLION dollars

(Yes, billion with a b.) The purchase came just one week after Instagram was valued to be worth $500 million. Why did Facebook make such a bold move? It’s all about mobile.

LinkedIn introduces targeted updates and follower statistics

With the new capabilities, companies can now determine what demographics they are attracting to their corporate pages. While you go take a look at your corporate analytics, take a second and follow BRG Communications.

Google + gets a big refresh with new navigation, a redesigned stream, a dedicated hangouts page and more

Google+ may have 170 million users, but despite the vast numbers, studies show that on average, people only spend 3 minutes per month on Google + per month. Google +’s new design is definitely reminiscent of Facebook. We’ll have to wait and see what happens over time.

Texts from Hillary

If you haven’t taken a few moments this week to look at the Texts from Hillary meme, we encourage you to do so. We’ll let it speak for itself because it is that awesome. If you’re a PR pro or social media manager, take note. You can learn from a meme like this.

Caine’s Arcade

If you haven’t taken a moment to watch the heartwarming video about Caine’s Arcade, take ten minutes and do so. It’s the story of a boy who built a cardboard arcade at his father’s auto parts store, and how a social media flashmob made his business dreams come true. If that wasn’t awesome enough, fans have donated over $130,000 to Caine’s college fund.

Have a great weekend everyone!