We’re proud to announce the Buddy Media Power Your Connections World Tour, a series of interactive events that will take place in a number of cities around the world.

Starting during Social Media Week 2012, and continuing throughout the year, our World Tour events will share social media best practices and will give you the opportunity to network with industry peers. We’ll host panel discussions and solo presentations from some of the world’s largest brands, and networking events to give you the tools to power connections and grow your business.

So why should you load up the bus and follow us around (or, simply register for one of our events)? If you are interested in making the most of your social media efforts, or if you want to improve your social strategy to accelerate your business, the Buddy Media Power Your Connections World Tour is for you.

The Buddy Media Power Your Connections World Tour will take place in the following cities:

February 14, 2012- London, UK

February 15, 2012- Tokyo, JP

February 16, 2012- San Francisco, CA

February 16, 2012- Singapore

February 16, 2012- New York, NY

February 23, 2012 Los Angeles, CA

March 14, 2012- Dallas, TX

April 16, 2012- St. Louis, MO

April 17, 2012- Chicago, IL

June 4, 2012- Boston, MA

Interested in attending one of the Power Your Connections World Tour events? Head over to our World Tour website to register. For more information, visit our World Tour Facebook tab. The official hashtag is #pycworldtour.

[Figure 1: Engagement Rate Variance for Super Bowl related posts and non-Super Bowl related posts between December 26, 2011 - February 5, 2012.]

The Super Bowl generates an enormous amount of digital and social buzz in both the weeks leading up to the game and on Super Bowl Sunday. In an effort to see how brands capitalized on the Super Bowl craze, Buddy Media analyzed user engagement of Facebook Wall Posts from more than 1,400 of the world’s largest brands during a six-week period leading up to the game.  The analysis focused on engagement rate, which factors in ‘Likes’ and Comments as a percentage of the fan base.

Buddy Media looked at how conversations on Facebook were revolving around a set of keywords related to the Super Bowl. Because it is such a popular event in the United States, and around the globe, the expectation was that almost all brands would focus at least some of their conversation around the event.

We found that brands who decided to engage with their fans about the Super Bowl saw people more than willing to interact on Facebook. Research shows that Posts relating to the Super Bowl saw engagement 60% higher than Posts unrelated to the big game.

Also, our research revealed that less than 30% of brands posted a message about the Super Bowl. When we went a step deeper, to focus on the engagement for those brands that did post about the Super Bowl, we found out about the giant (pun intended) missed opportunity for brands.

In the six weeks leading up to the game, Posts that contained a keyword related to the Super Bowl saw an engagement rate that was 60.1% higher than Posts that did not reference the Super Bowl.

On Super Bowl Sunday, this disparity increased further. Engagement on Super Bowl Posts spiked, as Posts containing Super Bowl keywords saw engagement rates 99.7% higher than those Posts that did not. That’s nearly double the engagement!

[Figure 2: Engagement Rate Variance for Super Bowl related posts and non-Super Bowl related posts on Super Bowl Sunday.]

Of the Posts that referenced the Super Bowl in some way, engagement rates were highest on the Saturday before the game and on Super Bowl Sunday. On Saturday, engagement rates were 11.6% higher than the average Super Bowl Posts. As expected, that number jumped even higher on game day, as Super Bowl Posts experienced a 56.6% increase in engagement on Sunday.

[Figure 3: Daily Engagement Rate Variance for Super Bowl Posts between January 31, 2012 - February 5, 2012.]

Buddy Media also analyzed hourly engagement throughout Super Bowl Sunday. Starting at 9 a.m. on game day, the data shows that the biggest spike in engagement occurred at the end of the game, just as the Giants defeated the Patriots. At 10 p.m., which correlates to the end of the game, the engagement rate for Super Bowl Posts was 138.7% higher than average!

[Figure 4: Hourly Engagement Rate Variance for Super Bowl Posts on Super Bowl Sunday.]

There was also a noticeable spike around kickoff, with engagement rates 59.7% higher than average for Super Bowl Posts. Somewhat surprisingly, Posts with Super Bowl keywords timed to correlate with halftime of the game, around 8 p.m., did not receive significant engagement. Those Super Bowl Posts saw engagement rates 16.6% lower than average.

This is the first part of a series of Super Bowl data to be released by Buddy Media. Check back throughout the week for more!

Read the full story at TechCrunch.

Buddy Media analyzed’ wall posts for six weeks leading up to Sunday’s game, and found that some 30 percent posted messages referring to the Super Bowl, adding that posts with Super Bowl-related keywords tallied engagement rates 60.1 percent higher than those without them.

Read the full story at All Facebook.