December 8th, 2009
Is Facebook promoting Google’s Gmail Connect service as a way to get more users onto Facebook? Or is Google taking out ad space to promote their connect tool? More than likely it’s an internal Facebook effort as the logos of Yahoo, AOL, Windows Live and Gmail are all represented in the ad. So why now?
As
Mashable and
GigaOm both report
Facebook’s growth is slowing. As they both point out
Facebook has refocused their
strategy by eliminating regional networks in place of a global focus and added new products such as
Facebook Lite and
Facebook Touch Mobile. One thing is for sure – the users
Facebook already has aren’t going anywhere, as there are no clear alternatives to the
social network behemoth (at least in the US).
The question on my mind is this – will
Facebook start creating ads to start pulling in your
Twitter and
LinkedIn friends to your
Facebook network? They’ve created a fan page post to
Twitter tool so it’s not that far of a stretch, especially concerning the strength of their
network. Only time will tell but this is a move that
Facebook would clearly
benefit from if they implemented it.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: ad space, AOL, aren, behemoth, clear alternatives, Connect, database, download, effort, email, Facebook, fan, fan page, focus, gallery, GigaOm, global focus, Gmail, Google, growth, linkedin, Lite, Live, logos, mashable, mind, mobile, mobile one, move, network, one thing, page, place, point, post, question, regional networks, report, service, space, strategy, strength, stretch, thing, time, tool, Touch, twitter, US, way, Windows, Yahoo
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December 7th, 2009
It’s been a while since Foursquare had new proprietary event badges. In fact, the last time I remember a special badge was for NY Internet Week.
Foursquare took a break to focus on expanding to tons of global cities to strengthen their worldwide userbase. Now that that’s out of the way they can continue to hone their
business model by making
brand integration once again essential. This brings back the element of surprise that users love and turns users into fans and fans into evangelists.
Today has also been a marquee day for Foursquare with a return to focus on brands by partnering with Pepsi. For about a week Pepsi will donate $.04 to Camp Interactive for every point scored on the NYC leader board.
With event badges, leaderboard sponsorships and nearby checkin deals in place brands are starting to take their rightful place on Foursquare. While they may be privately funded thus far there is definitely a clear path to profitability by integrating brands in a timely and relevant manner.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: badge, badges, board, Boxee, brand, break, business, business model, Camp Interactive, checkin, clear path, database, day, download, element, element of surprise, email, evangelists, event, fact, Foursquare, gallery, global cities, integration, Internet, internet week, last time, leader, leader board, leaderboard, love, manner, marquee, model, NY, NYC, path, pepsi, place, point, posterousWith, profitability, relevant manner, return, surprise, time, today, userbase, way, week, while, worldwide
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October 26th, 2009
A necessary and brilliant move, Apple has added suggestions to their receipt to give a valid call to action. The only problem is the suggestions are based on what others who bought my selections also bought. While this is helpful in giving more suggestions I’d actually like suggestions based on what I bought that’s relevant to me.
Semantic technology may still be in it’s infancy but relevancy can be given based on many other factors. I personally don’t need an app to view my pet pictures on my Mac remotely (Clarus), a separate app to read a blog (Pali Research), and I certainly don’t need to track my neuroses (SymTrend). If Apple knew me they’d know that I don’t have a pet, am reading my blogs via my6sense now and have overcome neuroses long ago.
Tagging is a very simple technology that is successfully implemented by many brands. Foursquare has taken descriptive tagging to another level by crowd sourcing this task and rewarding for levels of input. If the ‘Give Work’ app was properly tagged it would’ve been able to suggest other apps that are similar in the social good, social change categories and crowd sourcing categories. I would even accept most recently added app suggestions, most popular in category, or even what other users in my area downloaded [which they can do because they have my address].
Suggestions are a step forward but these aren’t enough for me. For now I’ll keep archiving my iTunes receipts so I can search through my download history, as Apple doesn’t allow you to do that easily. If apps like my6sense can learn my preferences then surely a large company with vast resources like Apple can figure out how to do the same.
Posted via email from db’s digital branding database
Tags: action, address, address suggestions, app, Apple, apps, area, aren, blog, blogs, brilliant move, call, category, change, change categories, Clarus, company, crowd, database, doesn, download, email, Foursquare, history, infancy, input, iTunes, level, Mac, move, neuroses, Pali, pet, pet pictures, problem, receipt, receipts, relevancy, Research, Semantic, sense, simple technology, step, store, Suggestions, SymTrend, tagging, task, technology, the, vast resources, Work
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