April 7, 2010: summarized from Mashable -- Just like sex, fun sells. The early proof of that can be seen in the amazing success of location-based networks such as Gowalla (Gowalla), MyTown and Foursquare (Foursquare), and in the breakthrough marketing efforts of major brands like Nike, Coke and Chase.
Even finance made fun can be a winner — Mint.com’s meteoric rise was in no small part due to the fun, social engagement of its approach. Ever feel elated while using Quicken? I didn’t think so.
The trend continues, with an ever-increasing number of startups looking to get an edge with consumers through fun. Their weapons of choice: Game Mechanics.
When taken together, game mechanics such as points, leaderboards, badges, challenges and levels form part of what we call a Funware Loop. In my latest book I argue that the best and most compelling loyalty programs are built extensively around Funware and when applied creatively, can make any consumer web or mobile app experience more engaging.
Whether you sell organic foods online, develop mobile application or run the world’s largest social network, you can benefit from applying the 5 simple strategies listed below to increase engagement.
After all, who doesn’t like a little fun every once in a while?
Read more at: http://bit.ly/aoWotV
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Check Out This Amazing Facebook Fact Sheet
Some highlights:
- 400 million active users
- 50% check in EVERY DAY
- Average user spends 55 MINUTES PER DAY
- 35 million update status every day
- 3 billion photos uploaded each month
- 5 billion pieces of content shared every day
View fact sheet at: http://bit.ly/bRbIgN
- 400 million active users
- 50% check in EVERY DAY
- Average user spends 55 MINUTES PER DAY
- 35 million update status every day
- 3 billion photos uploaded each month
- 5 billion pieces of content shared every day
View fact sheet at: http://bit.ly/bRbIgN
Social Media Marketing Overload? Some Tips for Startups
April 9, 2010: summarized from Read Write Start -- It is widely accepted that social media has transformed the landscape of marketing radically, and no longer can businesses - no matter their size or stage of development - afford to avoid social media. While the importance of developing one's brand online remains paramount - most obviously through the registration of a domain name - the proliferation of social media platforms can be overwhelming, and startups might feel compelled to register and interact with every service in order to quicken the spread of their name.
The multitude of social media platforms allow new businesses to establish their online presence, develop a brand and a message, and grow fans and followers - and of course customers - all without extensive investment in elaborate or costly marketing campaigns. The danger, however, lays in the proverbial "spreading oneself too thin" by attempting to make sure one's startup has a presence in every social media network.
While new businesses should certainly take advantage of social networking, here are a few tips to help avoid social media overload.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/9xlEQt
The multitude of social media platforms allow new businesses to establish their online presence, develop a brand and a message, and grow fans and followers - and of course customers - all without extensive investment in elaborate or costly marketing campaigns. The danger, however, lays in the proverbial "spreading oneself too thin" by attempting to make sure one's startup has a presence in every social media network.
While new businesses should certainly take advantage of social networking, here are a few tips to help avoid social media overload.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/9xlEQt
When Building Loyalty: Think Like a Gamer
April 1, 2010: from Promo Magazine -- An emerging concept called gamification may just be the jolt the loyalty space needs to shake off the cobwebs and become vital again.
Gamification takes lessons from the gaming community and applies them to loyalty programs. The idea is to apply human sciences in a social way in order to connect loyal customers with one another.
“Understand that things like status, play, the social aspect and goal achievement are all part of being human beings,” says Barry Kirk, consumer loyalty practice leader for Maritz Loyalty. “As marketers, we're trying to get people's attention and connect to them in a meaningful way, and games are exceptionally good at doing that across all age levels.”
Read more at: http://bit.ly/byQKDg
Gamification takes lessons from the gaming community and applies them to loyalty programs. The idea is to apply human sciences in a social way in order to connect loyal customers with one another.
“Understand that things like status, play, the social aspect and goal achievement are all part of being human beings,” says Barry Kirk, consumer loyalty practice leader for Maritz Loyalty. “As marketers, we're trying to get people's attention and connect to them in a meaningful way, and games are exceptionally good at doing that across all age levels.”
Read more at: http://bit.ly/byQKDg
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Facebook Surpasses Google in US Hits
March 18, 2010: summarized from boston.com -- NEW YORK — Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social networking site, surpassed Google Inc.’s search engine in weekly hits to become the most visited website in the United States for the first time, according to research firm Hitwise.
Facebook.com accounted for 7.07 percent of visits in the week ended March 13, topping Google.com's 7.03 percent, New York-based Hitwise said in a March 15 blog post. Facebook almost tripled its visits from a year earlier, compared with 9 percent growth at Google, the most popular search engine.
Facebook, started in 2004, has lured users by adding games and making it easier to check messages, notifications, and friend requests. To compete, Google added a social networking feature called Buzz to its Gmail e-mail service last month, allowing users to share photos, comments, and clips from its YouTube video site. The company is considering building a version that works outside of Gmail.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/c4uyRD
Facebook.com accounted for 7.07 percent of visits in the week ended March 13, topping Google.com's 7.03 percent, New York-based Hitwise said in a March 15 blog post. Facebook almost tripled its visits from a year earlier, compared with 9 percent growth at Google, the most popular search engine.
Facebook, started in 2004, has lured users by adding games and making it easier to check messages, notifications, and friend requests. To compete, Google added a social networking feature called Buzz to its Gmail e-mail service last month, allowing users to share photos, comments, and clips from its YouTube video site. The company is considering building a version that works outside of Gmail.
Read more at: http://bit.ly/c4uyRD
How Privacy Vanishes Online
March 16, 2010: summarized from the New York Times -- If a stranger came up to you on the street, would you give him your name, Social Security number and e-mail address? Probably not. Yet people often dole out all kinds of personal information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced. Services like Facebook, Twitter and Flickr are oceans of personal minutiae — birthday greetings sent and received, school and work gossip, photos of family vacations, and movies watched.
Computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number.
“Technology has rendered the conventional definition of personally identifiable information obsolete,” said Maneesha Mithal, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission’s privacy division. “You can find out who an individual is without it.”
In a class project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that received some attention last year, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree analyzed more than 4,000 Facebook profiles of students, including links to friends who said they were gay. The pair was able to predict, with 78 percent accuracy, whether a profile belonged to a gay male.
So far, this type of powerful data mining, which relies on sophisticated statistical correlations, is mostly in the realm of university researchers, not identity thieves and marketers.
Read more at: http://nyti.ms/9m5YX2
Computer scientists and policy experts say that such seemingly innocuous bits of self-revelation can increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number.
“Technology has rendered the conventional definition of personally identifiable information obsolete,” said Maneesha Mithal, associate director of the Federal Trade Commission’s privacy division. “You can find out who an individual is without it.”
In a class project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that received some attention last year, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree analyzed more than 4,000 Facebook profiles of students, including links to friends who said they were gay. The pair was able to predict, with 78 percent accuracy, whether a profile belonged to a gay male.
So far, this type of powerful data mining, which relies on sophisticated statistical correlations, is mostly in the realm of university researchers, not identity thieves and marketers.
Read more at: http://nyti.ms/9m5YX2
Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem of Hell
October 31, 2009: summarized from TechCrunch -- Last weekend I wrote about how the big social gaming companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue on Facebook and MySpace through games like Farmville and Mobsters. Major media can’t stop applauding the companies long enough to understand what’s really going on with these games. The real story isn’t the business success of these startups. It’s the completely unethical way that they are going about achieving that success.
In short, these games try to get people to pay cash for in game currency so they can level up faster and have a better overall experience. Which is fine. But for users who won’t pay cash, a wide variety of “offers” are available where they can get in-game currency in exchange for lead gen-type offers. Most of these offers are bad for consumers because it confusingly gets them to pay far more for in-game currency than if they just paid cash (there are notable exceptions, but the scammy stuff tends to crowd out the legitimate offers). And it’s also bad for legitimate advertisers.
The reason why I call this an ecosystem is that it’s a self-reinforcing downward cycle. Users are tricked into these lead gen scams. The games get paid, and they plow that money back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising, getting more users. Who are then monetized via lead gen scams. That money is then plowed back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising to get more users…
Here’s the really insidious part: game developers who monetize the best (and that’s Zynga) make the most money and can spend the most on advertising. Those that won’t touch this stuff (Slide and others) fall further and further behind. Other game developers have to either get in on the monetization or fall behind as well. Companies like Playdom and Playfish seem to be struggling with their conscience and are constantly shifting their policies on lead gen.
The games that scam the most, win.
And some users aren’t dumb, either. For every user who gets tricked into some fake mobile subscription, there’s another who can beat the system. That’s where the legitimate advertisers, like Netflix and Blockbuster, get hit. Users sign up for a free trial with a credit card, get their game currency, then cancel the membership and start over. Netflix has a policy of only paying for a user once. But game developers use a complex set of partner chains to launder these leads and try to get them through for payment. Netflix sees an overall lowering of quality and pays less for leads. Game developers, desperate to monetize, then search for ever more questionable offers to make up the difference. In the end, the decent advertisers are out, and only the worst of the worst remain.
Read more at: http://tcrn.ch/cGgwIi
In short, these games try to get people to pay cash for in game currency so they can level up faster and have a better overall experience. Which is fine. But for users who won’t pay cash, a wide variety of “offers” are available where they can get in-game currency in exchange for lead gen-type offers. Most of these offers are bad for consumers because it confusingly gets them to pay far more for in-game currency than if they just paid cash (there are notable exceptions, but the scammy stuff tends to crowd out the legitimate offers). And it’s also bad for legitimate advertisers.
The reason why I call this an ecosystem is that it’s a self-reinforcing downward cycle. Users are tricked into these lead gen scams. The games get paid, and they plow that money back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising, getting more users. Who are then monetized via lead gen scams. That money is then plowed back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising to get more users…
Here’s the really insidious part: game developers who monetize the best (and that’s Zynga) make the most money and can spend the most on advertising. Those that won’t touch this stuff (Slide and others) fall further and further behind. Other game developers have to either get in on the monetization or fall behind as well. Companies like Playdom and Playfish seem to be struggling with their conscience and are constantly shifting their policies on lead gen.
The games that scam the most, win.
And some users aren’t dumb, either. For every user who gets tricked into some fake mobile subscription, there’s another who can beat the system. That’s where the legitimate advertisers, like Netflix and Blockbuster, get hit. Users sign up for a free trial with a credit card, get their game currency, then cancel the membership and start over. Netflix has a policy of only paying for a user once. But game developers use a complex set of partner chains to launder these leads and try to get them through for payment. Netflix sees an overall lowering of quality and pays less for leads. Game developers, desperate to monetize, then search for ever more questionable offers to make up the difference. In the end, the decent advertisers are out, and only the worst of the worst remain.
Read more at: http://tcrn.ch/cGgwIi
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