Category: Social Media

It looks like Facebook isn’t going to take Google’s attack lying down, and they’ve got Foursquare in their sights as well. They’ve just announced a new mobile application called Places, which allows users to check-in at various businesses they visit. Businesses can also claim their listings and post additional information. Does all this sound familiar? It’s essentially nothing more than a combination of Google Places and Foursquare.

So what’s the interface going to be like? It’ll display a map, a list of friends currently checked-in, and an activity stream with friends who have checked in there in the past. The best feature, in my opinion, is the ability to post stories or reviews to your wall by clicking the “Share” button. I assume it’ll also post a blurb on your wall when you just check-in as well, so it’s like word of mouth but on a much grander scale.

It’s currently available only in the United States to those who have the most current version of the iPhone application, or on touch.Facebook.com. It’ll be available to users of other mobile devices in the future, so all you Android users can stop whining!

So will it be able take down Foursquare and Google Places? Yes and no. Yes, it can take down Foursquare but Google Places will not be defeated. It’s too valuable on an SEO level to go by the wayside. Foursquare, on the other hand, is still a little too new. It‘s a David and Goliath battle… if David were a baby. It’s a genius move on Facebook’s part. It’s taking a popular social media tool and easily integrating it into their program. As much as I like Foursquare, it’s just another app to use on my phone. If I can do it all on Facebook, I will. Sorry, Foursquare!

1. The Strip Club Strip clubs and cabarets may be suitable for groups of men celebrating a birthday or a bachelor party; however, it’s never ever the proudest moment – you’d best stay incognito.

2. A New Jersey Nets’ Game Being a true sports fan that sticks with your team through the highs and lows is very respectable; however, when your team posts only 12 wins in an 82 game season, you’re going to want to separate yourself from the train-wreck. If you’re supporting your Nets, it’s in your best interest to do so in private.

P.S. Don’t check in to the Nets on Gowalla either.

3. The Sperm Bank Whether you’re trying to make a buck or simply spread your seed to anyone that’ll take it, checking in from a sperm bank is simply too much information and will never shine too brightly upon your reputation. Good luck living that one down!

4. A Justin Bieber Concert Because I’m confident that no young girls between 8 and 15 are reading this, I can say this with confidence: you should not check-in from a Justin Bieber concert! Sure he can sing and dance well enough but I repeat, as a self-respecting adult, you should not check-in from a Justin Bieber concert.

5. A Plastic Surgery Clinic Considering it’s always the big scandal when a celebrity secretly gets plastic surgery, it’s pretty clear that the plastic surgery clinic is not a place of great pride. If plastic surgery of any kind is on your agenda, you should keep it to yourself and away from your Foursquare app.

6. The Porn Shop Although, as consenting adults, you are more than welcome to occasionally visit the “adult book store” (in the interest of spicing up your love life), you’ll want to keep it between you, your lover and the cashier – the world wide web doesn’t need to know.

7. Donald Trump’s Hair Salon Who knows if Donald Trump actually owns a hair salon or not; however, if you ever find yourself in a barber’s chair next to him, you’re in the wrong place. To maintain any street-cred with your crew, never find yourself checking-in from the same salon where Donald Trump gets his classic haircut.

8. Wal-Mart Yes, the bargains are unbeatable but there is that certain stigma that causes us to never be fully proud of admitting we stepped foot in a Wal-Mart. Considering the Grade-A characters that waltz through their doors, deep down we probably fear being lumped into the same social group as the oddly shaped couple in the Looney Tunes t-shirts. When at Wal-Mart, don’t check-in.

9. Jail Who knows what you did to deserve a night or more in jail but you’re only given one phone call for a reason – it’s not a proud moment and only those closest to you, that love you unconditionally should be notified of your incarceration.

10. The Welfare Office We all fall upon hard times and some of us even turn to the government to see us through but if you’re standing in the welfare line and checking-in on foursquare, your priorities might be in need of some adjustment. Welfare isn’t fully shameful but owning a high-tech gadget while claiming your check surely is.

11. An Adult Theater Watching porn at home is your own business but when you chose to go out in public and watch XXX movies amongst the other scattered perverts at the local skin-a-max theater, getting caught is your own problem.

12. Waffle House Much like the Wal-Mart, even though we’ve all found ourselves in a Waffle House at one point in our lives, there is a certain shame that it carries with it. With nicknames such as the Awful Waffle and the Awful House, it may taste great in a drunken haze but it’s a personal experience that doesn’t need to be shared beyond your booth.

It seems like every other blog post I write has something to do with Google’s latest attempt to takeover the information superhighway. I guess it’s a testament to their ability to always evolve and never stagnate. The latest news from the Internet gossip train is here and it’s a pretty big undertaking on Google’s part. This time they’re setting their sights on Facebook with their own social marketing project tentatively titled Google Me.

There hasn’t been an official announcement from Google yet, but according to Facebook former CTO, Adam D’Angelo, it’s a top priority and it’s definitely coming. The news was first leaked by Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, in a tweet that Google immediately requested he take down. Scandalous…

The only news regarding the design is that it’ll be a combination of Google Profiles and Buzz, their failed attempt to compete with Twitter. The project may have gotten it’s start back in 2007 when Facebook snubbed Google’s hefty offer to purchase them and unexpectedly went with Microsoft.

Personally, I don’t see much of anything competing with Facebook for quite some time and if Buzz is any indication, Google won’t be the one to do it. They do have a few things going for them, though. Facebook has been taking a lot of heat recently for their privacy issues. Google needs to keep this issue fresh in the minds of their users while not falling into the same trap. Buzz had many of the same privacy issues that Facebook had, so I’m not sure whether or not this will happen. They did recently add an alternate homepage that supports SSL encryption, so I’m still hopeful.

The biggest thing Google Me will have going for it will be its inevitable ability to integrate all of the other products Google has under its belt. The prospect of having Gmail, Maps, Profiles, and a (hopefully) great social networking site rolled into one makes me absolutely giddy. This could potentially boost Google’s entertainment value to more than simply Googling yourself or knowing when the street view camera will be passing your house…

Last night I was ousted as Foursquare mayor of my new favorite watering hole by the owner.  Is this fair?

I think not. The red flag that popped in my head when I got the news via e-mail was not that my pride was hurt by losing my title, but that this is likely an issue across the board for Foursquare advertisers.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept of Foursquare or would like more information about how to conduct local business marketing on Foursquare, check out our previous blog post on the subject. The basic gist of mayorship is that a Foursquare user becomes mayor of an establishment by “checking in” more than anyone else in the previous 60 days.

Naturally, an owner or manager of a business is going to be at his place of business more than most customers (clearly there are exceptions to this), so, considering the fact that Foursquare is a “game,” would it be considered cheating for the owner to check in? Probably not, but it may be a good business and marketing decision to sit back and just be an observer when it comes to Foursquare competition on your home turf, especially if you are actively using it as a marketing tool.

This also brings up the question of whether or not your employees should check in when they come to work. Say an employee is the mayor and has 50 check-ins in the last 60 days, I’m not going to be motivated to compete for mayorship.

One Starbucks patron, as eater.com reported, was so appalled that a barista became mayor of one of the coffee giant’s locations that she filed a complaint with the company.

If you want to have a competition between employees of who works more, than that’s one thing. If you want to encourage customers to compete with each other for mayorship, and hence, come back again and again to defend their position, then it’s time for employees to just say no to Foursquare at work.

In addition to mayorial competitions encouraging top competitors to return to your business, an added bonus is that each time a user overtakes another as the mayor of your business, it is posted to each of the individual’s Facebook wall. Voilà! Free marketing.

While Starbucks basically told the disgruntled customer that there was nothing they could do, as marketing-oriented person, I would suggest highly encouraging your employees to keep it fair for the customers, because really, for most, there’s no bragging rights in being the mayor of your place of employment anyway. It’s likely that the check-ins of your employees would make it practically impossible for any customer, even a regular, to stand a chance to become mayor, and squashes that marketing and competition aspect of Foursquare for your business.

When I was in elementary school I hated my school uniform. The yellow shirt, brown tweed jacket, blue slacks, and that awful little tie. I remember questioning the school taste level and being matter-of-factly told the uniforms made us focus on school rather than each other. I hate those uniforms because of their lack of personality. I initially had the same feelings towards Facebook. Despite it many features and (annoying) applications, everyone’s accounts looked the same. Sure this was FB’s way to avoid the flashing gif walls and neon colors of Myspace profiles but it took away people’s individuality. Anyone who is into social media marketing can tell you, if you want the community following you gotta stand out. Thankfully Facebook understood this and gave developers Facebook Markup Language.

Facebook Markup Language
Not so much of a language as a bastardization of xhtml, Facebook Markup Language (FMBL) allows users to “build full Facebook Platform applications that deeply integrate into a user’s Facebook experience” (otherwise known as not be boring). FBML is really huge for social media marketing and building a fan community. Having integrated pages with additional options not only keeps visitors on the page longer but it always encourages fans to interact with the page.

Think about the level of engagement you would have if you put an iframe with rotating daily specials onto a Facebook page. With FMBL you can embed your Youtube, Twitter, and Flicker, Adobe Flash objects in the lifeless page.

Even though FBML has existed since late 2007, many companies with a FB presence are still not capitalizing on its power.  However, there are companies like Target who are really using FBML to promote their brand and it’s many lines of business. By having their lines of business listed on their fan page, Target can to market new products, promotions, and store locations to loyal (and highly active) customers.

While Facebook Markup Language can’t completely reskin your Facebook page, it does allow a level of customization that the social media platform previous lacked. As the number of FB users continues to grow and social sites become more and more a part of everyday life, having unique content and pages not only allows you to promote products and services but set your business apart from the crowd because no one wants to wear a uniform.

If you’d like to learn more about Facebook Markup Language, please visit Facebook Developer.

Special thanks to johnscotthaydon for the image at the beginning of the post!

We’re constantly coming across interesting articles, photos, and links around here. Some are relevant to our line of work, some not so much, some are funny, some are informative. Today we’d like to share a few of the most practical and useful ones with you.

Check out this blatant use of buying Yelp! reviews. While they aren’t directly handing out cash to each customer that gives them 5 stars or writes something positive about their salon on Yelp!, this practice still goes against the ranking site’s terms of use.

Linking strategies change from time to time. The recent trends show a rise in content strategies such as using social media and syndication. The decline in link bait for content strategies is a strong move for the community but what happened to the outreach efforts?

As you’ve read in many of our other posts, managing a Facebook fan page can be a tricky task. Most people just don’t know where to start. This post by the Social Media Examiner walks you step-by-step through creating a strategic plan for your fan page, just as you would any other business or marketing venture… even if it’s just on a few post-its on the wall.

So you’re always hearing about how such-and-such company made it big in social media by using such-and-such tactic, but often times, you feel like that certain tactic isn’t quite right for you, your product, or your budget. This slideshow offers mini case studies on a number of different company’s successes and failures via social media. With a combination of these, you can hopefully evaluate what the tipping point could be for your social media tactics.

You can never have too much advice when you are planning your social media strategy. Once again, the heart of this post from Outspoken Media lies in creating a dynamic Facebook fan page, with a focus on what you are offering your fans, ranging from specialized content to great conversation.

Our last link for the weekend isn’t a tutorial or explanation about how to further your business, but just an interesting post regarding the changing nature of transactions in our everyday life. While the percentage of our daily transactions happening via technology is continually increasing, it’s important to remember there is still usually a human on the other end… a real person, a lot like you!

Thanks to puptoes74, and wordle.net for the nifty images!