DDF: don't drink and FB.

This is for all you web-savvy drinkers....does this sound familiar? 

You come in late at night after having a few drinks with friends.  It's been a long day and you just want to unwind and catch up on the daily news feed happenings of the trusty ol' social network.  After logging in, you decide to go grab another beer from the fridge; you've earned it -- the client presentation just didn't go as planned.  You get back on to Facebook and BAM! "We'll there goes that piece of new business. Thanks a lot @Jimmy."  Not only have you called out and TAGGED you office best friend for your entire network, including your boss AND client to see.  (Admit it, you're friends with your clients, too).

This routine is familiar to college students and those in the working world as well: the dreaded drunk Facebook connection.  Yet, how do you overcome this because, let's face it, Facebook calls after a night out?  How about a web browser application, from Webroot that should be touted as the "breathalizer" of social media? Behold: The Social Media Sobriety Test is here to help remind us to not drink and FB and helps prevent those 1am regrettable drunk posts.  So now my fellow Drunk Facebook friends, cheers and grab another beer! 

The beginning of the end for Twitter?

apps are coming to twitter?!? i know social media platforms need points of differentiation, but employing the same solution seems a bit redundant. We don't need to add 'app clutter' to our media environment. Twitter should stick to what it does best: letting people know 'im eating a BOMB home-made stir fry bowl RIGHT NOW!' in only 51 characters.

Google Developing Social Gaming Platform to Rival Facebook

Google is in talks with developers to create a social gaming platform in an attempt to capture users and ad dollars from Facebook.  Social gaming is on the rise, as is seen with Zynga's Farmville boasting 60 million active monthly users, and big players a looking to tap into this new trend.  Many are seeing social gaming as a new platform to reach an even more deeply fragmented audience, with users participating in these games from a multitude of devices and new destinations that keeping popping up in the digital space. 

What is pulling people towards these social games, like Farmville and Diner Dash?  Their level of simplicity.  Unlike their closet competitors, console games such as Sony's Playstation or Nintendo Wii, these games are less complex, don't require a specific device or destination to play it with, and they allow users to interact with their friends online.  Microsofts' Xbox 360 does allow for users to engage with other players with its Xbox Live platform, however it revenues go straight back to Microsoft for the service.  Social gaming has opened up a new marketplace where users can pay for virtual goods to be used in the games as well as created another medium for advertiser's to work with.

Will Google's move be a game-changer in social networking? Will it become a rival Facebook or just another fragmentation in the social media landscape?

What would you like to "feel" on your touchscreen?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10373923.stm

And Now We Shall View a Tweet From Our Sponsors

Twitter has finally done it.  They have found a way to turn 140-character status updates into a revenue producer.  Hopefully.  Since Promoted Tweets went live yesterday afternoon, curiosity has been aroused as to how this platform will work, and seeing if it will provide a ROI.

Out of all the advertising models Twitter could have adopted, Promoted Tweets is the least obtrusive to users.  If anything, they will welcome them with open arms because they will provide relevant information and be just as obvious as branded Tweets are already.  Twitter is currently a free promotion tool for brands, and by adding this feature, it provides a push to the top.  The message is already out there.  

How will this work?  It's very simple.  The service is rooted in search.  This doesn't mean that every search query will be spammed with Promoted Tweets, or that Tweet Timelines will be overtaken with them.  Currently, Promoted Tweets only come up in searches and not in Timelines.  Twitter wants to make this transition as user-friendly as possible by not driving Tweeters away by tossing in advertising clutter.  With the use of resonance scores, Twitter will manage Promoted Tweets and make sure they are a relevant enhancement to the Twitter experience.

Twitter will have to closely monitor their Promoted Tweets to ensure  they don't screw up their first take at generating revenue, and they plan on doing this by limiting the number of ads.  They're taking baby steps with the roll-out to wean it onto users, rather than slapping them in the face with it.  This is the best approach to try and get users to warm up to the idea of paid-for advertising.  Let's face it, Twitter is already a giant advertising bulletin board, and now they're trying to capitalize on it.  Let's see if this turns into a steady revenue stream for Twitter because it doesn't seem like Twitter is going to disappear from social media anytime soon.

iAd-- The new advertising buzz word

Although it lacked a new iPhone, the Apple iPhone OS 4 announcement this afternoon will leave users, developers and advertisers anything short of disappointed.  Steve Jobs unveiled iAd, Apples advertising platform that will enable advertisers to create ads that will run within applications, instead of connecting users to Safari and out of the app. This process has discouraged users from clicking on in-App ads. 

iAd opens the doors for mobile advertising to become relevant.  Steve Jobs exaplained, "We have a lot of free or reasonably priced apps... we like that, but our devs have to find ways to make money. So our devs are putting ads into apps, and for lack of a better way to say it, we think most of this kind of advertising sucks."  Consumers seek out interaction online, and ad's need more than a little bit of motion  to pull people in, especially on the small screen real estate of an iPhone. 

There are five key features of iAd:
1) Emotion and Interaction
2) Ads keep you in the app
3) Built into iPhone OS
4) Apple sells AND hosts the ads
5) 60% of revenues --> developers

It's going to be interesting to see how advertisers and clients will adapt to this new mobile platform.  Job's demoed an ad for the new Toy Story 3 movie on the iAd platform, and it included embedded videos, posters and even games.  It's almost like an sub-app within an app.  But here is the kicker: it's all built using HTML5. 

HTML5 is a major hot topic for mobile advertising and rich media, in general.  The question will become, are agencies going to be will to develop content for iAd since it will only reach about 40% of the US population of phone users.  It has potential, but we must wait and see what developers can do with it.

SF Giants Tweeting Up the Ol' Ball Game- It is social media overkill?

On April 30, the San Francisco Giants will hold the largest baseball event "Tweetup" in history. A Tweetup is an event where folks come together face to face in real life, not more @'s or RT's. It is the real deal. This is great, right? Using social media to connect with fans is an excellent way to build fan loyalty and retain a solid fan base by allowing fans to interact and engage with their favorite sports team. But to bring these "tweeters” together at an actually game would be even better.

For die-hard Giant's fans, or any sports team fan in general, twitter is a unique way to make fans feel like they are apart of something. How many times have you typed @SF_Giants (replace SF_Giants with your favorite celebrity or sports team) because you feel like the person on the receiving end will hear it? Apparently the Giants heard you because they are leveraging social media to further engage their fan base. However, I'm not sure how a social media "panel discussion" and America's favorite pass time go hand in hand.

The panel discussion is overkill. People go to baseball games for cheap beer, hot dogs, and of course, the love of the game. Why meddle with this winning formula? I must give a tip of the hat to the Giants though, because San Francisco is full of tech savvy people that would go nuts over this.

I would go out of sheer curiosity. $20 for the Tweetup Ticket doesn't seem like a bad deal, it includes the panel discussion, private two-hour Tweetup part, seating in the private Tweetup section, and it comes with a free shirts as well. I'm sold! I hope this includes the tickets as well, as there is no mention of it on the flyer.

These apparent social media experts, while designing this potentially historic event, forgot the basic tenets of social media: their fan base. They put the information out on the interweb hoping their fans would find it instead of continuing the dialogue that social media is supposed to help facilitate between brands and fans. I give the SF Giants a tip of the hat for this attempt because of the potentially genius social media initiated event. Hopefully my cynicism will be proven wrong, but I'll have to wait and see if @SF_Giants can bring their tweeters out to the ol' ball game.

WSJ On the iPad-- No, Not Really

After being on the market for 36 hours, the iPad has no doubt brought new life into the battered publishing industry.  The tablet computer has opened a new chapter, and will reshape the relationship between readers and printed publications.  The first most notable different being how we consume our daily paper.

The Wall Street Journal app, available for free through the App Store, is nothing short of disappointing.  Although it redefines digital publishing through the inclusion of video and ease of navigating the publication like an actual newspaper, how will consumers see this if the "free" app has completely locked content?

It is understandable the WSJ offered their publication on a subscription basis to start, yet as a subscriber to the print edition, I would expect a free trial for the iPad offering at the very least.  $17.20 a month is a steep price to pay for an online version, when I can just log on through safari and read my digital copy.

This app is the first major test of the sustainability of the iPad and users' willingness to pay for content, since much of it can be obtained on the web for free.  I'm willing to pay for content, I subscribe to a "dying" medium.  All I want is a digital supplement, but not at a price point higher than my semester subscription cost.  WSJ, get back in touch with reality.

Exhibtionist or Travelocity Gnome: How one advertiser is utilizing the trending ChatRoulette

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=125392&nid=112893#

Television- A New Outlet for User Generated Content

The Sims--a world where gamers create their own virtual people and allow them to live there life, acting like the hand of God. It's is the gamer's realm of user generated content because almost everything, from the home your Sim lives in to the relationships you create with fellow Sims, is built and designed solely by users. But now, Sim's creator Will Wright, is in talks with CurrentTV to develop a show called The Creation Project.

The Creation Project, which is a steep departure from Wright's gaming background, will be a hold step in audience participation, according to IGN. Basically, it's a TV show about the creation of a TV show, and it is speculated the viewers will be able to submit story suggestions online and via mobile devices. Where does Wright play in to this idea?

Wright is designing the online/mobile user experience fostering creation and submission of story ideas through a "story maker engine." It has been suggested the show could air by the end of the year, with online components going live before air date. Yet since the project is still in the earlier development stages, the user participation experience could veer from this current path.

In a world where consumers are demanding more content, many have taken it upon themselves to create it. Passive TV watching is a way of the past, and active user engagement is the pathway to the future. This will be an excellent experiment in meshing the worlds of content producers and user generated content to develop a hybrid content experience.

The iAd: Another "i" from Apple

As chatter builds around the iPad as April 3rd quickly approached, another "i" has been announced by Steve Jobs -- The iAd.  The iAd, to be unleashed upon advertisers on April 7th, will be a personalized, mobile advertising system and his been described as "extraordinary"and "our next big thing" by head of Apple's Jobs.

No really details have been released, but it is speculated to utilize Apple's new acquired mobile ad unit, Quattro.  It will be another battlefield for Google and Apple to wage war, since Google recently agreed to buy AdMob.  They are taking the war to Madison Advertisers, and who ever makes the most ad dollars wins.

Mobile advertising is seen as the new vehicle through which advertisers can create innovative and engaging advertisements to recapture an audience that is constantly on the go.  Apple has captivated advertisers with the App Store and ability to build branded apps that consumers actively seek out, and is presenting them with a new opportunity for limitless interactive and immersive ad spaces within e-publications, such as those to be released by The Wall Street Journal and Sports Illustrated, to be offered on the new "tablet" device.  

It is believed advertisers will be able to "hypertarget" consumers "based on their geographic proximity", which will open up new opportunities to location-based advertising.  The media world will be sitting by eagerly waiting to witness the unveiling of Apple's mobile ad platform.  It has a great deal of potential, but will advertisers, as well as consumers, take the bait.  As of last week, only 200,000 iPad's were pre-ordered, higher than initial iPhone purchases, but is this audience size worth the high price of ad space?  

Apple Owners will bring iPad to Life

Apple Owners Nearly 40 Percent More Interested in the iPad than Non-Apple Owners, According to NPD

The numbers gathered by market research firm NPD come as no surprise.  They have found iPad awareness is highest among current Apple owners (82%), consumers with income over $100,000 (80%) and 18-34 year olds (78%).  Only 27% of 18-34 year olds and 24% of Apple owners surveyed expressed any real interest in owning the iPad.  

With these numbers of only around 24% of Apple owners being showing any significant interest in the product, who will it fare with content offerings?  This really begs the question, will it be worth it for content creators/publishers, such as newspapers, magazines and video, to even provide content for the device.  The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Sport Illustrated and The New York Times have already jumped on board, with other book publishers.  Yet many are holding out.  Random House has not yet bought into the iPad hype, and neither has Google's AdMob mobile advertising unit.  Many are sitting on the fence, waiting to see if the iPad will live up to all its supposed game-changing glory.  

I must say, I fall into the extremely interested category because I am current Apple owner and brand loyalist.  I've been in the market for a tablet computer, but have been waiting for Apple's product offering because I want my computer, phone, music player and tablet device to all streamline together.  It's good that people are skeptical, but up to a point.  With too many skeptics, it sets up the product to ultimately fail.   

Chasing the Mobile Platform

In an AdAge Poll this week, they ask the question, Are marketers wasting online budgets by focusing so much on apps rather than the mobile web? While this is great potential for apps, with the multitude of smartphone platforms from iPhone's to the new Android, it becomes difficult for marketers to decide which platform to create an app for.

Most developers will opt for the iPhone platform. There are many benefits, such as having over 21 million users and a streamlined App Store for easy purchase downloads.

Many advertisers have been jumping on the App wagon without thinking about the relevance of an app to their business. In order for an app to work in a company's favor, it needs to be relevant and serve a specific purpose. I find myself constantly downloading apps and then deleting them because they waste by screen real estate. A multitude of companies woud be better served by developing mobile webpages. They will operate on all smartphone platforms, not just apps created for a specific phone. There are many hurdles that need to be overcome, but there is a great breadth of opportunities to create streamlined mobile web experiences for customers that need to easily seek information on the go.

Apps are the buzz word in mobile marketing, but to what benefit? When deciding whether to dive in, you must ask yourself, is this relevant to my brand? Am I just here because everyone else is? When developing a mobile strategy, make sure you think about the scope of the business and the target audience. Don't just chase a platform because it exists because it will ultimately lead to an ineffectual, weak campaign.