Is Facebook taking over the web?

With more than 400 million active users and the number 1 website in terms of average time spent on the web, Facebook has already had a major effect on the world so far… but it seems like this could just be the beginning. A few new features have been recently announced that shows the direction in which Facebook is going.

On the 31^st March 2010, easyJet announced that it will soon become the first airline to offer its customers the option to plan and book their flights entirely through their Facebook page. This is a giant move, not just for easyJet, but for Facebook as well. If the service works adequately, it will most probably be rolled out globally, offering the chance for every business to sell their products on Facebook. This would go a long way of joining the web and the social network into one package.

If this does happen, will Facebook charge a fee to sell within social network, cashing in on millions? Surely if this was the case, they would also enable people to sell products through their personal profiles and compete with the likes of eBay too.

Yesterday at Facebooks F8 Developers  Conference, it was announced that companies will be able to integrate websites and web apps within their existing social network. A host of companies are already integrating Facebook with their websites, one that springs to mind being Levi’s (US version).

Levi’s have taken on the universal ‘Like’ button across their online catalogue. Users can ‘like’ products on the Levi’s website which is then shared with people in the users’ network and thus ‘social shopping’. If this is widely adopted across the web, it will provide a list of recommendations through your social network by your friends. If it does take off, the ‘like’ button could become more powerful in helping people to make buying decisions than any review site on the web!

With all of these plans aiming to integrate the web with Facebook in a fluid and cohesive way, surely the next step will be a Facebook browser?! That would give it the ability to target adverts more accurately and also help it become a dominant force, not only within social media, but on the web as a whole.  It doesn’t take much imagination to visualise it, and it would be the perfect way to tie both the web and the social network together. What an addition to the ‘browser war’ that would be!

A look into Foursquare

Geo-tagging seems to be the feature that everyone is tipping as the big thing for 2010. Although Twitter and Facebook are both working on something credible, there are a few social networks up and coming that may well rock the boat. Foursquare is the one I’m tipping to not only rock it, but to secure its place among the elite.

Foursquare is based on the idea that people ‘check-in’ to locations throughout the day and add tips along the way. For example, I went out for food one night after work and checked-in to The Black Dog Ballroom in Manchester. When checking in on the Foursquare iPhone app, I was given the option to share my check-in with friends on Twitter and/ or Facebook. I chose to share on Twitter (see below).

My Twitter status update after checking-in to BDB from Foursquare

This is a big feature. Unlike most other geo-tagging mediums at the moment, Foursquare shows the actual venue you are in rather than just the street, giving real scope for marketing ideas for businesses. This is something that is already happening across the pond. Some businesses are offering incentives like “check-in here and receive a free soft drink”. In theory it’s a great idea. If someone checks-in and shares it with their friends, that business’s name and location is going to be promoted to the persons complete list of followers. It is already well documented that businesses that connect to people through social media receive huge amounts of loyalty and custom, and this could add another medium that businesses could harness.

A useful inclusion to Foursquare is the ‘tip’ idea. When someone checks-in to a location, they can provide tips for other people who check-in to that location. The most common are recommendations of a certain dish that a restaurant serves, or of a bar overall. This is useful when deciding on choosing which venue to go to, or if you’re like me and can never decide what to order!

Foursquare does have a quirky side to it in the shape of badges and Mayor statuses. People are awarded badges for completing certain tasks, such as checking in after 3am midweek will get you the “School Night” badge, and checking into 3 Karaoke venues in a month will grant you the “Don’t Stop Believin’” badge (Glee?). This is something that may turn a lot of people off Foursquare but it is all just a bit of fun and adds a bit of spice to the social networking world. A Mayor status is given out to someone who has checked-in to a location more than anyone else. This is something else businesses are taking advantage of in America, with Mayors being given special offers such as a free meal. This will obviously give people the incentive to check into that venue more often.

One of the huge questions raised over the probable rise of the geo-tagging trend is the safety factor. Given people can see exactly where you are obviously has its risks. PleaseRobMe.com is a site spreading awareness that information of your whereabouts is valuable information, not only to your friends but to robbers as well. Although it is perfectly fine to use, geo-tagging must be used with caution and common sense.

In my opinion, Foursquare isn’t a social network that is aimed at challenging the big 2 (Facebook & Twitter). With the implementation of sharing check-ins on the big 2, it is simply a well designed, well thought out additive to be used in conjunction with the elite. If it does take off and more content and initiatives are added to it, Foursquare could prove hugely addictive and a useful tool all round.

Social Media for Social Media’s sake…

First of all, apologies for the huge delay since my last post… there are no plausible excuses, yet I promise (pinky promise) to post more regularly from now on.

I have recently got my first marketing role (thanks for the applause) with a creative agency in Manchester (Emerald). One of the main aspects of my new role has to been to give the agency a presence within the realms of social media.

As social media is now THE ‘buzz’ word, it seems every man and his dog is trying to climb aboard but many have no clue why, how or what they need it for. I have recently attended various business workshops/networking sessions and have had the same outcome in most. For those who haven’t already embraced social media in a logical and practical way for them and their business, there is a surge of people adopting any type of social network medium they can get their hands on, without any thought into suitability or what they want it to achieve.

Based on what I have seen at these workshops/ networking sessions, the general consensus among the people eager to incorporate social media into their business model without any knowledge of the uses of each medium seems to be that EVERY company needs a Facebook page. It is becoming increasingly frustrating listening to people putting the emphasis on purely creating a Facebook page for their business in order to successfully integrate social media into their business model.

It is no wonder that a huge amount of people do not understand why or even how to use mediums such as Twitter etc. because they have not been taught that the content they provide (and the relevance of that content) is king!

There are now a few workshops dealing with this problem and actually providing people new to SM with a very helpful beginners guide. Instead of just jumping onto the confused bandwagon, they give people a chance to really understand SM and therefore be able to tailor it and use it to its full potential for their own area and objectives.

A few cropping to mind are:

Manchester Social Media Surgery – #mansms – Free (Free tea/coffee & biscuits too!!)

Intro to social media – £150 per person but seems a lot more practical based stuff

Social Media Masterclass – £45 + VAT – This was actually recommended by my Dad who attended recently and found it extremely helpful

For any more people know of you can just post below.

Rant over

Google Wave

So, I got my Google Wave invitation + invites on Saturday. Although it is only a beta, and there aren’t vast amounts of people connected to Google Wave yet, the potential of it can be seen clearly.

Firstly, as a combination of email and instant messaging, it seems pretty impressive, however, it is not the easiest of systems to use. Me and two other contacts shared a wave, and used it for real time updates as a substitute from MSN Messenger or Facebook Chat etc. Though we did enjoy being able to see each other type in real time, we did find it difficult to keep any consistency. Instead of a new blip each time we typed, we found that we were accidentally commenting inside each others blips or typing further up the message.

A tool I think that will be extremely useful when the rest of the world is able to sign up to Google Wave is the array of applications one can intergrate into a wave. For example if I was arranging a party, I could use the Poll application as a guest list, post the location using the Google Maps app and after the party I could add all the pictures of the party just by dragging and dropping into the wave from my desktop.

Finally,another impressive addition are the robots. ‘Tweety the Twitbot’ and ‘Bloggy’ are just two of the many robots available to into waves. The ease of using a robot on GW is incredible and there is no end to the potential of this addition with it being open to developers.

It is very early days for GW (not even released yet!) and though it is not completely sleek enough for everyone to understand it or get to grips with it, it shows true potential and could live up to the hype that is surrounding it.

Kids & Social Media

When I was a kid, the only IT education offered to the younger generation was a basic IT class once a week that was used to train people’s MS office skills. However, in this day and age so much more needs to be done! With so many aspects of digital and social media, surely it is essential that kids should be taught how to use each aspect safely and to its full potential in order instil some interest early on life.

I was pleased to see Mashable’s (Mashable.com) attempt at trying to fund just that! Mashable is helping to raise funds in order to help schools buy the correct tools to educate the importance of social media. From digital cameras to video cameras to netbooks, kids on the east coast of America will benefit from being media-literate from an early age.

I can’t help but hope that a fund-raiser of this kind will soon hit the UK. This will not only improve the talent coming through to the Social Media/ Digital industry, but nearly every industry. There would be less and less badly designed websites, communication techniques would grow hugely and the amount of independent material for the entertainment and art industries would again go through the roof.

I am a huge fan of what Mashable and anybody else involved with the scheme is doing and with any hope the idea will catch on in the UK.

Mashable: Help kids get into social media – http://mashable.com/2009/09/30/donors-choose-start/#disqus_thread

Apple to open the iPhone revolution to Orange & Vodafone [Updated]

So, it seems O2′s exclusivity with the iPhone is due to end. Rumours surrounding the end of O2′s exclusivity have been running constantly over the past 12 months and it has at last been confirmed by not only Orange but Vodafone too. Both networks announced they will be selling the revolutionary device in the build up to Christmas.

As the upcoming merging of Orange and T-Mobile draws nearer, in addition to the other new iPhone provider Vodafone, sales of the iPhone will surely rocket as Brand Republic predicts this will make the iPhone open to three quarters of the UK mobile phone market.

This competition will, hopefully (from an iPhone owners’ opinion), create a price war, or at least add a bit of price competitiveness.

One can see why Apple are now opening up the iPhone to more networks as their biggest income from now will surely come from the App Store and iTunes.

Now the iPhone will become widely available, however, will this affect the iPhone’s biggest competitor; the Blackberry? Blackberry seem to have dominated in recent years in any network other than O2, yet this may strike some healthy competition over the Christmas period.