Socialmedia

Using Unconventional Platforms for Social Media Marketing

Mar 9, 2010Katrina Dayrit

Social media marketing is no longer a one-off phenomenon or a “cult” marketing strategy. While the pioneer social media marketers and social networking gurus may spend time laying claim to their “territory,” the fact that established brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and American Apparel are active on social media platforms would suggest otherwise. in a slightly ironic development, a platform that was once considered “for the people” has become dominated by major brands and group-powered corporations.

Of course, this does not mean that social networks are bankrupt of value for smaller marketers or independent businesses. They are valuable, but often in ways that are not directly intended. for every template-style marketing success story there are hundreds of social media users that are simply too marketed to, too saturated, and too uninterested to participate in a social media marketing effort.

However, this leaves internet marketers with a new, much more powerful social media marketing resource: the micro social network. with the proliferation of services such as Ning, and the growing value of niche-based social networks, marketers just may be able to become even more specific in their targeting and advertising efforts.

These four reasons should not put internet marketers off using major social networks entirely, but these should push them towards considering smaller platforms.

Micro social networks are highly targeted.

Upon its introduction into the mainstream internet, Facebook was hailed as an advertising innovator, giving marketers unrivaled access into people’s interests, demographics, and desires. however, it is no longer the most specific marketing tool on the block. Niche-based social networks let internet marketers hone in on a very specific niche, creating greater returns and generating more sales.

Micro social networks are inexpensive.

Facebook is TV. Its influence is wide, its audience is huge, and it costs a lot to become a celebrity. Micro social networks are social events — becoming the star of the party requires nothing more than an interesting story. it is often better to become the star of a small party than a small speck in a larger gathering, and micro social networks can make this possible.

Niches like being marketed to.

People do not hate advertising. most people like advertising, at least when it is advertising for a product, service, or lifestyle that appeals to them. when internet marketers target niches with high quality products, the anti-advertising backlash melts away. Niches like marketing, but only when it offers value.

Micro social networks allow a greater level of interaction and connection.

Faceless advertising is ineffective. People are not drawn to items and companies because of their ten-story billboards or their catchy TV jingles, but because of their level of connection and personal service. Micro social networks give advertisers an opportunity that many hyper-crowded social networks can’t provide — the ability to interact directly with their clients, customers, and fans.

Micro social networks are likely the future of social networking, and a leading initial presence could end up being a highly profitable investment.

Starting next month, the more than 400 million Facebook users could begin seeing a new kind of status update flow through their news feed: the current locations of their friends.

Facebook plans to take the wraps off a new location-based feature in late April at f8, the company’s yearly developer conference, according to several people briefed on the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss unannounced services.

In preparation for the introduction, Facebook updated its privacy policy last November. The new policy states: “When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post.”

At that time, the company also offered some foreshadowing of the new feature: “If we offer a service that supports this type of location sharing we will present you with an opt-in choice of whether you want to participate.”

Facebook has been working on a location-based tool for close to a year, but decided to wait until the product was completely ready for mainstream adoption before announcing it, said the people with knowledge of the project.

Meredith Chin, a Facebook spokeswoman, said Tuesday that the company wasn’t ready to discuss any possible location-based features. “We’re constantly experimenting with new things around here, but we don’t have any details to share right now,” she said in an e-mail message.

The new location feature will have two aspects, according to the people familiar with Facebook’s plans. one will be a service offered directly by Facebook that will allow users to share their location information with friends.

The other will be a set of software tools, known as A.P.I.’s, that outside developers can use to offer their own location-based services to Facebook users.

In the past, the company has relied heavily on its strong developer community to create innovative content around new tools and features. This community has also been instrumental in spreading Facebook Connect, which allows smaller Web sites to give their customers the option of signing in using Facebook and tapping their existing social networks.

Of Facebook’s more than 400 million users, about 50 percent log in to the site at least once a day, and 100 million people access the service from mobile devices. that makes the location feature an area of strong focus for the company.

The staggering number of users on the site has also brought a heightened level of internal scrutiny to the project, according to the people familiar with it. Facebook has been trying to figure out how to add location data to its service without raising potential privacy concerns or negative feedback from its users, as it has in the past with new features and redesigns.

One of the people familiar with the project said that the company was not trying to beat the smaller location-based social networks, such as Loopt, Foursquare and Gowalla.

Instead, Facebook wants to go head-to-head with Google in the fight for small-business advertising. Facebook redesigned its business pages last year, with the hope of offering more features for small-business owners. According to Facebook, the Web site currently hosts more than 1.5 million local businesses from around the world.

In 2009, Google started Google Latitude with the pitch to let users “See where your friends are right now.”

Twitter, another Facebook competitor, has also added an option to include location data with messages

Twitter by voice: mobile social network Bubbly gets celebrity users Tags: bubble motion, bubbly, celebrity, mobile, mobile social network, mobile text, mobile voice, SMS, social network, text, twitter, voice

GoMo News covered the launch of a new voice-powered mobile social network in India in early February. Modeled on Twitter, “Bubbly” allows users to record and send short voice recordings to all of their followers. two weeks after launch, the creators of the service are claiming over 500,000 users, and a growing portfolio of Bollywood stars.

The service is ENTIRELY based around SMS – essential, given it’s an Indian service. It’s tightly integrated with regional networks, so it doesn’t require any downloads or registration. to use Bubbly, Indian phone owners just dial a shortcode to record and post a voice message. Anyone who is following them gets sent an SMS with the instructions you need to hear the “Bubble”. to follow someone, you just input their number after the shortcode. Simple!

At the moment, users follow each other by word of mouth – there are no real discovery options. In time, Bubble Motion (the creators of Bubbly) intend to publish a directory, but for now you just have to know a persons number to follow them. for celebrity users, they get assigned a special shortcode so that followers don’t get their actual mobile number.

Much like Twitter, Bubbly is attracting Indian Bollywood stars. well, I SAY stars, but I don’t really know. according to Bubble Motion, Kareena Kapoor, Aamir Khan and Bipasha Basu are all using Bubbly. to be honest, I don’t know who they are – I don’t follow Bollywood news.

According to the release, Bubbly now has over 500,000 in Indian – that’s pretty good for a service that’s two weeks old. a big part of the reason it’s popular is because Bubble Motion has some very serious operator deals in place. So new users don’t need to do anything beyond what they’re used to – it doesn’t require apps or a long set up process. you simply dial the shortcode and speak.

Tokyo-based jig.jp has been developing mobile browsers since 2003, claiming its “jig browser (which was downloaded over 4 million times so far) is the world’s first Java-based browser that made it possible to view PC sites on cell phones. And now the company has released an ambitious Android app called SPIDERSS, which combines a browser with an RSS reader and an aggregator for social network updates.

Available in English and Japanese, the free app’s main selling point is that all elements are accessible from a single screen: you can either choose to directly type in a URL or search term in the top bar (to then open a full browser window), check your Facebook newsfeed and Twitter timeline in the “Application Deck” under that or scroll through your RSS feeds in the bottom part. All feeds and web pages can be easily shared by SMS, Email, Twitter or Facebook with the push of a button.

The Webkit-based browser supports HTML 4.0.1/XHTML 1.1 and JavaScript 1.5, provides native support for the VGA and QVGA resolutions and can be used with Android OS 1.5 or higher (full specs). Feed formats supported include RSS (0.9, 0.91, 1.0 and 2.0) and ATOM (0.3 and 1.0). Users can bookmark pages, use tabs, choose between four different search engines, keep a record of links visited etc.

The browser is pretty hard to use though, as it “magnifies” websites, displaying the top left part first (skip to 1.00 in the video below to see what I mean). SPIDERSS does offer different layouts and a zoom-out function (50% maximum), but still, most of the times you need to scroll in various directions to view a website in its entirety.

But SPIDERSS is still in beta, with jig.jp saying future updates will bring a better overall browsing experience and additional functions (versions for Nokia (Ovi) and Windows phones are scheduled for release in the near future). the app is free, so take it for a spin if you’re not satisfied with your current Android browser.

Other Android browsers available or currently in development include Opera Mini, Steel, Dolphin, Firefox Mobile and Skyfire.

March 10, 2010, 12:03 AM EST

March 10 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc., owner of the most-used Internet search engine, and Facebook Inc. were sued by a new York company over an invention related to software that lets people join social networks on their mobile phones.

Wireless Ink Corp., which runs the Winksite service, claims that Facebook Mobile and Google Buzz are infringing a patent issued in October. in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan, the company is seeking cash compensation and a court order to prevent further use of its invention.

The patent is related to ways of offering content that is accessible by mobile devices, Wireless Ink lawyer Jeremy Pitcock said in an interview. The closely held software maker develops Web sites that can be made available over wireless devices and has more than 75,000 registered users, he said.

With the application filed in 2004, Google and Facebook had to have known of the patent, “given the time and resources defendants have invested in their desktop and mobile Web sites as well as their strategic importance,” Wireless Ink, based in East Islip, new York, said in the complaint.

Andrew Pederson, a spokesman for Mountain View, California- based Google, said yesterday that the company is reviewing the complaint and had no immediate comment. Google Buzz creates a social-network service based on contacts in Gmail user accounts.

Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company is reviewing the complaint. Facebook, based in Palo Alto, California, is the largest social-networking site.

The case is Wireless Ink Corp. v. Facebook Inc., 10-cv-01841, U.S. District Court, Southern District of new York (Manhattan).

–Editors: Stephen Farr, Peter Blumberg.

To contact the reporters on this story: Susan Decker in Washington at sdecker1@bloomberg.net; David Glovin in new York federal court at dglovin@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David E. Rovella at drovella@bloomberg.net.

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