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Facebook Deals: Could Specialization be the Key to Success?

posted on March 29, 2011

Facebook is launching a deal site. Who isn’t? But according to Network Effect, Facebook is going to be specific about the kinds of deals they promote and that could be the key to success.

The word is that the deals on Facebook will only be for social activities that you can share with a friend. Half price movie tickets and lift freebies for a ski resort as opposed to discounts on teeth whitening and carpets for your home. Daily deal site KGB will be partnering with Facebook for a five-city test and they say their deal vouchers will be delivered in minutes. I take this to mean that I can sit down with friends on a Friday night, choose an activity and we can all be sharing that discounted fun later on that same evening.

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Hotmail Gets Interactive

posted on March 29, 2011

Did you know that Hotmail is the second most used web-mail client, beating Gmail by over 94%? Gotta wonder how many of those accounts are throw aways for junk mail, but I digress before I even get started.

Microsoft is looking to strengthen its bid to make Hotmail the leading web-mail client by making it more interactive.

Right now, email is either text or HTML based which means your only real option for hooking people up is to include a link in your email. Microsoft wants to take that link and deliver that information right inside the email blank.

Imagine getting that YouTube video of a cat eating spaghetti right in your email client. No need to click! Even better, is the ability to add real time information in an email such as this example from Netflix.

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Do Personal Tweets Make You More Credible?

posted on March 28, 2011

Do you mix business with pleasure – on social media, that is? A blogger at Ars Technica has just posted about a study that examines the relationship between professors who Tweet and their students.

The study had students follow a specially designed Twitter feed that was supposedly written by one of their professors. One group got only school-related Tweets, one got only personal Tweets and the third group got a mix.

After following the feeds, the students were asked to rate the professor’s credibility. The highest ratings came from those who saw only personal Tweets. The addition of school-related Tweets did nothing to raise the professor’s score.

The authors of the study felt that the higher rating came from the fact that the students thought the personal Tweeting professor was more “caring” which apparently is more important that competent.

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The TV – Twitter Connection

posted on March 28, 2011

I watch a lot of television and I follow a lot of people on Twitter who also watch a lot of television. Before I had an iPhone, though, I couldn’t understand how people could send out twenty tweets a night commenting on TV shows as they aired. Then I got an iPhone and it all became clear.

With an iPhone, it’s so easy to share important thoughts with the world like, “What’s up with that carpenter wearing a suit and tie? He looks like Dr. Who! #americasnextgreatrestaurant” and how I feel about the song choices of this year’s American Idol contestants. At least my Tweets have some substance.

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Kitchen Table Conversation and Making Your Customers Feel At Home

posted on March 25, 2011

Have you ever been to an ING Direct cafe? They’re opening a new one in San Francisco and here’s how they describe it in the press release.

Designed to make saving money and banking a true retail and community experience, the Cafe will be a place where locals can have kitchen table conversations about finances and get to know ING DIRECT.  Also, the community can get a great cup of coffee, surf the net through free WiFi and enjoy several floors of creative space to work or hold meetings.

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CBS Says Age and Sex Don’t Matter

posted on March 25, 2011

TV network CBS is taking a stance about sexism and ageism, but it has nothing to do with their hiring practices, it has to do with viewer demographics. CBS is working with Nielsen to devise a new way for categorizing viewers, one that is based on viewer behavior instead of their vital stats.

AdAge got the scoop from CBS Corp. Chief Research Officer David Poltrack, who talked about the idea at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Re:Think 2011 conference.

Poltrack says that small test studies conducted by Nielsen and Nielsen Catalina have proved what he’s always known, which is that “There is no link, none, between the age of the specified demographic delivery of the campaign and the sales generated by that campaign.”

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Wall Street Journal Tests Single Issue Downloads

posted on March 24, 2011

Remember when delivering the daily paper was the responsibility of a neighbor kid on a Schwinn bike? We not only paid to have that wad of knowledge slap down on our doorsteps every morning, we even happily tipped the boy when he came to collect the fee every week.

Ah, the good old days. Now people balk when you ask them to spend cold, hard cash to have that very same paper delivered instantly to their mobile device. Yes, the same people who will spend hundreds of real dollars to keep up a virtual farm, balk at the idea of spending $18 to read the news. Amazing, isn’t it?