Nov
03

Facebook Pulls An Apple on Geolocation Deals

by Feedback

You can learn more about all of Facebook’s mobile announcements here and here, but we want to draw your attention to one game-changing item: Creating a “deal” at a location in Facebook Places.

Facebook has done for “deals” what they did for buying ads… They made it super-simple, very logical and with a prowess that makes Foursquare’s process seem silly. Sort of like Apple does to Windows on a regular basis (sorry, baiting a flame war there :).

Go claim your location and start dealing!

-Dean (@dbrowell)

Oct
20

Will Facebook Die?

by Feedback

Note: This is the first of many posts by the newest Feedbacker, Jeff Kelley.

Will Facebook die? It’s a question I get a lot. Perhaps because I’m a blogger and have a Twitter account and know cool techy tricks like how to turn off Google SafeSearch and I work for a company that makes its living doing work online, and therefore I’m supposed to know these things. Quite honestly, you’d be better off asking me if I’d one day like to own a grenade launcher, as I could give you a definitive answer: “Absolutely.”

Instagram is like Twitter for photos. Available on the iPhone.

But I do not possess such a weapon yet, and regarding Facebook’s death, all I have is an opinion. And my opinion is that Facebook will go away, and probably sometime in the next few years. But what will be left behind are the communities, concepts and connections that Facebook has created (all FarmVille farms will perish, though, hopefully by plague).

The problem for Facebook is that its best features – the features that are most widely used – are being copied and made better by other developers. You can go to places besides Facebook to talk to old friends, meet new ones, find upcoming events, discover new links, look at photos of folks, and – most importantly – stalk people you think are attractive. You just have to use multiple services to do it. Facebook is really the only place that people are going to do all that stuff in one place.

Tumblr, which many people don't realize has a very social backend.

We are fast approaching an era when people will be able to customize their online experience with a variety of social networking services instead of just one big one. To put it one way: You can shop at Walmart for everything, or take an extra few minutes and visit a bunch of cooler, smaller shops.

At Feedback, we’re already seeing signs of Facebook’s great unraveling. Know when bands become “too” popular? Even the original fans start to pull away. We’re looking at you, Dave Matthews Band.

If you cut past the movie reviews and privacy issues and research what’s being said about Facebook on a grassroots level, you’ll hear from serious web users who balk at Facebook for being too mainstream. That there are too many people on it. That there are an array of better services to use to network online. That there’s too much noise on Facebook. Complaints about grammar. About too much information. And enough with the baby pictures or photos of that giant new engagement ring.

RSVPhere is a cool events site that merges hard copy invites with the online world. It's also Richmond based.

Many people, while still keeping their Facebook accounts as a sort of abandoned online home (think MySpace three years ago), are turning to less-mainstream networking services such as Twitter, Tumblr or a mix of other apps and tools found on iPhones or Droids or BlackBerrys. Games made popular on Facebook because of the social aspects can now also be played on increasingly faster and better mobile devices, and with other people. Facebook’s Events feature (which has largely become an annoyance: “Come to my DJ party 12 states away!”) are made more personal and less obnoxious through Eventbrite or RSVPHere.com, the latter of which essentially allows you to create, for free, a little microblog for your event. People can RSVP through the site, and events stay a bit more private than they would on Facebook. Plus, it’s easy to use.

Paper.li turns links from your Twitter feed into a newspaper/blog-like format

You can share links and articles through a cool newspaper-like service called Paper.Li. A neat photo-sharing app for iPhone called Instagram is basically Twitter with pictures. Tumblr is the latest social media media darling. You can even add the location where you took the photo.

There are hundreds of these types of services. Many will fail. Some will not. And those are the ones that you will combine together as you desire, eventually bringing Facebook to its knees. That sentence was way too overly dramatic.

Facebook is already failing in some of its offerings. It may be too soon to call its Places location feature a dud, but Foursquare is doing a much better job of alerting burglars to empty homes.

You've probably gotten an invite from here before. of these invites before.

Now, enough hate on Facebook. Let’s be real: It’s a great thing. It’s fun. It has enormous use in the business world. It connects people to companies and brands to the masses. It’s a lead generator for everything to music to movies to news articles or those neat-o things on the Internet. Facebook has a long time to go before it’s gone, even by technology standards.

Whether Facebook is here to stay depends on how well it can respond to the growing market of individual services that can do the same things it does, and how people will use those services to create their own experiences. If that’s the case, Facebook may be to social media to what the Model-T was for the automobile.

-Jeff (@jeffkelleyrva, or @jephkelley for the lighter side)

Oct
19

On Geolocation: Excerpt from GRID Magazine

by Feedback

From Richmond GRID (@richmondGrid), Autumn Issue:

Excerpt below from a feature on geolocation apps, popularity and more from Feedback, Inc’s Dean Browell (@dbrowell).


So who’s in your pocket these days – Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp, Facebook Places, or other?  Why one over the other?

I’m partial to Foursquare, interested in ShopKick, find Yelp helpful and will try anything.  Just watching the landscape.

So what’s the deal with Facebook Places?  Plan to use it, screw it, or could you care less about those knuckleheads in Palo Alto.

It’s important to not get distracted by just the check-in aspect.  Geo-location and even Facebook Places‘ role in it will be just as important for what it does for any of the 500 million + average users who never check in but nevertheless ends up impacted by the check-in data of others, such as choosing a restaurant or hospital based on who has been there or seeking the testimonial of a friend who they’ve seen has been there.

Who do you hope prevails in the geo wars?

For Foursquare and all the more geo-dedicated apps, there’s a long and storied history of innovating specialists having a place in the discerning consumer’s mind.  Just ask Apple or the entire craft brewing industry.

If you were sitting in the captain’s chair over at Foursquare or Gowalla, what would you say to Zuck?

“You were supposed to just take Microsoft’s money.”

Read the full article here…

Find more Feedback thoughts on Geolocation here…

Sep
19

Anna’s Social Media Picks of the Week – London, England Edition (09/17/10)

by Feedback

Do you have time to search the web everyday to find the newest social media tools? If the answer is no, then you have come to the right place. I have searched the World Wide Web for social media information all week, and stumbled upon a few favorites along the way. Here are my picks of the week:

The New Twitter:

This week, Twitter began rolling out a redesign. The “new” Twitter moves the search box up, has more relevant and customized search results, and has added filtering options. Filtering options include showing only tweets with links near your current location.

Social Media Stats:

A stat from last Saturday that is worth mentioning: The Pew Research Center did a recent study which indicated that people over age 50 now account for 42% of social networking users. Specifically,

“Some 47% of internet users ages 50-64 and 26% of users are 65 and older now use social networking sites . People aged over 50 now account for 42% of all social networking users, up from 22% a year ago.”

University Foursquare:

This week, Foursquare made it easier for universities to join their geo-location check-in service. Debuting Foursquare for Universities, colleges now have a page where they can apply to open their own branded profiles on Foursquare. Learn more about how universities are using Foursquare here.

Celebrity Twitter Auction:

If you want a celebrity or musician like Shaq (@therealshaq) or Eva Longoria (@evalongoria) to follow you on Twitter, you may be in luck. Twitchange is hosting the first ever celebrity Twitter auction (now through September 25th), where you can donate to ahomeinhaiti.org for a chance to have a celebrity follow, mention, or retweet you. Have Bieber fever? As Mashable expained, you’re not the only one:

The Justin Bieber Mega Package, described thusly, “Justin Bieber will follow you on Twitter for a minimum of 90 days, will retweet one of your tweets and will send out a tweet including your @twitterhandle,” is already up to $2,325.00 and 62 bids.

Facebook Places, UK:

Facebook places is now live in the UK… and just in time for our arrival. @Feedbackagency crew @alucas9 and @ideaman are working internationally for the next week, starting in London, England and ending in Paris, France. You can keep up with our travels by following us on Twitter; and if you’re in the UK, check-in on Places!

-Anna (@alucas9)