Tag Archives: facebook

VLAB Event – The Real Time Web: Imperative or Insanity?

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real time webThe cost of creating, sharing and distributing data in real time has become essentially zero, leading to an explosion of user generated content. Currently, every minute,

  • 500,000 pieces of content are shared on Facebook,
  • 70,000 bit.ly links are clicked,
  • 25,000 messages are created on Twitter,
  • 1,000 blog posts go live, and
  • 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube.

Over the last decades, the amount of data created by individuals has doubled every 1.5 to 2 years. Technologies like pubsubhubbub and xmpp are making it easier to push that firehose of data out to users, with only a millisecond of latency from thought and distribution. But how do we effectively use that data to make decisions that drive value for consumers and businesses?  How much is too much to handle? And what’s the opportunity for the entrepreneur?

In this event, we engage with entrepreneurs, investors, and established players to separate reality from hype, and explore the following questions:

  • Is real-time technology just for pesky marketers and profit-hungry wall street traders, or is there something in there for the rest of us?
  • Where and how can real-time data help us make better decisions?
  • How can we enable users to effectively digest and manage the ever-increasing torrents of information?
  • What are the opportunities and possible new business models?
  • What psychological principles drive the addiction of ever changing, seemingly relevant real time data?
  • And what’s the real time entrepreneur to do about it?

When
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
6:00pm – 7:00pm – Networking and Refreshment
7:00pm – 8:30pm – Panel Discussion and Q/A

Where
Stanford Business School

Register here

Got a cross-platform app for that?

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According to a recent eMarketer article based on a report from DM2PRO and Quattro Wireless, apps for social networks in addition to mobile apps are under consideration by more marketers than ever before. Among those marketers who already had an app in 2009, Facebook was the leading platform.

Spending on social apps, however, will stagnate even though more marketers have already developed the applications.

Fewer than one-half of marketers created either a mobile or social app in 2009, but most plan to invest in a mobile app this year. The iPhone is the platform of choice, followed by Android.

There’s some solid reasoning behind the choice to move more resources to mobile. According to Scott Monty “The strategy: [is to] create more opportunity for engagement with customers. On social networks, we’ll see a greater opportunity for reach, targeting and sharing, but with mobile there’s more creative control and the ability to have a message stick with the recipient longer.”

The top one-third of marketers using mobile apps planned to up their investments by 75% or more. The reasons:

  • increase in mobile use by target audience
  • increased standardization in mobile
  • better tools to build mobile apps
  • and notably: the ability to create flashed based cross-platform apps.

Summary: during 2010 we are going to see interesting cross-platform app based campaigns leveraging each of  the distinct characteristics of social and mobile.

Branding with Facebook’s vanity URLs

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Starting Sunday, June 28 at 12:01am EST, Facebook has allowed all page owners to register a so called vanity URL.

With a vanity URL, brands can improve their presence on the web. These URLs can be easily recognized anywhere (i.e. http://www.facebook.com/audi for Audi), and they can help a profile page appear more prominently in search results. There’s another incentive to get a vanity URL: preventing someone else to use a vanity URL with your brand.

Vanity URLs come when FB is rolling out a number of other public-facing features useful to brands. FB’s new “Everything is Public by Default” setting allows to send out status updates and other information that are publicly available. This is excellent for brands, as a public-facing profile can be viewed by anyone. Companies can now have their social media presence established as a true extension of their brands, products and services.

FB is also making ads more interactive. For example, you might see an ad for a brand’s page, see a “become a fan” button, and officially become a fan without having going to the page itself. Vanity URLs facilitate consistency with the ad message or title.

Summary: FB is blending advertising with content users are sharing. The URLs make the brand more transmittable and accessible, while the ads invite users to create and disseminate co-created content. This branded content then becomes increasingly public and relevant.