When Zynga burst onto the scene it seemed like social gaming was going to revolutionize the industry, fast forward a few years later and Zynga is in decline and competitors such as Playdom and Playfish have also watched users jump ship as their products continue to age out of the market.
In the meantime a new social gaming market is emerging, one that once again removes “casual gamers” from the mix and instead focuses on serious online gamers with a penchant for complex video games that feature every improving gaming experiences and more incentives to continue playing.
So how should social game developers approach social game purchases? According to Arkadium they need to follow the 5 W’s of social game purchase. read more
Facebook in its never ending attempt to increase revenue via ads is preparing to test a new set of advertisements that will invade a users news feed.
Unlike past efforts the new ads will not require a user or their friends to have visited a brand page or website before the ads show up.
In the past a company could only advertise within a Facebook users news feed if that user had liked their brand page or interacted in some way with the brand. That form of advertising provided targeted user traffic but didn’t allow company’s to attract new users to the brand. read more
Facebook’s use of facial recognition is once again coming under the watchful eye of Germany’s lawmakers. Officials this week launched a new probe into the social networks use of photo collecting based on its technology. Lawmakers are concerned that Facebook is taking photos without user consent.
Lawmakers in June launched a similar probe at which time data protection commissioner Johannes Casper was suspended for offering Facebook more time to update its policies. Facebook since Casper’s threat has not updated its practices. Casper has now re-opened the investigation. If Facebook is found to have illegally collected photos via face-recognition software without a users consent it could face millions of dollars in fines.
Facebook in the meantime spoke with Mashable and said of its practices:
“We believe that the photo tag suggest feature on Facebook is fully compliant with EU data protection laws. During our continuous dialogue with our supervisory authority in Europe, the Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, we agreed to develop a best practice solution to notify people on Facebook about photo tag suggest.”
Facebook rolled out the facial recognition program to all users, forcing them to opt-out rather than to opt-in to the new software option.
Surely Facebook’s acquisition of facial recognition software company Face.com in June 2012 didn’t help their now re-opened case in Germany.
Does Facebook’s facial recognition software freak you out?
If the gymnastics and swimming weren’t enough to get you in the spirit of the Olympics, at least take a look at some of the many lessons the Olympics have brought to Internet marketers. Because the Olympics are so widely known, perhaps the most widely known brand of our time, they don’t have to do as much marketing as your traditional company. However, the Olympics have sparked other companies to incorporate the games into their marketing strategies. In addition, the games themselves offer up some important teachings for those in the marketing industry. Consider a few of the lessons you can take away:
While a full page ad in your local newspaper might grab the attention of a few readers it is ultimately a numbers game. By that I simply mean not everyone looking at that page will want or need a haircut. Realizing the tragic flaw in print advertising Google this week took out a newspaper ad meant to attack traditional newspaper advertising.
Published in Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper the ad went after the paper and its fellow newspapers.
In the ad Google proclaims:
“You know who needs a haircut? People searching for a haircut,” and “Maybe that’s why ads on Google work.”
Instagram has only been around since 2010 but the social photo sharing service is quickly becoming a vehicle not only for traditional photo posting but also as a way to share events with massive reach. The social media engagement and monitoring firm VenueSeen recently took a look at photo sharing during the 2012 Summer Olympics and discovered that more than 64,000 pictures were Instagram shared by spectators and athletes in London.
Olympic organizers originally tried to ban the sharing of images, videos and audio recordings from the event, claiming copyright control over events, however with almost every visitor to the London Olympics carrying a smartphone that copyright protection proved to be impossible to control.
The massive sporting event eventually posted guidelines to be followed for athletes and spectators but instead pictures and videos flowed freely.
To determine which photos were Olympic generated the team at VenueSeen examined geo-tagged and hashtagged photos from the 2012 Olympics on Instagram. read more
Instagram isn’t just about adding filters to images, 40% of America’s top 100 brands are now using the social photo sharing website to build a stronger web presence while attracting new supporters.
The company Simply Measured conducted a quick study by examining the Interbrand Top 100 Global Brands list and then examining which of those company’s have a presence on Instagram. In comparison 98% of those brands are on Facebook and 94% are on Twitter.
Instagram is growing in important now that it has grown from 15 million iPhone users since the beginning of 2012 to more than 80 million iPhone and Google Android users since being purchased by Facebook.
Web users these days grow tired of the same old marketing practices at a rather alarming rate, with more brands realizing the power photos and Instagram integration can bring to their brands we can expect to see more Instagram accounts for top brands in the near future. read more
Though the brutal social networking war has lost the interest of most news outlets, gruesome battles continue to take place behind the scenes as the arms race for users escalates. Facebook’s IPO has left the brand bloodied, and Google has seized on this moment of weakness to bolster their own offering, Google+, in the eyes of consumers. Meanwhile, MySpace seems to be taking a different strategy and reinventing itself as the music discovery service it was originally envisioned as. Shots continue to ring out across the digital ether, and with every blow levied, each social network has just one task ahead of them: Becoming distinct enough from other networks while pulling in more users. read more
A business needs momentum to sustain itself. For momentum, growth is essential. There are many ways in which you can see growth in business. For instance, advertisements, marketing promotions, extending offers, freebies and discounts. Of course, it goes without saying that you need to ensure quality products for all this to work.
To give your business a real boost, you can use other avenues too, the internet being a prime example of taking your business forward. In fact the net has taken shopping and allied services to a totally different level. With a large number of online shopping sites, consumers can explore shopping options they would seldom have had access to. The net is also a boon for small businesses to spread the word of their existence. Your website will generate more footfalls when a larger number of people are aware of your products and services. And what better way to do it than the social media sites? The sheer reach of Twitter with its 100 million users, Facebook with 800 million devoted users and LinkedIn with 64 million in North America alone is nothing short of staggering. read more
6.5 million users watched as their personal LinkedIn account information was hacked in June 2012 and now the company has promised to counter future network breaches by spending big network security.
LinkedIn reported another strong and profitable Q2 2012 and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner told investors this week at the company’s earnings call that the cost of security would effect the bottom line by upwards of $2 million to $3 million.
According to Weiner:
“In June, we reported the theft of six-and-a-half million LinkedIn member passwords that were published on an unauthorized website. Though no member login information was published, we disabled the passwords of the accounts that we deemed to be at risk. Since then, we have redoubled our efforts to ensure the safety of member accounts on LinkedIn by further improving password-strengthening measures and enhancing the security of our infrastructure and data. The health of our network, as measured by member growth and engagement, is as strong as it was prior to the incident.”
Weiner’s sentiments were echoed by LInkedIn SVP and CFO Steve Sordello who told investors the company has already spent upwards of $1 million handling the breach. read more
When Zynga burst onto the scene it seemed like social gaming was going to revolutionize the industry, fast forward a few years later and Zynga is in decline and competitors such as Playdom and Playfish have also watched users jump ship as their products continue to age out of the market.
