google Plus. Why it’s not about becoming another Facebook.

Juli 2nd, 2011 • 6 comments Social, Strategy, Tools, Trends
Tags: Facebook, Foursquare, google, Social, Social Networks, Strategy, Tools, Twitter

Unless you have been hiding under a rock you probably have heard about google+ or you are already registered user. And just in case you hid under a rock, I let the guys from NMA News explain what google+ is…simply because I love their videos.

So after testing google Plus for two days I am as positive about it as most others I talked to. google simply built a platform with more Pros than Cons. Something you can imagine to use in the future because it combines some of the best features of everything you already use and wraps them in one platform. Ooooh…and a couple of nice new concepts come with the package: google hangout for example (definitely a winner). And I guess Facebook really jumpstarts now to get the Skype cooperation up and running. Among other things.

Stupid debates usually start with terms like (fill blank) killer. Can you remember one game changing product that was announced as the iPhone/Facebook/whatever killer and lived up to it? Not one product out there. And I think the industry has become smart enough not to put this into the focus of discussions around google+ too much. Simply because it is pointless.

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OMFG. Facebook Eats the Web.

Juni 27th, 2011 • Social, Trends
Tags: Diagram, Facebook, Future, Media, Prediction, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Trends, Truth, World

About two weeks after the world almost ended Inside Facebook reported about a couple of people enjoying summertime instead of staring at their computer monitors 24/7 traffic drop on Facebook the opposite seems to be true. Facebook in fact eats the Internet.

Ben Ellowitz, Founder and SEO of Wetpaint writes:

When you exclude just Facebook from the rest of the Web, consumption in terms of minutes of use shrank by nearly nine percent between March 2010 and March 2011, according to data from comScore. And, even when you include Facebook usage, total non-mobile Internet consumption still dropped three percent over the same period.

Technically he separates between two different webs: The dominating Facebook-driven web and the web of documents. And the web of documents is under sever pressure. “The illusion of the growth of the internet is just that – a mirage caused by Facebook posting 69% growth over the last year.” (We are Social). Ellowitz’ conclusion: future companies will need to spend less time on SEO, and more time on optimizing for Facebook – the web inside the web.

Read the full article here. I don’t think Facebook can replace the document web. But to be honest, I don’t want to find out. It seems we are currently handing over the greatest invention of mankind to Goldman Sachs and Mister Zuckerberg. Doesn’t feel right.

Gaming. EA’s Call of Duty Elite explained by TheLegendofKarl.

Juni 3rd, 2011 • Games
Tags: Black Ops, Brands, Cool, Creativity, EA, Funny, Gaming, People, Social Gaming, Social Networks, Strategy, Tech, Tools, We like

For me as a digital market guy the gaming industry is in many ways a blueprint for what is happening later on social networks, mobile phones and on websites. Gamification? I think the concept of social networks itself was invented by the game industry years before anybody ever heard of Facebook. For years many games had more social network elements embedded than many social campaigns today. Do for example check out the new Call of Duty Elite trailer which is all about EAs new multiplayer service. It’s not a campaign, it’s not a mobile app – it’s a pretty comprehensive social product which will now become organic part for some of the most popular entertainment products ever.

Thanks to creativity online for the link.

Social Strategies. Altimeter’s great & ugly compendium.

Mai 25th, 2011 • Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Altimeter, Diy, Presentation, Report, Social, Social Business Design, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks

Charlene Li – one of the spiritual mothers of social media – has achieved two things with the following presentation: She simultaneously wins the award for one of the best and one the ugliest presentations I have seen on this topic in a while. Seriously Altimeter – I know you guys listen: I love your thoughts. But there are designers out there who can help you out with a Powerpoint template or a new logo or something… (via We are social)

Death? There is an App for that.

Mai 18th, 2011 • People
Tags: App, Apps, Creativity, death, Experimental, Facebook, Ideas, People, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networking, Social Networks, World

Imagine you get hit by this bus tomorrow on your way to work. Probably the last thing that comes to your mind is what happens to your social network connections. Anyway most platforms have clear rules on how to deal with your LOLCat pictures after you have deceased. And your Death 2.0 is alternatively very actively manageable through a bunch of other tools.

But now we have the one thing we very looking for for so long. If I Die is a Facebook application that allows afterlife Facebook status updates. You just leave behind your last message on Facebook, name three friends…and tell your loved ones what you really think of them.

via Digital Buzz Blog

Campaign + LinkedIn. Just a more serious Facebook Connect?

April 27th, 2011 • 2 comments Brands, Experimental, Social, Tech, Tools
Tags: Agencies, Amex, Amsterdam, Brands, Creativity, Experimental, Ideas, LinkedIn, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Trends, Volkswagen

Yesterday I stumbled upon the first major digital campaign that builds upon LinkedIn’s open API – Volkswagen’s LinkedUit campaign here in the Netherlands (Source). The online special builds up on the Volkswagen Passat campaign ‘Nogal vol van zichzelf’ (‘quite full of himself’) and uses your LinkedIn connections to discover profane information in your profile and compares it to an opponent’s data in your LinkedIn circle of connections. The more information your profile contains the more likely you will win against an opponent of your chosing.

Volkswagen’s online special is light weight fun, looks nice and is well integrated with LinkedIn – which is of course the actually interesting aspect of this digital campaign. Because of course – Achtung Amsterdam and Volkswagen could have alternatively used Facebook Connect. But they went for innovation and decided to use LinkedIn’s open API.
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Facebook. The 100 Most Engaged Brand Pages.

März 17th, 2011 • 3 comments Brands, Social
Tags: Analytics, Engagement, Facebook, Measurement, Metrics, Report, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Study

One of the tougher elements of my job is to benchmark client metrics against competing digital ecosystems. This is because it’s not very easy to keep track of competitor data beyond pure community size (such as engagement metrics). Allfacebook along with Wired and NYC based monitoring company FanGager have just published a very interesting overview over the 15 most engaging pages on Facebook, based on Feb 2011 activity. Well, thanks to @mitsuo it is actually the 100 most engaged brands. You can find the full list here.

Engagement is defined here as ‘fans’ (likers sounds too stupid) who either post, comment or like over the course of a month. Or in other words, the people who actually do something in your community. The brand pages mentioned here are huge players on Facebook. But as you can also see there is more than just a gap between their community size and the top of the pyramid which actually is actively posting or responding. It is not very surprising – but it shows once more that aggregating likes simply doesn’t make the world go round alone.

What do you think? Are you surprised by this quota as well? Did you expect that? Leave a comment!

Web Videos. Evian Rollerbabies vs VW’s The Force.

Februar 22nd, 2011 • 1 comment Social
Tags: Brands, Creativity, Evian, Experimental, Facebook, Sharing, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Twitter, video, Viral, VW, youtube

Even though I would like to shoot myself every time I hear the term ‘viral video’ there certainly is a social trigger that turns TV commercials into something users like to share online. Some of the most successful examples over the last two years were Evian’s Roller Babies and VW’s commercial ‘The Force’.

Check out how much reach these two ads generated. Particularly interesting – Evian definitely had more Youtube views, but interaction with VW’s film seems to be much higher (via Griffin Farley).

Morgan Stanley. State of the Web 2010.

November 18th, 2010 • Reports
Tags: Business, Lifestyle, Mobile, Prediction, Presentation, Reports, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Strategy, Tools, Trends, Truth, World

Every year anew Morgan Stanley’s state of the web presentations provide a lot of food for new thoughts in digital marketing. You can find the deck below. And I guess you’ll also be amazed by the dynamics that are reshaping our world. (via BBH)

google Me. Or: How I stopped worrying and learned to love Privacy.

Juli 12th, 2010 • Business, Social, Strategy
Tags: Business, Facebook, google, google me, Prediction, Presentation, privacy, Reports, Social Networks, Strategy, World

Most of you may have heard about the so called Facebook killer ‘Google Me‘ that supposedly binds half of google’s resources currently. And as most of you know, google has not exactly been successful with social networking by now. Especially after google Buzz also failed as a platform that is able to compete with Facebook. google knows they need to get their hands on social. Why? Steve Rubel explains it quite well…

google will ‘continue to dominate “pull.” But Facebook will aggregate content, make it social and rule “push.” Using our social circle it will surface content that we care about just when we want it – and allow us to comment on it all. As more people use Facebook to connect, share and create, a network effect takes over – and the system get even smarter.’ And that is exactly what google needs to do to stay alive in the long term.

No matter how successful Facebook is with its social strategy – they need to conquer Planet Push asap or become Facebook’s junior partner. In the middle of all the buzz about google Me we have to read the deck embedded below as a first rationale for google’s new platform – not as the ‘designing social networks’ deck that it wants to be. It was created by one of google’s lead User Experience architects Paul Adams and it criticizes Facebook existing social networks and the way they make people interact with a clear focus on privacy. What a surprise!

Even beyond the google Me hype – definitely a deck worth to take a look at (even though it is looooong).

Big question: Do you think google might make it this time? Do you believe privacy will be an USP strong enough to differentiate google Me from Facebook? Leave a reply.

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