Facebook Tests Offsite Advertising

Business is really looking up for advertisers and app developers.  The past few weeks, Facebook has focused on obtaining advertisement revenues. Within two months, the network has introduced two mobile ad units and now comes a third. This one is however, is not inside Facebook, as most would expect.

The way it works, the user has to be logged into Facebook on mobile. By clicking a banner or full screen advertisements will take the user to either an app store, such as Android’s Google Play or iOS third party application, which the user can then download. Or, the user may also be directed to the advertiser’s own website that displays their products/ services.
The payment by advertisers depends on the type and audience size. The ads are mobile-specific that will appear off the network’s site, thereby reducing ad clutter on the platform itself to a large extent. Instead, the ad will be distributed across multiple platforms on mobile devices.
Maintaining user privacy had not been one of Facebook’s strength. However, lately, the network has prioritized identity and data. With this new ad initiative, the user’s identity remains anonymous. The target user data extracts their demographic information and is based on ‘likes’ and common apps shared by their user’s friends.’
This is the second round of offsite Facebook ads, the first ones having run on Zynga.com. If the test proves successful, then it would mean it benefits all concerned parties. Which is the user, who will be exposed to new way of app discovery, while Facebook and the advertisers share the profits. And the app developers will have found a more secure marketing strategy that will help expand their own user base.
At this point, Facebook is depending on other networks to monetize. Most reviewers predict how Facebook will eventually become independent and form their own advertising network. The advertising format is also being compared with Google’s Adwords. Difference being, while Google extracts keywords based on content, Facebook uses personal data for targeting of relevant ads.
Information regarding Facebook’s current partners who are in on the deal has been well concealed from media. Nevertheless, the wait may not be long for the rest when advertising bids are open to all.



Hakim Sadik Found this Post on Avenuesocial

Hakim Sadik exponentially improves the reach of Businesses and Online Marketers. A social media expert, Sadik, is the insightful leader of Avenue Social’s client service team. Sadik has helped over 1000 clients bring their social media and mobile applications to life.

Brilliant Business Acumen Show at Tech Event

For all the tech geeks out there, it’s time to come out from behind your tablets, mobiles and PC screens and into the real world.  Because neither emoticons nor chat messages can substitute the real you. Whatever you have to sell, it will be have to be through your physical appearance. And Mark Zuckerberg will vouch for that.

TechCrunch is a media platform that covers all things technology. TechCrunch Disrupt SF is an annual global event. It serves as an introductory platform for startup ventures. (Yammer started off here). The event concludes with a grand trophy, which is a cash prize of USD 50,000 to the most innovative startup of the year.

This year, Disrupt SF 2012 attracted scores of startups (estimated at 300) and angel investors from all over the world. For instance, the all-women run Forerunner Ventures. Another business initiative was presented by Hacker Rank as “The Olympics of Programming” for “building the largest   collection of the world’s most interesting problems for hackers to solve.

The presentation of each has been aggressive on the Battlefield. Microsoft GM Rahul Sood criticized p (k) Prior Knowledge, a cloud-based predictive database startup for application developers. Sood suggested a balance of business with creativity and for p (k) to include marketing professionals in their all-engineer team.

With tough competition, the judges’ panel, which includes CEO, Yahoo! Marissa Mayer, had a hard time deciding this year’s trophy winner.

The Facebook legacy

The highlight of this year’s TechCrunch Disrupt was the Fireside Chat with Facebook’s CEO. With 950 million users, there’s no looking back for Facebook’s CEO. This was his first appearance following the IPO plummet, which seems to have cleared the air a bit. It wasn’t just about what he spoke, which he could have sent on an e-mail.

Zuckerberg presence seems to have reassured investors that the social network has a viable future worth considering seriously. No sooner had his conversation ended with Michael Arrington of CrunchFund when Facebook shares rose by 4.6%.

Zuckerberg spoke of deeper mobile integration and monetization, work on “long term projects and build good stuff,” and plenty of opportunities in gaming and search conduction. He added how Facebook applications drive morale, such as on Instagram.

The interview also dispelled rumors regarding a Facebook mobile. Facebook is keener on integration on “all devices” than invest in hardware, Zuckerberg confirmed.

Referring to his own codes, Zuckerberg said “Everything we do breaks, but we fix it quickly.” It emitted laughter from the audience, but Facebook users still criticize the cost of such ‘mistakes’ that resulted in irreversible privacy loss.  However, Zuckerberg admitted to “betting too much on HTML5 than native” being their “biggest strategic mistake” in mobile development, now rectified on iOS with Objective C as programming language.

With all said and done, all startups and seasoned businesses should learn from this: there is no room for mistakes in the tech world, whether it’s one user or 950 million of them.

Hakim Sadik Found this Post on Avenuesocial

Hakim Sadik exponentially improves the reach of Businesses and Online Marketers. A social media expert, Sadik, is the insightful leader of Avenue Social’s client service team. Sadik has helped over 1000 clients bring their social media and mobile applications to life.

Share this:

• 
  

Facebook’s Need For Speed-y Action

“We’ve rebuilt the app so it’s faster and easier to use.” With this latest statement issued at the iTunes store, Facebook has gained several points with its mobile users.

When in Rome…Facebook may have understood the need but seemed to have avoided the eventual: which was to go native on the iOS. Finally, they recently hauled their mobile app on iPhone and iPad by switching from the web-friendly HTML5 to i-friendly Objective C. The 5.0 version update contains more than double the speed than its predecessor.

We can only guess the reason for delay. Could be because HTML5 allows direct access to content and updates, whereas using Objective C means rerouting through the app store. By the time the app opened to Newsfeed, it would be time for the user on the go (Facebook needs to be reminded of this), to get on with whatever is on their busy agenda. Another reason could be HTML5’s cross-platform compatibility.

This delay proved costly as users deleted the app because of its snail-paced speed. Goes to show the company needs to speed up its decision-making and action process too. But what they have made it clear that mobile is the way to go. And hopefully they’re reading up on feedback too.

Users do understand the trouble that goes into making technological changes. One little feedback among a torrent of spam can prove to be most useful for companies like Facebook, who attempt to balance their monetary success, which is not happening as well as expected, but also to fulfill user demands that are just as fast paced.

So time is most crucial here, because of the growing competition among social networks like Foursquare that are completely mobile. And no sooner have they improved on speed come a another hail of comments about how they need to work on other features such as sharing and to pay equal attention to other mobile devices such as Android and Blackberry.

On the other hand there are Facebook developers who have to contend with the changes too. They have been content since the introduction of Facebook App Center on iPhone, because that meant they did not have to make create two separate apps for the web plus iOS. It may be that they would have to do a little more learning. Right now Facebook apps on require a blend of PHP and HTML5, but it’s likely that it will soon become mandatory for all programming languages to be device-specific. It’s now a question of how cross platform compatibility will be possible when and if the change does happen.

Hakim Sadik Found this Post on Avenuesocial

Hakim Sadik exponentially improves the reach of businesses and online marketers. A social media expert, Sadik, is the insightful leader of Avenuesocial client service team. 

Of Music, Sports and Social Media

The closing ceremony of Olympics 2012 was all glitz and glamour, showcasing the music and fashion culture of Britain in its prime. The event appeared more a rock concert than sport-oriented. But the audience looked thoroughly entertained and even the participants didn’t seem to mind being sidelined for the show. But what this Olympics event apart was how it outclassed all other sport events in history as far as duration and artists was concerned.

The main reason for the exaggerated attention to music can be attributed to the amount of social activity that revolved around the event. Olympics 2012 has been considered most technologically advanced and social-centered event in the history of the Olympiads and frequently referred to as ‘social games’ or social Olympics ‘The organizing committee was aware of the discussions that poured in by the minute on various social networks. Facebook was the most active network, followed by Twitter. So much so that Facebook apps and games were especially created with the Olympics as their central theme.

Olympics is not the only sports event to provide music-rich entertainment. Soccer too has seen a flurry of music activity, featuring some of the most distinguished artists. ‘Waka Waka’ was the official song for FIFA 2010 performed by Shakira. The song caught the world’s attention for it colorful mix of Afro-English performance.  Ricky Martin’s ‘Cup of Life’ for FIFA 1998 became an instant hit. Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Let’s Get Loud’ was dedicated to spur up the US soccer team in 1994.  The list goes on. The commercial interests of such partnerships are great for both: the event attracts a larger crowd because of the added entertainment while musicians receive instant worldwide publicity and high sales record.

Perform, a sports media group survey revealed that1 in 4 American citizens ‘follow sports via social media.’ Certainly encouraging news for those planning future sports events. Social media provides quick updates through posts and news rather than watching entire lengths of programs. This works out especially for those who are not as passionate about sports. Not only do the fans benefit, but so do the participants. By creating Facebook fan page, participants have the opportunity to interact with players. This is also a fair means for achieving recognition especially for the newcomers and amateurs.

With these three very powerful influences future sports events are likely to be even more exciting. The culturally rich and vibrant Brazil, the next Olympic venue is definitely going to make the most it all.

Hakim Sadik Found this Post on Avenuesocial

Hakim Sadik exponentially improves the reach of businesses and online marketers. A social media expert, Sadik, is the insightful leader of Avenuesocial client service team. 

Unified Marketing and Advertisement on Social Media

Unified marketing tends to make optimal use the variety of advertising platforms present today, which include both new and old platforms such as outdoor billboards, television, social media, tablets, PCs and smartphones. While some platforms are more limited than others social media is one that offers the broadest forms of campaigning, where the door to door salesman is now replaced by word-of mouth by users within the network. Most of all, it is the variety and flexibility in its content that makes social media marketing diverse as much as it is enriching.

The concept does not directly oppose integrated marketing, but in effect, has broken away from traditional methods. The earlier belief that repetition or persistence turned customers into buyers is no longer withheld. Such tactics only tended to annoy and drive away customers. Also, the uniformity of advertisements across various media simply seemed a waste. On the other hand, unified marketing treats each platform in a distinct manner and marketing campaigns are customized accordingly.

This brings us to content management. While text and photos have their own standing, the use of videos and movies is increasingly gaining lead, ahead of text and images. One of the main reasons is that this type of content is no longer dependent on professional video equipment nor staff, but an application. With a touch of a tab, anyone can create a video or movie. Not to mention what was once a very expensive investment, now there are no monetary costs involved. It all depends on what a user has fed into his or her posts. The most advantageous of all factors is that off site venues such as Facebook allow user control, unlike third parties, which are controlled by their owners. This control factor is very important for brands, which can administer, edit and monitor the content at their will rather than depending on others who may not have an inkling of the company’s vision and goals.

Most recently, a Facebook application has caught the attention for its unique experience. ‘Timeline Movie Maker’ app creates a one-minute movie, the contents of which are extracted from the user data. This is a direct incentive towards brands looking for inimitable marketing campaigns. Designed by a marketing agency that specializes in unified marketing, the app is an ideal strategy tool for companies to highlight their past and present achievements. For those who have figured how to get timeline on Facebook, their next step should be implementing in-built applications or have them created by Facebook application developers.

Hakim Sadik Found this Post on Avenuesocial

Hakim Sadik exponentially improves the reach of businesses and online marketers. A social media expert, Sadik, is the insightful leader of Avenuesocial client service team. 

Growth Hacker: what’s in a name?

As one reviewer puts it, growth hacker is more than just a role—it’s a ‘way of thinking.’

And it’s high time they are given due recognition. While the job title has been recently coined, the job description is not new. To give the merger a name serves to boost the confidence of those who had long fit the criteria of marketer with technical skills. Facebook Fan Page creators are a prime example because of their ability to apply their creative as well as technical skills to increase fan base for a business.

But let’s not confuse once again through designations and organograms. Although due credit must be given for providing clarity in concept, some reviewers disagree with Andrew Chen’s blog, which sounds a pitch off for assigning growth hackers the post of ‘VP Marketing’! My assumption is it tends to detract and/or disturb core business operations. Since growth hackers function to provide scalable and sustainable marketing for startup ventures, they must instead focus on maintaining equilibrium with staff and company goals as well as possess an individual identity to work independently. At this point, social media is ripe for growth hacking. Facebook has streamlined them as ‘marketing developers’ who are adopting various marketing techniques in line with software development, such asFacebook applications.

Another major responsibility for growth hackers is to continually adapt and then readapt their methodology to fit dynamic needs of a business. This ability to adjust is what sets them apart from the typical marketers. For them to work alongside VPs of relevant departments would be ideal rather than replace them. This means collaborating with multiple teams and departments that fall categorically under marketing, sales and production. They may already be working within the organization without recognition of their expertise.

Another key point is to focus on the system as a whole and not the person. Businesses are sometimes too people-dependent. In this case, when a specific individual leaves an organization, the entire department is affected. System dependency, on the other hand, is therefore considered more reliable, where organizations make it very clear to their employees that they are not indispensable. Growth hackers serve as part of the system: their absence will not be halt production processes, but their presence will serve to complement marketing and boost sales figures.

Hakim Sadik Found this Post on Avenuesocial

Hakim Sadik exponentially improves the reach of Businesses and Online Marketers. A social media expert, Sadik, is the insightful leader of Avenue Social’s client service team. Sadik has helped over 1000 clients bring their social media and mobile applications to life.

Is Apple Isolating Users Through Limited Content?

No one knows for sure what the up and coming iOS6 will have, but they are certain of what it will not have, which is, its competitors’ services. Already Apple ousted Google Maps and instead indicated they have their very own mapping technology as pre installed application on iOS6 devices.

This is now followed by the termination of their contract with the YouTube app, another Google acquisition. Apple confirmed they intended to use Vimeo, acquired by Apple a few months back.

Very brave decisions. Apple Inc may have weighed the pros against the cons, but can’t say they can be commended. Sure there’s valid reason behind them, such as excessive advertising of Google AdSense.  Also Google has the upper hand to promote their content over others. The previous month’s comScore report showed Google in the top slots in the US online video ranking and Vimeo though slowly gaining viewership is down at 10.

But in their bid to be independent and focus on high standards, they are not just isolating themselves, but the users. Other smartphones have a large share in the market because they cater to the masses. YouTube ranks highest among the video websites in the world. That such popular apps have been discarded will prevent people from using iOS technology. No matter how brilliant their iOS apps, very soon they will find themselves losing their largest share of smartphone customers.

User needs should be given top priority. Everything is about connecting and integrating. People want an expansive and extensive reach wherever possible. This was earlier achieved through the internet, became more so through social media and games apps which proved more capable in allowing people to share content. Most importantly, users want as many choices available so they can decide which service to use. Excluding popular apps and installs will just leave them wondering what it is they are missing out.

As if this wasn’t enough, analysts believe that the world’s top search engine, Google is next in line to be sliced off iOS6. At the minimum, it will not be the default search engine and worst case, it will not be present at all.

At this point, media has concluded this to be more than healthy competition. They consider it as outright ‘rivalry’. Most affected are the end users. What they could be offered instead are the best of both worlds. Perhaps third party app developers could make some merger apps that could be native to iOS and compatible with Android OS. This is still early speculation and there are chances for all kind of possibilities to develop. Maybe even an iOS-Android smartphone…!?!

 Hakim Sadik founds out this Original By SocialJitney.Com