Thursday, 20 September 2012

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.

Friday, 14 September 2012

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.