Facebook Testing Location Awareness

As Facebook Places, Events, Groups, Photos, Mobile, etc begin to interact with each other, it is clear that a common thread: location and proximity. That's why I was struck by the following test unit by Facebook, "Are You In This Location?"

First, I was not in Denver. Nor was I close (in Palo Alto). So I am not sure where exactly they are getting the suggested location.

Second, assuming they can intelligently understand location (particularly easy with mobile activity), what does this lead to? My gut is that location becomes a secondary social filter (obviously behind friends) and the uniting component between Facebook several new products.

Lastly, this suggests an attempt to automate the location field... otherwise it would be positioned as "Where are you?" and the input field would be open-ended rather than binary (correct / incorrect).

Use Facebook Connect to Eliminate Mobile App Registration, Login

I have two mobile application pet peeves: 1. when the first thing I see is a registration flow. 2. and when the registration doesn't use Facebook's steamlined flow. The goal for app developers is to convert downloads into users - and then drive repeat usage. Obviously conversion efficiency is critical ... and each incremental step is an opportunity for drop-off.

Facebook's new mobile Connect flow is a huge improvement and significantly better than asking new users to enter account information. There are two important options:

First, Facebook allows users to connect by running Facebook as a background application. How this works: when a users Connects with Facebook, Facebook opens as a new background application and asks the users for publishing permissions. Importantly, the user never needs to enter / type information AND the application automatically toggles to and from Facebook for authentication.

Second, you can also login directly to Facebook... and in addition to the email address, users can login using their mobile number. This is effective because:

1. your 10 digit phone number is likely shorter than your email address 2. typos are far less likely on the number keypad

Here is an example of Groupon's iPhone app automatically toggling to Facebook for authentication:

The only action by the user is agreeing to the normal publishing requests (using Living Social as the example):

And login via email or phone number:

Three Reasons Why Facebook Deals is Important.

Three visual reason why Facebook Deals shouldn't be overlooked... despite being a day old and despite the large lead of Groupon and LivingSocial. 1. Facebook already has the distribution of consumers AND advertisers to kick-start the product. Raising awareness and driving adoption can be encouraged via promotion, feed virality, etc:

2. Advertisers are already on Facebook. And Facebook users are already used to interacting with brands and ads. In simplest terms, Deals is really just a different ad format... but rather than asking users to click or like, they can "buy" in-line. That's powerful. It has worked well for "liking" - which is both an in-line action and a social behavior... why shouldn't it work for purchases?

3. Facebook is the most used and downloaded mobile application. Mobile represents two important things for Deals: A) the ability to use location / proximity to deliver targeted deals B) a huge viral hook through push notifications and SMS (my phone buzzed all day as friends liked / bought related deals)

Having to Unlearn Twitter to Learn Tweetbot... A Designer's Dilemma

After reading the rave reviews, I traded in Twitter's iPhone App for Tweetbot. It's great - glossy, fast and customizable. And while I prefer Tweetbot to Twitter's client - it made me realize how challenging / uncomfortable unlearning and relearning certain behaviors are. After using Twitter's application for so long, I struggle each time I want to reply or favorite a tweet. It's different and therefore challenging.

I am not entirely sure what the lesson is for Tweetbot: If the interactions are too alike Twitter's, the value proposition lacks; but if it is too different, it becomes unusable. Ultimately, the burden is on the developers to:

1. create a uniquely compelling product such that it is worth exploring & learning

1A. this is more difficult when operating within an exisiting platform (ala Tweetbot :: Twitter)

2. focus on the first user experience and convey the product's functionality (and intricies) immediately

3. don't over complicate the product. This is the most difficult part: distinguishing the product while still keeping it simple.

... and, even for Twitter, that can be hard.

Twitter Promotes Mobile Apps & SMS To Logged-Out Users. Smart.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about Facebook's post-logout promotion of Facebook Mobile - which helped to significantly increase iPhone usage (+20% in a week).

Meanwhile, another giant social / mobile player is now doing the same. Twitter has recently redesigned their homepage and, in an effort to view it, I logged out of my account today. I was greeted with the following screen:

For Facebook, the unit's efficacy makes sense because, despite targeting logged out users, it is still highly targeted ... and therefore still counts as "in the river marketing". So why shouldn't this work with Twitter?

And Twitter's approach to showcasing their App across all platforms is equally compelling (and reminiscent to Amazon's marketing).

Also interesting is the dual action item of "download now" and "use via SMS". Both actions route content directly to your mobile device either by email or SMS. Once there, you are either directly engaged or Twitter is able to direct you to the appropriate application / app-store. Smart.

Twitter Promoted Tweets & Effective Real-Time, Event-Based Advertising

For much of today, my blog was unaccessible because Media Temple had a far-reaching outage.

After unsuccessfully trying to reach my site, I was made aware of this through Twitter (why no email correspondence?)... with a simple search of "Media Temple", there were endless tweets referencing the outage. This of course speaks to the power of Twitter's instantaneous news stream; but surprisingly, it also spoke to the potential power of Twitter's Promoted Tweets ad system. Media Temple competitor Storm On Demand saw this is a immediate opportunity to reach targeted searchers and acquire new users with a specialized coupon. Smart. And Twitter is the perfect system for this short-lived, real-time marketing opportunity.

Facebook is terrific for reaching hyper-targeted users (demographic, location, taste / preference, etc). And this is an example of Twitter's effectiveness around real-time, event-based advertising.

Facebook Testing, Promoting Around Proximity

Below are two Facebook promotional units that I have seen more of:1. Friends in City, State 2. Friends' Popular Places Notably both are around location and proximity. Interestingly, one is focused on my home-town and the other on my travels: - the popular places are expectedly near my home city and regular Facebook Places check-ins. - the other unit though is showcasing friends outside of my city. I suspect that it is choosing Los Angeles because I have checked-in there multiple times over the last month.

Clearly proximity and location will play a key role in the forthcoming Facebook Deals... I imagine this is part of the piping / testing that will tie together location, Places, Deals and (of course) friends.

Google Mobile Weather Demonstrates HTML5 Power

Search for "weather 94025" on your mobile phone. What Google has done is very impressive. First, the search result is overtaken with a weather forecast (similar to other 'smart search' categories like sports scores, news, etc). Second, Google has used HTML5 to effectively create a lightweight application within the browser. As you shift the slider, the weather, temperature and skyline color change according to to the time. The interaction is fluid and occurs instantly.

Obviously Google has also done terrific mobile work on their apps suite (ie GMail, Calendar, Docs, etc). And they are motivated to make the mobile web components work rather than core applications... which would have to work work cross-platform / device.

For Social Ads, Voice and Relevance are more Important than Just Reach.

This Twitter post / ad from Darrelle Revis of the New York Jets is a reminder that ads need to be relevant. And relevancy is a function of voice AND message. This is precisely why I am bullish on Facebook Ads and Google +1. Darrelle Revis is a star and he's got a strong twitter following (160,000). But neither of those qualify him to be a Motorola Xoom spokesman who raves about the 10.1" HD widescreen. Traditional commercials might allow for more creativity - but when Revis touts the Xoom in text, it is neither authentic nor convincing. I would much rather hear a techy voice and/or friend praise the Xoom (much more compelling) or here Revis talk about products / brands more relevant to him.

... and this has nothing to do with the fact I dislike the Jets =)