Foursquare Mayor Local Offers in the Wild

About a month ago, TechCrunch reported of local offers being issued through Foursquare specifically to mayors. It is a powerful example of in-application monetization that both enhances the experience (users are motivated to become mayors) and the advertiser experience (local businesses are able to connect directly with influential users).

Well, this week, I spotted my first local offers in the Foursquare mobile app. Because I am mayor of a nearby location, I was offered $2.00 off at The Marsh for a show that evening. And if I am mayor of The Marsh, drinks would also be free.

The offer is compelling for a couple reasons: - it is contextual based on location and neighborhood - there is an offer specifically for me... and users always love coupons / deals - the UI is excellent. Within the normal application experience, I get a clever alert both in the header and the footer. Eye-catching and well-explained

Interesting to see if similar experiences and local offers make their way into other social & local applications like Yelp.

Until We Have Facebook Connect for iTunes & iPhone Apps...

... we have First & 20 - a collection of iPhone home screens and favorite applications from interesting developers, designers and tech bloggers. So while I wait to see what applications my friends have installed and use (a regular discussion point at dinners and coffees) - First & 20 gives a glimpse into popular apps and how people organize their iPhones. For instance, the top five applications across the highlighted users are:

- Tweetie - Birdfeed - Things - Instapper - Facebook

Most of the homescreens also have at least one of these apps in the dock unit. It is also interesting to see that many of the homescreens have iTunes & the App Store prominently included (suggesting that these users regularly download content) and a significant portion of the apps are premium / paid for.

Facebook Mobile developer Joe Hewitt (whose screen is shown above) had a great quote highlighting the increasing importance of mobile web content / experiences in a world of applications. While he is talking specifically about Google Reader, this is becoming an important trend and, for the content-owners, a major benefit because the it is platform / hardware agnostic:

80% of my iPhone usage is Google Reader. I’ve tried every Google Reader app there is and I keep coming back to the web version. Somebody, please make a Google Reader app that isn’t slow as molasses running downhill!

The remaining 20% of my usage is mostly spent checking Mail, Facebook, Twitter and the score of the Yankees game. Oh, and the Camera. I own a Canon 5D Mark II but I still take 99% of my photos with my iPhone.

Starbucks iPhone Apps: Mobile Payments, Shared Drinks & More

Hats off to Starbucks once more. Starbucks released two iPhone Apps yesterday that are again best-in-class, innovative and compelling from a customer standpoint. The 'Starbucks' app allows users to find stores, create custom concoctions, access nutritional information and - most importantly - share the experience with friends (your favorite drinks, location, Starbucks meeting times, etc). The UI is terrific and consistent with the Starbucks brand and environment. The second app, Mobile Card, allows users to manage their Starbucks Card (balances, settings, etc). Most importantly, the application allows users to pay with their mobile device - currently being tested in sixteen locations across Seattle and Silicon Valley. That's interesting and powerful... and unique.

And combined with Starbucks' massive presence on Facebook and other networks, it is essentially now possible to find a nearby Starbucks, schedule a coffee via mobile, share it with friends through Facebook mobile, and pay with your iPhone... and you can bet that Starbucks is thinking about the next move: layering contextual, location-aware push notifications for coupons and events.

LBS: Find the nearest Starbucks (and share your location)

Create and share your favorite Starbucks drink (like an iced coffee with 8 shots of espresso). Then read about the nutritional contents.

Access and manage your card balance.

Make in-store payments with the 'swipe' of your iPhone

Access store information and make it a social outing

A video of the Mobile Payments trial:

"The message that you get... is actually less important than who you get it from"

Great line from Fast Company's interview with Mark Zuckerberg, "Exclusive Interview: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg on the Value of Viral Loops":

Penenberg: Marketing to one's social graph offers a number of huge advantages. Why is that?

Zuckerberg: I think the basic idea here is that there is a phenomenon in peoples' interaction. The message that you get, in a lot of ways, is actually less important than who you get it from. If you get it from someone that you trust a lot more then you'll really listen to it. Whereas if you get it from someone you don't trust you might actually believe the opposite of what they said because you don't trust them. I think that's the basis of the value that people get on the site. I go to someone's profile and see that they like this band. That means more to me than if I just saw a billboard for that band. We figured that in the really organic way to make money and sustain the company, that these interests would be aligned.

Building Custom Facebook Fan Pages: A Dogpatch Labs Demo

I write a lot about Facebook and the importance of fan pages and engaging with those fans. Just as the content on the Facebook Pages is critical to the interaction, so is the page itself. Facebook allows brands and page-owners to customize the pages with:

- custom layouts - content modules (called 'boxes') - applications - and custom FBML If you put all of those together, you are able to create highly engaging, rich experiences that maintain branding and messaging while on Facebook.

For Dogpatch Labs, we are using the Dogpatch Labs Facebook Page to manage content, events and (of course) fans. We used Sprout (a Polaris portfolio and San Francisco company) to build our custom Facebook page. Sprout has a tool to create and manage pages efficiently and within the FBML environment. The page pulls in dynamic content from Twitter, our blog, the event stream, etc.

You can learn more about Sprout's Facebook solution on their Fan Page. I encourage you to also check out the Dogpatch Labs Facebook page (and become a fan!)

TGI Friday's Facebook Campaign is Strange... But Somewhat Brilliant

Meet Woody: TGI Friday's clever / bizarre entrance into the world of social media... and in particular, Facebook. Woody has his own series of television advertisements and Facebook page (825,000 fans and growing). And Woody is a covert spokesman for TGI Friday's.

The entire campaign is aimed at getting Woody / TGI Friday's 1,000,000 Facebook fans; and if that happens, all fans who provided their email address, will get a coupon for a free burger.

It is a fascinating approach for a few reasons:

- first, it is the most obvious Facebook / television campaign - and it is geared specifically around becoming a fan

- second, there is a stated goal of the number of fans: 1,000,000.

- third, the marketing spend (specifically their television campaigns) is aimed at creating long term marketing relationships: email addresses, Facebook fans, etc. This is about engagement and sustained relationships.

- finally, it is a bold move towards free samples and yet another example of consumer goods giveaways on Facebook

Woody's TV commercials:

More about Woody from Facebook:

About Woody: Woody was born at the stroke of midnight one Thursday-to-Friday morning along the Arizona/California border. From that moment on, he has dedicated his life to spreading his love of T.G.I. Friday's and all things red-white-and-meaty. Through the years Woody has become one of the leading online flair collectors in the world, and made many friends along the way. His love of Friday's is second to none, only to his own. And Woody would do anything to prove his passion for his home away from home - T.G.I. Friday's Restaurants. As luck would have it, someone pretty high up on the totem pole at Friday's hears of Woody. Long story short, they decide to take Woody up on his claim with a little bet: If Woody can get 500,000 fans on here by September 30th, they can all get a free Jack Daniel's(R) Burger! In Woody's words, "It'll be friggin' Octo-Burgerfest!' So become a fan of his, and help make free burger history. It'll be a dream come true for him.

Facebook Introduces In-Feed Tagging (ie @username)

Facebook continues to roll out new features. Today, you can now tag friends directly in your Facebook feed (and through posts) with the '@' symbol that is so common on Twitter. You will notice it when entering content into your feed:

- Facebook alerts you with an eye-catching graphic that you can link to friends using the '@' sign

- Once you have typed '@', your friend list auto-fills much like when writing an email or tagging a friend - Once you select a friend, his / her name is automatically hyperlinked (creating a more Twitter-like experience)

- Friends who are tagged get a notification and are driven back to Facebook

- Facebook and your newsfeed / post all benefit from increased attention and engagement

Facebook's official blog post is here.

Multi-Image Facebook Feed Posts Get Bigger, More Frequent

Last week, I wrote about the growing trend of large imagery in the Facebook feed... moving from single images to now multi-image portraits. Well it is getting more prominent and the graphics are as bold and, as they get more ostentatious, it becomes tougher for other posts to standout in the feed. This is particularly important for individuals and for text-only feed posts.

Rockstar, 7-Eleven and Facebook Ads: Become a Fan, Get a Free Sample

Just last week, I wrote about Facebook and Chick-fil-A's new direct response ads. Other units are starting to pop-up and this example is particularly interesting.

The ad is for a "Free Can of Rockstar" Energy Drink by becoming a Facebook Fan and inputting your address. A couple things are of note:

1. The free Rockstar drink is tied to becoming a fan on Facebook. The fan acceptance actually is done in the background (when you click 'Get Free Sample', you are automatically a fan) 2. Facebook knows enough about you that the registration process is super easy. My city, address, name, etc are all automatically input. 3. You can virally share the free Rockstar drink... and this is a natural act as people love to gloat about savings and goodies! 4. This is done in conjunction with 7-Eleven... so the relationship and promotion are still significant for 7-Eleven, but the Facebook relationship is entirely with Rockstar