Headlines were surging today with Facebook’s claim as a solution for online jobhunters and their counterparts. LinkedIN was quick to note that people want to keep their Facebook profiles *very separate* from their professional profiles, i.e., LinkedIN. Nevertheless, with 750+ million users under their belt, the people at Facebook are facing not “if” but “when” for their leadership in this category. With their BeKnown app, Facebook is already yielding interesting numbers in terms of usage, and several large recruiters are simply going solo in their corporate fan pages for recruiting purposes. It will be interesting to see how this one plays out – now one will have to think twice before posting those Tequila-drinking contest photos online!

Forsquare and Groupon users in the U.S. and Canada will enjoy real time deal that will be offered by this join venture.

Groupon will benefit from this venture by reaching more people that will transform in more sales and a “loyal database” while Foursquare will be able to offer its customers real-time promotions from the current mayor in the deals space.

Lets see what this venture transforms into… All we know is that we have to take advantage and check-in to start enjoying special deals!

Reference: http://mashable.com/2011/07/29/foursquare-groupon-partnership/

Watching the media consumption habits of my 12 y/o and 14 y/o nephews in Paris last week, I started to realize that TV is simply no longer an interest of theirs – and I am talking about the *set* or the *screen*. They were avidly watching *TV Series* – but on their Macs. Using Vuze, and downloading bit-torrents from mutliple sources. They literally did not turn on their 42″ TV sets *once*. Not once. So then you go and see that YouTube has recently webcast the Lollapalooza music festival live, sponsored by big names. What does this tell us about the future of Television? Or the future of the *interaction* between Television and the Internet? It is of course – as always – about eyeballs. And it seems to be apparent that the eyeballs are shifting “en masse” to all kinds of screens, other than the ones found on TV sets.

Once again, Google has surprised us with a new social project or social network that is based on a number of components and is still in a test phase. With it, Google will attempt to fight the great social network: Facebook. The small addition of the “+” or Plus has great significance; it is no longer just Google, now it is Google + you + us, which makes you one more with Google on the Internet.

Moreover, Google+ adds a “plus” to the majority of its existing services… search engine, images, YouTube, maps, docs, etc.

What is Google+?

It is a social network made up of several components: Circles, Sparks, Instant Upload, Hangouts and Huddle

• Circles: This is where Google+ beings to separate itself from Facebook. The objective of this social project is not about sharing with a massive group of friends, but about the specific exchange with your different social groups. To achieve this, Google uses a system called Circles.

It allows users to drag and drop their friends into different social circles of friends, family, classmates and other personalized groups.

• Sparks: In order to stimulate exchanges, Google has added a recommendation engine that finds content of interest. The feature, Google + Sparks, is a collection of articles, videos, pictures, and other content that is grouped by common interests. The idea is that as we start loading our interests, Google+ is simultaneously linking them to our contacts. Interests bring us content that is published on the web and by other contacts that are related to the selected subject.
• Instant Upload: this is a function that allows us to instantly upload pictures and videos from our mobile device the moment we take the images so that we can tag, share, and add more details later.
• Hangouts: it is a novel concept and a new feature of group Googlechat. Instead of directly asking a friend to join a group chat, users click on “Start Hangout” and are instantly in the video chat room. At the same time, a message goes to their social circles, letting them know that their friend “is in the meeting.”

As a result, Google has found during internal tests, that friends are able to come together a lot faster. An interesting feature about the meeting places is that it does not put a chat window for each participant on the screen. Instead, Google changes that chat screen to the person who is talking.  It quickly changes video channel, moving faster in bigger groups. The maximum number of members in any hangout is 10, although users can get on a waiting list and wait until someone leaves.

• Huddles: is an instant group chat system. Because it is linked to circles, we can rapidly organize group text conversations in a convenient and instant manner. Huddles has an exclusive application, separate from Google+, for Android devices.
• Mobile: Google will also launch Google+ applications for other mobile devices, starting with Android. The application for Android includes access to Stream, Circles, Sparks, and multimedia. The addition of these features to mobile devices is not a surprise. What is surprising, however, is the auto-load function of the application. Any picture or video taken with your phone through Google+ will automatically upload to their server and be ready to share. These files are not public, but the next time you log into your account, the picture button in the status bar will have a number that indicates how many new files are available for sharing. It will keep these pictures and videos available for sharing for eight hours after the upload.

Google plans on launching Google+ applications for other platforms in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

June 2011 came with lots of surprises and very cool creative advertising at the CANNES LIONS 2011. Many that will inspire creatives around the globe in the future…

Here are some of our favorites:

Pay with a Tweet

This amazing concept came with great results

400.000+ people paid for something with a Tweet or
Facebook post in just 6 months

10.000+ Pay with a Tweet buttons have been created

Pay with a Tweet – Case Study – OMG version from Leif on Vimeo.

HOMEPLUS SUBWAY VIRTUAL STORE

Watch the video and tell us what you think.

To see many more winners visit http://www.canneslions.com/

The way we think about sports is going through a fast transformation. Attendance in most stadiums has declined, but TV programs prevail. We are always connected to sports because of the proliferation of high definition TV’s, mobile devices, Twitter and fantasy leagues.

Warren Packard from Mashable shares some notes about how our way of watching and staying up to date with sports is changing.

Change of Stadium

New technologies have finally caught up and in some cases surpassed the experience of watching an event at a stadium. Sport event transmissions have become an innovative experience that produces new features that enhance the visual experience and offer fans even the smallest details of each game.

Fantasy Sports

Technology has had a major impact on the way fantasy sports are practiced. Twitter is a fountain of data, and many people create personalized lists that include tweets from the actual players as well as their reaction.

This is the future of fantasy sports, a $3.8 billion industry where the average fan spends over $150 a year in products that do not even exist in reality. Read the rest of this entry »

Is Social Media Changing Online Business?

I frequently read the following phrase: “I had a life before, now I have the Internet,” says Luis Samanamud – DCT Business Information Analyst.

Now, not only do we have websites that can easily be navigated from one page to another with a simple click, but we also have social networks and video portals where we are spending more time than the average of 30 minutes.

We all know that where there is an audience there is business, a simple page with a lot of traffic has excellent sales, but social media is turning out to be the best venue to produce professional profiles.

Small traditional businesses are struggling to get by and are not making any progress with old marketing tools; opening doors and waiting is no longer enough, neither is advertising though local media.

Taking a technological step in the Internet has become fundamental for any professional, company or institution. Online business allows for more clients and products sold.

However, when it comes to business, a simple web page and good content are no longer enough because of the enormous increase in competition.

Today, people are resorting to an old form of social communication, mouth to mouth, but they are doing it through the Web in virtual communities like Twitter and FaceBook. Read the rest of this entry »

IS SOCIAL MEDIA CHANGING ADVERTISING? 

Social networks cannot live off of their users’ pictures, conversations and contacts alone and if you remove platforms that help you establish and manage professional contacts like Xing or LinkedIn, that charge premium fees, income generated by these sites is the result of the advertising within them.

According to Emilio Márquez, founder of Networking Activo (Active Networking), “Online advertising is not growing at the same rate it was in the in past years but it is the only area where it is not falling.”

What is interesting about social networks is that they offer a great amount data on individuals. Users populate their profiles with their geographical location, age, sexual tendency, likes and hobbies. This allows for “a more accurate aim in advertising” said Ícaro Moyano, Director of Communication in Tuenti.

Félix Brezo, member of S3Lab laboratory at Deusto University, says, “we are adding personal information to social networks, this facilitates the segmentation of the markets that are of interest to us.” He adds that people are not aware of the amount of data that is stored on the network.

According to Juan Varela, journalist and media consultant, “currently in Spain, social networks barely have any income in comparison to what they expect to earn in the future.” This tendency is already visible in the United Kingdom. This past May, Facebook became the number one British platform for online advertising with 11,800 million ads, a 33% increase from the previous year. Read the rest of this entry »

The first time I heard about this video, I was shocked did not know what to expect…

This video shows how creative someone can become to sell their product

Enjoy it!