Monthly Archive for March, 2010

Nudge Social Media Joins The Facebook® Preferred Developer Consultant Program

Published
by
toby
on March 30, 2010
in Press Release
. 0 Comments

Nudge has been selected to join Facebook’s Preferred Developer Consultant Program. The recommendation stems from a number of successful and engaging applications developed by Nudge for brands including Sony PlayStation, Tango and Domino’s Pizza.

Facebook’s Preferred Developer Consultant Program has been created to connect brands, celebrities, companies and organisations to the best resources for building applications which are deeply integrated into Facebook.com. Applications are designed to extend brand reach directly to Facebook users who can enhance their social experience and interact with their friends as well as the brand.

As part of the program Nudge achieved Facebook’s set of standards for application and Facebook Connect developers. This has resulted in Nudge now being placed on the online directory for businesses or individuals across the globe looking to create new and engaging applications on Facebook Platform.

Toby Beresford, Commercial Director at Nudge said:

“Nudge is delighted to be participating in this program. This is testament to the great work produced by our whole team. The Facebook platform enables companies and developers to build applications for the Facebook site where millions of users can interact with them. If they are done well this can achieve tremendous results for businesses looking to extend their reach. The Preferred Developer Consultant Program will ensure that businesses looking for new campaigns and applications have access to agencies who have a proven track record and meet Facebook’s high quality standards.”

About Nudge Social Media

Nudge Social Media is a full service creative social media agency, providing expert strategic consultancy, campaign planning and management for leading brands. Nudge Social Media creates great experiences for users that also provide conversation opportunities for companies and brands looking to explore the opportunities provided by social platforms. Nudge produces campaigns, pages, utilities and games on social networks for brands, clients and digital agencies.

www.nudgesocialmedia.com

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Outrageous: Facebook does not like cheese (and dairy)!

Published
by
guillaume
on March 30, 2010
in Facebook and Social Media
. 2 Comments

As a Frenchman and cheese evangelizer (why not, some people call themselves social media gurus), I was eager to spread the gospel of good cheese to the US (a terrible shame that such a great nation has such awful cheeses). Of course, my first platform to spread the word was to be Facebook, which would help me reach more than 100 million Americans. I could see the headlines: “Frenchman causes a stink in the US cheese market”.

However … I can’t. As stated in Facebook’s promotion guidelines points 2.4 and 2.5 , Facebook doesn’t allow the promotion of dairy products on the platform. Fair enough for alcohol, tobacco, firearms or prescriptions drugs, but dairy? In order to change this injustice, I’ve created the group Cheese Liberation Front on Facebook. Please join this group and together we can put an end to this terrible injustice.

What a Twestival Should Be

Published
by
guillaume
on March 26, 2010
in Social Media and twitter
. 2 Comments

I went to the Twestival last night in London, and I have to say the event was quite cool. It had all the ingredients for a good night: live music, karaoke (each to his own), good drinks and efficient organisation. After a short while though, I found myself wondering “Is this what a ‘Twestival’ should be?” I enjoyed the event and think the organiser did an amazing job, I’m just wondering about the format generally.

For me, a Twestival (as the name indicates) should be something special, a bit different to other festivals/events. Yesterday, except having a projector showing the tweets with the hashtag #LDNtwestival, I felt it could have been any other charity/tech event.

People would say that they were there thanks to Twitter, that they met attendees through Twitter, and that the organisers created a special iPhone app for the event. Well I could say the same for a music festival: they also have an iPhone app, they might also raise money for a charity and you can also meet other people through Twitter. I feel the problem is that Twestival has become an event in which Twitter is just a medium but not the core of it.

So, what should a Twestival be? The original goal of Twestival was to enable Twitter users to meet each other in real life (IRL) and I feel this should be the core principle of the night. Setting the event in a quieter venue to foster conversations between attendees would greatly help. Encouragement for people to meet based on their interests/projects/skills would also be interesting - other activities around Twitter could also be set up, such as a competition for ‘the funniest tweet’ and so on. Twitter is quite a flexible medium, I’m sure there is room for creativity.

I look forward to any comments/feedback to know if I was the only person feeling this, and if it was something specific to the London event (the biggest in the world with over 500 participants). You can send me a tweet @guillaumefoutry .

5 ways to withdraw / pull down / close / end your Facebook application social network campaign

Published
by
toby
on March 26, 2010
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments
Quiztastic's close down image is a test card from TV days

Quiztastic's close down image is a test card from TV days

So it’s been a great advertising campaign, you created a lovely application on Facebook, you got the engagement and results you wanted but now it’s time to tell the users the party is over.

So, what should you do? Our top five tips are worth remembering

1. Migrate the users to a permanent fan page

You might have 10s of thousands of users and potential customers of your next campaign – send them an email to get them to join your fan page

2. Reverse into the app shell

Like “shell companies” on the stock exchange you can use your existing application key to turn it into a new application. This should be a sensible change – users of Nudge Social Value Index may be happy to automatically become users of Nudge Enhanced Social Value Index but not to a random dating app (this practice is what LOL apps got shut down for in 2008)

3. Close the app to external users by pushing it back into Sandbox mode

It may be helpful just to close the app to external users, your own staff and development team may want to continue to refer to it. Rather than deleting entirely why not simply make the app invisible.

4. Just remove the app from the directory and close the viral loop

Less severe than removing from Sandbox you can take the app off the Facebook directory and close the viral loop options (share buttons and feed stories) – this will effectively limit the application to your current user base

5. Put up a “sorry we’re closed” notice

Why not do as Playfish have done with Quiztastic – just say “sorry this service is no longer available”. Nice and clear and friendly – it’s also a nice opportunity to invite your users somewhere else

The Social Media Machine and World Forum Workshops

Published
by
toby
on March 19, 2010
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Geoff giving his workshop to another packed crowd at the Social Media World Forum in London

Phew what a conference! 3 workshops and a keynote later – everything is now up on the web. Here are the links:

Keynote - how the social media machine has already taken over, how the Facebook stream works to bring you your most interesting personalised daily newspaper and how we need to stop seeing social media as a fad and to change our language accordingly.  (text / slides)

Workshop 1 – How to Market your brand / run a social media campaign on Facebook – tips and checklist from the experts(!) (slides)

Workshop 2 - Learnings from successful campaigns – mainly my learnings from campaigns I’ve run that worked. (slides)

Workshop 3 – Geoff Hughes’ whistle stop tour of ROI and ways to measure it on Facebook (prezzy)

Workshop 4 – The Viral Loop – signposting key techniques on leveraging a viral loop (slides)

Enjoy! Please do let me know what you think of the keynote….

Facebook Credits changes the game for micropayments

Published
by
toby
on March 14, 2010
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Media execs have been stressing for years over a way to charge for online content (that’s newspaper articles and video clips to you and me) on a per article basis – hence the term “micro-payments”.

Facebook credits looks set to change the game. Check out my opinion piece on this (and a rather fancy tour of my Happy Island) over at MediaTel

Social media in UK elections

Published
by
toby
on March 8, 2010
in Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Generated Tory poster (joke)(fake Dave Cameron poster courtesy of AndyBarefoot.com)

Just as brands battle it out for audiences online – now so do political parties. Check out my opinion article (which doesn’t include fake posters I’m afraid) over at New Media Age.

My predictions were:

* Higher turn out

* Local issues increase in importance

* Key place to sway younger voters

What do you think?