Mobile social gaming
MMO (massive multiplayer online) games are becoming more feasible on mobile devices with the help of faster mobile internet access through 3G and faster, more powerful devices. The new IPhone 4s provides faster graphics than ever as well as the ability to use more resources simultaneously without affecting game play. If Facebook games were able to be played on mobile devices or standalone apps the potential to make a game that can be played with anyone all over the world would be very popular.
Augmented reality is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.
Augmented reality gaming is becoming more popular as it creates a more immersive gaming environment combining both virtual worlds and the real world on any device with a camera and mobile connection. Paranormal activities app explores many different elements of augmented reality which can be harnessed:Paranormal Activity: Sanctuary from Ogmento on Vimeo.
I think that augmented reality has a lot of marketing potential and the ability to appear in social games used on smartphone’s etc. McCann has already produced some work using AR as a fun marketing tool.
Some Facebook page owners can now view certain post metrics directly from their Timeline, including the percentage of fans that saw a given post and the percentage of those who saw the post as a result of paid promotion.
This gives page owners an at-a-glance understanding of how many fans they are reaching. Or, more likely, make them realize how many they aren’t reaching. As users share more and connect with more Open Graph applications, there are more stories competing for placement in News Feed. Increasingly, page owners will have to support their content efforts on Facebook with paid media.
In February, Facebook said that pages reach only 16 percent of their fans each week on average. By showing reach percentages on Timeline rather than requiring page owners to visit the insights dashboard to see them, the social network can subtly encourage page owners to consider spending money on Sponsored Stories or Reach Generator, a premium offering which guarantees that a page reaches at least 75 percent of fans within a month.
More at: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/05/24/facebook-provides-reach-data-directly-on-timeline-posts/#
Today, Facebook app discovery too heavily favors the loudest apps with the most users, so Facebook today announces it will soon launch the App Center, a single, personalized hub for discovering the highest quality Facebook-integrated games and utilities from across the web and mobile. And for the first time, Facebook is beta testing the option for developers to sell pre-paid web and HTML5 apps. You’ll be able to access App Center via the web or mobile, and you can send apps you discover on a the web to your littler devices.
App Center could be a huge boon to app growth on Facebook, especially for those that are beloved but not inherently viral. With any luck, App Center will usher in an age where your news feed is filled with apps you actually want use, not just the spammiest ones or those with the biggest marketing budgets.
Unlike the unpersonalized app directory Facebook shut down a year ago, App Center won’t list every available app, just the ones with the highest customer ratings, engagement, session length, and voluntary sharing. App Center dynamically shows you different apps depending on your habits. If you play games, that’s what you’ll see. If you think those are a waste of time and only use utility apps like BranchOut or Open Graph apps like Foodspotting, those will be what appear.
More at: http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/facebook-app-center/
Facebook announced Wednesday it has added yet another way for friends to interact with your Timeline: “action links.”
Instead of just Liking a post about a recipe or product, say, you can now hit “Save this Recipe” or “Fave this Product” in Open Graph apps.
When a friend checks in on Foursquare and the checkin is added to their Timeline, you can remind yourself to visit that location by hitting “Save this Place.”
“These customizable links provide another way for people to do something within your app when your Open Graph stories appear in news feed, timeline or ticker,” Facebook’s Alex Wyler wrote on the company’sdeveloper blog.
Wyler noted that these app links tie one action to another — and developers can choose what they want that action to be. Facebook also added a page to walk developers through how to add action links to apps.
More at: http://mashable.com/2012/05/02/facebook-action-links/#5308510-US-Military
Need we say more? The KittyCat Hijack app from Canadian cat food brand Temptations will have your favorite websites swarming with felines within minutes.
To activate the app, go to the brand’s Facebook Page and then add the app to your bookmarks bar. (The creators made this simple by putting the app in the form of a cat food bag.) After that, you can let the cats loose on your favorite websites.
More at: http://wallblog.co.uk/2012/04/30/kraft-sends-personal-thank-you-to-thousands-of-facebook-fans/
Sunday is the day where fans are most likely to engage with a brand on social media, research by Socialbakers has found.
Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and telecoms particularly fit this, with telecoms up from an average of 7% engagement during the week to 11% engagement.
Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbaker, said: “To maximise fan engagement, brands need to tailor social media updates according to their audiences browsing habits. Whilst they must maintain engagement throughout the week, they should consider posting their most compelling content at times of peak engagement to ensure the greatest online brand buzz.”
More at: http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/04/04/sunday-most-engaging-day-brands-social-media
While shopping on Facebook is still uncommon, with only 1.5 million of the social network’s total 850 million members buying something via the site each month, the “overwhelming majority” of those who do are women.
Christian Taylor, the co-founder and chief executive of Silicon Valley start-up Payvment, the most popular commerce platform on Facebook – which powers 80 per cent of all shopping on the site, told The Telegraph that most shoppers tend to be stay-at-home mothers shopping for “cute things” for their children.
“The majority of people shopping on Facebook are women and most of them are stay-at-home mums. The most popular items bought on Facebook are by far baby clothes and little things like bows for children’s hair.
“I think Facebook has created an outlet for mothers to talk to other mums about what to buy for their children and share parenting tips. I imagine being a stay-at-home parent was an incredibly lonely job before social networks. The people shopping on Facebook are an incredibly similar crowd to those who play social games, such as Farmville.”
Taylor said that of the men who have shopped on the site, they tended to buy t-shirts and the most popular t-shirts were often cause-based shirts, such as tops raising money for cancer charities.
He also told The Telegraph that the number of people shopping on Facebook was growing by 20 per cent every month and there are currently more than three million items for sale on the world’s most popular social network.
Commerce on Facebook is still small, with most vendors tending to be small to medium-sized businesses – rather than the major brands – who usually have a fan page on the site instead.
