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Bonfire.im – The Instant Messaging Chat for Twitter

By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking | October 27, 2011 – 10:58 am

Bonfire.im AppCurrently the only way to have a private conversation on Twitter is through direct message, but could Bonfire.im be a game changer?

Bonfire.im is a plugin which adds instant messaging to Twitter, allowing you to chat away in real-time to your fellow tweeters. The start-up, based in Brighton, is currently gearing up to release the app to the public with the hopes that it will bring a whole new dimension to the way people use the service.

How it works

Bonfire.im will detect your browser, allowing you to install the correct plugin. Once the app is up and running you can invite your friends, the only limitation being that you have to follow and be followed by a user to chat with them. Simple!

Problems

One problem the company may have is that Twitter themselves are not actually involved in the application and are known to have had a checkered past with third-party app makers in the past. Many people have commented though that Bonfire could be a positive for Twitter as the app will keep users on site for longer periods of time, helping to make more money from advertisements.

Available

The company are currently gearing up for the release; hopefully we will not have much of a wait. The app will be available as a downloadable extension for Chrome, Firefox and Safari browsers.

bonfire.im

Spotify joins Facebook

By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking | September 30, 2011 – 12:25 pm

Facebook joins SpotifySpotify has joined forces with Facebook to offer users of the popular social networking site access to their large music library. The venture means that users can now share current tracks, playlists and history with all of their friends.

The music service has only recently made its way over to the US after numerous talks broke down over artist and track rights. Since its creation it has proved popular in Europe, especially the UK, and the company are now hoping the partnership with Facebook will prove a huge success for the company who have tried so hard to break through to the US.

What’s in it for Spotify? Facebook has billions of users and will be a great advertisement for the music streaming service, which in-turn could make a huge amount of money from selling their packages.

Something that has left a sour taste in the mouth of many is that new Spotify users must have a Facebook account. The music streamer co-founder Daniel Ek had the following to say on Twitter: “There’s been a big barrier to sign-up, we wanted to remove that and make it a seamless experience”. Although many complained, the service has enjoyed over 1 million signups since the merging, showing that it hasn’t put people off.

Users have also raised concerns over lack of privacy and requested the option to hide tracks from their timeline (obviously for the more embarrassing songs!!). Spotify have responded with the following: “Many of our users have told us that they like to share what they’re listening to, but also want an easy way to hide their occasional guilty pleasures. So we’ve now added a new ‘Private Listening’ mode to our latest update.”

The update however, with not be automatically turned on and must be activated manually. If you are on Windows you will find it under the ‘File’ menu, and Mac users must go to the menu bar, click Spotify and then ‘Private Listening’.

Foodspotting – A Visual Guide To Good Food And Where To Find It

By Cheryl | Posted in Android, Apple, Social networking | August 18, 2011 – 12:10 pm

FoodspottingWe’ve all visited websites were we can view and recommend our favourite restaurants, but Foodspotting takes it to the next level.

Founded in 2009, the food photo social network app lets people post images and reviews of a meal, effectively allowing you to see the menu before you even get to the restaurant. Only food you liked can be posted and the app contains a straightforward rating system, simply clicking “Nom” if you like it.

Company founder, Alexa Andrzejewski, had the following to say:
“We really want it to be a celebration of local food, a food lense or food vision about wherever you go. It really shows something about the local culture in any area.”

Users

User numbers have steadily grown across the US, and now the app is starting to find a market in countries around the world, including the UK. Since the app was launched to the public in 2010, over 748,448 foods have been spotted around the globe.

 

Taken from the website, here are the great features of the app:-

As a foodseeker you can:

  • Explore your city or neighbourhood to see the nearest, latest and best foods around you
  • Look up a restaurant and see what’s good there
  • Find a particular dish that you’re craving
  • Bookmark foods you want to try by clicking (“Want it!”)
  • Vote up food you’ve tried and loved (“Nom it!”)
  • Access guides from experts like the Travel Channel to see the nearest recommendations to you
  • Follow people and guides that you trust, and places and foods that you love

As a foodspotter you can:

  • Share where to find a food you love by uploading a photo (“spotting it”), emailing it to food@foodspotting.com (you’ll need to add details from the website), or adding it to a guide
  • Complete guides, scavenger hunts and challenges to earn badges and recognition
  • Become a dish expert by spotting five or more foods of the same type
  • Earn virtual tips for making quality contributions to the Foodspotting community

 

The app is currently available on any iPhone, Windows Phone 7 and Android device, so what are you waiting for? Just beware; you’ll be feeling very hungry once you have visited!

www.foodspotting.com

Are UK retailers not responsive enough on social networking sites?

By Cheryl | Posted in Internet, Marketing, Social networking | May 13, 2011 – 12:44 pm

facebook twitter iconsEconsultancy conducted a survey last month looking in to the behaviours of companies on social networking sites.

Key sites such as Facebook and Twitter were measured to show how companies responded to questions and comments from customers.

Twitter

  • Statistics show that 20 of the top 25 retailers had an account on Twitter, with a reported average of 69,000 followers.
  • Despite the researchers actively engaging with the brand and asking questions, none of the retailers followed them back. This means customers can’t get in touch to provide details to help get their problem sorted out, or to move the discussion to another channel.
  • Only 25% of retailers with a Twitter account responded to a question directed at them.
    While 20% responded to negative comments which had been directed at them, compared with 10% that replied to positive ones.
  • For those that replied the average response time was 94 minutes, which isn’t bad. By comparison email response times were 10 hours on average, which says a lot about the quality of email service.

Facebook

  • Fewer (72%) of the 25 retailers had a Facebook page, but the average number of fans was higher, at 258,000.
  • Retailers responded to questions more promptly on Facebook, an average response time of 78 minutes, while 88% gave a helpful answer.
  • When it came to responding to positive or negative comments, the figures were different. Just 17% responded to a positive comment on their wall, taking an average of 112 minutes to respond. Just 11% of brands responded to a negative comment left on the wall.

 

So, why don’t companies feel the need to engage with customers via social sites?

If businesses aren’t generating sales out of social networking, they are less likely to take valuable time out of their day to comment.

Is that the right way to think though? Social networking isn’t something that you should think of purely for sales; it’s about maintaining relationships with your customers.

Sometimes it’s worth outsourcing the service; this way you are not ignoring customers, but your also not using up valuable internal resources.

The report also revealed that only 52% of retailers have a blog on their website and 12% a YouTube channel.

Companies are using social networking as a way to bombard people with marketing, when in reality it should be looked at as free advertising. Millions of people around the world use these services and a simple comment can help provide a positive image for your company; for this to happen though, communications must be mutual.

Gowalla and bmibaby combine to offer loyalty programme

By Cheryl | Posted in News, Social networking | May 6, 2011 – 1:40 pm

bmibaby logoBudget airline bmibaby has joined forces with location-based network Gowalla to reward customers through a loyalty programme.

Check-in locations have been created at 34 destination airports and five of their main airports including Manchester Airport, Birmingham Airport, Cardiff Airport, East Midlands Airport and Belfast City Airport.

The idea is for customers to check-in before and after their bmibaby flight, and in return they will be entered in to a prize draw with winners being announced each month.

The company are looking to expand the service even more for their most loyal customers. This would include offering gold, silver and bronze pin rewards, with each pin unlocking a new reward.

Julian Carr, bmibaby Managing Director, had the following to say:

”We are pleased to be working with Gowalla on this customer reward scheme. At bmibaby we embrace new social media initiatives. We believe this is a fun way in which we can offer our customers something extra.”

Could this could be the tool to expand Gowalla’s fanbase as it aims to compete with Foursquare?

Friendster – From Social Network to Gaming

By Cheryl | Posted in Google, News, Social networking | April 28, 2011 – 4:49 pm

Friendster logoBefore MySpace and Facebook took over the world, there was another site that fed our need for social networking, Friendster.

Created in 2002, the site allowed users to connect with each other and share media and information.

The service was considered hot property, and in 2003 Google offered to buy the company for £30 million, which was turned down by founder Jonathan Abrams.

When other sites such as Facebook came along, Friendster started loosing their hold of North America and were forced to concentrate on the Asian market, were the product proved very popular. Even though they had continued success, the company wasn’t making any profit.

In 2009, the company was bought out by Malaysian internet firm MOL Global, with hopes of regaining their popularity in areas such as North America.

Unfortunately a change in direction couldn’t help the site, and even though they still managed to maintain over 115 million registered users, the end was near.

This week the company told their loyal users that all of their data would be deleted as they aim to take Friendster in a different direction. They explained that they would be turning Friendster in to a gaming site, hoping to work alongside Facebook, rather than being their competition.

http://www.friendster.com/

LinkedIn launches Android App

By Cheryl | Posted in Android, Application, Social networking, Twitter at 12 | April 15, 2011 – 12:08 pm

LinkedIn Android AppAlthough the LinkedIn app was already available on iPhone and Blackberry devices, the Android version has been stuck in Beta mode since December. The company finally announced on Tuesday that the app was now available on the Android market, which was welcomed by many of its loyal followers.

LinkedIn was launched in 2003 and has established itself as the number one business-oriented social networking site, covering more than 200 countries, with over 100 million users. The aim of the site is to allow professional people to keep in contact with each other.

Unlike many other social networking sites, you must know the person you would like to add as a ‘connection’. This enables you to maintain a list of people you have some kind of relationship with and reduces the amount of meaningless posts and messages.

Product Manager, Chad Whitney, explained that the company had decided to concentrate on the main features in it’s first release before undertaking those that were requested by beta testers. These features will include updates, search, connections, invitations, messages and reconnect.

This announcement means that Android users can now search the profiles of over 100 million professionals in real-time, while also using other key features from the website.

The app is available to download now from the Android App Store.

Digg Founder Steps Down

By Cheryl | Posted in News, Social networking, Twitter at 12 | March 21, 2011 – 12:56 pm

Digg logoThere’s been trouble in the Digg offices for a while, but is the announcement that founder Kevin Rose has stepped down the final nail in the coffin?

Digg was launched in 2004 and was an instant hit. The site allows users to submit stories which can then be digged by other people and is split in to different categories including Business, Entertainment, Gaming, Lifestyle and Technology.

As numbers slowly started to fall, the company announced in 2010 a complete redesign, explaining that the entire site had completely changed and had effectively been rewritten.

When the changes went public it caused a backlash from Diggs dedicated users who complained that the site was no longer user friendly. Since then, numbers have dropped dramatically as users look for the next big thing.

As of late, Kevin Rose hasn’t been very active on his Digg account, which caused many people to question whether his time at the company was coming to an end. This was confirmed by Kevin himself via Twitter, whilst also announcing he would be unveiling his new startup in the near future.

Unfortunately this looks like it could be the end for Digg. The company are failing in their attempts to stop the rot, and it doesn’t look like there is a way back for the once popular social news website.

Meetup – The social networking site with a diffference

By Cheryl | Posted in Social networking, Twitter at 12 | March 4, 2011 – 1:09 pm

meetup logoNew to a city? Wanting to meet people with similar interests?

Sometimes it can be hard moving to a new country or finding people interested in the same hobbies as you, so could Meetup be the thing for you?

Meetup.com was founded in 2001, and has over 7.2 million members worldwide using the service. The website brings a new meaning to the word social networking; bringing people together through their interests and hobbies, with get-togethers in cities around the world. The monthly meetups are now up to 250,000 per month, across 45,000 cities, making it the largest network of local groups anywhere in the world.

Although the groups cater for an array of subjects such as wine tasting, rock climbing, kayaking, golf or to those new to the area, the service has proved popular for those just hoping to make friends.

Get your business involved

There is a special sponsorship option, allowing businesses to get involved and get their brand out there. The idea is for a company to offer members an incentive in return for joining a group; this could be anything from discounts on items to a place for the group to meet. The service costs $5 a month and could prove very successful, maybe even increasing sales and interest in the products or services you offer.

How does it work?

Users enter their postcode and the topic they would like to meet about. If there’s nothing that interests you, make your own group and invite people around your city to get involved. Sound simple? It is.

2011 – The Year of Mobile Advertising

By Cheryl | Posted in Android, Apple, Internet, Marketing, Mobile, Social networking | February 21, 2011 – 12:55 pm

Mobile AdvertisingAccording to vast amounts of research posted on the net, Mobile Advertising is going to be big business this year.

2010 saw an influx of Smartphone’s hitting the market and it is now estimated that 70% of the world’s population owns a mobile phone (some people even have more than one!).

The success of mobile internet can be somewhat contributed to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is claimed that over 25% (more than 100 million) users access Facebook from their mobile making it’s an advertiser’s paradise.

The most commonly used type of mobile advertisements includes web banners and SMS, with gaming and music videos also proving popular. Many advertisers have jumped on this type of media as mobile phones outnumber TV sets and PC users, allowing them greater views and higher revenue.

The mobile market is ideal for companies wanting to expand their brand. What better way is there to publicise and communicate with customers than through a device they use everyday?

Mobile advertising continues to grow every quarter and was worth £28.6m in 2010. The market has come about quickly considering there wasn’t a huge demand for it a few years ago; showing how much emphasis there is on Smartphone’s and the ability for users to access data on the go.

Although it’s not just Smartphones that have shaped the market, tablets such as the Apple iPad, have set the benchmark for the coming years.

It is likely that mobile video advertising will be one of the main marketing trends this year and could be worth the big investment for companies. It is proven that visual marketing is more successful, so it’s not hard to imagine how lucrative a full screen video advertisement on a mobile phone would be.

The world of mobile advertisements opens up a whole new world for developers and businesses alike; the question is, how long will it be before businesses rely on mobile advertising more than internet advertising?