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Weekly Social Media Update

Posted by Jamie Pither November 17th, 2011

‘Girls who like boys who like boys’ premieres on Twitter

The Sundance Channel is showing the first episode of its new series of ‘Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys’, on Twitter. It’s the first time that Twitter has been used to broadcast a major television show before its release. The broadcast will be accessible to watch via a TwitVid embed on Sundance’s Twitter profile on Friday 18^th November.

Over the last year real time Twitter chatter during television viewing has increased dramatically. This broadcast placement will harness the combination of Twitter as a realtime conversation and media platform, and is a major step in helping to shape how we’ll behave while watching things, in the future.

Starbucks Cup Magic

Starbucks have created a free augmented reality app as part of its festive activities in the run up to Christmas. The app called Starbucks Cup Magic conjures up five Christmas characters that appear in animation on your phone when placed in front of a range of Starbucks products.

Users are also given information on the latest seasonal Starbucks offers through the app and can also create a personalised Christmas card which can then be shared with friends and family via Facebook. Users who activate all 5 characters will be entered into a draw to win Starbucks prizes too!

Foursquare experts, check-in here

The location-based social networking platform Foursquare is now giving users the chance to conquer a series of levels for each one of the core 25 expert badges on offer.

• You now hit Level 1 for checking in five times to a place in a category, or three unique places.
• Level 2 is for five unique places.
• And from there, every level up is five more unique places, so you get rewarded for exploration!

The added levels will help users to identify who the experts of the Foursquare community are and will also help to inform the decisions that users make in the real world – great stuff Foursquare.

Tags: augmented reality, Badges, Broadcast, Cup Magic, foursquare, Level-up, Starbucks, Sundance, twitter

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Weekly Social Media Update

Posted by rebcla June 22nd, 2011

Foursquare celebrates its 10 million users

Location based check-in service Foursquare is celebrating a new landmark according to a post on their blog. The location based social networking service now has just over 10 million users. Foursquare was founded in 2009, so its 10 million users has only taken just over two years. It has reported that around 358 million check-ins are outside the US, highlighting its intentional nature. The infographic shows some fun stats, although it would be great to know how many of those 10 million users are active users of the service. Click here for their interactive version.

“Be Stupid At Work”

Diesel has just launched  “Be Stupid At Work” which is based around a desktop application called the “Excellbook”. It’s a downloadable application that makes Facebook look like a spreadsheet so you can Facebook without being caught at work. Diesel’s Excellbook becomes your entire Facebook stream.  Sounds stupid, check out the video here.

CyberMummy 2011

Just in case you didn’t already know CyberMummy is the UK’s leading blogging conference devoted to parent bloggers. This year’s action packed event is being held in London this Saturday the 25 June 2011 at The Brewery in the City. Speakers include an eclectic mix, including the eminent Sarah Brown, Sophie King, and Frederic Montagnon. Click here for the full list.

Virgin America #Nerdbird

Virgin America has released its new plane #Nerdbird. This is the first time a plane has been hashtag named, they must love Twitter. This was announced as a dedicated bird in its growing fleet of aircrafts to its social media fans over Facebook and Twitter.  The name relates to the techie customers who frequently fly between San Francisco and Boston. You can see it here.

Tags: #Nerdbird, Be Stupid At Work, CyberMummy, Diesel, Facebook, foursquare, infographic, Social Media, Virgin America

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Weekly Social Media Update

Posted by rebcla May 24th, 2011

Viddy, the ‘Instagram’ for video app hits 500,000 downloads

The video sharing app which quietly launched only six weeks ago has already managed to hit a significant number of downloads. Viddy is a social video app that lets users apply filters and other effects to short clips shot on their iPhones. It turns raw footage into a stylish creation. If you’re a fan of toy camera apps such as Instagram and Hipstamatic then this app is one to add to your collection. Panic At The Disco have just launched a campaign to crowdsource their next music video via Viddy. The amount of interest in this app strongly illustrates a growing trend of social video-sharing in the mobile world.

Groupon to partner with Foursquare?

Groupon and social location innovator Fousquare are rumored to be in partnership talks. If this goes ahead, we are likely to see Groupon deals targeted to Foursquare users’ check-ins. Last week Groupon announced a deal with Foursquare competitor Loopt to distribute its new Groupon Now real-time deals. Groupon Now is currently only available in Chicago. Loopt has around five millions users, while Foursquare has nine million. This partnership makes sense, Groupon strengths lie in recruiting customers and its key relationships with local businesses, while Foursquare has originated around GPS and the mobile application experience, where local is headed. A predictable question, but can Foursquare really beat Facebook?

Another Tumblr?

Webdoc is a new social platform which lets you mashup virtually any content on the web via an intuitive drag and drop interface.  This includes the functionality to integrate interactive applications like slideshows, games and polls. Users can also add services like Twitter and Google Maps. It’s been named a modern Tumblr or Blogger. You can read more about it here.

Tags: foursquare, Groupon, instragram, panic at the disco, viddy, webdoc

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Weekly Social Media Update

Posted by Sinead Doyle February 1st, 2011

Facebook Places Deals Arrive in the UK

Three months after the initial launch in the US, Facebook Places Deals have finally launched in the UK and Europe (Germany, France, Italy, and Spain). Initial partners include Starbucks, Yo Sushi, Mazda, O2, Argos, Debenhams, Alton Towers and Benetton. If this can bring the ease of Foursquare-style promotions together with the group discount appeal of Groupon, Facebook could well be onto a winner.

Gesture Control

Last week’s Truman Session explored the future of connected TV, and got some of us thinking about the new user interfaces it might require. Microsoft’s Kinect, recently named the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in history, has the potential to be used as an input device, though most current Kinect hacks are more for entertainment than utility, such as this Kinect controlled robot:

Here’s an installation at the Yahoo! headquarters, showing how such technology could be repurposed as a usable interface:

Minority Report is only a matter of time!

Social Media and the Egyptian Crisis

Social networks continue to play a vital role in times of crisis. Despite internet outages and attempts to block Facebook and Twitter access, inventive users have been finding ways to circumvent these problems using proxy servers and third-party apps. Google has launched a Voice-to-Twitter service to help protesters make their voices heard, and the BBC is following the situation live, supplementing its coverage with user-submitted videos, images and tweets. The number of tweets mentioning #Egypt peaked on the 26th of January, with over 250,000 messages.

#Egypt on Twitter

To show their support, other Twitter users have been retweeting messages that highlight the themes of censorship and oppression.

Censorship Tweet

Tags: connected TV, Deals, Egypt, Facebook, Facebook places, Facebook Places Deals, foursquare, gesture control, Google, Groupon, installation, Kinect, Minority Report, robot, Social Media, social networks, Starbucks, Truman Session, Voice-to-Twitter, yahoo!

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