Social Media, Stripper Shoes and Sales – Oh My!

I couldn’t resist posting a non-traditional post today.  Sometimes in social media there are things that on the surface aren’t social media, however when digitized they can become something social, viral and completely hilarious!

Yesterday, a friend of mine sent me a pic they took when running around town.  On the surface this picture is just all out funny.  But you know I will take it deeper, right?

So here is the story behind the photo.  Clearly, this photo spawned a firestorm of comments on Facebook by a ton of people.  There was laughter, comments and disbelief.  It highlighted the serious power of social media and how simple things can turn into incredible opportunities to engage, share and build relationships.

My friend “June” elaborated on the post by explaining that she stopped because as she said, “I just had to see what of his wife’s things the guy was selling.”  She continued with, “there were TONS of like stripper shoes…”  Which, based on the social tactic used by the poor fellow, the clear quality of his writing, as well as the eloquent use of grammar was not such a surprise.

Sometimes social media is at it’s best when it originates in a non-digital venue and flows over into the social platform.  Sometimes social media is serious, from the heart or marketing based.  Sometimes social media is just funny and an incredibly engaging photo that spurs connection and communication.  This is a wonderful example of just that.  Enjoy!

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

When Social Media and Commerce Converge

Inherently, Social Media is made up of community connections.  These connections typically form around location, relationships, interests and other like-minded activities.  Within the dynamic of social media, business and commerce is beginning to flourish in the form of Fanpages, Brand following and Social Marketing.

We know this right?  Maybe not.

As a long time sales, marketing and technology executive I have watched social networks sprout up, take hold and grow, while others have wilted and died.  Since 2008, I have contemplated how this new medium should connect with commerce to enable major brands as well as the local business thrive, while at the same time delivering value to the end-user.

Human beings tend to cluster in groups, as I pointed out in the first paragraph.  Here is what we know;  People tend to hang around people like them, relate to people like them, buy from people like them and even purchase similar things as those they connect with.  This is the reason fanpages even exist and why we have followers on Twitter.  It’s why we have “friends” on Facebook and connect on Foursquare.

Nobody has taken these facts of human nature and used them to bring consumers together around local through national brands, making value and benefit the center.  Nobody has developed a system for business to effectively use those detailed purchase preferences to facilitate commerce and clear ROI using social media.  Until now…

With a fanpage, you never know what the reason someone “liked” it.  There could be 80+ reasons.  A friend invited them.  They ate there once. They love it and purchase from the company frequently. They are a competitor and so on.  The reasons are endless.  It’s like creating a direct database of prospects that at best are warm and at worst wont ever see your mail piece because they are rarely home (eg it flew by their newsfeed and never saw it).

fondalo allows consumers to join together in “mobs” around local, regional and national brands and products to build buying power.  Just like being Microsoft when you buy laptops from Dell.  You better believe they don’t pay what you and I do on our own.  With fondalo, YOU say what retailers you want deals from by creating and joining mobs.  When a deal is posted you get it.  No waiting for anyone else to accept it.  No bothersome daily emails.  Isn’t that how it should be?

The fondalo business platform enables companies to target their exclusive deals based on the location and purchase preferences of anonymous mob members.  Since everything is segmented by local, regional and national, the local business can compete with the national chain.  What’s more, it is not a one time hit and run marketing solution like the Groupons of the world.  It’s a trackable social media commerce solution that integrates into all other social venues.  It delivers results today and throughout the year by allowing the business to include an offer every month.

Social, viral and simple makes fondalo valuable and fun for consumers, yet brings ROI Social Media Commerce to business.  Check it out for yourself:   http://apps.facebook.com/fondalo

Since fondalo has a “mob” theme, I thought the following video “The Mafia Busted using Social Media” would be appropriate to end with.  Meet Vinnie…

Facebook Announces ‘Places’ – Direct Hit to Foursquare’s Bow?

This post is meant to be a follow up to my post yesterday Facebook Fires Torpedo at Foursquare as well as be my personal coverage of the announcement.

5:15 pm Wednesday evening I waited patiently for the Facebook event to begin on their Live streaming event page (http://apps.facebook.com/facebooklive/), as I watched a chat feed of Facebook user attendees post things like “What’s this for?” and “Add me please”.  Clearly most of the people attending the live stream were not even aware what is was for or why they were there.

We watched quietly to a live feed of hundreds of people mingled in the event room as melodic tunes rumbled in the background.  Checking the clock AGAIN.  It’s starting late.  No surprise.  Just like the old AT&T days…  Brilliant marketing, very poor execution.

Mark Zuckerberg finally grabbed the mic at about 5:25 pm and gave a brief speech about how great launch nights are and how important they are.

He then announced “Facebook Places”, their long-awaited location-based service with a story about testing it over dinner and finding friends had checked into the same place they were eating.

The product was designed to do three things; enable check-ins, finding where friends are now and discovering new places around you.  The focus is to let your friends learn where you hang out in general and where you happen to be at any given moment, so you can connect.  Sound familiar?

An interesting component of how the product displays the list of places to check-in is based not only on location, but places THEY think you would find interesting.  Clearly using your profile data as a tool to provide initial check-in locations. The system displays not only YOUR friends when you check in, but others that may be checked-in there as well.  This may be a significant privacy concern for many.

They have also included the Tagging functionality for statuses within the application, enabling you to post not only to your feed but a friends wall.  Presumably this will also work for fanpages, making it incredibly valuable for page owners, especially if it automatically does this by default.

They discussed a slew of privacy settings and allowable functions that share location information with others, including opting out of allowing friends to tag you when they check in.  Some of the information on privacy settings was a bit light and more detail on this will need to be dissected.

Then the BIG announcement:

A new API for business partners to develop connections to the new product.  A closed beta is being conducted now with a “few partners”.  No doubt the API integrations capabilities is the significant component here.  Gowalla got on stage and discussed their partnership with Facebook to incorporate Facebook Places into their product.  It will allow Gowalla users to post into Facebook. Foursquare’s Luedorf then got on stage and endorsed the technology and how they look forward to working with Facebook and integrating the capability into their offering. A host of additional location-based organizations used the mic to also weigh in and endorse Facebook Places.  Clearly they were all taking a sigh of relief that their voyage on the sea of geolocation was not being directly attacked by the Facebook social media battleship.

Apparently Facebook’s jump into the geolocation space is designed to be a backbone component for the entire industry, rather than a direct naval assault to take over the location-based high seas.

It appears that none of the announcements related to Facebook Places adds additional value to consumers utilizing location-based technologies in the form of a deal/offer distribution platform, nor an improved marketing platform for business.

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

Facebook Fires Torpedo at Foursquare

Rumors abound that tomorrow Facebook will be announcing their own location-based or “geolocation” check-in product.  For sometime, there has been a lot of noise from industry watchers that Facebook has been working on such a push into the fast growing location-based market.   Now, it appears that the rumors may become reality.

In my humble opinion, this seemingly inevitable launch represents the biggest challenge Foursquare has seen to date, and ultimately could lead to extensive collateral damage they can’t recover from.  Not only is Foursquare struggling to get its arms around its monetization and revenue plan, more importantly it is dealing with execution.  This is outlined well by Augie Ray’s recent post – Foursquare’s Starbucks Mistake: Five Ways Foursquare Advertising Is Getting Less Interesting.

The big issue here is that Facebook has 500 million users and company fanpage listings in their system already and can easily connect them within a geolocation platform.  Turning the “like” feature and fanpage “check-ins” into a mobile marketing realm of engagement, which connects back to feeds AND fanpages.  Foursquare can’t touch these immense challenges with their current or foreseeable platform.

If our poor start-up friend Foursquare hasn’t planned for this inevitable torpedo attack and developed evasive maneuvers to avoid the hit and be able to counter attack effectively, we might all KNOW “who sank this battleship”.

The bigger issue that has not been resolved within this marketplace is the revenue model and consumer value solution.  I suspect Facebook will be using this tactic as a way to push their advertising network into the mobilesphere.  A good idea?  Possibly for revenue and advertisers, but what about the consumer?

An effective delivery platform of “deals” for the consumer, as well as a clear marketing ROI solution for businesses to utilize within the geolocation space, that my friends represents the hole that needs to be filled.  Both companies should have built a delivery and consumer benefit platform first, then worked on the check-in side.

I actually know who is already working on doing this effectively.  More to come on that…

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

How A PR Professional Screws Up A Social Media Connection

Wednesday, I was going through my Twitter feed and reading posts when I came across a post discussion with a PR professional.  I went to review their Bio and feed to see who it was and if they seemed an interesting person to follow.

Their Twitter Bio read something to the effect of; Public Relations and Social Media Consultant. Pro Blogger, etc, etc.  So I went ahead and followed the individual, as their Bio seemed to portray someone savvy enough about PR and Social Media to consult others.

So, regardless of the fact that they only follow less than 500 people and had fewer than that following them, I decided to engage them.  Like many people who follow me, who are interesting, I extended an invite to my PERSONAL Facebook profile.  I do this because Facebook can provide a more intimate environment for getting to know someone over Twitter.

Shortly after sending my brief DM to this individual, I received the following response.

“Social Media Expert. I have a rule Auto DM asking me to connect on Facebook get unfollowed.  Get a website or blog.  Be real.”

This from a professional PR/Social Media Consultant and a purported “Pro Blogger”.

I politely replied with something to the effect of: “As a matter of fact I am real. I would be very careful how you DIS engage new followers on Twitter (insert person’s name). “  Since they had already unfollowed, I decided to go ahead and call them out with the same message in my feed.

So, this little post is just a little reminder that not everybody who consults or says they are a pro at Social Media are said.  If you are a PR Professional, be careful that your previous attitudes and quirks aren’t brought into the Social space.  If you are new to Social Media and are coming from another profession, be patient with people and make sure you know what you know.  Realize that at the heart of Social Media is the Human. Would you assume things and kill a business relationship like that outside of Twitter?

Why would anyone want to hire a Public Relations “Pro” or Social Media “Consultant” that so quickly burns a connection so flippantly?

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

Facebook’s Latest Blunder – Removal of Bit/Shortened Links

To my amazement today I noticed that when posting a shortened URL link on Facebook, as I usually do, the normal automated resolving of the regular link and subsequent page image is now not functioning.

Here is a little image I put together to show the issue now, and how it worked before.

The question here is why would they do this?  At this point I frequently don’t even ask myself this question as it relates to Facebook’s crazy changes and “upgrades”.  However, the impact this will have will be profound, for some.

The change has affected posts from all third-party applications as well, so posting to your fanpage or personal profile from HootSuite for example is affected the same way.

So on top of the changes made by Facebook along with their new Facebook Questions Platform that has created additional steps to post anything, we now have to deal with additional reduced ease of use with this change.

Come on!  Give us a break!

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

The Biggest Problem with the New Facebook Questions Platform

As noted on Mashable’s article today, Facebook officially launched its ‘Questions’ platform.  Being included in the beta roll out, I did take some time to review it and even make a few posts on questions I noticed in my feed.

As I see it, there are some issues with the new feature.  First, it is yet another change of the Facebook interface which was totally unnecessary, creating one more change 500 million people have to get accustomed to. We should all be used to Facebook doing this, but every time it happens it adds another layer of frustration and annoyance to an already less than pleased user base.

Though the Mashable article seemed to go out of its way to say that Facebook told them that it “is not an advertising product” and “it’s not meant to be a promotional platform” I am not convinced.  I believe that is exactly where this is going.  It will ultimately be another intrusion of marketing within the Facebook environment, which I am not completely opposed to, but let’s call it what it is.

Here is the biggest problem I see with the Facebook Questions platform; It is begging to be commandeered by spammers as a way to push links, content and “Free ads”.  From what I can see thus far, there are no protections against this occurring and as I write this, many MLM, Affiliate and Spam marketers are salivating at the new free platform they have been handed.

More to come for sure…

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

How Social Media Got Personal, Real and Engaging

Many of us in the Social Media industry are frequently writing about and explaining to our clients what being social is and how it can be effective.  We often throw out terms like “engaging”, “connecting” and “interacting”, then try to explain how truly powerful that can be.  We often also use analogies of “creating a living room” environment with our fans and followers that establish the human connection.

Being social can’t be anymore human.  It’s part of us and our God given nature.  When “social” is transferred into thedigital realm properly, connections are still made, relationships formed and heart felt engagements occur.  The core social element not only remains, it flourishes and spreads wide and deep.  It’s almost like bringing back the 1950’s kind of caring and interaction people once had for each other and their customers.  At its core is human connection and interaction.

If anyone has ever had a doubt about how human this digital thing we call Social Media really is, I have a story for you.  Yesterday one of my youngest cousins was killed in a tragic automobile accident.  Yes, deep I know.  I bet you thought I was going to provide some touching example of business charitable giving and the massive goodwill and ultimate revenue they received from the story.  No, this story is deep and completely human.

Sunday morning I posted on Facebook that I had just spoken to my father and that my cousin was in a terrible accident and was not going to make it.  By far the majority of my friend connections on Facebook are industry people and not personal friends.  This did not prevent me from being human and posting this message.  Over the past two days I have been blown away.  The prayers, comments of encouragement and heart felt human interactions from hundreds of people I have not met has been, to say the least, amazing.

Though my heart is broken at the loss of this family member, this situation has done two things.

First, it has given me a real sense of being cared about.  This was a total surprise to me frankly.  Never thought this situation would reveal a simple hope that caring and heart felt communication is actually still alive.  Not a hope outside of my faith in God, but just the reality that there are really great people still out there.

Secondly, it has impressed upon me in a much deeper way how human Social Media is when done properly.  When you engage this medium or are working with clients to help them within social, remember that the human element is there and what makes social media work

Let this sink in.  Social Media is about human connections that build trust and offers value to others.  It’s just not digital feeds, posted articles and crossed fingers.

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo

Facebook Down Just Days After Huge Changes Go Live

Well there you have it.  Facebook seems to be following in the #Fail whale footsteps of Twitter.

This marks another poor “upgrade” execution by Facebook.  Not only are users and experts in an uproar over additional privacy changes, but the site is now offline.  Amazing!

A friend of mine wrote a great article this week detailing the issues surrounding Facebook’s new Personalization.  I highly recommend you read it to know what you are up against.  Find it here: Protect Your Privacy Opt Out of Facebook’s New Instant Personalization – Yes You Have to Opt Out

In an industry where you dominate in dramatic fashion, it is completely unacceptable to become complacent.  Facebook needs to quickly figure out that its users are the driving force behind its continued success, NOT their business model aspirations.  They also need to get a handle on their server farms to ensure outages don’t become a consistent issue.  If both issues remain in the media, their domination could easily be threatened by another growing network, or even a new startup.  Just ask Nestle’ about handling things poorly…

A Review of Twitters Own BlackBerry App – Some Good, Some Annoying

Twitter recently developed its own Tweet application for the BlackBerry.  I installed the application on my Storm touch phone to see how well they did and to compare it against my staple application, UberTwitter.  Here are my quick thoughts and some screen shots.

On the down side:

Re-Tweeting sucks – Just like on the main Twitter site, the BlackBerry app does not allow editing when Re-Tweeting a post by another user.  It also doesn’t include the familiar RT notation we have all become accustomed to when scanning posts.  I, like many frequent Twitter users, often include a comment when re-tweeting a post to engage the original poster and/or make the RT a better engaging post.  Twitter should rethink this on their domain and app.

Can’t Exit App – One of my biggest complaints with the app is that you can’t turn it off or exit it completely.  It runs in the background whether you like it or not.  That is a bit controlling and I don’t like it.

Errors – It seems to me that I get the “Twitter Ran into a Problem” even more frequently than other Twitter applications.  I know, a shock huh?  The odd thing to me is that it seems more frequent even than the frequent domain Fail Whale errors.

Doesn’t auto shorten URLs – With UberTwitter, when posting a link or re-tweeting a post with a long form URL, it automatically offers to shorten it.  You don’t get this with the Twitter BlackBerry app.  I have decided to not RT several items due to this situation, where I would have on UberTwitter.

What I like:

Great interface – The interface of the Twitter app is very clean and easy to use.  Unlike UberTwitter, the tool bar options are big enough for my fingers to push on the screen without multiple attempts.

Loads and runs quickly – I noticed a significant speed improvement of Twitters application over others.  I’m sure this is due to direct connection into their own data points rather than standard API, however it is very noticeable and I like it.

Refresh of Tweet Feed – One of the things very annoying on UberTwitter is that when the feed refreshes, it leaves you where you were in the feed, forcing you to scroll endlessly to get to the latest posts at the top.  Twitter refreshes the screen and bumps you to the top automatically.

Profile Views with Follow/Unfollow ease – I like how the Twitter app displays profiles and easily lets you determine whether you are already following the profile or not and more importantly gives you single click options to Follow/Unfollow.

Battery Consumption – I noticed a seriously lower battery consumption using the Twitter application, even though it is always running.  I am not sure if this is actually true, but my spidey sense tells me it is.

Settings and Options – In general I like these.  Better than UberTwitter and when you get a new message and small icon screen notice, it actually identifies what the new notice is.  Whether a direct message, mention, etc.

Overall, I like the application and will continue using it.  However the big downside for me is the RT issue, which by itself will keep my trusty UberTwitter app safely installed on my Storm.

Here is a link to the app download – http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/8160

By Robert M. Caruso
CEO fondalo, Inc.
www.facebook.com/robertcaruso
www.twitter.com/fondalo