Yet Facebook has a lot to account for in the privacy debate and its ongoing criticism is second only to Google. Meanwhile Foursquare has been steadily gaining momentum and growing its active user base. Whilst its stats are changing, over just 1 year of existence it has amassed half a million users (source: http://mashable.com/2010/03/12/foursquare-stats/)

Foursquare vs Facebook is a game of two halves: the numbers game vs the interactivity and appeal of the gaming element. Only time will show which one will come on top. But yet again, it is increasingly not about fighting with the behemoths, but acquiring a niche market group of its own and Foursquare has been leading the way here.

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Watch this space.

source: http://mashable.com/2010/08/16/facebook-location-august/#

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Social media networks have successfully shown that creating and owning a popular action is not only a trademark but a unique way of engaging the fans and providing the interaction. More than that, today’s announcement from Twitter has shown that this button is more than an effective viral tool. The ‘tweet’, ‘digg’ ‘Like’, ‘buzz’ and the rest have effectively formed the TV remote control of Social Media and a powerful way for fans to switch between channels.

With the audience increasingly moving towards learning their preferences and choosing the favourites, the battle for the top place on the social media remote control is on.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/12/twitter-tweet-button/

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Duties:

Program, analyze, test and implement reliable web applications using various programming languages; utilize front-end technologies such as Flash Actionscript with Object Oriented Programming (OOP), HTML, CSS, and Javascript to build web-based communications and back-end technologies such as PHP, DotNet and MySQL to build CMS (Content Management System) & web-based applications; responsible for the design, development, deployment, and production support of highly stylized data-dynamic interactive and Flash websites; build corporate & e-commerce websites using Drupal CMS framework & highly stylized 3D web-environments using Papervision 3D library; and work closely with Design Director, Producer and other team members to optimize web-applications & user interfaces including prototyping for webpages.

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in CS related field + 1 year experience as a Computer Programmer or Web Developer. Must have experience in DotNet, PHP, MySQL, Drupal, & Flash Actionscript with OOP.

To apply: send resume to Last Exit LLC, 200 Varick Street, 8^th Floor, New York, NY 10014. Attn: HR

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There is something else, which they have just done and which makes perfect sense: optimising their social bookmarking menu. As a consumer and web user it would always puzzle me to see the abandoned ‘t’ and ‘f’ at the top/bottom/side of the websites. Why should anyone click on these and what would they get if they do?

Daily Candy, it seems, have an inspiring example:

I like it because it is a clear ‘call to action’ and an extra incentive to head the Facebook way. There is an obvious room for improvement, but for now it works…

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To this day, Kanye West has been notorious for his ubiquitous online presence, whether it be through his circuitous rants, outlandish video captures of him “in the moment”, South Park cameos, or even hilariously mean-spirited Twitter hoaxes. Last May, Kanye unabashedly launched into a Twitter tirade, in the paranoid wake of several doppelganger accounts and the heads of Twitter consciously letting it slide. By revealing to his loyal fanbase that he only blogs 5% of what he’s doing since he’s “BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME”, Kanye positioned himself as a musical workaholic with just a very loud caps lock key.

However, yesterday marked Kanye’s first day on Twitter under his eponymous handle. And he already had 50,000+ fans by the end of the work day. Now, he’s closing in on a quarter of a million. West kicked off his tweet-spam with: “Up early in the morning taking meetings in Silicone Valley,” before correcting himself an hour later with, “Lol I spelled Silicon wrong ( I guess I was still thinking about the other type of silicone ITS A PROCESS!! : )”

Many of the following tweets thanked bloggers for posting about his surprise performance for the Facebook offices. And we’ll admit, that was very well-played. Surprisingly, though, there seems to be no trace of capitalization anywhere, just endless complaints about the size of private jets, the luxuries he self-indulges in, and the stuntastic tweeting opportunities he missed before yesterday.

If he continues this trend, his tweets may be just as loud, if not louder, than his lit-up caps lock. Consider yourself warned.

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Chegg has made quite the name for itself since “setting up e-shop” back in 2003. Now, 4.2 million books and 6,400 campuses later, Chegg has “disintermediated” the $5B+ college textbook market by providing a low-cost, short-term, nationwide rental alternative” to the steep prices of the university bookstore. Carpenter further predicts that Chegg is poised to control 80%+ market share.

Having garnered a substantial online presence, Chegg wanted to brach out offline, while still staying loyal to the insight that today’s students were both cost-conscious AND creatively expressive. The challenge for us was not just the technical development of the boxes, but also the launching of a campaign that would garner more online/offline awareness via offline engagement.

We joined forces with Dr. Pepper to hatch an interactive marketing campaign called the Chegg Book Box Builder Challenge where participants were given pre-loaded colors and graphics to design a Chegg bookbox. Students were further egged on by the incentive of an Apple Macbook Pro and the guarantee that the highest voted box design would be the one shipped out to renters.

Sure enough, 4,000 submissions and two million votes later, the winning designs from Rachel Sperber, Sarah Herman and Sebastian Carames, are set to ship this Fall (Congratulations, you three!). We enjoyed working with both Chegg and Dr. Pepper on this project and definitely look forward to the next challenge.

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However, whilst Facebook and Twitter represent multiple layers of global societies from all paths of life, Foresquare (one of the most famous LBS’s) has emerged to command a very lucrative share of the market:

19- to 35-year-old, college-educated males who are influential among their friends and family, generally do a lot of mobile-based web research when considering making a purchase, from a refrigerator or a car to a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant.

This newly defined market share is a great test bed for any brand to involve and engage its users with targeted campaigns. Whilst Facebook and Twitter keep growing and weaving themselves into the core infrastructure of our lives and becoming our indespensable passports to browse the digital frontiers, companies like Foursquare will emerge to engage, entertain and connect us on a different level.

source: http://mashable.com/2010/07/27/foursquare-marketing-study/#

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But the X-Factor, the World Cup and the forthcoming election are all about the winner, and the economic crisis couldn’t have triggered a realignment of society’s values if the gap between winners and losers hadn’t grown so big.

And that is also happening online. That sense of the web being free for all, where anyone-can-join and anyone-can-participate is fast becoming, as in life, a place where only the top 3 count.

Google has been the first to clearly mark the finish line; we all know that the top 3 search results account for 80% of clicks. The rest sink into oblivion. The next was Twitter with the launch of the ‘promoted Tweets’, which allowed companies to bid on keywords.

This is a powerful message to marketeers and brands: participation in the conversation alone is not enough. Having a presence on Facebook, a voice on Tweeter, an advert on Google, a page in Wikipedia does not by itself create a winner.

Targeted content written around keywords and an in-depth knowledge of the consumer, the things that they want, the things they search for and aspire to will mark out the strongest and the fittest. And there are plenty of tools both online and offline to help on the targeting journey: Google’s targeted ads, HP’s customisable ads publishing software, Facebook Ads, Twitter feeds – the list goes on.

And most importantly, it won’t be about the tools anymore, but about real people and real, gripping, insightful content and ideas. The Gold medal is worth fighting for.

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