Zynga Goes Local

Although Zynga has made its mark on online social media sites, such as Facebook, it has jumped off the digital screen into the physical world.

Zynga, the gaming company that owns and develops online games, is now selling pre-paid game cards at dozens of major U.S. retailers for their games. Some of these major retailers include 7-Eleven, Best Buy, Target, and GameStop – all of which are big corporate companies that will sell gift certificates to nearly 13,000 stores. Of course, the most popular games we all expect to see and recognize will have corresponding gift cards available such as FarmVille, YoVille, and Mafia Wars.

Zynga, following the steps of Playdom targeted in Walgreens and British retailers, started developing this idea last fall and hopes to garner revenue from a dual stream. For those who do not have a credit card or bank account can now purchase money and take control of their status; this is a great marketing tactic especially if a large sector of the target audience consists of young teens not yet responsible for owning their own account.

This strategy will help establish and popularize itself even more as it continually rolls out more games and reaches a larger demographic. With over 67 million global users and 235 active users reported per month, Zynga doesn’t look like it’s going to crash anytime soon. In fact, the gaming site raised $180 million last December.

Now that’s a pretty penny…

Voicemail Gets a Makeover

If you’re like me, I frequently find out that my mailbox is full only after people tell me. Why is that? With text messaging so prevalent with almost every cell phone provider and carrier nowadays, who has time for voicemail?

But to be perfectly fair, voicemail isn’t as inconvenient as I just made it seem. But settling just isn’t in our 21st century digital vocabulary anymore. Now we have YouMail: Love Your Voicemail. And now we can do just that. This “digital secretary” service offers cell phone users visual voicemail, voice-to-text transcripts based on voice analytics, custom greetings, and smart filtering.

With over 1 million users strong only available in the United States, YouMail has dealt with over 300 million calls since its introduction in 2007. It’s safe to say that the numbers have hit the ground running. Good news for those with the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry is that free applications have been made available.

Most of the user-base consists of service professionals who cannot miss essential voice calls or want to personally greet callers by name or with a message. Luckily, the YouMail service is free and supported by advertisements. On the down side, the especially appealing voice-to-text transcription is only available through a paid, premium service.

Backed with $6.4 million from Vantage Point Venture Partners and Tech Coast Angels, its main competitor is Google Voice. However, the advantage difference with YouMail includes an API, Facebook integration, and personalized caller greetings. It’s nice to see a company facing a Google sector head on.

Just like the logo shows, there’s a new reason to smile.

Piece of Twitter Up for Sale!

Bit.ly for Twitter Part II for songs? It's all yours for a low price of $50,000!

Song.ly is a new web service that allows users to share music links through Twitter and hopefully allow more unique discoveries. And Flippa can put it right into your hands -- to own.

The auction on this website has two options to acquire it. Anyone can "Buy It Now" for a mere $50K, but the auction will continue for 12 days with a minimum bid of $15,000. All joking aside, not that money grows on trees, I'm surprised that this price is so reasonably low. Anything associated with Twitter with a decent domain name is an attractive catch.

All you have to do is enter a song title into Song.ly and the web service searching for those tracks. Simultaneously, the links shorten in order to accommodate for Twitter's character limitation and compacts the song in a Flash player that works with Firefox and Internet Explorer with possibilities as an open API.

AND! When you order now, for a limited time, the sale comes with the Twitter account "@ song_ly". The PageRank is at 5 and attracts about 175,000 pageviews per month. The creators of the content claim that they have not considered monetizing the site, which means either it's a risky move or there is much potential to tap into. To run the service would only require about an hour and $80 per month to upkeep.

So make your bid and don't take no for an answer...

Twision de Espana

What's the deal with all the rumors about a possible Twitter television show? Ridiculous...yet enticing.

Last year, talk of a potential Twitter television show was heating up around some American networks to pull in tweets on a talk show. What's the catch? So far, it's only in Spain.

Twitter's VP of Communications tweeted that Twision is the new Spanish show that debuted a couple weeks ago. While it airs late at midnight (which is considered early in that culture), the hour-long show allows viewers to send in live tweets that two hosts, with laptops and a large television screen in the background, can interact with.

The two talk show hosts are set into a studio where they show videos and other content via Twitter to talk about. The latest stream of tweets also comes up next to the video player. This will pave the way for social media to pervade other outlets and I think it'll be a great success as long as they keep it light and casual, yet informative for the audience. I expect the demographic to primarily reach college students and young adults.

Though it's in Spanish, we may be able to anticipate a new show in the making in the U.S.

"Just Dance...It's [Definitely] Gonna Be Ok"

Whoever said that Lady Gage wasn't an innovative, avant-garde artist may be right, but how do you explain her accomplishment of passing 1 billion views on her viral videos?

Surprisingly, Soulja Boy's "Crank Dat" video is currently ranked as the number 1 watched video of all time at 722 million views. However, Lady Gage just soared to the top of the charts as the first artist to pass one billion views across three of her extremely popular videos including "Poker Face" with 375 million views, "Bad Romance" with 360 million views, and "Just Dance" with 273 million views. How's that for measuring popularity? If not popularity, then it's just plain curiosity.

But how are these extraordinary numbers calculated to the tee? Visible Measures estimates views across all the major video-sharing sites including the embedded links. They just updated their Hundred Million Views Club of viral videos, but essentially there is no guarantee that the numbers are exactly accurate because some smaller videos sites may not have been taken into account. So far, there are 65 videos with over 100 million views, with most of them music videos.

Some of the most popular videos demanded today include Beyonce's "Single Ladies", Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle, and the Twilight Saga trailers reaching 984 million views. But some user-generated videos about kids have created quite a stir among web browsers of all generations from YouTube: Charlie Bit My Finger Again (with 289 million views) and David After Dentist (with 113 million views).

Who knew that a simple home video could create so much buzz with such little effort?

Yahoo Incorporates Facebook Facet

Yahoo implementing aspects of Facebook's social presence? Letting Facebook do what it does best? That's probably one of the best decision Yahoo's made in a long time...

At the end of 2009, Yahoo pledged that the company would be pairing up with Facebook Connect and utilizing Facebook's products as the world's most renowned social source. And this monumental step demonstrates the beginnings of this new relationship: Yahoo Contacts is connected to Facebook.

Yahoo makes it easier than ever to add your Facebook friends and their e-mail addresses to your Yahoo Contacts through Facebook Connect. In addition to G-mail and Hotmail accounts, users can now select Facebook contacts and import them from the landing page on Yahoo. After approval of the Facebook "credentials", the e-mail addresses will be transported to your Yahoo Contacts. What's more is that Yahoo will automatically scan the imports and delete the irritating duplicates that would be so tedious to sort through personally and individually. How's that for service? I'm impressed; Yahoo has really kicked it up a notch.

Rather than trying to replace the social media sites that have already been established, such as Facebook, Yahoo's e-mail, address book, and messenger application seems like it has to either keep up or just give up. As evidence of this, Yahoo also joined with Twitter to formulate even more unique products. The ever-elite Google is still trying to build its social graphs and create newer technological advancements.

Yahoo just needs to find a way to catch up...and it looks like it's taking the right steps!

Gregory and a Social Media Perspective

So we’ve all heard about how Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, and Search Engine Marketing can be such a profitable industry. But the aspect that I thought our noteworthy guest speaker, Gregory, communicated was the tips and tricks of the trade that most people would not discuss.

First, he discussed the feelings and coping strategies of being laid off a job. Especially during the hard economic recession, this is a very pertinent piece of advice. Even though we may all think that the situation has turned for the worst and the natural, immature reaction is to throw stuff across the room, this could actually serve as a golden opportunity. We should embrace this freedom and trek down another path. If we remotely feel that something is not right with our life, we can be empowered and change it. Opportunities exist everywhere and oftentimes find us right when we need it most. As Gregory simply put it, “We’re constantly surrounded by how NOT to do things.” All we have to do is filter them out and find what’s right.

Next, we learned that we’re never in stasis. We’re always in motion. Even if we have our platform or foundation that we are working toward in life fully established, whether that centers on family or a career, there’s still room to search. Scanning for threats or keeping an open eye for more opportunities are all worthwhile adventures. Keep researching, look up new information, and ease your curiosities.

Another third piece of advice that really resonated with me was to be honest and do the best work possible. Even though it’s very difficult, this has come up many times – and it’s all too often not loud enough. In the book I reported on, What Would Google Do?, I also read about the importance of candid relations. Honesty will drive the most efficient companies and employers as well as fellow employees will appreciate you more and refer to you as the invaluable resource that commits to honesty. I don’t see why people shouldn’t be honest anyhow…

The guest speaker’s presentation today consisted of intangible advice that could not have been more appropriate in this day in age. He spoke with so much passion that it would actually be difficult to not believe him. And coming from Gregory, this advice must be honest in every sense of the word.

A Happy Camper -- at a Very Young Age

Now THAT'S a million-dollar smile. Quite literally.

In fact, that's a potential BILLION-dollar smile. Facebook has just been documented at the top 10 list of IPO candidates for 2010. Mark Zuckerberg’s creation that originally started in a college dorm room has now expanded to 400 million account users and is profiting more as it hits their IPO goal.

However, The Wall Street Journal published an article that revealed Mark Zuckerberg’s hesitation to going public – despite everyone else’s interest. It also reported that Facebook executives estimated revenue for this coming year to reach between $1.2 – 2 billion. Whatever the number is, we know for a fact that it’s big. Now that’s a pretty penny.

Another update that Facebook and its users can look forward to is the tool that will provide your physical location with Facebook. Zuckerberg also has a tendency and liking toward “delayed gratification” because he has control over all of Facebook and when the site will ultimately IPO. At this point, what Mark decides is the last say.

Additionally, the article from TechCrunch provided some “gossipy” stories about Zuckerberg and his business antics. One of the Facebook engineer employees wrote an internal memo entitled “Working With Zuck” that warned others about Zuckerberg’s acknowledgments. Mark Zuckerberg isn’t one to pat a fellow employee on the back for creating something innovative. He thinks that moving forward is just natural progression, whereas reaching your goals the first time, every time is the right model to adopt.

Facebook means business.

Boredom Leading to Twitter Stardom

When Conan O'Brian is bored...what does he do? Simple. He creates a Twitter account.

It's hard to believe that a TV show star as famous as Conan O'Brien could ever be "bored." But after his exit from The Tonight Show on NBC, Conan decided to finally create an account that would undoubtedly call attention to the masses. Within two weeks, he already gathered a fan base of over half a million followers. Even though people flocked to his Twitter account, he did the opposite. He refused to follow anyone else.

Until today! And just who is this special someone?

Conan just publicly announced that he has decided to follow someone. In fact, his random action could only warrant a random following -- and that's what he did. He tweeted “I’ve decided to follow someone at random. She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.“

And without a doubt, it has. Sarah Killen, a girl from Michigan, gathered over a thousand followers just a few minutes after Conan tweeted about her. This number will most likely skyrocket by the hour.

Case in point: In an update following the TechCrunch post, a few minutes later, Killen had 2,600 followers.

What does this mean for society? Is this what Twitter has become? I still believe that Twitter has some positive aspects, such as an easy tool for information dissemination, but this is a good example of why I was so deterred from using Twitter in the first place. It's just a joke to some, and the ones who actually tweet meaningful posts are often overshadowed by the big names.

Apple Stock Shooting Through the Roof

With more money-crunching numbers, it has now been deduced that Apple is...well, very successful. To say the least.

With the iPad pending shipment on April 3rd, give or take a few days, Apple stock has hit the fan at an all-time high of 219.70. Now, I'm no expert, but at that value per share and beating its previous high of 215.59 on January 5th, that increase in two months indicates big bucks.

Originally quoted to launch in late March, the iPad is going to be delayed somewhat. But Apple fans don't seem to mind, especially since the rumors were actually more substantial than just a couple of days. And the customers are more relieved than angry.

With this anticipated launch, Apple's market cap is at $199.17 billion -- that's almost $200 billion. Google's market cap at $179.73 billion is close behind, but the companies are seemingly trying to constantly one-up each other. I guess when you hit 12 digit figures, you have that right.

What Would Fiverr Do?

So let's get down to the chase: What would you do for $5? Fiverr has some exciting options, literally, in store.

Fiverr is the new online "marketplace" that sells gigs for the low cost of $5. But how does it work?

The whole concept is a bit Craigslist-like, only the prices are consistently $5. You can sell or buy a task for an Abraham Lincoln and post just about anything. Anyone can post a small service on the site and visitors can browse and/or purchase those gigs. Fiverr benefits by taking $1 off of the $5 fee, so posting essentially trivial or mindless gigs still benefits their site and boosts the profits.

These tasks have a wide, miscellaneous range. From installing WordPress on a server to reading Tarot cards, to writing a special Haiku, these services are organized into categories such as Funny/Bizarre, Graphics, Writing, Technology, Social Marketing, Business, Silly Stuff, and Programming.

Because Fiverr charges buyers upfront, there is actually no guarantee that you will receive your gig. But hey, that's the fun of it and it's only $5 when worst comes to worst. But Fiverr also allows post-buyer feedback which will reveal to all viewers which posters are legitimate and which users are scammers. So it's in the poster's best interest to carry through with the task with efficiency and care. What a profitable business from such an entertaining site.

In this case, karma will come to get you.

Lucky Number 10 Billion

Of all the sites created out there, there is actually one that monitors the number of total Tweets on Twitter since its conception.

Gigatweet, a site launched to calculate how many Tweets have currently been cited, noted yesterday when Twitter was an hour away from the 10 billionth tweet. The number of tweets on Twitter has exponentially increased, with the last 5 billion posted in the short span of 5 months. When you boil down the math, that's 1 billion tweets PER MONTH!

But how was this estimation calculated?

Gigatweet is basing this anticipated "hour" on the previous posting data. The range of sources it used showed that Twitter received about 50 million tweets per day.

To find out when Twitter would hit the first 5 billionth tweet, watchers were looking at numbers associated with the URL of each tweet sent. Thusly, 9996229078 = 9,996,229,078. Whomever came up with Twitpocalypse for every 5 billion tweets will probably see that term soon in on Urbandictionary.com.

Ryan King, a Twitter employee, admits that this "science" is considered more numerology than calculating math. Although the number is not 100% accurate, it's a big responsibility -- and his job. Interestingly enough, the 5 billionth Tweeter now works at Twitter, possibly opening up an opportunity for lucky number 10 billion.

On a follow-up, the 10 billionth tweeter used a protected stream which limited username visibility. And Twitter co-founder, Ev Williams, said the whole crew anticipated this monumental tweet together on the big screens. Perhaps number 15 billion will come in a matter of months.

The One-Man Act

Social Media and Online Marketing = music to our ears. Especially with our background based in Online Communities, I’m excited to focus the next two weeks on social networking sites and media strategies associated with it.

Having Matt Singley speak solo to us in class was a great experience. His prestige and expertise in this industry is something that I’m extremely interested in as a possible career in the future. And as well all know, digital is the future. Matt even said that social media marketing agencies are going to increase as 2010 zooms by.

One of the most interesting topics we discussed in class was the controversial issue of the Audi brand that referenced the Green Police from Nazi Germany. When an angry customer posted a negative blog post about how Audi should be ashamed of themselves, Matt had to fight the fire as the Senior Director of Strategy. But when we were first asked, “What would we do?” I thought of my book presentation What Would Google Do? written by Jeff Jarvis.

According to Jarvis, companies must remedy mistakes fast and give control to the consumer. He would have publicly acknowledged this issue so no secrets are kept from the customers. And he would do so fast. That way, people can see that they acknowledged the issue and are paying attention to their customers individually. Sweeping an issue under the rug is just not smart.

Coincidentally (or not), that’s exactly what Matt did at M80. They publicly addressed the blog post only once and proceeded to settle the issue privately so that the problem does not escalate. By satisfying the original complaint and controlling further negative press from the public, the brand image can be salvaged.

So for all those companies wanting to expand their brand image or have found themselves in quicksand from a simple PR mistake, have no fear, M80 is here.