First things first: The Plus-1 Button

About a month ago, Google unveiled their +1 button in what seemed like an attempt to compete with Facebook’s ubiquitous Like button. I quickly added the +1 button to several blogs I manage so we could start taking advantage of people starting to use the +1 button. Google first launched +1 as a way to ‘bookmark’  search results that you’ve found helpful. For example, if I search for a Chinese restaurant in Indianapolis and one of my favorites comes up in the list, I can +1 it and it will come up at the top of the list next time I search for a Chinese restaurant in town. Pretty helpful stuff. Now, with the release of G+, the +1 becomes even more useful. Before G+ there wasn’t a way to catalog all the things you +1′ed (search results, blog posts, websites, etc.), but within G+, there’s a +1 tab on your profile page so you can go back through everything you’ve +1′ed in the past – making it a better place to store true bookmarks and pages you’d like to return to than simply liking a site/post/etc. through Facebook (since there’s no ultimate catalog of the things you’ve liked outside of Facebook.com).

Circles 

Circles are the foundation that G+ was built upon. While you can add friends to different lists within Facebook, it’s a feature that was added to Facebook after many people joined, so there isn’t a great adoption rate for the lists feature within Facebook.

G+: Add to Circle

Instead of friending people like you do on Facebook or just following them like on Twitter, you add people to your circles in G+. Unlike Facebook, you can add people to your circles without them having to add you back, but unlike Twitter, by clicking on the Incoming portion of your stream (which I’ll get to later) you can see the posts of people who have added you to their circles that aren’t yet a part of your own circles.

In addition to a simple drag and drop feature for adding people to different groups, Google also has a suggested users section to the right of your stream where you can hover over Add to Circles and easily add people to your circles.

You can also easily view content from and share content with specific circles very easily with G+. Say you want to share some photos with just people in your Family circle, it’s simple to do. If you want to share a link to an article with friends from work or share a photo with friends from college, you can do that as well.

Profile

If you had a Google Profile, it’s now your G+ Profile. You can fill in information like where you work, a bio, where you went to school, where you’ve lived as well as add photos and links to your social media profiles, websites and blogs. Just like on your Facebook profile page, you can add as little or as much information as you’d like. When people land on your profile page, they can view previous posts (but only ones that are either Public, Extended Circles or shared with a circle that they’re a part of), About, Photos, Videos +1′s and Buzz.

Stream

The G+ stream is just like the newsfeed on your Facebook wall. When you log in, you’ll see each of your Circles on the left side of the page. You can click on any circle to view updates from people in that specific circle if you don’t want updates from your circles mixing.

You can easily comment on, +1, and reshare posts within your stream. With every new post you create, whether it’s a photo, link, video or text update, you can select who you want to share the post with. You can specify any combination of circles, individuals and email addresses as well as with the Public, all your circles or (a really interesting option) Extended Circles. Extended Circles simply means that your post is viewable by everyone in your circles as well as everyone in their circles.

While G+ doesn’t have a direct messages feature like Twitter or a private messages feature like Facebook, you can post messages that can only be seen by one other person by making sure they’re the only person that you share the post with. If this feels a bit uncomfortable to use for private matters,  you can always default back to another medium to send that truly private message.

I’ve tried out sending a more personal message just to an individual and they truly are the only ones who can see the message.

Tip: If you’re sharing a private post with someone, make sure you disable sharing on the post so they can’t reshare your private message.

Photos

G+ allows you to connect directly with Picasa (which will soon be rebranded as Google Phot0s) and share photos on your profile. With the G+ Android App (and the soon to be released iOS app), you’ll be able to take pictures and share them immediately with your circles.

Hangouts

In my opinion, this is one of the best features on G+ and one of the greatest differentiation point over Facebook. In short, Hangouts are group video chats. While Facebook just announced Skype integration to allow video chats directly from Facebook, G+’s Hangout feature is several steps ahead of the Facebook/Skype integration.

With Hangouts, you can have multiple people in the same video chat and you can also chat via text while you’re in the Hangout. This is a great way to share links or other information while you’re hanging out. Another unique feature is the ability to share YouTube videos with the Hangout. That way the entire group can watch a video together.

Tip: While you can specify groups or individuals who you invite to the Hangout, you can’t kick people out of the Hangout and anyone who is in the Hangout can invite anyone else. For that reason, if you want to have a private video chat, I’d recommend sticking with Skype or Facebook.

Sparks

The G+ Sparks feature is a combination of Google News and Google Reader. You can specify things you’re interested in and set them up as Sparks. G+ then feeds interesting news stories  each Spark that you can read through or share with your circles.

Measuring Traffic

All these features are great and they could lead to G+ becoming a legitimate player in the social media space, but when push comes to shove, you really need to know whether G+ is driving any traffic (and, in turn, any conversions) to your site. If you have a web analytics package like Google Analytics installed on your site, you can easily track the referring links coming to your site from G+. Just like how Facebook redirects all links shared on their site through http://www.facebook.com/l.php? to enable accurate clickthrough tracking, G+ redirects all links through http://plus.google.com/url? and that’s easily trackable through your analytics pacakge’s referring links section.

Side note: I’m not sure why Twitter hasn’t implemented something like this. Maybe that’s where they’re headed with their t.co shortener. Since Twitter is accessed through countless apps both on computers and mobile devices as well as through Twitter.com, it seems that by redirecting all links posted via Twitter through one standard redirector (t.co), it would make accurately tracking all Twitter traffic MUCH easier for everyone. Twitter, you can take this idea, I don’t even need credit for it.

GPlus: Early Verdict?

It’s still way to early to say that G+ is a boom or a bust, but I see a lot of potential and quite a few pitfalls at the same time.

Pitfalls:

• Numbers: With 750+ million people on Facebook and 200+ million on Twitter, Google really got to this party late and it’ll take more than just luck to siphon people from networks they’re already familiar and comfortable with.
• No Business Options – Yet: Google has announced that they’re working on a solution for businesses who want to get involved on G+ – they just don’t want businesses creating profiles just yet.
• Growth Beyond Early Adpoters: Several people have started wondering lately whether G+ can grow beyond the early adopters who are on the platform now. Mashable estimates that there are nearly 10 million people using G+ already, but I can attest to the fact that the vast majority of the updates I’ve seen so far on G+ have been related to G+. Part of that could be the novelty of the platform and everyone trying to figure it out together, but there have been other networks (like Friendfeed) that have languished with only early adopters.

Potential:

• Circles: Google has come up with an extremely intuitive and easy way to place people into groups. Facebook’s similar feature is clunky at best and if you haven’t already moved your friends into different groups by now, chances are you never will. It seems that Google started with Circles as the fundamental element behind G+ and it shows. It’s so easy to share anything with as many or as few people as you want.
• Hangouts: I think this is the killer feature in G+. I’ve tested it out a couple time with some colleagues and we’ve had as many as 5 people in the hangout at the same time.
• In addition to being able to have a quick video chat with one or several people, you can make the Hangouts as public or as private as you want to.
• The fact that I had already used G+’s Hangout feature made me yawn when Facebook announced last week that you could now (finally) video chat via Facebook. However, since you can only chat with one person at a time, this feature was out of date before it was even released.
• Integration with Google: This is another one of G+’s biggest strengths. Google already has a huge user base of people on Gmail, Google Docs, Google Reader, Google Maps not to even mention Google Search, and the fact that your G+ menubar stays with you whenever your on a Google property just means that people can stay connected to their network and share with them even easier than they can through Twitter or Facebook.

Related posts:

1. Has Google Lost It’s Edge?
2. What’s the Buzz about Google Buzz?
3. Two Great New Features from Google Analytics

So what exactly are QR codes? In short, QR codes are 2D barcodes that contain embedded information – a website URL, contact information, a link to a Twitter account or other information about a product or service. You can scan a QR code by using a QR reader on your smartphone or iPod Touch. I like ScanLife (a free download for  Blackberry, Android, iOS and Windows Phones) as it allows you to scan QR codes as well as standard barcodes, but there are dozens of free and paid QR scanners out there. I actually scanned the standard barcode on a children’s book the other day and it brought me to an info page that talked about the book and gave me links to purchase the book online.

Arkansas’s Tourism office started utilizing QR codes in their 2010 Tour Guide and in print ads this year. If you scan the QR code embedded in their ad (click for a larger version), you’ll be redirected to a page on Arkansas Tourism’s website that gives you more information about things to do and places to go in The Natural State. In fact, if you look through Arkansas’ 2010 Tour Guide (and presumably their 2011 guide) there are QR codes sprinkled throughout that give the reader more information about the page they’re reading – an excellent way to extend the print experience to online.

Another great example is this Ryan Adams concert poster. If you scan the QR code, it brings you to a landing page where you can download a free live version of one of his songs and it also features a link to buy tickets to Ryan Adams concerts through TicketMaster.

Those are just a handful of examples of how some companies are starting to use QR codes to extend users’ experience from print or outdoor to the web. Smartphones and QR codes can offer businesses the ability to provide more and more targeted information to consumers in spaces that are traditionally space-limited like outdoor advertising, signage or print ads.

There are even people who have started putting QR codes on their business cards. Simply scan the code and you can easily add the person’s contact info to your address book. That’s so much easier than coming back from a conference and having to manually add dozens of business cards into your contact list. In fact, if you scan the QR code on the left, you can add my contact information to your address book.

Have you seen any interesting examples of QR codes?

Related posts:

1. Four On Friday: Social Media Recap
2. Groundswell – Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

Bit.ly:

Bit.ly is the most popular URL shortener online today, and for good reason. After bursting onto the scene just a few short years ago, Bit.ly has not been content to sit still for long. They took over as the default URL shortener on Twitter (until Twitter’s proprietary t.co shortener took over a few months ago) and they keep coming up with reasons for people to keep using them. From their easy to access and robust stats to their simple to use API to the inclusion of QR codes, Bit.ly makes using their service very easy.

Features:

• One of the shortest URL shorteners. Since . The minimum length of a Bit.ly link is just 19 characters! That only takes up about 13% of your tweet (140).
• Easy to view click stats: Simply add a + to the end of any Bit.ly URL (http://bit.ly/SocMedrlgy+). You can easily see how many clicks your link received and where those clicks are coming from.
  • The stats even show you how many times your link was retweeted and shared on Facebook.
• Allows for easy customization of shortened URLs: (bit.ly/b4yn9p turns into http://bit.ly/SocMedrlgy) easily.
• Allows for link bundling: Let’s say you’re sending 10 links to some coworkers to look at some research you’ve been doing. You can bundle those links into 1 bit.ly bundle link so you don’t have to copy and paste 10 different links to each person.
• Bit.ly has a Pro option that is free and offers you the ability for your bit.ly links to be branded with your own custom shortened URL. For example, the New York Times uses nyti.ms, the Huffington Post uses huff.to. Just another way you can extend your brand and use a great URL shortener at the same time.
• Robust API that allows you to integrate your Bit.ly account to shorten URLs in many social media management applications like TweetDeck and TwitterFeed.
• Automatically creates a QR code: Bit.ly automatically creates a QR code for each and every shortened URL you create. This is hugely important as smartphones and QR codes are being used more each day.
  • Don’t know what QR codes are? Check out this good intro post for now. I’ll write up a post about QR codes soon too.

Shortfalls:

• Honestly, one of the only reasons I could think to not use Bit.ly is if you’re already using HootSuite or another social media management application that doesn’t allow you to use a third-party URL shortener.

Goo.gl:

Goo.gl is one of the newer URL shorteners. They originally launched exclusively for shortening links to Google-owned properties like YouTube, Google Maps and others, but recently opened up to shorten any link.

Features:

• One of the shortest URL shorteners. The minimum length of a Goo.gl link is just 19 characters! That only takes up about 13% of your tweet (140).
• Easy to view click stats: Follows the Bit.ly model of showing stats for each link by adding a + to the end of the URL (http://goo.gl/VdKMa+). You can easily see how many clicks your link received and where those clicks are coming from.
• Automatically creates a QR code: Just like Bit.ly (in fact, Bit.ly did it first), Goo.gl automatically creates a QR code for each and every shortened URL you create.

Shortfalls:

• Does not allow for customized URLs: http://goo.gl/VdKMa.
• Not used as widely as Bit.ly: This may not really be a negative, but it’s not used nearly as often as Bit.ly (check out this article on ReadWriteWeb all about the top shorteners)

Ow.ly:

One of the first URL shorteners, TinyURL hasn’t done much in terms of upgrading their capabilities in the past 8 years. TinyURL is a simple and plain URL shortener. The provide you with the ability to shorten any URL for display elsewhere on the web.

Features:

• One of the shortest URL shorteners.  The minimum length of a Ow.ly link is just 18 characters! That only takes up about 13% of your tweet (140).
• More secure stats: Since you can only view the stats on your shortened URLs if you created them and you’re logged into your HootSuite account, you don’t have to worry about others seeing the stats from your links.
• Through the HootSuite interface, you can download your clicks data to a csv file for manipulating offline.
• Allows you to upload pictures, files (and soon videos) to a shortened URL as well. This is great, because you don’t have to host the files on your own server – just let Ow.ly host them for you.

Shortfalls:

• Does not allow for customized URLs: http://ow.ly/3nmhr.
• No easy way to view tracking information outside of HootSuite. You can’t simply add a + to the end of your URL to view stats like you can with bit.ly. Instead, you have to log into HootSuite and use their stats interface to view info about each individual link.
• Does not (currently) automatically create QR codes for you with each shortened URL.

Budurl:

I used Budurl for about a year in late ’08 through late ’09. One reason I started using it is that I started getting more active on Twitter and I needed a URL shortener that would give me some statistics about how many clicks I was getting on my links. Budurl was one of the first URL shorteners to offer basic stats like that. Budurl now offers several levels of paid plans in addition to a free plan.

Features:

• Allows for customized shortened URL: budurl.com/socmedrlgy
• Preview function: By placing ? at the end of the URL (budurl.com/socmedrlgy?), users will see a preview to see where your shortened link will bring them. By using the preview feature, you can ensure you won’t be led to any risky sites without your knowledge.
• Basic click numbers in the free account: You can see the number of clicks each URL received.

Shortfalls:

• Fairly long”short” URLs: While a Budurl link isn’t quite as long as TinyURL links, it’s still relatively long. The minimum length of a Budurl link is at least 24 characters! That’s just over 1/6^th of the total characters allowed in a tweet (140)
• Very basic tracking metrics on free account: This is probably the biggest reason I’d recommend using one of the other URL shorteners I already mentioned. While the basic click-through numbers are nice for the free account, you don’t get into the really good stats until you start paying $8, $12 or $49 a month. Still, not a bad price for good analytics, but you can get a lot of the same features for free from Bit.ly.
• Free version does not (currently) automatically create QR codes for you with each shortened URL.

TinyURL:

One of the first URL shorteners, TinyURL hasn’t done much in terms of upgrading their capabilities in the past 8 years. TinyURL is a simple and plain URL shortener. The provide you with the ability to shorten any URL for display elsewhere on the web.

Features:

• Allows for customized shortened URL.
  • Instead of this url: tinyurl.com/2fr2atm I could create this one: tinyurl.com/socmedrlgy- slightly more customized and memorable.
• Preview function. By placing preview. before tinyurl in the URL (preview.tinyurl.com/socmedrlgy), users will see a preview to see where your shortened link will bring them. By using the preview feature, you can ensure you won’t be led to any risky sites without your knowledge.

Shortfalls:

• Long “short” URLs: Even though the link that TinyURL generates is significantly smaller than the original link you submitted, it’s still relatively long as far as modern URL shorteners are concerned. The minimum length of a TinyURL link is at least 26 characters! That’s nearly 1/5^th of the total characters allowed in a tweet (140)
• Very little innovation: While TinyURL has been around for almost 9 years, they have changed very little about the site and have not kept up with the new players in terms of innovation and features they offer.
• No tracking metrics: This is probably the biggest reason I’d recommend staying away from TinyURL. With all of the other big players in the URL shortener field providing some level of tracking and anlaytics, there’s just no real benefit to go with TinyURL over one of the others.
• Does not (currently) automatically create QR codes for you with each shortened URL.

You can decide which URL shortener works best for you, but it’s best to use one that will work in concert with your other efforts. If you manage a Twitter account, Facebook page, MySpace profile and a Foursquare account, it might make more sense to use Bit.ly or Ow.ly, since they can be hooked up with Social Media management tools. If you’re just looking for something simple and no-frills, Goo.gl or Bit.ly might be for you. Have you used shortened URLs before? Which service to you typically use?

No related posts.

James Burnes – Mobiltopia

James Burnes has been working in the digital space for more than 13 years at various companies, including publicly-traded newspaper and television companies as well as private firms specializing in digital communications and development.

James recently launched Project Brilliant – a strategy and business incubator focused in digital space. Project Brilliant assists organizations in developing and planning strategies for utilizing internet technology to grow their business. The goal is to work with companies who need help and assistance putting digital plans in place and, in some cases, help launch those initiatives.

Mobiltopia is a venture launched by Project Brilliant that focuses on Mobile technology, websites, and apps for iPhone, Blackberry, Android and other smartphones.

Why Mobile?

For the last two years I’ve been watching very carefully as the digital space has evolved. We’ve seen a major shift to social media and a focus of businesses of all types to[ward] look[ing] at social media as a core marketing strategy. I identified fairly early on in my career that things change too quickly to just be focused on what everybody’s talking about right now, and to always spend a lot of time looking to what’s next; and mobile has been on my radar for the past two years.

About a year and a half ago, the focus on mobile really started coming to my attention, because I realized it was where social media had to go to be effective. Within the past six months I’ve watched the sale of smartphones grow at a rate that show that we will soon live in a world of screens. There was a definite need within the marketplace for there to be a company focused on specializing in mobile devices.

What are some specific trends within mobile?

Most importantly, the number of smartphones in the marketplace is growing by leaps and bounds. There is no doubt that mobile will continue to push the limits of how consumers utilize and access the internet and information from the internet versus how consumers access the internet from a desktop or even laptop computer. I see mobile as the natural progression of where the technology is taking us.

In 2009, smartphones accounted for about 18% of all cell phones, and should grow to 33% by the end of 2010 and should be over 50% by the end of 2011. Also, the number of consumers who are now paying for data plans have skyrocketed. This has gone from the businessperson to teenagers and moms. We’ve seen a shift in consumer behavior that now a whole different audience is using these devices, not just business professionals, which means that business of all types need to decide how they’re going to interact with consumers who have these powerful computers in their pockets.

What has brought about this tremendous rise in popularity of mobile devices in the past two years?

First, is affordability. Secondly, the iPhone’s attraction to a mass audience versus other smartphones, like the Windows Mobile phones and Blackberrys, were very focused on the business market. Third, there are simply more smart devices available today. Fourth, mobile carriers are seeing a lot of profitability through these devices and they want to continue to market those.

The profitability for the wireless networks comes as a combination of the data plans they sell, the revenue they generate by people buying apps – everyone who has an iPhone is generating money for Apple which inherently generates money for AT&T. Some of the profits come from increased growth in terms of new subscriber base, it can almost be directly tied to them having the exclusive rights to the iPhone.

In some capacity, even texting is a revenue generator for these mobile carriers and will continue to be for some time. They’re going to start seeing the pricing structure for texts diminish as they as more and more carriers have to compete for business by offering low- or no-costs texting plans versus what they offer today. So, they’re looking at smartphones being the next generation of revenue tools as texting revenue diminishes.

What are some obstacles for consumers or businesses that want to be involved in mobile?

On the consumer side, as you get less sophisticated users of technology, they’ll be less convinced they need to spend the money on the data plans. What I find today is there are consumers who say “I don’t need a smartphone”. It’s not that that’s an incorrect statement, but they don’t recognize the benefits of having this data in their hands until they’ve tried it. It’s a parallel to the challenge [mobile providers] had for some time with a lot of people saying “I don’t need a cell phone”. We’ve gotten to a point today where [the vast majority of] consumers have a cell phone for a reason – because they have the perception that they need it. Even though they don’t really need it, they’ve chosen to have it.

From a business perspective, businesses are failing to…operate mobile-optimized websites that adequately sense the screen size and information functions that consumers seek when consumers use a mobile device to visit their website. Nine out of ten websites today do not have a mobile-optimized version and there are  huge abandon rates from consumers, nearly 50%, that takes place the moment they realize the site they’re going to on their mobile device doesn’t look good on their phone. So there’s a missed opportunity for businesses who don’t reach this growing audience who access their website through mobile devices.

Will true-web rendering mobile devices like the iPhone change the need for organizations to create mobile-versions of their website?

I have no doubt in my mind that businesses for many years to come are going to need a mobile optimized version of their site. The…size of the screen and the ease of use that consumers expect when they’re on their mobile device are very different than when they’re at a computer. The way you browse a website when you’re using a phone is significantly different that the way you browse a website when you’re on a computer. That’s not going to change by virtue of the devices’ screen size.

How can the tourism industry in Indiana benefit from mobile websites and applications? Where’s the real benefit for Tourism?

I think tourism is one of the prime candidates for mobile focus. You’re reaching an audience that’s typically away from their office and home. Their only [traditional options] are either the brochures or ads they have on-hand when they’re driving around looking for things to do. Plus, the mobile phone is becoming their primary tool to find where to go and what to do when they’re in locations. This is particularly valuable for consumers who are out of market who don’t normally come to your location. They have specific needs as it relates to [attraction] hours, coupons, benefits, deals, ratings, etc. and these mobile devices are becoming a primary tool for discovering where to spend their time and their money.

I believe strongly that tourism, as an industry, must be one of the first industries in Indiana, and nationally, to activate these mobile devices because their consumer base is absolutely in a mobile situation. They’re out and about looking for things to do. There is a huge opportunity to drive revenue when you’re site is accessible through mobile devices. There’s no doubt that as younger generations travel they use these tools as primary decision-making devices. And as a tech-savvy consumer myself, traveling a week or more a month to locations throughout the country, my devices figure out where I should eat, where to stay, were to sleep, what to do; it all comes from my mobile phone because that’s the thing I have in my pocket no matter where I am to help me figure out where I’m going next. And that’s only going to increase as consumers of all ages, demographics, technical skills, etc. begin to have these phones as their device. In some capacity, some consumers consider their phone to be their primary computing device. I think that’s a pretty substantial statement for people to say. We’re going to continue to see more of that as the technology continues to increase and the cost continues to drop. The cost is what’s dropping faster than anything else right now.

This summer tens of thousands of tourists will be all around our state and the only decision platform to help them decide where to go and what to do will be their phone. That’s millions of dollars available to be captured by the businesses who are best marketing to them, promoting to it and being accessible through heir own mobile site, mobile app or having a presence on other mobile apps that are driving tourism behavior.

Will the iPad change the direction of mobile or will it end up being more of less portable computing device like a laptop?

As a category as a whole, tablet computers – including the iPad – are going to have a significant role in the marketplace as a whole, but in the tourism industry, I don’t forecast a big impact over the next 18 months. Where that device is targeted is a category of consumers who will use it as their general web browsing and media browsing device within the home and workplace – mostly home – not necessarily one they’re taking with them to go discover what’s around them. The iPad and tablet devices as a whole are not going to replace mobile devices as a primary computing device.

Where there are opportunities for that device to be utilized by tourism businesses may come from point-of-purchase opportunism within tourism attractions. It may serve as a very powerful tool in conduction surveys, for museum docents to be able to use rich-media to augment tours. There’s a great opportunity for those platforms to create interactive experiences as part of an on-site experience.

I just don’t know yet if the adaptation will create a new demand or a way to market to consumers. And, if I were, as a whole, trying to find ways that mobile was being incorporated into Indiana tourism locations, I think the biggest thing to be thinking about is: Does my community have assets that are created for mobile users? For example, does the Hendricks County CVB have an app for discovering things within the county? Also, does my subset within the tourism industry have an app? Another example, if I’m a chocolate factory, do all the chocolate factories have an “Indiana Chocolate Factory” app?  The key is that not everyone needs an app for their business, but they might get involved in an app for their niche, or category [county, or region] where they can share the cost and collaborate.

Many CVBs in Indiana have small budgets and few staff members. Where is the best place for those organizations to get started in mobile?

I think it depends on how they’re going to market it and promote it. If they’re seeing good branding and marketability of their current website to consumers, and they feel that consumers…are easily finding their website to find things to do, I would start with a mobile site because the cost factor is probably lower. Technology and opportunities around mobile continue to be more accessible and more affordable, so they shouldn’t dismiss an app if they can make sure their members and locations around the community are marketing it. Apps as well as mobile sites are only as effective as the audience they reach so it’s critical that when organization are budgeting towards doing things in the mobile space that they’re also planning to promote and [are] marketing themselves effectively through the channels they have.

Smart mobile initiatives leverage what already exists. If they have a website then the site should automatically detect if the person is browsing from a mobile phone and switch over to the mobile site. Mobile sites should be automatic [don’t create a mobile.site.com] and should detect which phone they’re coming from and prepare a version that works for that [phone]. That’s one thing [Mobiltopia] is doing. We’re creating mobile-optimized sites that take your current website and convert it to a mobile-optimized version as well as create custom apps. We’re actually working right now on a very exciting tourism app that focuses on organizations that are a part of a tour at a lower cost than has previously been made available in this market.

Any last thoughts or comments?

Mobile is a very new, emerging space and there are a lot of questions. Companies and organizations should not be afraid to ask those questions and become more educated. If they have question and just want to learn more about mobile or want have an exploratory conversation about “is mobile right for me or not”, the folks on my team are very happy to have that conversation and if they call our office at 317.426.0865 or email us at getstarted@mobiltopia.com we’re very happy to schedule time to talk about mobile. Yes, we’re in the business of selling mobile stuff, but we’re not in the business of selling people things they don’t need, so I’m happy to give people advice and recommend to them where they should spend their dollars. It may make sense to pursue mobile now and it may make sense to wait and we’re happy to provide that insight.

No related posts.

One of the most frequently asked questions about Twitter since it became popular in 2008 has been “How will Twitter make money?” People have made across-the-board speculations, including selling out to Google or Microsoft, charging for business accounts and selling ads. It seems that Twitter’s first step toward fiscal solvency is to begin selling “promoted tweets”.

Mashable is now reporting that the first of Twitter’s Featured Tweets are live as see in the screenshot below courtesy of Richard Nevins and TwitPic:

For now, it appears that all Promoted Tweets will be located within Twitter’s search function. In effect, the promoted tweets work a lot like the sponsored ads you’d see in a search engine. Some big names are among the first to get involved with Twitter’s Promoted Tweets: Starbucks, Bravo Network and Virgin America.

I think this is actually a great way for Twitter to introduce ads, and try and generate some revenue, without seriously detracting from the platform. The fact that many of Twitter’s power users update and view their Twitter account from third-party applications like Hootsuite, TweetDeck and various mobile applications makes traditional banner advertising next to useless for Twitter.

Not only do search-related text ads make sense for Twitter, but they can be useful for users as well. If you’re searching Twitter for “coffee” and Starbucks’ Promoted Tweet is the first thing that pops up, it could remind you that a Starbucks Venti Americano is sounding really good right about now.

I have no idea exactly how Twitter plans to integrate Promoted Tweets throughout their site, but the real usefulness for this functionality is how it could align with mobile users. Say you’re visiting Indianapolis and you’re looking for a place to have some locally brewed beer. You type in “local beer” in Twitter’s search on your iPhone and Scotty’s Brewhouse has a sponsored tweet letting you know about their assortment of locally brewed beers. Wouldn’t that be great if Scotty’s Brewhouse purchased a Sponsored Tweet for the phrase “local beer” in Indianapolis? Geotargeting Sponsored Tweets would fit right with my recent posts on Foursquare. Only time will tell if Twitter heads in that direction.

Here are a couple of other great articles about the new Promoted Tweets program:

• Mashable
• New York Times
• Ad Age

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1. Location, Location, Location…

I’m as big a Google advocate as anyone. I’ll swear by Gmail,and Google Voice has revolutionized my voicemail and the way I leave myself notes. I use Google Contacts as a central repository for all of my professional and personal contacts. I’m always finding some new way to parse web data in Google Analytics. While I only use Blogger now for my personal family blog, it was where I got my start in blogging. I keep up with dozens of blogs through Google Reader. Even though YouTube‘s new auto-caption feature still has some bugs to be worked out, it has tremendous potential for, among other things, disablity compliance. At home, all of my photos are stored in and organized by Picasa, and every time I need directions, I pull up Google Maps.

Even though that’s all true, I can’t help but feel that Google has lost it’s edge lately. Last September, they launched Google Wave, which was touted as the future of email. Google Wave incorporated Gmail-like email functionality, collaborative capabilities like Google Docs and the ability to see responses in real time. First revealed in the summer of 2009, Google Wave was rolled out to a handful of early adopters in September. Almost as soon as it was released the blogosphere was buzzing with disappointment. Part of that was due to the fact that, with the rolling release of Wave, some of the earliest users didn’t have any one to interact with. In addition, Wave was confusing for even the most savvy web users. Though Google has made some small tweaks to Wave since its release, the general consensus is that Wave has been a let-down.

In February, Google released Google Buzz to all Gmail users. Buzz was to be Google’s answer to Facebook and Twitter. With a built-in user-base of more than 150 million, Google wanted to create their own proprietary social network to let users interact with one another through their email client. In addition to some big privacy concerns, Google only let you pull in updates from Twitter, Flickr, Friendfeed and several Google-owned sites like Picasa, YouTube and Google Reader. Notice that Facebook is missing from that list? On top of that, Buzz doesn’t allow you to push out updates to Twitter, Facebook or other social networks, which makes it even more of a walled garden than Facebook, Twitter or others. Social media is at least in part about openness and ease of sharing and Google Buzz simply doesn’t cut it on those two counts.

Finally, Microsoft recently announced that they would incorporate an optional Foursquare layer to Bing Maps. I blogged about this in a previous post, and the Foursquare layer is now a reality on Bing Maps (Visit maps.bing.com and click on Map Apps, then click on Foursquare Everywhere – you might have to install Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin for it to work). This kind of integration is something I would have expected from Google, not Microsoft. If Google hopes to remain the technology giant that they are, they have to be on the forefront of social technology. Microsoft and Yahoo already beat Google in integrating real-time information (Facebook & Twitter updates) to their search engines and this is just one more area where Google is forced to play catch-up.

Every company is bound to release some products that are duds, but it feels like Google has been experiencing more than its fair share of duds lately. On top of that, they’ve been happening on relatively big products. I’ll still keep using the Google products that I know and love and I’ll continue to try out any new products they launch, but if they keep taking missteps like this, it might not be long until Google is reminiscent of some of the past tech and search giants like Apple before the iPod and Altavista.

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1. What’s the Buzz about Google Buzz?
2. Two Great New Features from Google Analytics

While the Foursquare App isn’t live for everyone just yet, you can visit Maps.Bing.com and click on the Map Apps button (If you can’t see the button, click on Try It Now within the Explore the new Bing Maps button on the left side of the page) and load up their Twitter App to get a feel for how the Foursquare App will work. This kind of integration of location and user generated content is invaluable for tourism. Imagine you’re planning a trip to the Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood; simply point your browser to Bing Maps, load up the Foursquare App and you can plan your trip confident that you’re getting suggestions from the people who frequent the attractions, hotels and restaurants in the area.

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1. Location, Location, Location…

It’s common knowledge that the three basic rules of real estate are location, location, location. You can have the most beautiful house in the world, but if  it’s located in a bad area of town, it won’t be worth nearly as much as it would if it were beachfront property.

Social media, and the web in general, has been slowly moving toward being more location focused for the past few years. Hop over to Google for a second and type in food and you’ll be presented with a map of restaurants in your area. Google is able to tell your general location based on the IP address of your computer. With the recent proliferation of iPhones, Blackberrys and other internet-connected mobile devices, location will only become more and more important in social media.

In addition to Google, big social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are adding location-aware code to their sites that allow you to let your followers know where you’re sending your updates from. To be honest, I think they’re trying to catch up with newcomers Gowalla and Foursquare. Gowalla is similar to Foursquare, but I’ll stick with the latter in this post.

Foursquare started out in March of ’09 as a game of sorts in several US cities. Users would create accounts and “check in” at different locations around town. Users would earn points and badges with each check in and if they had more check ins than anyone else at a particular location, they would become the “Mayor” of that place.

Foursquare offers users a great way to let their friends know where they are right now. One great example of how this information can be used is to take a look at this year’s South By Southwest (SXSW) music, film and technology festival that just wrapped up in Austin, TX. The festival has been going on for decades and in the past, several big-name bands would play secret shows, using an alias. In the past, the only way to even attempt to catch the big-name band was to check out some of the lesser known bands, but you’d never know for sure if you’d find that secret show or not. With the advent of Foursquare, people started posting immediately where they were when a secret show broke out. They were also able to let their friends know if a particular show, film or session was worth dropping in on. This immediate feedback provides users with so many more choices now.

While it began as a game, Foursquare has some amazing business uses, especially for the tourism industry. Foursquare encourages you to leave a tip when you check in at a location. For example, Julie checked in at the Hilbert Circle Theatre in Indianapolis and left a tip for where to park: “Park in Express Park on Market & Penn and follow signs through the garage to go in the back entrance of the theatre.” If you were visiting Indianapolis, isn’t that the kind of inside information you’d love to know about the theater? You’d never find that information on the theater’s website.

One of the best uses I’ve seen for Foursquare in tourism is FourWhere.com. Click the image below for a larger version or visit the site and search around for tips about attractions, restaurants, lodging facilities and more in your area. Most of the Foursquare data is larger cities, but more information is coming to smaller cities and towns as more people start using Foursquare. Just think if you integrated an app like this into your website’s map. Not only will you allow users to find driving directions to your attraction or city, but you’ll be able to give them real, unvarnished tips from people who actually visit those locations. Think of it as a mix of TripAdvisor and Twitter.

FourWhere, a mashup of Google Maps and Foursquare

You can create a Foursquare business account that allows you to offer users deals and special discounts for checking in at your location. Foursquare has a business page that shows all companies that are running “Mayor discounts”. Simply put, if you’re the “mayor” of one of these business, they’ll give you something special. For example, Pizzology – a gourmet pizza restaurant in Carmel, IN has a deal where the mayor gets a free pizza and the Carrabba’s Italian Grill in Mishawaka, IN  gives their mayor a complimentary dessert with the purchase of an entree. These deals don’t cost a lot of money, but they give incentives to customers to keep coming back! These types of incentives will only become more popular as more people start using Foursquare and other location-based applications.

The potential business uses for Foursquare and other location-based applications is nearly limitless and while they haven’t hit he mainstream yet, I wouldn’t recommend waiting too long before embracing these technologies. Even if Foursquare and Gowalla aren’t around in 5 years, the geolocation principals that they are built upon will be an important part of web marketing in the months and years too come.

Have you started using Foursquare for your business? Do you think this location-based trend has legs?

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