Foursquare Integrates Multiple Daily Deals Into Application
Posted: July 12, 2011 Filed under: Social Media | Tags: daily deals, facebook, Foursquare, Google, groupon, livingsocial, Social Media Leave a comment »This post is a cross-post from my post on Grafik’s Blog.
Ever since every major brand has announced their entrance into the daily deals arena (Google, Facebook, AT&T, Amazon, Gilt, Groupon, etc.) I’ve been wondering who was going to be the first brand to create an application to aggregate all of this information into one easy-to-use interface. I mean, if you’re like me, you don’t want to comb through 10 emails a day from 10 different sources, or have to download 10 different applications to what is probably already a crowded smartphone home screen.
At first, my thought was that the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial would be crushed by Facebook and Google, since they already have your attention each day, and integrating a daily deal into that user experience is a no-brainer, and sure to drive usage if it involves recommendations from trusted sources like your friends.
However, today Foursquare announced that they will be integrating multiple daily deals partners into their application for their 10 million plus users. They intend to offer you, the user, the deal that makes the most sense for you, based on the types of establishments you’ve checked into, your geographical proximity, and whether or not your friends have checked into the location offering the deal. While they are launching this new feature in the US with a handful of partners (AT&T, LivingSocial, Gilt City, Zozi, and BuyWithMe), it is easily scalable and may become the de facto mode to purchase a daily deal if you are an avid Foursquare user.
Here is a screenshot of what the deals will look like (from Foursquare’s website).
Foursquare Integrates Daily Deals
It’s still early, but I like where this is heading…
SXSW Day 2: Changing the Game
Posted: March 13, 2011 Filed under: Marketing Thoughts, Social Media, Technology Leave a comment »This post is a cross-post from a SXSW blog series I’m posting for Grafik.
After having grand plans to follow the schedule I had outlined for myself yesterday, I was quickly thrown off guard by realizing that a few of the panels I wanted to see were being held at a hotel across the lake and almost impossible to attend if I wanted to catch a few panels back at the convention center. To that end, I’m a little disappointed that the 10 different “campuses” they have set up are not within the immediate vicinity and hope that in the future, they can try to work out a better system to allow folks to get from one place to another.
Having said that, I would not have stumbled onto the first panel I attended on Saturday, Time Travel: Interfaces for Geotemporal Visualization, had I read over the description ahead of time, which was all about data visualization (a topic near and dear to our fearless leader, Judy). I think what was most interesting about this panel though was that it was being given, not by designers or product folks, but university professors, engineers and researchers. And quite frankly, a lot of the discussion was over my head as the different options for visualizing the time or data axis were debated, but hearing some best practices for data display from the people who are pioneering the field was fascinating.
Below are just a few tips that I picked up:
- 1/3 of our brain is just dedicated to visual processing – so we should be doing more to cater to this part of our brain rather than just relying on text to communicate
- We are often tempted to use color to denote changes over time – the panel cautioned in doing so since the brain struggles to identify small differences in color – so keep that in mind when determining which axis to apply color to
- Animation is often used to show an evolving timeline, which is great, except that when time is in motion, you cannot directly compare two time slots and therefore sufficiently analyze differences
- Time is often thought as the fourth dimension – is social data the fifth dimension?
- Depending on what information you are communicating, multiple methods might be used (i.e. linking a map to a timeline – Trulia Hindsight)
After being completely blown away by the amount of brain power in the room, it was time for the main event, the keynote presentation from Seth Preibatsch, the designated “Chief Ninja” for SCVNGR. The line to get into the ballroom where he’d actually be speaking was over 1,000 people long, and people began lining up two hours prior to his talk. Keep in mind that every keynote, every day, is simulcasted into every single room featuring a panel, so you can watch a keynote from the luxury of a much less crowded room, in comfort. These people must have known something that I didn’t, because I shook my head and said no thank you.
Well, Seth did not disappoint. His whole presentation was centered around how “game play” is set to become the next layer of information to be integrated into web-based products (based on the premise that the social layer is the current “layer” of data being integrated and consumed). He believes that by motivating people through game play, you can accomplish great things within society and used our current educational system as an example of a gaming ecosystem that is broken due to a lack of engagement. For example, grades represent a moral hazard of game play – you have kids learning for the wrong reason… to earn a grade, rather than to actually learn the material. Grades therefore become a status mechanic and a poor reward. You want to earn an “A” or become a “valedictorian.” Also, as a student, you have the potential to move in a negative direction and “Fail” rather than a grade dynamic that is based on progression (think experience points in a game). Wouldn’t it be great then if kids learned at their own pace, without experiencing failure, because they wanted to learn, rather than because they would achieve a piece of paper with letters on it? In other words, put the power back into the hands of the “players” and not to the “platform.”
Two business examples Seth used to illustrate using the art of game play (though to different mechanisms) to drive their business objectives were Groupon and American Express. Groupon acquires new customers using “communal gameplay” by stating that the deal only takes place after 50 people take advantage of the Groupon. They then raise the heat a little bit but adding in the “countdown mechanism.” By creating a definitive end time, it has been shown that activity tends to spike exponentially as the countdown approaches 0. And the whole time they are creating this gaming environment, they are building their email list to market to you again tomorrow. Meanwhile, AMEX focuses on building loyalty by engendering our need for status and exclusivity, or in game play terms, “leveling up.” And to think all they did was create different color cards, each with different perks and status associated to it. And while none of us could actually name what the perks are for Black card members… wouldn’t we all die to have one?
Having said all of this, these two paragraphs will not do his presentation justice, so I encourage all of you to check out his presentation deck here.
And after hearing such an inspirational talk, it was time to unwind a bit and play some foursquare with some of my new Austin friends, as well as redeem the mythical “golden ticket” Foursquare was handing out to a select few of lucky SXSW-goers to attend their free concert on Monday night. I’m not exactly sure how I unlocked this sought after badge, but I was not asking any questions…
SXSW Day 1: A Little Overwhelming
Posted: March 12, 2011 Filed under: Social Media, Technology Leave a comment »This post is a cross-post from a SXSW blog series I’m posting for Grafik.
Everything I had read prior to arriving in Austin for SXSW had warned me that for new attendees, the conference can be a little overwhelming. I think this forewarning is a bit of an understatement – it’s downright crazy. Imagine 10,000-15,000 people swarming to a 4 block section of town. Then take about 70% of those people, and imagine they are walking with their nose buried in their smartphone. These people could be wearing shorts, jeans, sun dresses, leather, plaid, sport coats, ties, and more leather. They might look like Barbie, Mr. T, members of your favorite punk rock band, or your CPA. They might have died hair, earrings, shaved heads, mohawks, glasses, or look like you and me. In other words, any and every type of person is here – from all over the world.
After I processed the initial shock of being surrounded by such colorful people, the first order of business was check in and get my coveted SXSW badge. And after standing in the wrong long line for 20 minutes (for a swag bag rather than my badge), I was kindly directed by one of the very nice and energetic SXSW staff to the badge collection line. And as I entered the long, winding line, it reminded me of my honeymoon in Disneyworld, waiting in line with high expectations for a crazy ride ahead – except no children.
Waiting In Line for the Ride of My Life
So, after picking up my badge, I walked around the convention center to get my bearings as well as a sense for where I would need to go to attend the various panels. As with most conventions, there are booths set up by every possible tech vendor that you can imagine, from Microsoft hawking the new Windows 7 phones, to Nintendo promoting the Wii Kinect.
A Challenging Bout w/ Wii Kinect
And if I hadn’t just showered and gussied myself up for the conference, I might have jumped into the ring with these guys – I have a nasty right hook.
And after walking around for a bit, it was time to take a little walk around downtown and find a nice watering hole to grab lunch – after all, it had been a long, tough morning. I think what I found the most fascinating on my walk was the transformation taking place around the convention center. Buildings that had stood empty a mere two days before were now “it” spots for parties, or in the case below, what was once just a normal restaurant had become the CNN SXSW Grill. As you can see, the old signage had been replaced with a sign specifically made for CNN for this week. And this was taking place all over the city.
CNN Preparing for Their SXSW Takeover
Finally, after satiating my appetite with a delicious taco salad, it was time to venture back to the conference area and sit in on a few panels. First up was a Fireside Chat with Tim O’Reilly. For those of you who don’t know Tim O’Reilly, not only is he the founder of the O’Reilly suite of tech and programming books, he’s probably one of the smartest guys out there when it comes to emerging technology. He has had a track record of knowing what the next big thing is going to be, before the Googles and Facebooks of the world do.
Tim O'Reilly and Jason Calacanis Take the Stage
Tim O’Reilly has always been a big advocate for “open source.” He and a group of folks actually coined the term “open source” back when programmers were trying to determine what to call their efforts to share programming knowledge with one another. And what I found interesting was how he is now trying to use his experience to apply that concept to evolving our government. He believes we should view the government as a platform, rather than a service provider. He referenced how the government using their abilities to develop GPS technology in the 60′s and then making it available to the public to in ’87 to innovate against is what has led to the thousands of products that now use GPS technology. Imagine what our lives would be like without turn by turn directions from our Tom Tom, or not being able to check in at work to claim your mayorship.
But in all seriousness, Tim is advocating for more people to think like startups, rather than big corporations. Think iteratively, collect feedback, and evolve often. Imagine what our government would be like if bills were 20 pages long, rather than 2600… He has even started a non-profit, Code For America, where he is recruiting the best and brightest programmers, and using their skill sets to help our government evolve, all over the country. Amazing and powerful stuff.
You can learn more about Tim O’Reilly by reading his blog or following him on Twitter @TimOReilly.
And as fascinating as this discussion was, the following panel that I attended was not nearly as much. The presentation, led by Mint.com‘s VP of Product, was billed as an opportunity to hear how companies were using analytics to help determine whether they should build a mobile app versus a web app, versus a mobile-optimized website. This is something we wrestle with every one of our clients – what is the right solution based on who their customers are and what types of information we want to present to them? Sadly, what had so much promise turned out to be an hour long infomercial about the history of Mint.com and how great it is now. The only tidbits worth passing along are pretty obvious to anyone who has worked with mobile products:
- Pick your platforms carefully. Know who your customers are, the types of devices they use, and build towards that platform.
- If you choose to develop an application, don’t waste your time on any of the peripheral distribution mechanisms. Take advantage of the iTunes App Store and the Android Marketplace.
- If you are delivering a lot of data (as in the case of Mint.com) an application gives you much more presentation control than the mobile web does. If the information you are offering is simple, a mobile-optimized website may be the quickest and easiest solution. Less headaches.
Two other random anecdotes which I found interesting were:
- 20% of Mint.com’s user base is now mobile only. They registered via their mobile phone and view all of their data through their smartphone. Which to me, as a Mint.com user, is fascinating given how rich the web experience is, but it goes to show you how we are evolving.
- When Pandora first started, they were trying to develop apps for every single handset, and for the life of them, they couldn’t figure out why Pandora worked on the black Motorola Razr but not the pink one. Come to find out, the pink Razr used a different chip set than the black one. Consequently, they had to modify their app just for the pink phone. He mentioned this anecdote as an example of how complicated developing an application can be if you choose to go down that road
If I learned anything from the Mint.com panel, it’s to be prepared for some to be worthwhile, and others to be less than so. But as someone mentioned, SXSW is what you make of it. Don’t be afraid to walk out if you’re not happy. Message received.
So, let me summarize the day with a few tips that I learned first-hand:
- Register for the conference early, and get a hotel downtown. Driving in or catching a shuttle is a pain and doesn’t allow you the ability to take a break when you need one.
- Have your phone charger with you at all times. My battery was on life support by 3pm, which makes it challenging to do much of anything.
- Be careful when you are trying to walk and check-in on Foursquare at the same time or you might trip over a sand bag.
- Drink lots and lots of water to balance out the copious amounts of caffeine and other free beverages you’ll be drinking.
- Wear comfortable shoes.
You can keep up with the latest by following me on Twitter @psubuzz or Foursquare, reading my SXSW blog series, and catch some of the sights and sounds of SXSW on Flickr.
The iPhone Experiment: Two Week Update
Posted: May 6, 2010 Filed under: Social Media, Technology | Tags: iPhone, iPhone Experiment Leave a comment »Two weeks ago, I began what I called the great iPhone Experiment. You can read the details of this experiment here, but the general gist was that I decided to return my iPhone 3GS to wait for the iPhone 4 due out this summer after seeing the leaked details from Gizmodo. And of course, since that video was leaked, there have been all kinds of legal issues stemming from the “find” and “sale” of the prototype phone. A quick Google search will uncover countless articles bashing the dude who found the phone, but while people are pointing fingers at who did what and who was ultimately wrong, I was about to embark on throwing all smartphones out the window.
The first weekend began without a phone all together, which presented quite the challenge when I had friends in town that I was trying to sync up with. Let me tell you, relying on home email alone to coordinate meetings and activities is a pain in the rear. It turned out that all my numbers for my friends were in my phone which meant that I had no way to call them, and when I went into the city to pick them up from their hotel, I actually had to print a map before I left the house since I couldn’t look it up on my phone using my GPS position.
You see, I had forgotten to ensure that I had a phone to plug my SIM card into after I returned my phone… Fortunately, my brother came to my rescue. And here is where it gets tricky… the phone he had for me to use was the original iPhone. I seriously contemplated telling him no, that I had promised everyone I was going without a smartphone for 2 months, but when you have a 12 month old child, it’s irresponsible to not have a phone, right? I know this is so, my mom made sure to email me and tell me that now was a good time to finally get a landline for our house. Nope, not going to happen…
Anyway, I had to accept the phone from my brother, BUT… I have done so with a few restrictions in place to try and pursue my original intent:
- I am strictly using the phone to make calls and text message
- I am not using any of the applications on the phone
- I have not activated email
I am sure some of you are sitting there asking me what’s the point then? Well, as unnerving as it was to not have a phone for an entire weekend, it was extremely liberating. Likewise, first few days I had the iPhone without any applications or mail was just refreshing, so I wanted to keep that up as long as I could, especially with a family vacation to the Outer Banks about to start 36 hours from now.
And you may think that this is no longer really an experiment, but I will tell you that in the past two weeks, I’ve learned a few things:
- You don’t really need email on the go. Certainly, I reached for my pocket a few times at first while I’d wait for the elevator or be stopped at a traffic light, but you know what, there are actually people in the elevator to say hello to, and by God, the alone time you get in your car should be cherished given how crazy so many of our lives are these days.
- It’s a little challenging to get dressed in the morning without knowing exactly what the weather is going to be like. I’ve had to walk downstairs to the computer and actually look up the forecast before leaving the house. The exercise has been welcomed.
- Speaking of exercise, I DO miss the Runkeeper app as I figured I would. I’ve had to restrict my routes to streets that I can trace on the manual input application for Runkeeper on their website. By the way, have I told you how much I like that application??
Easily one of the best apps for people who like to exercise. Since using it, I’ve run more in the past 3 months than I have in previous years combined. - There is more of a responsibility to remember when your meetings and appointments are… I used to rely on checking the calender on my iPhone or receiving a notification to remind me when I had an upcoming meeting. Not so anymore. I actually have to pull up my calendar in the morning and go through the schedule for the day so that I can plan accordingly.
- Finally, what I have missed the most is the ability to take pictures and videos. If we didn’t have a boy that was about to take his first steps, it might not be as challenging, but for those of you who have kids, you know how remarkable this time of a child’s life is, and how there is so much to capture. Fortunately, my wife still has her phone, and we do have the FlipCam always handy to capture these moments.
Have I missed my Twitter apps? Or Facebook? No, not really. I’m not really one to obsess over what my friends are doing, so Facebook has never been a draw for me in that way. Posting content or checking on things while I’m on my computer is enough. And as far as Twitter goes, I’ve still used the text feature when something strikes me as interesting… like seeing someone rear end another car yesterday afternoon on my run directly in front of the Association for Professional Insurance Agents in Old Town. Now that would have been something to take a picture of and post with my Tweet.
So far so good. If you all still feel that using the iPhone as just a text/call device is within the original intent of my experiment, I will continue to post how this has impacted my smartphone-enabled life. Personally, while the phone may be fancier than others, using it for text/phone only seems to fit the definition of a smartphone, though even Wikipedia lists varying definitions of a smartphone. Either way, I’m going to continue this email-free, more surroundings-aware approach over the next few weeks… oh, and probably have an even better time on the beach because of it. Now, did I put the sun block?
