3 Hot Facebook App Ideas from Pancake Puppies

From Social Times:

While there are many great new Facebook application tools to make your Page stand out, successful promotions with clear objectives that stick to the basics don’t always need bells and whistles. Then again, white chocolate chips can’t hurt.

Denny’s current Facebook greeting card/coupon promotion is a custom Facebook application from Filter Creative Group. The app focuses on social media’s primary marketing objective — converting customers into brand advocates who influence their real-world and network friends.

The app allows Facebook users to create a customized holiday greeting card, with both the sender and recipient eligible for a coupon for free Pancake Puppies. Having used this type of promotion for Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day, Denny’s and Filter Creative Group evaluated how fans used previous iterations to tune this version.

Three “best practices” jump out:

1. The Facebook Like button is not the only means for sharing

This application does not require the user to Like Denny’s and allows the card and coupon to be easily shared. Senders can choose to send the card and coupon by Facebook, by downloading to send via e-mail and — get this — by printing to send by snail mail or deliver personally. Though Facebook is the platform by which someone participates in the promotion, it’s structured to allow sharing with all friends, regardless of whether they are on Facebook and using a preferred delivery method.

A small point of “friction” in the process is sending by e-mail, which could benefit from being able to send the card and coupon directly from the app.

2. Reduce roadblocks

The terms of service are provided as a link, rather than as a tome that must be viewed oran endless appendage to one of the app’s pages. The app does request permission to access the user’s Facebook information — so that it the card can be easily customized — in a less onerous degree than many other apps. (Wouldn’t it be great if Facebook allowed apps one-time access to only the specific information it needed for execution?)

The app does not pop-up a dialog box requesting a Wall post. And the coupon has no “jump through hoops” requirements for use, just a two dollar purchase during the promotion period.

3. Make it easy

The application is about as simple to use as can be for non-technical Facebook fans. If Grandpa gets a coupon, it is likely he will have little difficulty using the app to gift his friends. That there is both “Gift Cards” and “Card Maker” tabs on Denny’s Facebook Page could be a little confusing.

As Alan Miller, FILTER Creative Group CEO, puts it, “The Holiday Card Maker is a great way to reward the community while giving them a tool they can use.”

Denny’s has under 100,000 fans — relatively few considering it has 1500 restaurants. Forcing Likes and Wall posts could increase that number, but could also alienate fans and reduce their motivation to visit the page. This is a conundrum for all brands, though a smaller number of actively engaged fans versus a large number of passive fans can be a very successful social media marketing strategy.

Shoutlet Lands $6 Million For Social Media Management Platform

From TechCrunch:

Shoutlet, provider of a social media management platform, this morning announced it has raised $6 million in Series B funding.

The investment was led by (customer) American Family Insurance, and adds to $3.2 million in previous funding.

The startup’s original backers, Origin Ventures and Leo Capital Holdings, both participated in the new round.

Shoutlet’s centralized platform boasts Facebook and Twitter management, Social CRM, and widget building capabilities for companies to leverage promotions, coupons and sweepstakes and streamline social media outreach through a single interface.

Additionally, the platform enables mobile marketing, social commerce and real-time campaign analytics.

Vodafone’s Power Pinata Facebook Challenge

From Digital Buzz:





Last week I was sent a seriously weird package from the guys at Host in Sydney, inside was a wrestling mask complete with an attached cape and a note asking if i’d ever seen a robot smash a piñata with a baseball bat! Unfortunately I’d not been so lucky, so I accepted the invitation to go on a mysterious trip this week, complete with my crazy mask.

So it was a slight relief to discover the Facebook app and social campaign they are running for Vodafone Australia. Called “Power Pinata” the campaign is centered around a robot with a baseball bat, hidden away in a secret warehouse, ready to smash a Vodafone piñata that will instantly release 500 pretty cool prizes to the Facebook community, on a first come first serve basis.

What I love about digital right now, is the potential for online to create real world outcomes, and with the Vodafone Facebook app, you’ll be able to jump in the cue and control the robots next swing of the bat in real time through the app. The robot does look a little familiar though, perhaps he or she is the retired robot from the Halo Reach Monument campaign!

How To Compress Your Video For YouTube, Vimeo and Other Video Sites

From Social Times:

Have you ever spent hours and hours working on and perfecting a video only to discover that it looks terrible once you upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or other online video sites? If so, you have suffered from bad compression. Read on for some compression tips, and a video, that can help you to upload great looking video to the web every time.

Before we get into how to compress your videos for maximum picture quality on the web, let’s talk about what video compression is, exactly. Wikipedia defines video compression as “reducing the quality of data used to represent digital video images.” However, let’s try to understand compression in layman’s terms. Basically, when you create a video in the video editor of your choice and export it at full quality you are likely to get a pretty large file. Depending on the length of your video, your file could be several GB, which is pretty darn big.

While you can upload videos to YouTube that are up to 2 GB in size it takes a long time. Aside from taking time, if you haven’t compressed a video then YouTube compresses it for you and (no offense YouTube!) the final quality is often much less desirable than if you had compressed it yourself.

Earlier this week a Howcast video about how to compress your videos for the web went up on the YouTube blog. In the video, ‘Professor Compressor’ teaches you the basics of how to compress and upload a great looking video for the web. Professor Compressor does a great job of explaining how video compression works and how to trouble shoot when your video looks less than appealing. Check it out below, and then read on to find out about the compression settings that I like to use when exporting my own videos for upload to YouTube, Vimeo and other sites online.

I always find it easiest when I’ve got an outline of exactly what settings I should use when exporting a video for the web from After Effects, Final Cut, iMovie or whatever program I happen to be using. Following are the settings that I use most frequently when exporting video. These settings can be found when exporting or rendering your video in whichever video editor you are using.

File Format: MP4 (this is the type of file that will result, i.e. yourfile.mp4)

In the video settings choose the following specifications:

Video Format: H.264 (this is the compression type)

Data Rate: Choose a number between 8000 and 10000, Optimized for: Streaming

Image Size: If you want to export HD, choose 1280×720 HD; otherwise, choose whichever size you have been working with (usually I choose 640×480)

Frame Rate: 24

Keyframe: Every 24 frames

In H.264 video options, choose the following (if you have the option):

Restrict profile(s) to: Main

Encoding mode: Best Quality (multi-pass)

In the audio settings choose the following specifications:

Format: AAC-LC (music)

Data Rate: 320kbps

Channels: Stereo

Output sample rate: 48.000 kHz

Encoding quality: Best

Of course, everyone has their own formula that works best for them when exporting and compressing video for the web. As you compress your own videos you will be able to fine tune your compression settings to get the perfect combination for your needs. What compression settings do you use when you export video? Feel free to share them with us in the comments!

Go with Disney on Gowalla

From Gowalla Blog:

I’ve been looking forward to making this announcement for some time. I’ve been a Disney fan since I was a kid, and have had the privilege to visit Walt Disney World three times during my life — twice when I was young and now once as a parent myself. This of course pales in comparison to my Disney Park-addict studio mates Jon and John, who collectively are working on their Space Mountain lifetime achievement awards.

When we started building Gowalla a couple years ago there were three concepts that I was fascinated with. First was the idea of a digital passport that served as a travelogue of your life’s journeys. The second were the ski area pins I had collected as a kid growing up. The third were Disney Parks, their attention to detail, and their ability to make a place seem rich with story. In fact, the collectible pins amassed by Disney park-goers were another metaphor we drew upon when imagining the concept of Gowalla.

After we launched Gowalla, both Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California have been very active locations for us, with Disney World generating as much traffic on Gowalla as a medium-sized city. Many of you began asking some time ago that we feature Disney Parks within Gowalla. Of course, given the storied nature of Disney’s brand and characters, we wanted the experience to be official and top shelf.

So it is with a tremendous amount of pleasure that I get to announce, in partnership with Disney, the official launch of Disney Parks on Gowalla—featuring over a hundred Disney attractions, challenges, and insider trips that give you a new way to discover the parks when you visit the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and more. There are even trips created especially for the holiday season.

One of the biggest joys of this project is seeing the Disney attractions and characters come to life in Gowalla. We’re launching over 100 new featured stamps within Disney Parks today, with over 100 more expected by the end of the year. Each featured Disney stamp was painstakingly rendered in pixel form by Gowalla with the guidance of the Disney creative team — bringing you an experience that is truly 100 percent Gowalla and 100 percent Disney.

You can start planning your journey today with Disney Parks on Gowalla. For those of you who have checked in at Disney Parks prior to today with Gowalla, you’ll be thrilled to know that we’ll be retroactively crediting the new Disney stamps to your passport.

As for me, sounds like a I need to book a trip to Florida with my family. I need my Country Bear Jamboree stamp.

3 Examples of Stellar Social Media Customer Service

From Mashable:

With the connectivity social networks provide, companies are engaging their communities with new tools, methods and attitudes. They’re able to gain a greater understanding of their customers while reacting to inquiries and feedback more quickly and efficiently. It’s a win for both sides.

Social media customer service has become a combination of troubleshooting, engagement and building community. Like traditional methods of customer service, some companies are better at it than others. Here are a few companies that have nailed their social media customer service:

Zappos

Online retailer Zappos.com has set the bar for social media customer service. Its approach focuses on making authentic connections via social networks rather than selling or promoting products.

Since meeting customer needs is the goal, Zappos staff will spend time to help a person find an item they don’t carry — even though they’re making no money off the sale. Still, it’s valuable in building customer appreciation and trust. CEO Tony Hsieh recognizes that the web gives everyone a voice — including Zappos customers — and what customers say on blogs and social networks can reach millions. That’s why Zappos treats every interaction as an opportunity not to make a sale, but to shed positive light on the brand.

Staff are encouraged to be transparent in their tweets, which helps make customers feel like they know them and can be comfortable reaching out. The interaction is authentic, leaving the customer satisfied and likely to tell others about the experience.

Pottery Barn

Pottery Barn is an interesting example of social media customer service because it shows that exceptional customer service online doesn’t always translate offline.

One customer, Jennifer Hellum, sought customer service after the glass top on her Pottery Barn table shattered in the extreme Arizona heat last summer. Calling the customer service line and the store where she bought the table didn’t get her anywhere. A few weeks later, she posted photos of the tabletop explosion on Pottery Barn’s Facebook fan page. Within 30 minutes she had a call from a customer relations representative who worked with her to find a new tabletop and reimbursed her for it.

Though the company engages customers best via Facebook, its YouTube channel does a good job of building community online. Video topics include how-tos for party planners, designer profiles and featured products. By giving advice about and telling the story behind products, Pottery Barn’s YouTube channel brings customers beyond the purchase — a proactive form of customer service.

Boingo

1. 
   jdehn Why do boingo hotspots never work? 22 Nov 2010 from Twitterrific
2. 
   boingo @jdehn Never say never. Let’s make it happen. Which hotspot are you at and on which device? Do you have the software installed? 22 Nov 2010 from web in reply to jdehn

— this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

Boingo understands the essence of all that social media customer service entails: technical support, customer engagement and community building. The Wi-Fi service connects with customers in all these ways on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and LinkedIn.

On Twitter, representatives scan the web for mentions of the brand and reach out to customers with both positive and negative feedback. They’re quick to find people reporting technical issues and often offer to connect by e-mail. Kind words about the brand will often see a retweet or note of thanks in a sincere, non-corporate tone. Each of the three social media customer service representatives have their name and headshot on the @boingo profile page, adding to the transparency of their tweets.

Boingo’s Facebook Page is also a hub for responding to troubleshooting inquiries, but just like their Flickr and LinkedIn profiles, it helps to build community. While some posts are company or product updates from Boingo’s blog, representatives more often post relevant links, videos and discussion questions. Anything related to the Internet, technology or travel seems to be fair game for the Facebook wall, showing Boingo understands the interests of its community members and is using the space for more than drawing attention to its own brand.

10 Social Media Deals to Check In to on Black Friday

From Mashable:


Black Friday is upon us and that means that retailers are scrambling to offer up the best door-busting (or mouse-busting) specials and promotions to entice eager holiday shoppers.

Thanks to the success of Cyber Monday, retailers and online shops have long embraced the web as a place to promote and showcase deals and specials. What’s unique this Black Friday, however, is the large number of specials and promotions offered by retailers to customers who use location-based apps and services.

Users of social networks like Foursquare and Facebook Places can get discounts or get entered into special contests just by checking in to their Black Friday shopping destinations. Other services like Yelp, SCVNGR and Gowalla are also offering up special promotions.

Some retailers, like Sears, are even running deal-voting specials on their Facebook fan pages. Plus, many retailers are using Facebook and Twitter to promote their early-bird specials in advance of the big shopping day.

We’ve scoured the web and rounded up 10 specials and promotions offered exclusively through social media. Know of a promo or special we missed? Let us know in the comments.

RadioShack has teamed up with Foursquare to create the "Holiday Hero" badge. Unlock this badge and you can get 20% off your purchase. If you don't have time to unlock the full badge, just checking in at RadioShack will let you save 10%. This deal is valid through 12/31/2010. Also check out RadioShack's Facebook page for more deals and specials.

Check in to any American Eagle store and unlock a coupon for 15% off your purchase. This coupon expires on 12/31/2010.

Sears is running specials on its Facebook page. To get in on the specials, just "like" the latest offering. If enough people like a deal, it will go live at Sears.com.

On Friday, Gowalla will be hiding $50 Amazon.com gift codes at various retail spots across the United States. The company hasn't revealed where the codes are hidden, but says to check the usual suspects like the mall, big box retailers, etc. Be sure to check in at all your favorite haunts if you want a better chance at getting $50 at Amazon.com.

Hit up your local Hollister before Thursday and check in on Foursquare to score 20% off your purchase.

Check in to JC Penny on Foursquare and you can save $10 off your purchase of $50 or more.

Coca Cola is partnering with SCVNGR and Simon Malls on Black Friday. Complete all the challenges and you can earn points to get instant rewards like gift certificates and Coke-branded merchandise. Coke will be giving away $100,000 in gift cards.

Sports Authority is giving away 20 $500 gift cards on Black Friday. Check in using Foursquare and you have a chance at being randomly selected to win.

Starting at 9:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, the first 3,000 people to check in to Toys "R" Us using Facebook Places, Foursquare or Yelp will earn a 15% off coupon for purchases of $150 or more.

Check in to any Zales store using Foursquare and you can save $50 off a purchase of $300 or more. This deal expires 12/31/2010.