2012 was a big year for big data. According to Gartner Research, big data drove $28 billion of global IT spending in 2012 and is forecast to drive $34 billion in 2013. The definition of “big data” encompasses many concepts, but for this post we will be focusing on how it relates to user information shared across social media channels and how that information is analyzed and acted upon by brands. (more...)

The Social Mashup is back for another week!  Here's what we've got for you: Foursquare's new 'Radar' feature, the L.A. Dodgers 'Social September' promotion, Google+ adds hashtags and real-time search and last but not least NBA players unite through social media.

Foursquare Introduces 'Radar'

Foursquare has introduced a new feature to increase your social experience.  Radar will find things around your location that you may not know otherwise.  For instance, say you want to go to a dance class and have it on your To-Do List, when you are close to one Foursquare will let you know.  Or perhaps you follow a certain list, you'll be notified if you're near one of those locations.  If you are driving by a restaurant and a few of your friends are there, you will receive a pop up, even when Foursquare is closed, to let you know they are there so you can meet up with them.   The new feature is only available for iPhones with iOS 5 and is available in the latest version in the App Store.  Foursquare's Explore algorithm fuels Radar, finding all the cool and fun things going on right around you.

L.A. Dodgers 'Social September'

The L.A. Dodgers wrapped up their 'Social September' a few weeks ago with a month chock full of social media events and promotions.  This undertaking may be one of the biggest social media projects done by any organization this year.   Joe Jareck, the Dodgers assistant director of public relations, said,

Social September was a month-long initiative designed to engage our fans online, in-stadium and at home.

  The project was conceived earlier in the season when the chances of a Dodgers play off run seemed rather dismal.  The organization knew they would have to encourage fans to continue their support of the team and give back to the loyal fans at the stadium and watching on TV.  The plan included this 'Social September' promotion that stretched across TV, web, radio and Dodgers Stadium. Here are a few of the elements from 'Social September':

 
• Fans asked questions during a September 1-8 road trip through the Dodger's Twitter handle which were answered during broadcasts.
• Facebook polls were used to grant fans the chance to choose which songs would be played when a Dodger's player walked up to the plate
• During the September 12-22 homestand, tweets that included the hashtag #SocialSept were shown on the big screen at the games
• Clayton Kershaw, a pitcher for the Dodgers, guest tweeted from @Dodgers for a day
• Prizes were awarded to fans on Twitter.  Some examples are an on-field introduction prior to a game, a game of catch on the field during the offseason, announcing the start of the game and lunch with Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda

  The Dodgers saw a 'Social September' to be a great success.  The organization saw an added 21,000 'likes' on Facebook and 11,000 tweets with the hashtag #SocialSept.  The team had the second most Twitter followers during September of those teams not in contention.  Jareck said,

The goal … really was to just give our fans more voice … another way to follow the Dodgers closely and be rewarded for it. The goals of additional likes on Facebook or more followers on Twitter were secondary.

With such a successful promotion, I'd imagine more teams will be following suit to include social media to engage fans at the stadium and at home.

Google+ Adds Real-Time Search and Hashtags

Google+, while trying to hang on to any sort of relevence in the social media world, has added two new ways for users to find information: real-time search and hashtags. When you search a message will appear showing new posts immediately once they become available. The most relevant posts will come up in real-time if you chose 'Most recent' or select the message. Links to search results will be added to any post you tag with a hashtag.   http://youtu.be/beFP0REw3DM   While these features may not get you to try or stay on Google+ for very long, they will be helpful to users like journalists and media who are looking for breaking news. However, the technology used may be what is to come for real-time search on Google.com in the future.   Who knows what may come of Google+ given its significant drop in usage. Take a look at this graph over the past month showing a 70% drop from the highest trafficked time to the lowest point.

NBA Players Unite Through Social Media

As we all know, the NBA lockout is well underway. Players are trying to unite their voice online through social media. Just as NFL players did, Derek Fisher, president of NBAPA, is pushing the slogan "Let Us Play." Fisher encouraged players to use their social networks to show their unity as well as pushing them to attend another meeting out West. Here is a excerpt of what Fisher had to say:

Chris Paul and I will also be utilizing our personal social networking channels to show the fans and you all, that we are united and want to get back to work under a fair deal.   On Monday, Chris and I will tweet and post “LET US PLAY.” This was used by the NFL players and many will be joining us on Monday and retweeting the same message to show their support for our players. I will also be using the hash tag #StandUnited after all my messages until this lockout is over.   We invite you each to do the same. To show our unity and to remind the fans that this is not our choice and we would like to go back to work and play the game they love to support.   My twitter is @DerekFisher and Chris’ is @OneandOnlyCP3. Please feel free to send me yours so we can support each other.

We've all checked in somewhere or at least seen a friend hop on Foursquare so they can earn a badge for checking in to a restaurant, sports event, concert, or flight but have you ever wondered what demographic accounts for the majority of that activity. Well, we're here to shed some light on the question of who is powering the social media check in and who exactly is auto tagging their GPS location. Visible's research in the infographic below was taken from Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. (more...)

We're now less than 365 days away from the London 2012 Summer Olympics (and have been for some time now), but in case you were wondering about Sochi 2014, Rio de Janiero 2016, and PyeongChang 2018, we've got you covered with this cool countdown timer. This week’s edition of the Social Mashup features ESPN exclusive partnership with Foursquare, Skype's acquisition of GroupMe, StumbleUpon's continued rapid growth, and Google+ verification badges.  

ESPN and Foursquare

 

The champion of sports television has teamed up with the leader in geo-location check ins to supply tips on major venues across the United States.  Starting last week, when you check into certain sporting events on Foursquare, useful information such as game time, teams, venue, location, and more are made readily available plus all of ESPN's news coverage of the upcoming games.

  ESPN will provide facts, stats, and more on the brand's venue pages for major sporting events including NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college football, college basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, racing and more as the year continues.  ESPN now also has their own Foursquare Page, where fans can leave whatever tips they want about any ballpark, arena, or stadium.  One example of a good trivia tip about Camden Yards we saw was as follows:  

"There are two orange seats here. In right-center, the landing spot of Eddie Murray’s 500th home run. In left, the honorary mark of Cal Ripken Jr.’s 278th HR ball, the record breaker for shortstops."

  And for those Foursquare badge aficionados out there, when you check into a venue or event where ESPN has left tips, you are eligible to earn the Foam Finger Badge (pictured to the right).  We actually really dig the design of this badge ... who doesn't love foam fingers?! Totally classic.  

Skype to Acquire GroupMe

   Interesting news is now emerging from the VOIP / SMS technology space. Skype is on the verge of acquiring one year old company GroupMe, a group messaging service.    GroupMe was founded at the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon in New York last year.  The service focuses on group messaging and conference calling that enables users to stay in touch with groups of people via mobile phones.  Users can send free text messages throughout the group as well as leave voice mails.  The potential acquisition will add group calling capabilities to Sype.    While the purchase price has yet been disclosed (reportedly $85 million), we do know that earlier this year GroupMe raised $10.6 million in funding from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and several other investors.  Skype, of course, is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft for over $8.5 billion.    Skype plans on keeping GroupMe as a stand alone brand at present but will look down the line to integrate it into Skype's product seamlessly.  Skype CEO Tony Bates had this to say:  

“The group messaging space in general is one of the most important markets for Skype.  GroupMe creates a very sticky instant feeling.  Like Skype, it is an everyday interactive form of communication. Skype’s goal is to get to 1 billion users. Mobile is the place to do that.”

 

StumbleUpon's Dominance

    If you were to guess which social media website drives the most website traffic, what would you pick?  Facebook?  Twitter?  Well ... then you would be wrong.  The answer is surprisingly StumbleUpon.    According to Mashable, StumbleUpon accounted for 50.27% of all referral traffic from the top 10 social sites. Facebook was second with a 38.9% market share, while Reddit, YouTube and Twitter each garnered less than 4%.  Essentially, it's a two horse race at this point.    In case you are unfamiliar with StumbleUpon and its rapidly growing service, it can be summarized as follows (direct from their company description): "You tell StumbleUpon what you like and StumbleUpon takes you to great stuff based on your interests." In recent months, StumbleUpon has rolled out sleek new versions of their website discovery service on desktop, iPad, iPhone, and Android.  

  What do you think of StumbleUpon? Have you ever spent a few hours simply Stumbling across the internet? If so, have you ever tried other niche content discovery services like Pinterest, TasteSpotting, and Foodgawker?

Google+ Verification Badges

Impersonation of celebrity profiles, fake business accounts, and spammers fronting as public identities have long plagued the internet since the inception of MySpace and the social networking boom. In fact, nearly all successful social media services which offer public profiles incur this growing pain.    Now the folks at Mountain View, California have made the decision to roll out Verified Badges to high-profile celebrity accounts on Google+. This is clearly a move toward increased authenticity across Google's new and redesigned social platform and a necessary offering to compete with Facebook and Twitter in the celebrity arena. Say what you might about celebrity accounts, but mass buy-in from Hollywood, music, and sports personalities is a guaranteed ticket to quicker adoption of a service.  

From a management team's perspective or a brand's marketing strategy, Google+ represents a major headache ... simply one more major social account to consider and most likely an afterthought (for the time being) other than syndicating existing updates from Facebook or Twitter for the vast majority of already overloaded and understaffed social media managers.

 

  Verification Badges are of course not a new concept and already exist on other social media services like Twitter which slowly (but surely ... if you know the right person) verifies high profile accounts. Something that Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube offer which Google Plus does not yet offer is vanity URLs which coupled with verification badges make it a little easier to identify official accounts.  Google is also not removing fake celebrity profiles, at this time, like their competitors Facebook and Twitter. Take a look at Lady Gaga's profile below as an example of how difficult it is to tell.  

  One aspect unique to the Google+ verification process is that Google is considering a move toward a verified system for all users. Lack of a verified presence for all members of an online social community has long been a contentious point for many and also a service offering that creates much jealousy among B-List, C-List, and D-List celebrity personalities that are passed over for not knowing the right person at Twitter or Facebook.

 

Verified Accounts show a grey check mark. When a user hovers over the check mark, ‘verified name’ displays on the browser.  One criticism and piece of feedback that we have for Google is to make this badge more prominent. Why display an official mark when it's not a focal point and easy for users to spot?

 

Obviously this is tailored primarily to verifying public figures, celebrities, and people who accumulate a large number of Circles but it's possibly it could be expanded in the future. We'd love to hear your thoughts on Google+ and verification for all users.

 

Today's Mashup reviews three top stories from the past week in the world of sports, entertainment, and social media marketing. Headlines include Monster.com's new Facebook job network application, the IOC's decision to allow 2012 Olympic athletes to post social media content during the games, and the brand new partnership between American Express and Foursquare.  The Activ8Social team would also like you to check out the world's newest viral videographer, this seagull. American Express Partners with Foursquare Geo-location giant Foursquare has announced it’s largest partnership to date with charge card giant American Express. Founded in 2009, Foursquare now has 10 million registered users loving the mobile check-in software. This coupled with the fact that American Express accounts for 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions could mean a very profitable partnership.   Noah Elkin, an analyst with eMarketer said that, “In 2010 it was all about the check in. Now it’s about checking out.” Checking into places that give exclusive promotions to mobile users is part of the novelty of the check-in that has been taking over cities like New York and DC. Partnering with American Express allows Foursquare’s services to gain credibility over the similar check in services offered by Google and Facebook.   Sports Authority and H&M will be the first business to offer deals through American Express along with a few select restaurants in the New York area. Spending $50 or more will earn people checking in at Sports Authority a $20 credit and people who spend more than $50 at H&M will receive a $10 credit.   The service was tested at this years South By Southwest music festival and people with AmEx who used the program spent 20% more than other AMEX users without the program. Foursquare will not be receiving revenue from the deal, but it certainly should give them a significant bump in users with the potential to profit from it down the line.   Professional Network on Facebook Last week, Monster announced they were changing their job search function to be compatible with Facebook in a new product called BeKnown.  The new site, which went live today, enables Monster users to import their profiles to Facebook effectively setting up a professional network on the world's largest social platform. Facebook currently has around 700 million users and Monster gets about 38 million unique visitors a month.   BeKnown will not only be targeted at those who wants jobs but potential employers as well.  Matthew Mund, global vice president of product for Monster said “This is the path of least resistance, you can manage your professional identity and your social identity in one place.”  The offering comes as the recession has hit Monster’s bottom line pretty hard. Monster’s net sales have dropped 11% (annualized since 2008) and its stock price has declined 8.9%.  However, the company did post a 23% jump in revenues in its first quarter, which ended March 31.

Obviously Monster’s biggest competition is going to be the professional social networking giant LinkedIn which currently boasts over 100 million members and recently went public at an IPO price of $45. Similar to Monster's application, BranchOut recently launched on Facebook and currently has over 800,000 users.

BrannchOut is a similar enough application to BeKnown that Monster has added a few special features to their product including Foursquare-like badges for accomplishing milestones in the professional world such as  getting your first job.  Users can also follow companies and get endorsements a la LinkedIn, features not yet available on BranchOut.   Monster is still the premier job finding website and putting their product on Facebook could result in, for lack of a better word, a monster hit.  It’s reasonable to expect people who want to use Facebook for everything to give this product a shot.  BranchOut has no name brand recognition and LinkedIn, while incredibly useful for networking, is still not quite as good as Monster for finding jobs.  We say that now, but LinkedIn is getting a lot better at this as we speak.  The bottom line though is that if marketed and run correctly, BeKnown has the opportunity to be a popular tool for those looking for a new job. Allows Athletes to Tweet and Blog The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is allowing athletes to post, tweet, and blog during the London Olympics in 2012 but not without a few stipulations. The posts must be in "first-person, diary-type formats," that do not tread on journalists' reporting grounds. Athletes must also be sure not to post "vulgar or obscene words or images" which could result in removal from the Games.   The IOC released its social media guidelines for the 2012 London Olympics stating:

"The IOC actively encourages and supports athletes and other accredited persons at the Olympic Games to take part in 'social media' and to post, blog and tweet their experiences."

This is quite different from the 2008 Beijing Olympics where the IOC denied the right to upload videos and restricted picture uploads to prevent copyright infringements. Twitter was also relatively new at the time and did not have the same presence that it currently does.  Video and audio taken from inside Olympic venues is still banned by the IOC, but anything outside is free game. The restrictions are mainly to protect the IOC's intellectual property, as television and media rights make up a large portion of its revenue.   Athletes are expected to respect the Olympic Charter or could have their Olympic accreditation removed, barring them from competing in the Games if they violate the charter.  As part of the charter, athletes are prohibited from participating in any political, religious or racial demonstrations and according to the social media cannot "promote any brand, product or service within a posting, blog or tweet on any social media platforms or on any websites."  To read the IOC's full set of Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines for the 2012 London Olympics click here.

Despite the fact 2010 was arguably the year of the location-based check-in (although others like The Next Web contend 2011 is really the year), there are certain pundits who proclaim that the phenomenon was nothing more than a short lived fad yet many others envision the check-in will evolve beyond simply telecasting one's whereabouts. (more...)

This week's Social Mashup features Major League Baseball's digital campaign for the legendary Jackie Robinson, Living Social's $1 deals, Reebok's cool new mobile application, and Virgin America awesome new Foursquare marketing campaign. And no, we can't believe Rebecca Black's Friday has just topped the 100 million views on YouTube either. Watch out Biebs! Baseball's Digital Campaign for Jackie Robinson In 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the MLB's color barrier becoming the first African American to play in the Major League.  Every year on the anniversary of his first big league game, April 15th, each MLB team celebrates Jackie Robinson Day by wearing 42—which is the only number in history retired by all 30 MLB teams.  This year, to honor Jackie, MLB has released a new digital campaign called IAM42 which is aimed at creating a personal connection between fans and the legend through personal videos and social media. The sleekly designed microsite features personal video tributes from over 60 current and former players who honor Jackie including such legends as Lou Brock, Ernie Banks as well as current stars such as Mariano Rivera and David Price.  IAM42 will continue to be updated with additional video tribute and content leading up to the 65th anniversary of Jackie's entrance into the big leagues. Developed by MLBAM, the microsite itself is quite simple but effective using each player ambassador's face as a link inside a giant number 42 (as seen below). The site has all the updates from the Jackie Robinson Day Facebook Page, as well as all Twitter mentions of #MLBIAM42, which is the official hashtag. This marketing initiative demonstrates another huge social media integration by the league, coming off the heels of the MLB's new fan cave. It's an impressive effort thus far, and we look forward to seeing what else America's pastime has in store. Living Social's $1 Deals This week Living Social rolled out deals all across Washington, DC which allowed people to eat for just one dollar (in fact, we took advantage) with some deals offering as much as $20 worth of food and drink for just $1.  Almost all of the deals sold out as it was unsurprisingly extremely popular.  These special deals were a way to introduce the world to Living Social's new Instant Deals which use your GPS location to pull up a list of such deals within a half-mile radius of the user. LivingSocial subscribers can then purchase the deals  and use them instantaneously by showing the confirmed purchase on a mobile device.  Living Social also covered the city in sidewalk drawings and banners. Living Social employees were also made available at all participating merchants to promote the service.  The Instant Deals are currently only available in DC as the $1 deals were essentially a pilot for national release.  We at Activ8social personally took part in this, enjoying a nice lunch in the Dupont Circle area for the $1 price tag. Reebok App Makes You Accountable for Your Runs Have you ever said you we're going to go for a run, but didn't because you lacked motivation or decided to watch some tv instead?  Would you be more inclined to go for that run if everyone knew about it and was holding you accountable for it?  Well, there's an app for that.  Reebok released The Promise Keeper app for both the iPhone and Android allowing people to schedule runs, keep a GPS record of the running route, and update the completion of the promised runs on Facebook and Twitter. The app is meant to keep you in check and will notify your friends if you don't follow through on your promise.  Nothing like a little peer pressure.  Also, by sharing your successes and failures via Facebook and/or Twitter, Reebok is able to reach that many more consumers in an authentic and meaningful way.  Take a look at this video to learn more about The Promise Keeper and how Reebok has intertwined the free app with its ZigTech running shoe.  Pretty clever way to promote the running shoe if you asked me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9mrLOe54KY&feature=player_embedded Virgin America Checks In Virgin America, an airline known for providing top notch service and innovative experiences on its flights, has come out with a way to engage with consumers while they're waiting in the terminal.  Virgin America's Terminal 2 (T2) Takeover allows users to check in via Foursquare or Facebook Places at 12 locations at San Francisco International Airport's (SFO) Terminal 2, the new state-of-the-art terminal which houses Virgin America. Players can earn one of five Foursquare-style badges by checking-in at any of the 12 locations, which Virgin America created so customers would discover different areas of the terminal and airport.  Some of the check-in points include the Tetris Lounge, the red chairs, hydration station, ticket counters, jet bridge to flight and Virgin America's mood-lit gate.  Here's a look at the badges, which are earned based on the number of check-ins "Ground Crew" (1-4 check-ins), "Flight Crew" (5-10), "Navigator" (11-20), "Co-Pilot" (21-50) and "Captain" (50+). What's even better than just getting a badge?  The top 5 travelers with the most check-ins will be displayed on a check-in leaderboard in the terminal as well as on leaderboard app on Virgin America's Facebook page.