On Wednesday, August 18, 2010, Facebook launched Places, a location based service that enhances current sharing capabilities (like wall comments, videos, notes, etc.) by allowing user to broadcast their whereabouts to their Facebook friends. The idea behind Places is that Places will simplify and encourage spontaneous interactions with other friends. Our very own Josh Martin wrote a post on how Facebook Places works.
Over the past few days, I’ve had a chance to get “under the hood” of Facebook Places. As expected, Facebook Places collects additional data about the user. The data is available only once a user has agreed to share their information with the application. Since this data is not a part of the standard user profile (it requires a user_checkin extended data permission), the application needs to present a justifiable reason to compel the user to allow/release their location information. The data that marketers can access includes, the location information, the user’s information, the check-in date/time, etc. (see below or use the interactive diagram on MindMeister).
Once a Facebook user checks-in at a location, the information is readily viewed from the news feed as Facebook has elevated the weight of these postings. To maximize exposure and access to Places data, it is highly recommended that developers add friends_checkin extended data permission. This permission would authorize marketers to collect check-in data for a user’s friends, which can enhance the overall experience. At the present time, Places data can only be read — Facebook has not exposed the check-in API calls. These calls surely exist but are available only to partners FourSquare and Gowalla who are currently working to integrate their services with Facebook Places.
Places further enriches the data that Facebook already collects. It is expected that Facebook will leverage this information to better target the user. Places also provides Facebook with user-generated data on businesses that otherwise Facebook would have to purchase. Facebook is drawing a line in the sand as it attempts to give businesses a reason to join up (and eventually pay) to participate in their community.
NOTE: I’ve also written a complete review and analysis of Facebook Places.
Social Games Reach Nearly 60 million U.S. Users
Ever played Words with Friends on your iPhone, helped harvest a friend’s crops on FarmVille or put your sports predicting expertise to the test on ESPN’s Streak for the Cash? If so, you are part of the 20 percent of U.S. consumers that have participated in social gaming.
According to a study released last week by The NPD Group, a leading market research company, roughly 56.8 million Americans have played a game on a social network in the past three months.
What makes a game social?
Social games, which are shared through a user’s social network, have three core elements summarized in this post from Social Media Examiner.
Who is playing social games?
According so Industry Gamers, the average American social game player is below 30 years old, with gender demographics split almost evenly between men at 45 percent and women at 55 percent.
What’s next for social gaming?
The growing world of social gaming, which generated $500 million in revenue in 2009, is getting a boost from companies like Google, which announced early this month that it was buying social network app producer Slide and reportedly made an investment in Zynga, the company behind FarmVille, and Disney who acquired social gaming company Playdom.
The NPD study also noted that 10 percent of social gamers have spent real money on virtual goods and 11 percent said they are likely to purchase virtual goods in the future. Last year, virtual goods brought in $2.2 billion dollars in revenue. In 2011, it is expected that advertisers will spend $293 million on social games and applications.
What does this mean for brands? Would you buy virtual goods from a social gaming application?
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Rene Smith is an intern in the Digital Innovation Group (DIG) at Engauge. She graduated from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication in 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in magazines. Rene loves fashion, food, photography, design and technology.
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