Social Mobile: Opportunities at the Intersection of Social Media and Mobile Development

SOCIAL MOBILE TIMOTHY QUINN VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCTION

About Me Timothy Quinn is Vice President of Production with Vortex Mobile. He is the author of a book ( octopusintelligence.com ) and a blog about production processes ( processrefactored.com ) . Prior to joining Vortex, Tim was Director of Site Operations with Torstar, where he had operational responsibility for flagship properties within the Star Media Group such as thestar.com and toronto.com . Tim has taught at both the City University of New York and New York University. “ ”

About Vortex Mobile Vortex Mobile is a privately held company based in Toronto which provides marketing and technology solutions to build meaningful consumer relationships across mobile messaging, mobile Internet, mobile application and social media channels. Vortex Mobile leverages unrivaled expertise and a passion for mobile strategy, usability, project management, design and development. (And yes, we’re hiring.) “ ”

Our Clients & Partners

Ruder Finn , 2010 91% of mobile phone users go online to socialize compared to only 79% of traditional desktop users. “ ” ComScore , 2010 30% of smartphone users accessed social networks via mobile browsers. “ ” Ground Truth , 2010 Consumers use their phones for social networking activities 59.8% of the time. “ ”

And, of course, there are charts… Flowtown , 2010

Flowtown , 2010

Mobile / Social Timeline

The mobile Internet has been… … until recently, primarily a passive unidirectional experience

While social media has been… … constrained on the desktop by time and place

Together, they enable… real time many-to-many relationships

Mobile applications and social media share an increasingly symbiotic relationship . Although each can function autonomously, they operate most efficiently when working together to mutual benefit.

 Obtaining information, particularly location-sensitive or time-sensitive information  Communicating  Performing utility-based tasks  Entertainment  Documenting an experience  Making an online purchase or facilitating an offline purchase  Participating in a contest What do people use mobile devices for?

Many of these activities have acquired an increasingly social aspect Reviews, tips and links from friends Status messages - Shared media streams Blogs, microblogs, media blogs Group couponing, check-in discounts Referral rewards, LBS-based gameplay Obtaining information Communicating Performing utility-based tasks Entertainment Documenting an experience Mobile commerce Participating in a contest

Standalone mobile has more in common with the desktop web experience than with social mobile Desktop Web Mobile Social Mobile Content Self-authored Self-authored Community-authored Updates Manual Manual Moderated SEO Managed keywords Managed keywords Organic keywords Spreading the Word Ads Ads and redirects from destktop Word of mouth Analytics Views and visits Views and visits Friends, fans and reviews

Social mobile is to mobile as the telephone was to the telegraph .

CASE STUDIES

Discover Ontario iPhone and BlackBerry users submit images of their favorite Ontario destinations from their existing Facebook albums or directly from their cameraphones. Annotated and geotagged images are posted to a Facebook application where friends are encouraged to vote on their favorite submissions and submit their own images and captions.

Maynards’ Most Wanted Mobile users are encouraged to locate fugitive candies and “capture” them by scanning UPC codes on outdoor advertising or manually keying in unique “criminal IDs.” Captures are published to a leaderboard on the Maynards Facebook page, encouraging other users to participate in the hunt. Users who successfully capture all five fugutives are automatically entered in a sweepstakes for $25,000.

Paint the Town Red Bilingual mobile users support team Canada in the Winter Olympics by sharing audio clips, wallpapers and Olympics trivia with their Facebook friends through a mobile microsite using Facebook Connect. Street promotion, banner ads and tweets encourage mobile-enabled Canadians to visit the microsite.

Rogers “Beg for a BlackBerry” Contest Facebook users enter their mobile number and receive within 20 seconds an automated voice message prompting them to record their reason for desiring a BlackBerry. Their pleas are then posted to the Facebook application where friends are encouraged to vote on them. A BlackBerry was awarded on a weekly basis to those users who earned the most votes. IVR

Playtex “Picture Yourself as a VIP” Users are encouraged to register their mobile number on Facebook for an opportunity to win a VIP meeting with Kreesha Turner. The application then contacts them by SMS, enabling them to RSVP for local events. SMS

Join the Pantsformation Smartphone users of Shazam are prompted to tag a Dockers commercial during Superbowl XLIV, which unlocks content on a Dockers microsite and enters the user into a sweepstakes. Users who’ve linked their Shazam accounts with their Facebook accounts broadcast their participation in the promotion through their news feeds.

Zagat on Foursquare Mobile users in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other urban centers can friend Zagat on Foursquare to access insider tips about nearby restaurants and earn a Zagat “Foodie” badge which can be unlocked by dining at certain Zagat-rated restaurants.

New York Times on Foursquare To promote coverage of the Winter Olympics, The New York Times offers recommendations from its travel and entertainment sections to Foursquare users on restaurants, attractions, shopping and nightlife in Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish. Foursquare users who check in at a suggested venue can earn a New York Times Olympics badge.

Toys ‘R’ Us “R Codes” Hong Kong iPhone users are invited to scan in-store, catalog and external QR codes to unlock video content on popular Toys ‘R’ Us products. Playing a video triggers a reward of loyalty points which can then be shared with friends through Facebook, further encouraging in-store purchases.

EpicMix Skiers at Vail Resorts can track their routes using RFID chips in their lift tickets and season passes. Route data is made available through smartphones, and shared with friends on Facebook and Twitter.

USA Today Airport Check-In Gowalla users can friend USA Today and check in at major U.S. airports to receive airport and airline news, travel features from the newspaper, air travel tips, destination guides, and a Jet Setter pin to add to their Gowalla passports.

McDonalds “Easy” Reward The first 500 users to check-in at McDonald’s through Brightkite can earn the “Easy” badge, entitling them to a $5 Visa gift card. Users are encouraged to check in by location-aware ads in their Brightkite feed.

Loopt Star Offers 25% Off at The Gap Loopt Star users who check in twice at any adult Gap store in the United States are instantly rewarded with a coupon on their iPhone for 25% off their purchase. Loopt Star users can find deals within a 20 mile radius of their current location and publish their activity on a social leaderboard.

Fly Virgin America Courtesy of Loopt During a single 4-hour window, Virgin America offered a two-for-one seat sale to anyone checking in with Loopt at either LAX, SFO or one of a handful of taco trucks. Word spread through Virgin America’s Facebook community (65,800) and Twitter followers (114,400), and through Loopt’s Facebook community (4,900) and Twitter followers (4,400).

Fly JetBlue Courtesy of GateGuru GateGuru users who check into airport terminals, rate businesses and earn status on social leaderboards are eligible for prizes from JetBlue, including free airline tickets and vouchers.

StickyBits Soup Scan Sweepstakes To help promote the redesign of the iconic Campbell’s Soup can, StickyBits users who scan a can of Campbell’s Soup and attach content to the barcode instantly become eligible to win $500. Uploaded content is published on Campbell Soup’s Facebook page. User activity on StickyBits can be shared not only with other StickyBits users, but with friends on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Food52: In-Store Recipes Using StickyBits Food52 has tagged hundreds of ingredients in StickyBits with recipes for easy-to-make dishes such as Double Chocolate Espresso Cookies, Blueberry Almond Breakfast Polenta and Classic Southern Buttermilk Bathed Fried Chicken. Users who scan the ingredients in the grocery store can easily link through to the Food52 website and retrieve a list of the other required ingredients.

Official Bits: Pepsi Official partners with StickyBits, such as Pepsi Co., administer “official bits” which allow companies to both moderate the content associated with their barcodes as well as post officially-sanctioned content to be given priority placement in a product’s bit list. Users can subscribe to a product’s bit stream and receive notifications when new official content is posted.

The Whole Enchilada To kick off the football season, Reggie Bush hid autographed footballs throughout New Orleans and posted clues on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook. StickyBits barcodes have also been littered throughout the city, with a prize going to the most original content uploaded.

Find the Right Olay for You MyTown users who enter a RiteAid, CVS or any of a handful of other retailers that sell skin products, can take a quiz that prompts them to self-identify the right Olay product for them and then assesses whether the information provided postively influenced their decision to purchase.

Third Life? Similar to Booyah’s MyTown, InCrowd rewards virtual engagement with physical locations, also allowing users to communicate status and exchange goods through an avatar-based system akin to Second Life. InCrowd is built on top of the Facebook Places API and can therefore automatically import Facebook friends and friend locations.

Eat, Pray, Love on SCVNGR To promote the movie Eat, Pray, Love, SCVNGR created a promotional campaign across 26 cities with challenges and badges that related to the film.

Speaking of Tacos… Small businesses are also leveraging SCVNGR’s rewards-based marketing model. Nick’s Crispy Taco’s in San Francisco offers free tacos for checking-in, commenting, taking photos and reading marketing materials.

Get Glued to Fox, HBO, Showtime, PBS & Universal Pictures GetGlue users who check in with their favorite shows and network premieres earn real and virtual stickers. Users are encouraged to check in throughout the season and contribute reviews, with the potential for reward increasing to match a user’s level of engagement.

20% Off at American Apparel for NYC Grindr Guys To promote American Apparel during Fashion Week, Grindr users in New York City are targeted with notice of a limited time 20% off sale. To receive the discount, consumers need to simply enter a New York store and mention Grindr at checkout.

Gear Up at 7-Eleven Mobile and desktop players of Mafia Wars recently noticed Zynga game branding on ice cream, Slurpees, Big Gulps and other products in approximately 7,000 stores across North America. Purchasing a Zynga-branded item earns players a redemption code which can be used for in-game limited-edition virtual goods.

THE APIs

Facebook’s Open Graph
Facebook publishes user profile data through its Graph API , which is accessible to mobile clients through:
Mobile Web
iOS SDK
Android SDK

Querying Facebook’s Open Graph Every significant logical entity in Facebook has a unique ID which can be queried through a URL such as https://graph.facebook.com/566685490 : { "id": "566685490", "name": "Timothy Quinn", "first_name": "Timothy", "last_name": "Quinn", "link": "http://www.facebook.com/octopusintelligence", "gender": "male", "locale": "en_US" }

The Shortcut: Facebook’s “Social Plugins”
For simple applications which simply want to integrate bits of local content with a user’s social graph, Facebook provides a suite of social plugins .
Like Button
Recommendations
Login Button
Comments
These plugins are hosted on Facebook and served through an iFrame, so are dependent on the user being logged into Facebook.
Activity Feed
Like Box
Facepile
LiveStream

Single Sign-In Facebook also offers a single sign-on tool for applications which don’t want to overburden new users with a lengthy custom registration process. Authorizing the user through Facebook allows a remote website to access the user’s Facebook profile data.

Twitter API(s)
The Twitter API is actually 3 APIs:
REST API
Search API
Streaming API
Applications need to be pre-registered with Twitter and are provisioned public and private keys.

Querying Twitter Retrieving data is done with a GET request, whereas submitting, changing or deleting data requires a POST. Returned information (in JSON format) will look like this: { "coordinates": null, "favorited": false, "created_at": "Sun Jul 11 01:27:12 +0000 2010", "truncated": false, "text": "Process Refactored: http://bit.ly/bzCCJX", "contributors": null, "id": 18235851414, "retweet_count": null, "geo": null, ...

Single Sign-On Like Facebook, Twitter offers the option for a single remote sign-on.

Foursquare API
Foursquare’s open API is still in active development, but does currently support authenticated getting and posting of data. Output is XML (default) or JSON (preferred).
The following geolocation parameters are typically used to define a place (in meters):
geolat (latitude)
geolong (longitude)
geohacc (horizontal accuracy)
geovacc (vertical accuracy)
geoalt (altitude)

Querying Foursquare A Foursquare query such as http://api.foursquare.com/v1/venues.json? geolat=43.716589&geolong=-79.340686 would generate JSON results that look like this: { "groups":[{ "type":"Nearby","venues":[{ "id":167583, "name":"Ontario Science Centre", "primarycategory":{ "id":78981, ...

The Shortcut: feeds.foursqaure.com For simple applications whose only use case is to display one’s check ins, Foursquare publishes RSS, ICS and KML feeds: <item> <title>Vortex Mobile</title> <description>@ Vortex Mobile</description> <link>http://foursquare.com/venue/204079</link> <pubDate>Tue, 07 Sep 10 15:12:06 +0000</pubDate> <guid isPermaLink="false">6O+dndbYp0IhWR9Nb4tjjg==</guid> <georss:point>43.6538481 -79.3670074</georss:point> </item>

The Other Shortcut: Foursquare’s Social Plugin Similar to Facebook’s LIKE button, Foursquare’s “Add to Foursquare” icon allows web users to queue up a particular venue within Foursquare as a location of interest.

StickyBits API
StickyBits has a simple but powerful API which allows you to:
Upload digital content to any barcode or any unique string of characters
View all content attached to any barcode or character string
Generate unique barcodes on the fly to be used within the StickyBits environment
Interact with other logical entities within the StickyBits environment
API calls are made using the following URL format: http://api.stickybits.com/api/version/object.method?apikey=api_key

Gowalla / Brightkite / GetGlue APIs All three services offer very similar APIs. A Gowalla query such as http://api.gowalla.com/ /spots?lat=43.716589&lng=-79.340686&radius=50 would generate results that look like this: { "spots": [{ "trending_level": 0, "checkins_url": "/checkins?spot_id=13357", "highlights_url": "/spots/13357/highlights", "lng": -79.3386483167, "_image_url_50": "http://static.gowalla.com/categories/ 212-4f218b796016793ffc9eb187552a44b8-100.png?1", "url": "/spots/13357", "description": "Toronto's Science Museum. The ...

Other APIs At present, there are no open APIs available for developers wishing to integrate with Shazam, Loopt, GateGuru, MyTown or a myriad of other social mobile platforms.

An Alternative to Managing Multiple APIs... Campaign integration and dashboarding tools offer the promise of being able to manage infrastructure fragmentation through a single interface. The potential downside: less control over individual platforms. Using an integrated campaign tool adds another layer to the social mobile stack: brand > agency > dashboard > environment (Foursquare) > platform (Facebook)

There are almost as many integrated campaign management technologies as there are technologies to integrate… (And obviously none of them do everything.)

AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MOBILE CAMPAIGN IS…

Easy to understand and participate in
Employs ubiquitous technology
Doesn’t require lengthy registration process or previous desktop registration
Explains what’s happening before prompting a call to action

Valuable
Encourages active participation by motivating and rewarding users
Rewards loyalty with exclusivity
Doesn’t ask more than a particular user base or demographic is likely to provide

Relevant
If providing a location-aware experience, account in the UI for users who are near several target locations or are far from any target location
Don’t forget that users sometimes use location services before they actually get to the place they want to be

Device aware and/or device agnostic
Provide a comparable experience across the broadest range of devices possible, but…
Don’t provide an experience that isn’t suited to the device serving it
Do leverage the unique characteristics of the mobile experience, rather than simply emulating the desktop web experience

Seamless
Don’t force users to deal with a jumble of confusingly branded interfaces and URLs
Don’t force multiple redundant registrations
Don’t force users to jump from an app into the mobile web interface because there’s a feature not offered any other way

Moderated, not managed
Facilitate, don’t control, the conversation
You can’t will a campaign to be viral
Allow negative feedback; let the community police itself wherever possible

THANK YOU vortexmobile.ca | timothyquinn.com

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Social Mobile: Opportunities at the Intersection of Social Media and Mobile Development

by Timothy Quinn

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Social Mobile: Opportunities at the Intersection of Social Media and Mobile Development Presentation Transcript