What is StickyBits? Code Scanning Location and Product Based Social Check In Marketing

What Is Stickybits?

Stickybits is a free app you use to scan barcodes on all the stuff you love, instantly turning it into even more stuff you love. Scan a snowboard – win free lift passes. Scan some wireless headphones – see what people say about them and check out what your friends are listening to. Scan a box of frozen chalupas – get a 2fer for even más chalupas. You get the idea. Scan any barcode. Read reviews and comments, and share your own. Score a bunch of big discounts and free stuff – both for what you’re scanning and related things you’ll like.

With the free stickybits app you have the key to unlock every single barcode to reveal an infinite world of info and deals. With a quick scan, you enter a social space where you can post and read info, reviews, tweets and videos. You can also grab details and promos attached to products, which you can cash in instantly.

Want the best stuff first? Compete in challenges to win free products and get points for stuff you’ve scanned – the more points you nab, the earlier you get in on the next challenge. (Think: never-ending treasure hunt. More scans = more scratch.)

via stickybits.com

Stickybits is kind of fun. Give it a try. Think about how you can use it to promote your own business or to accomplish your organization's goals.

Explore my stickybits page at http://www.stickybits.com/brentpurves and scan my code (download scanner app for your phone from http://www.stickybits.com and then drop me a line :)

Need help figuring out how to use Stickybits, product check in marketing, location based social media marketing or qr codes or barcode marketing to help promote your business or products online? Let's setup a time for a free 30 minute consultation. Looking for a social media marketing agency? Email me at brent[at]11marketing.com or call now at 1-604-847-3447 ext 104 or click here http://meetwith.me/brent to schedule a time to meet that works for you.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

How to Aggregate Twitter & Facebook Posts, Hashtags and Users: Paper.li Social Media Publishing Experiments

Vancouver Internet Marketing News

a paper by Brent Purves – 9 contributors today

via paper.li

Am experimenting with http://www.paper.li Twitter and Facebook news aggregator gizmo that automates the creation of an online "newspaper" based on criteria you set. Essentially you tell it to search for keywords, geography, even certain user accounts and then it auto generates a microsite just for you. Kind of interesting but I wish there was more flexibility to tailor results and add custom content and have more flexibility in design and publishing dates. Visit the Twitter feed test at http://paper.li/brentpurves/1292435236 Perhaps the robot will feature you in this paper and you'll feel famous for a day. I hope so. Tweet about Vancouver Internet Marketing and you may just show up :)

Try making your own and drop me a note on Twitter at @brentpurves to let me know your thoughts, what you like, don't like, if you find it valuable or not.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Target Rolls Out Shopkick’s Geo-Coupon System To 242 Stores

After announcing a partnership with Best Buy a few months ago, Shopkick is debuting a new implementation of its geo-coupon system at Target today. Users can now unlock coupons via Shopkick’s app in 242 stores in the Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, and San Francisco/Silicon Valley markets.

Instead of checking in, as you would with a geo app like Foursquare or Gowalla, shopkick automatically recognizes when someone with the free shopkick app on their phone walks into a store.

via techcrunch.com

Here it comes: Auto check in. Today you have to have the app installed on your smartphone for it to check you in and give you points, but I imagine tomorrow (ok, soon) phones will come bundled with auto check in capability using Facebook Places Shopping or Google Places / Android Shopping or Starbucks or McDonalds apps built right in.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Gowalla Steadily Moves Past The Check-In With City Pages, Business Listings And More

It’s no secret that both Foursquare and Gowalla are expanding their location-based social networks past the check-in, developing other incentives for consumers to use the services. Gowalla, in particular, has focused on adding innovative features to its platform to make the social network more interactive, through photos and comments. Most recently, the startup added local highlights, which allows users to essentially tap into their social graph to not only see what’s popular in a particular location, but also provide contextual information around what are the best sights, places, restaurants and activities in a particular locale. Today, Gowalla is adding a few more features for businesses that help the network move beyond the check-in, including City Pages, Verified Businesses and Venues; and the Stamp Calendar.

via techcrunch.com

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

YouTube Promoted Videos hit half a billion views

When we announced our first performance-based video ad format, Promoted Videos, nearly two years ago, the first campaign was “Penny Pranks” by Office Max.

Since that time, thousands and thousands of advertisers have taken advantage of this ad format to entice likely customers with videos about everything from smoked brisket recipes to magnetic jewelry to sneakers. Politicians and political activists have used Promoted Videos to argue for a proposition or against an issue. And large companies have reached wide audiences with movie trailers, recipes, and ideas for Halloween.

via youtube-global.blogspot.com

Have you dabbled with pay per click marketing for your business? Did you know you can run video campaigns through Google and Youtube as well? Want to only pay when people watch your video? We can help you get your videos online with full ROI tracking to promote your business or services. Contact one of our Vancouver internet marketing consultants today for a free phone consult. http://stirsolutions.com/consultation

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Rapportive - Get social profiles of everyone who emails you right inside your Gmail account

What is Rapportive?

Rapportive shows you everything about your contacts right inside your inbox.

You can immediately see what people look like, where they're based, and what they do. You can establish rapport by mentioning shared interests. You can grow your network by connecting on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and more. And you can record thoughts for later by leaving notes.

Imagine relationship management built into your email. For free.

via rapportive.com

This is cool and it works.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

QR Code Marketing for Business: Fast List Signups on Mobile Devices with QR Codes -

QR codes, those strange siblings of UPC codes, are starting to gain some mass appeal as more and more people buy smart phones with cameras and apps smart enough to read them. QR codes store information like a web page location that is unlocked when scanned using one of the many free or cheap apps for iPhone, Android, and other mobile platforms. They’ve been making frequent appearances on movie posters, such as the one below for Iron Man 2, which points people to a companion website containing the trailer, and lots of bonus content. It’s sort of a little reward for those curious enough to explore.

via mailchimp.com

Have you seen this alien looking sqaure box of mumbo jumbo on posters or in magazines or newspapers lately? While they may seem gimmicky (e.g. why not just write the URL), more and more businesses are dabbling with using QR codes for marketing and advertising. Just today I received Aeroplan's Arrival magazine that contained a big QR code to download their magazine app, and another scannable code to allow me to Like their Page in Facebook. Can you imagine ways you could use QR codes in your offline marketing for your business? Put a code on your business card or flyers or event notifications? Drive people to sign up for your email newsletter (as is discussed in detail using Mailchimp in the full article link above).
Contact us today to schedule a free 30 minute consultation to discuss internet marketing strategy for your business and how using QR codes might help you achieve your business goals. http://stirsolutions.com/consultation

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Small Businesses Conflicted About Social Media and Its Uses

Small businesses are conflicted about social media and its uses, says a new study.

Thirty-five percent of small businesses think their customers use the medium, but nearly half (47 percent) aren't sure about social media's popularity, says the report from online reputation management firm RatePoint. 

via inc.com

Businesses that use social networking are seeing results. Of those surveyed who said they would be using social media as the main way to find new customers in the next year, 70 percent said it was because the platform is the least expensive option.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Stickybits Is Honing Its Object Check-Ins To Be More Brand-Friendly

The next version of stickybits, which is coming out in October, aims to give people more reasons to scan and share their scanned objects by honing the product and making it into more of a platform for unlocking rewards and coupons. Stickybits wants to reposition itself as an app for object check-ins.

The new app, V2, will offer brands and businesses four ways to create object check-ins: coupons, group deals, location, and product combo rewards.

via techcrunch.com

Not sure what Stickybits is? Go to http://www.Stickybits.com . Basically you buy stickers online (eg from Amazon here http://www.stickybits.com/buystickers/ and then wait a week or two for delivery) then you can stick them on whatever you want. Then you download the stickybits app to your iphone or smartphone, open it up, and point your phone's camera at the barcode on the stickybits sticker. Then you can "attach" an image or message or url or video to that barcode and sticker. You can then stick that sticker onto whatever you want -- something in a public place, or perhaps a product. When others scan that sticker you can receive an email notification letting you know the physical location of the scan, who scanned it (if they're logged in to stickybits) and what, if anything, they attached to the sticker as their digital sticky bit. Looking forward to seeing these new object check in upgrades.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

What is Bizzy - Location-Based Business Marketing - Connecting Consumers with the Businesses they want

Connect

to your favorite businesses

like never before

Bizzy is where the world’s local businesses and customers come together. Finally: an exclusive place where you connect and communicate with only the businesses you really care about,
when and how you want.

via bizzy.com

What Bizzy says about themselves: Our Mission

We believe there needs to be a dedicated place where the world’s local businesses and their best customers come together to connect and communicate. At Bizzy, our mission is to be that place: a place free of spam and intrusive marketing messages where customers can stay in touch with the shops, spas and studios they really care about, when and how they want.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

What is Group Tabs - Location Based Marketing - Group Checkin Deals at Bars and Restaurants

via grouptabs.com

What is GroupTabs? Grouptabs allows merchants to activate deals once enough patrons have checked into their bar or restaurant. Once the target number of checkins has been achieved, all those who have checked in will be elegible to receive the deal.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

What is SCVNGR ? Mobile Social Location Gaming Marketing

SCVNGR is a game.

And playing is easy. Go places. Do challenges. Earn points! That’s the core of it, but there’s a whole lot more. Discover cool new places. Do exciting new things. Share what you’re up to with your friends. Unlock badges (and even real world rewards) by doing quick, fun challenges at your favorite places as you go about your daily life.

SCVNGR is a game platform.

SCVNGR is as much a game as it is a massive experiment in building a mobile game together. We want to build the game layer on top of the world. And that’s only possible if you’ll build it with us.

To make this happen, we’ve designed an incredibly powerful (and easy to use) platform that means that whether you’re an individual player, a local store, a museum, a historic monument, a restaurant or anything in between, you can participate in building SCVNGR with us.

SCVNGR is the game layer on top of the world.

And we want you to build it with us. To date, over 650+ institutions and tons more individuals are building on SCVNGR by adding fun, creative challenges to their favorite locations.

The more people that play (and build) SCVNGR with us, the better it gets. And we’re pretty excited to see where that takes us all.

via scvngr.com

Download the mobile SCVNGR app to your smartphone (e.g. on iPhone click on Apps and search for SCVNRG and download free app). Then you can login using Facebook Connect or by creating a new account on your phone or by visiting http://www.scvngr.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

PlacePunch Launches Location-Based Marketing Platform For Foursquare, Twitter And Facebook - Geo Location Marketing Company

PlacePunch, which received seed funding from Shotput Ventures, allows businesses both big and small to run their own location-based marketing campaigns that integrate with Foursquare, Facebook Places, Twitter, Gowalla and other location-based social networks.

For example, a restaurant can create a loyalty program that counts customer check-in towards rewards and coupons. PlacePunch provides a good amount of the infrastructure, including branded sign-up pages, mobile coupon delivery and analytics, to run these programs.

via techcrunch.com

Get ready for the wave of location-based marketing campaigns to pop up everywhere in your city in coming months. Want to get your business in as an early adopter while it's still a novelty for your customers? Whether you're a restaurant, hotel, retail business, service provider, car dealeship it doesn't matter - there are ways you can use social media and geo-location based marketing to help achieve your business goals. If you're looking for a trusted social media marketing company specializing in geo location marketing contact us today at http://www.11Marketing.com?s=location-marketing-social-media for a free 30 minute consultation to ask us questions and learn more about using location marketing for business -- or simply shoot us an email or call 604-847-3447 ext 104

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

5 Reasons Why Facebook Places Is Kind of a Big Deal - Facebook Places Marketing for Business

.

Why It’s a Big Deal for Business

• Facebook is building a suite of advertising tools that will allow you to list, claim and advertise your place on Facebook
• You no longer have to educate your customers – they all know what Facebook is
• People checking in at your business are naturally telling some part of the word about your business
• Offering coupons and special offers for people who check in is a natural way to tap the power of using online tools to drive offline sales.
• Data that you can collect on users and amount of times they checkin will prove extremely valuable in tracking customers and advertising spend

If your business is not already listed on Places you can add it by following these instructions.

via ducttapemarketing.com

Have you tried Facebook Places yet? Looking forward to it showing up here in Vancouver and across Canada soon. Happy checking in. Need help integrating your business with facebook places? Contact us today at http://www.11marketing.com?s=facebook-places-marketing

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Location Based Advertising: Game-Changing Opportunities for Internet Marketing with Foursquare, Facebook Pages, Gowalla, Yelp

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

We are at the beginning of an exciting new era of location based advertising that integrates geo-location with advertising and apps. Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla, Yelp, BrightKite, Loopt. These are just a few of the geo location based applications that are going to change everything in advertising & marketing.  Location based advertising allows anyone to target potential customers when they are within a certain distance from a select location such as a store, event or meeting place. Start thinking now how your business can integrate its goals, offerings, services and products with location based advertising opportunities.

Have you claimed your business location in Foursquare or Facebook Pages? Do it today. We can help with all of your social media marketing needs. Take control of your social media presence so your existing and potential future clients and customers can accurately find, check in and post about your business.

via stirsolutions.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Urban Outfitters Makes Facebook Likes Featured Items - Facebook Like Button Marketing

Retailer Urban Outfitters has made the Facebook Like button central to the way the company is marketing its products online. Visitors to the Urban Outfitters web site are now greeting by a large thumbs up asking them to “See our most Liked items.”

The company had installed the Like button by its products on the company web site and this new feature is essentially a grouping of the most Liked items into one place.

via insidefacebook.com

What's not to like with the Facebook Like button. It's great to see creative new uses of the Like button. Soon, I'd guess, smartphones will be able to sense other smartphones around them and you'll be able to click "Like" regarding that person who's in the same physical space as you. For now, however, we're stuck liking web pages and and sweaters.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

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Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

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Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Brent Purves : Flavors.me

Most of the attention paid to Facebook Places, the new location feature that the social network launched on Thursday, has focused either on the privacy implications of the service or on the impact it could have on location-based startups such as Foursquare (which some have said they expect to be “crushed” by the new feature). Facebook’s real focus with this launch, however, isn’t individual users or even Foursquare: Instead, it sees Places as a way into the local business and local advertising markets, and the company with the target painted on its back is Yelp.

via businessweek.com

Google Places, Facebook Places, Foursquare Location Layers & Mayors. Having trouble keeping up? Will Yelp have to partner with Gowalla or another smaller check-in startup to stay ahead of the million-business-pages-strong Facebook checkin tsunami? What is your business doing to get listed in all of the social network places? Why should you even consider spending your valuable time or marketing dollars on something like this Facebook Places or Yelp or Foursquare advertising or promotion? Drop me a note at brent[at]stirgroup.com and I’d be happy to answer your questions or setp a time for a free phone consultation to discuss your business and whether getting on the Facebook / Yelp / Foursquare / Gowalla check-in marketing train is right for your business, products or services.

via flavors.me

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

IKEA introduces social media to its marketing catalogue - Next campaign: "Swede Yourself" in-store ? :)

IKEA Canada has launched an advertising campaign and contest that encourage consumers to share their favourite images from the home furnishing retailer's latest catalogue.

The campaign includes television, print, online and out-of-home creative touting the arrival of IKEA's 2011 catalogue. Each execution also alerts readers to IKEA's "Capture the Page" contest, an online initiative that invites consumers to upload pictures of their favourite images from the catalogue to a microsite,

via marketingmag.ca

So when you're reading through the Ikea catalogue and it asks you to take a picture of a page and then email it to win 10k will you take the time to do it? Maybe they should encourage the same thing in their Ikea stores -- take a picture of yourself with the thing you see that you like in the store and email it to enter to win that item. Instead of "Capture the Page" maybe Ikea can get permission to use "Swede Yourself" from Be Kind Rewind fame. Do you think a whole Sweded version of the Ikea website would draw any viral or grassroots attention? I'd visit it and watch submitted videos of people swede'ing non-ikea-purchased furniture or things in their life (whatever that might mean).

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Reinvigorate - real-time web analytics and heatmaps - Internet Marketing Tools

via reinvigorate.net

Reinvigorate provides real-time web analytics and heatmaps. The features include Snoop, a desktop stats application that alerts you every time you have a new user signup or visitor; and NameTags, a feature that allows you to identify your registered users and gives you insight into their habits and usage. The company, founded by Sean McNamara, launched in August 2010.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Google Launches Blog Finder for Any Topic - Does your blog show up?

Google has quietly launched a new feature: search for blogs on any topic. The company announced the new type of search in a weekly round-up of search updates last week, and respected SEO blogger Bill Slawski argues that the launch may be related to a new Google patent.

This has the potential to be a wildly useful service. How many of you have had professional or personal reasons to seek a list of the top blogs on a new topic? I know I, and many people I talk to, find themselves in such need frequently. How do you access the new search? How well does it work? Read on.

via readwriteweb.com

Does your blog show up in Google's new blog search? If not drop us a note, we can help!

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Yahoo Search Advertisers Can Now Begin To Migrate Accounts To Microsoft adCenter

Yahoo announced their Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers can now begin the transition process from Yahoo Search Marketing to Microsoft adCenter. This is the first step of the paid search transition from Yahoo Search ads to Microsoft Bing search ads.

Last week, Yahoo’s organic transition to Microsoft Bing was complete. This week, Yahoo and Microsoft are starting the paid search transition. That means it is very likely that paid search at Yahoo in the US and Canada will be fully powered by Microsoft adCenter by the end of October.

via searchengineland.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Resort Combines Facebook Places, Gowalla, Nike+ for Social Media Skiing - Resort Social Media Marketing Company

Colorado-based Vail Resorts is launching a new location-based social media service at its many mountain destinations--some of which are the largest in the U.S. Called EpicMix, the service acts as a cross between Nike+ and Gowalla, and enables users to check-in on the slopes through Facebook Places to earn pins and rewards for various skiing accomplishments, view the location of friends and family on the mountain, and track ski routes and vertical feet traveled. Vail's EpicMix is an innovative use of social media, showing that it's not just a tool confined to big cities or national companies, but has a more intimate application too on a hyper-local level.

Using an RFID chip embedded into lift passes, a skier's journey is captured through every scan it receives on the mountain. No smartphones are required--check-ins are automatic and can be accessed at anytime online or through EpicMix's mobile app for the iPhone, Android, and other devices.

via fastcompany.com

Looking to plug social media into your resort's online or offline marketing strategy? Contact us today for a free 30 minute resort social media marketing consultation today here: http://stirsolutions.com/consultation Read about our social media marketing services here: http://stirsolutions.com/social-media

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Facebook Buys Social Check-In Network Hot Potato

Hot Potato combines the news feed aspect of Facebook with the location features in services like Foursquare. You choose a verb (like "attending") and a location (like "the Super Bowl") and Hot Potato will post this from your account. The idea is to connect with other friends who might be doing the same thing, or to keep friends updated about your activities. Friends can then comment on what you've posted. For those friends not using Hot Potato, you can push your updates to services like Twitter and Facebook. Hot Potato also offers rewards, much like Foursqare's mayorships and badges.

It's not immediately clear how or if Facebook will integrate Hot Potato with its site. Earlier this week, Facebook unveiled Places, which allows users to "check in" to certain places from their Facebook accounts.

via pcmag.com

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Unlocking Social Media Ad Spending - Integrating Social Media: Traditional Media for Reach, Interactive Media for Targeting, Social for Engagement

Forecaster eMarketer has raised its outlook for U.S. social networks advertising spending this year by nearly 30 percent. As I discuss in a post at GigaOM Pro, chances are, the next big advancement in social media marketing will be less about the actual technology and more about coordinating and integrating across media formats: traditional media for reach, interactive media for targeting, and social media for engagement. For this to happen, three social media advertising areas need help: scale, distribution and targeting, and format.

via gigaom.com

Are you seeing ROI with your Social media ad spending? Have you invested in Social media as part of your annual marketing budget? Not sure where to start? Contact us today at 11Marketing for a free 30 minute social media advertising consultation.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Candidates Turn to YouTube for Geo-Specific Ad Campaigns for Mid-term Elections - Policital Internet Advertising

Politicians have already latched onto Twitter and Facebook, but this election cycle, YouTube could be the campaign tool of choice. Google has launched a service on the popular video site that is helping candidates target voters online like never before -- one that could eventually rival cash cow political ads on TV.

Using Google's in-stream ads, those brief commercials you see before before YouTube clips, campaigns can now go after potential voters with geo-location technology and content interest-targeting.

via fastcompany.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Facebook Places: The Real Target Is Yelp. (What's The Best Social Network Target for Your Business?)

Most of the attention paid to Facebook Places, the new location feature that the social network launched on Thursday, has focused either on the privacy implications of the service or on the impact it could have on location-based startups such as Foursquare (which some have said they expect to be "crushed" by the new feature). Facebook's real focus with this launch, however, isn't individual users or even Foursquare: Instead, it sees Places as a way into the local business and local advertising markets, and the company with the target painted on its back is Yelp.

via businessweek.com

Google Places, Facebook Places, Foursquare Location Layers & Mayors. Having trouble keeping up? Will Yelp have to partner with Gowalla or another smaller check-in startup to stay ahead of the million-business-pages-strong Facebook checkin tsunami? What is your business doing to get listed in all of the social network places? Why should you even consider spending your valuable time or marketing dollars on something like this Facebook Places or Yelp or Foursquare advertising or promotion? Drop me a note at brent[at]stirgroup.com and I'd be happy to answer your questions or setp a time for a free phone consultation to discuss your business and whether getting on the Facebook / Yelp / Foursquare / Gowalla check-in marketing train is right for your business, products or services.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Facebook Places Launches - Check In Service Similar to Foursquare and Gowalla

Starting today, you can immediately tell people about that favorite spot with Facebook Places. You can share where you are and the friends you're with in real time from your mobile device.

 

 

Checking In with Friends

 

Ever gone to a show, only to find out afterward that your friends were there too? With Places, you can discover moments when you and your friends are at the same place at the same time.

 

You have the option to share your location by "checking in" to that place and letting friends know where you are. You can easily see if any of your friends have also chosen to check in nearby.

 

To get started, you'll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation.

 

Go to Places on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com site and then tap the "Check In" button. You'll see a list of places near you. Choose the place that matches where you are. If it's not on the list, search for it or add it. After checking in, your check-in will create a story in your friends' News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place.

 

Example of a Place page on the iPhone application.

 

Places is only available in the United States right now. But we expect to make it available to more countries and on additional mobile platforms soon.

via blog.facebook.com

Is Facebook places going to force some of the Foursquares, Gowallas and the Yelps of the world to check out because they can't compete with the budget, might and userbase of Facebook? Have you tried any of these location-based social networking games yet? How much harder will it be to become the Facebook Places version of "mayor" of your hometown Starbucks now?

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

New: Facebook Places - Facebook introduces check-in feature similar to Foursquare, Gowalla

Social-networking giant Facebook has entered the check-in world.

Facebook executives on Wednesday announced the launch of Facebook Places, which -- similar to services such as Foursquare and Gowalla -- will allow people to use the GPS on their mobile phones to let friends know exactly where they are.

Facebook Places is available immediately in the United States through the latest version of Facebook's iPhone app and, for other advanced mobile phones, through the company's site for advanced mobile devices, executives announced at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto, California.

via cnn.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Social media strategies for a hotel: Business Makeover - Hotel Social Media Marketing

Back in 1912, when the Venice Beach Suites & Hotel was built on Ocean Front Walk, the only tweeting going on was among the local bird population.

Today, owner Andy Layman is listening to the online chorus at Twitter and other social networking websites, hoping to join in. Learning to hit the right notes to attract new guests and boost revenue at his boardwalk property is a daunting prospect. "I haven't really gotten a handle on it," said Layman, 62.

Yet, done right, he believes social media would be an inexpensive way to find more of the type of traveler who already raves online about his eclectic, 25-room location.

via latimes.com

Looking for help advertising your hotel, resort or vacation rental / accomodation using social media marketing tools like Twitter, Facebook, Groupon, Foursquare? Not sure where to start with hotel internet marketing? Drop me at note at brent[at]stirgroup.com or call me in Vancouver at 604-847-3447 ext 105 to schedule a free hotel social media marketing consultation.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

B-Schools All A-Twitter Over Social Media - BusinessWeek

Harvard Business School (Harvard Full-Time MBA Profile) and Columbia Business School (Columbia Full-Time MBA Profile) have joined a growing list of business schools that are adding courses on social media to their MBA curricula, addressing the corporate demand for social-network-savvy employees. The two schools are among at least six that have added courses in the past year that allow students to learn about Internet marketing and social media strategy, according to course syllabi and faculty associated with the classes.

via businessweek.com

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Twitter Blog: Introducing Fast Follow, and other SMS tips

Fast Follow. Anyone in the US can receive Tweets on their phone even if they haven’t signed up for Twitter. This is a simple way for people to get information they care about in real-time. For example, let’s say you want to get Tweets from New York City’s office of emergency management (@NotifyNYC). Just text ‘follow NotifyNYC’ to 40404 in the US.

Try it out the next time you see a Twitter @username at a restaurant or store, on a billboard or on TV, or if you hear one mentioned on the radio.

via blog.twitter.com

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

ShopKick - Score Loyalty Points for Walking in a Store - No more bogus Foursquare / Gowalla check ins?

Shopkick is an app, which will be available in the next few weeks on the iPhone and later for other kinds of phones, that retailers can use to track when shoppers have entered a store and reward them with points or discounts.

Other location-based apps, like Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt, also function as virtual loyalty cards. Shopkick says it is different in a few critical ways.

The other apps use cellphones’ GPS signals. That means that someone could stand on a street corner and check in to a place to earn points without ever setting foot inside. Foursquare’s new automatic check-in service, for instance, checks people in when they are within 300 meters of a location.

“Check-ins are a really nice start, but unfortunately, most of them are fake,” said Cyriac Roeding,  a founder of Shopkick.

But users of the other services say they are encouraged to check-in to where they actually are, since the point is to alert friends to their location.

Still, Shopkick wants to reassure retailers that they are only rewarding actual customers.

Instead of relying on GPS or Wi-Fi signals, Shopkick installs small devices in stores that send out an inaudible noise. Cellphones with the Shopkick app pick it up with their microphones.

via bits.blogs.nytimes.com

No more bogus Foursquare / Gowalla / Yelp check ins?: Sounds good.
I actually get points I can use across several online and offline brands, including making charity donations: good. It’s only on the iPhone: not so great, but it'll likely work on Android soon I'd guess. There aren’t enough retailers to make it a must have: also not good - especially here in Canada - but maybe one day Shopkick will arrive in Vancouver...

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Foursquare Tips: Become SuperUser and get Editing Rights

Hello superuser!

We've seen that you've either been checking-in a lot (woo!) or adding lots of new venues (thx!) which is why you've been upgraded to "Superuser" status!

There are 3 different levels of Superuser status, each giving you a little more control over things on the site. As you contribute more to the site, you'll unlock more Superuser power.

You're currently at level 1: You can edit venue info (address, cross streets, Twitter names), mark places as "closed", and let us know about duplicate venues.

You'll see these tools when you visit a venue page. For example, to edit venues look for the little pencil icon: .

So that's it for now - thanks in advance for any fixin'-up you may do!

via foursquare.com

If you're wondering why you can't edit locations or do other stuff some of your other friends on Foursquare can, it's likely you need to spend more time using Foursquare adding new locations and checking in to earn the right to be called a super user!

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

How To Use Linkedin To Generate Business

While Social Media is definitely the hot topic of conversation this year, most of the tools focus on consumer centric business, and improving communication. If you provide B2B consulting, services or products, your options for social media are fairly limited, let’s be honest you probably won’t find many fans for your Facebook Legal Incorporation Services page. For these types of businesses, LinkedIn is a much better alternative. Here is a collection of tips I recommend using.

via searchengineland.com

Most important: be social. Don't just create a LinkedIn account and think it'll turn into leads and business without putting in the effort of joining groups, starting conversations, posting valuable information, being involved.

Posted via email from Social Persuasion - The Social Media Marketing Agency Blog

Why a Multi Channel Social Media Marketing Strategy Creates More Buzz

So you want to launch a book, an album, promote a play, market a new movie or advertise your business.

In traditional mass media marketing you will find that  many different marketing channels are used as part of the marketing strategy to get the word out there, to ensure that the “Word Of Mouth” is happening and that vital buzz is generated as people  share the latest news with their groups and networks about a great movie or music whether that be off line or online.

via jeffbullas.com

Need help getting the word out in as many channels as you can in a way that is most cost effective and appropriate for your brand or business? Drop me a note at brent[at]stirsolutions.com or call me for a free social media marketing consutation here in Vancouver at 604-847-3447 ext 104.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Foursquare Apps: Screenscape - Bring Foursquare to Life in your Venue

ScreenScape

Description

Use ScreenScape to bring foursquare to life in your venue. ScreenScape offers easy-to-operate, inexpensive digital signage for venue operators of all sizes. Foursquare venues can now use ScreenScape to promote their specials on screens inside their venue. The ScreenScape foursquare widget can be used to highlight up-to-the-minute: Mayor Status, Foursquare Specials, Here Now stats, Total Check In stats and more. Take your window cling up a notch! Use a ScreenScape powered display and say to your customers: “Hi, we’re on foursquare and have we got a great deal for you!”

Screenshots

via foursquare.com

Interested in doing more than having a sandwich board on the sidewalk in front of your business in Vancouver that says "Free drink for Foursquare Mayor" ? Check out http://www.ScreenScape.net . If you're a hotel or restaurant or even a college or university consider how you might be able to take advantage of using screenscape at one or more of your locations. Here's a University of PEI case
http://screenscape.net/upei

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Zagat Wins Foursquare’s Battle Of The Brands - Foursquare Leaderboard & Foursquare Marketing

At least according to the folks at custom badge site Osnapz, who have created a Foursquare brand leaderboard stack ranking the location based service’s many promiscuous partnerships in terms of follower count, with Zagat in the top slot at 48,136.

For the uninitiated, the leaderboard is a glimpse into some of the more obscure Foursquare brand tie-ins and badges,

via techcrunch.com

What badge do you hold that you're most proud of? Do you even notice or care about your badges? Did foursquare make up the word crunked?

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Apple Patents the iBike - Want to know your expected future path?

The patent application, entitled "Systems and Methods for Integrating a Portable Electronic Device with a Bicycle", describes a system that not only interfaces with the bicycle itself, but allows members of a cycling team or group to communicate with each other.

via readwriteweb.com

Cool: the patent suggests it will be able to tell you your "expected future path". Now that's some bike.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Yahoo / Bing Search Alliance Transition Updates and Tips

New Search Alliance Transition Updates and Tips

Important information about the organic and paid search transition, new Yahoo! and Microsoft editorial guidelines, mobile updates and more

As Yahoo! continues to work closely with Microsoft to implement the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance, we want to call out some important updates and tips to help ensure the best transition experience for you.

Organic search update and tips
A key aspect of the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is the transition of Yahoo! organic search listings (those found on the main body of the page). Assuming our testing continues to yield high quality results, we anticipate that our organic search results will be powered by Bing beginning in the August/September timeframe.

via ysmblog.com

Organic search transition
Yahoo! organic search results will be powered by Bing as early as late August. If organic search results are an important source of referrals to your website, you'll want to make sure that you're prepared for this change. For more details, check out this blog post linked above or drop me a note at brent[at]stirsolutions.com and I'd be happy to consult with you regarding the changes and how they might affect your website traffic.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Big Potential for In-Store Mobile Marketing

Sophisticated apps can make the store experience better than ever

Mobile shopping from in-store is just beginning to achieve its promise. Most shoppers are not yet accustomed to turning on and logging in to a retailer’s mobile app when they enter one of its stores.

Likewise, retailers are just starting to launch mobile commerce offerings, let alone offer capabilities targeted to in-store shoppers.

via emarketer.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

River Crab in China - Internet Censorship - Harmonious society

River crab

河蟹 (English:  River crab), is an internet slang created by netizens in Mainland China in reference to Internet censorship. The word river crab sounds similar to the word harmonious (simplified Chinese: 和谐; pinyin: héxié) in Chinese Mandarin. The three wristwatches refer to the Three Represents, where the Mandarin expressions used for "represent" (Chinese: 代表; pinyin: dài biǎo) and "to wear a watch" (simplified Chinese: 戴表; traditional Chinese: 戴錶; pinyin: dài biǎo) are homophones.

Since the Chinese Communist Party announced the goal of constructing a "Harmonious Society" (simplified Chinese: 和谐社会) in 2004 and the government of Mainland China usually cites this as the reason for censorship, Chinese netizens began to use the word "harmonious" as a euphemism for censorship, when the word for censorship was censored. And when the word harmonious began to be censored, Chinese netizens began to use the word "river crab". Sometimes aquatic product (simplified Chinese: 水产) is used in place of "river crab". It is also used as a verb, for example, instead of saying something has been censored, one might say "it has been harmonized" (simplified Chinese: 被和谐了; traditional Chinese: 被和諧了) or "it has been river-crabbed" (simplified Chinese: 被河蟹了). In some BBSs, "harmonious" is a censored word, so netizens use "river crab" instead.

via en.wikipedia.org

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

The Best Social Media Marketing Consulting Firms in Canada (top seos ranking) - Canadian Social Media Agencies and Companies

The independent authority on search vendors, canada.topseos.com, announced the best social media marketing consulting firms for April 2010. An experienced research reviewed thousands of firms in order to find the best internet marketing service providers.

Online PR News – 21-April-2010 – Plymouth, IN – canada.topseos.com, the independent authority on search vendors, has released the April 2010 rankings of the best social media optimization services. Thousands of applicants were reviewed by an experienced research team with the independent authority in order to find the best firms to meet the business needs of their clients.

The research team reviews every aspect of how the vendor conducts business to ensure high quality standards. To go one step farther topseos.com then contacts the clients of each firm to ask questions such as, "What analysis went into your website before the decision to implement social media optimization techniques to your website was determined?", "What types of social media optimization techniques has your agency implemented on your project?", and "What has been the impact to your conversion rates from the implementation of SMO techniques?"

The best social media marketing consulting firms for April 2010 are:

“What analysis went into your website before the decision to implement social media optimization techniques to your website was determined?”

1. Search Tactix Inc.
2. Anduro Technologies Inc..
3. Eleven Marketing
4. Seo 7 Services
5. SEM Expertise Inc.
6. Apollo Media
7. Schipul
8. Comet Conversion
9. e-Strategy
10. Webidiotz

canada.topseos.com, the independent authority on search vendors, is a branch of the United States-based site that was established in 2009 to identify and rank the best Canadian internet marketing service providers. An assigned research team scrutinizes the thousands of applicants each month seeking to be ranked by the independent authority. In addition to the rankings, visitors to the site can find a full directory listing, the knowledge zone, news and much more.

Firms that would like to be considered for the canada.topseos.com rankings visit:

http://www.topseosapplication.com

To learn more about the top Canadian social media optimization agencies, visit them at:

http://canada.topseos.com/rankings-of-best-social-media-optimization-companies

via onlineprnews.com

We are happy to see Eleven Marketing, our partner social media marketing agency here in Vancouver in Canada rank #3 in this list of top social media marketing companies in Canada.

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Yelp for Business - Now Mobile Activity Tracking for Small Businesses - Yelp Blog

A few weeks ago, we announced some pretty jaw-dropping numbers:

- Just over 1 in 4 searches on Yelp are performed from our popular iPhone application.

- Even more thrilling: every five seconds someone uses the Yelp app to call a local business.

And that's just from our iPhone application!

via officialblog.yelp.com

Yelp for small business. Check it out. If your business isn't listed in Yelp it's time to sign up for a business listing. Need help? Drop me a note at brent[at]stirgroup.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Yelp Says It's Not Afraid of Foursquare - Yelp Mobile and Geo Local Social Network for Restaurants, Shopping and Businesses

Starting tonight, local businesses that have created free accounts and claimed their listings on Yelp will receive additional analytics specific to mobile user traffic: the number of times they've shown up in mobile search, the number of times mobile users have clicked to call them by telephone and the number of times users have clicked for directions to their business.

Yelp says that 2 million unique users searched on a mobile Yelp app last month, performing 27% of the total searches the company saw. The entire Foursquare network claims 1.8 million users. Yelp said this Spring that it sees 31 million unique visitors to its website every month.

via readwriteweb.com

Did you know Yelp was for more than just restaurants? 15 times bigger than Foursquare. Wow. Check it out today at http://www.yelp.ca in Canada or http://www.Yelp.com for USA or Yelp.co.uk for UK, and about 38 other domains Yelp! Inc. owns. Of course there's always the http://www.yelpsucks.com domain which Yelp was smart enough to purchase themselves -- for use, I suppose, if they start thinking their own service isn't that great. Which do you prefer? Foursquare or Yelp? Would you use a mobile device that allowed you to check in and submit reviews to both Foursquare and Yelp at the same time?

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Google Me: Facebook-Killer or Another Johnny-Come-Lately?

Digg founder Kevin Rose posted a tweet over the weekend saying: "Ok, umm, huge rumor: Google to launch facebook competitor very soon "Google Me", very credible source."

I'm not sure what the function of typing "umm" into a tweet is, but if true this rumor could prove, umm, earth-shaking.

via pcworld.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Olay, Gap, Pepsi Run Geo-Social Campaigns - but Not on Foursquare

Foursquare is hands-down the leader of the location-based/geo-social marketing space when it comes to hype. But other services are making their marks among both brands and users.

In fact, three of the five location-based services briefed below have more users than Foursquare, which has roughly 1 million. Like Foursquare, most utilize the mobile "check in" system, while rewarding users for registering an arrival at a store, restaurant, or another kind of business. Though, the services are being leveraged in different ways by brand partners.

Here are snapshots of recent campaigns by name brands on five prominent location-based platforms not named Foursquare:

via clickz.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Baidu Challenged bo Goso For China Search Dominance -- China Internet -- Chinese Search Engine Marketing

Google's censorship battle and partial retreat from China have reduced competition for Baidu, the country's leading search engine, but it still faces some challengers on its path to market supremacy.

One of them could end up being Goso.cn. The new search engine is a joint effort by the People's Daily and people.com.cn and is part of the latter's stated efforts to become a multilingual and multimedia global brand.

via informationweek.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Offerpop launches community marketing apps for Twitter and Facebook

Offerpop, a software development company for social media applications, has launched a new marketing app that lets retailers and brands bolster their Twitter and Facebook profiles for maximum impact. Only the Twitter application is currently available to the public, but the company is accepting beta testers for its Facebook version.

via social.venturebeat.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Facebook Isn't Moving into Search, for Now - FBSERP's

AllFacebook said the statement and the search results were indicative of Facebook moving forward on a plan to build a semantic search engine, where "likes" would replace inbound links as a measure of a particular Web page's ranking. The blog concluded that SEO operative would soon begin using "like baiting," as opposed to link baiting, to attract traffic.

via pcmag.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Is Facebook's Social Search Engine a Google Killer? (Facebook Marketing)

When Facebook launched its Open Graph protocol in April, blanketing the Web with "like" and "recommend" buttons, it seemed obvious that one of the company's goals was to use the resulting behavioral data to power a social search engine—one based on likes instead of links.That process is now well under way, as a report at AllFacebook notes. The company has confirmed that all Web pages that use the network's open graph plug-ins show up in the social network's search results in the same way traditional Facebook pages do, as described by Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg in his keynote at the F8 conference.

via businessweek.com

Sites like YellowPages.com, Yelp.com and others that are showing up in Facebook's search results may become part of the new social media optimization default toolset. Is your business listed in the key social media networks to help you rank in Facebook's search results (fbserps)?

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Stir Communications Group Inc Listing and Marketing Reviews on Yelp

Vancouver, BC

(604) 847-3447

www.StirSolutions.com

via yelp.ca

Interested in reviewing Stir Communications Group Vancouver on Yelp? Here's your chance to submit the first review of http://www.StirSolutions new website and services

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Geomarketing: Ten Foursquare marketing campaigns

Geolocation-based social network Foursquare just might be the internet's 'next big thing'. While it isn't anywhere close to the size of Twitter or Facebook, the young company last month passed the million user mark.

That's a memorable milestone for any consumer internet startup, but the company's progress is perhaps better measured by the number of marketing deals it has inked with bigger companies. Here are 10 of those deals.

via econsultancy.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

The Truth About Twitter’s Promoted Tweets

Having said that, the problem all along has been how to take all of this growth and turn Twitter into a service that generates revenue. It has always been free to use, but like any company, Twitter’s objective is to make money. Enter “Promoted Tweets”, Twitter’s new advertising program. It’s very similar to Google Adwords. Advertisers bid on keywords and when a search is done on Twitter, triggering one of those keywords, an ad will be shown at the top of the results page – at least in phase one of the rollout. Only one promoted Tweet will be shown on the search results page.

via sitepronews.com

Posted via email from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Bing Dives Into Entertainment With New Search Vertical - Music, Movies, TV and Games

Microsoft’s search engine just got a whole lot more media-focused with the launch of Bing Entertainment, a new vertical centering on music, movies, TV and games. The goal behind the new destination at bing.com/entertainment is to make it easier to find what movie to watch, what music to listen to, what casual games to play: “spend less time searching for entertainment and more time doing the stuff you love.”

via mashable.com

Posted via web from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

Foursquare’s Yelp problem

Well, Yelp (CrunchBase info on Yelp) has now copied the checkin gesture that Foursquare (Crunchbase info on Foursquare) introduced to us all and also they added badges of their own. I already am the baron of my favorite Mexican restaurant in Half Moon Bay.

This copying behavior demonstrates to me that Yelp is definitely jealous of the attention Foursquare is getting and isn’t able to innovate on its own.

This seems to be a problem for Foursquare. But is it really?

Yes.

Here’s why.

via scobleizer.com

Posted via web from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

FourWhere = Gowalla + Foursquare + Yelp (by Sysomos)

FourWhere helps you to find comments, tips for venues left by Foursquare, Gowalla and Yelp users. FourWhere automatically retrieves and aggregates user comments and visualizes them on the map. To use FourWhere, provide your location, and then click on the map to see venues (locations) or tips (comments written about a particular place).

FourWhere is public service so there's no need to register or sign in. All you need is your web browser. Go ahead, start discovering the world around you.

FourWhere is built by Sysomos using the public data from Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp and the Google Maps API.

via fourwhere.com

Got your basic all in one geo location gizmo we've all longed for. Foursquare, Yelp & Gowalla

Posted via web from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada

How to Globalize Your Social Strategy: 4 Ways B2B Companies Can Translate Tweets

Twitter is a global platform with more than 60% of users outside the United States and one way B2B companies can grow their business is to monitor and engage with customers and prospects in other languages. In some instances that means reading and writing tweets in languages that you do not understand. There are a variety of tools that embed translation into their interface, and here are some of the most popular.

via socialmediab2b.com

Review of Tweet Translation services available in Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Twaitter, Tweetmeme.

Posted via web from Vancouver Internet Marketing Social Media Marketing Consultant Canada